Press Release: Canon's New XF305 and XF300 Professional HD Camcorder

[Allan Black]

Pardon if these specs have been posted already .. yea! these cams have audio limiters .. and the 3sec prerecord is going to grab a lot of folk.

Maybe a good idea to order an 82mm UV filter now .. they'll be in short supply.

Canon Professional Network - Canon XF305 and XF300

Cheers.

[Floris van Eck]

I just saw the Fresh DV piece... this thing is a beast.

What I noticed:

- Great LCD screen... flip to right or left side of camera and flip image.
- Build quality looks excellent
- Big lens
- Build in waveform, vector and that new focus assist
- Import metadata for clips via SDHC card
(I guess you can create dummies on your computer and then apply those to clips you are shooting... neat)

If the 11-12 stops is true... I guess this will be my new camera.

Canon is always the last to do something but they seldom disappoint.

I just hope that the price drops to like $5000/$6000.

[Paul Chiappini]

"High-speed data readout developed by Canon reduces the skew effects caused by rolling shutter, resulting in realistic reproduction of moving subjects." from Canon Professional Europe site. Was also mentioned in freshDV video.

Anyone at NAB that handled one confirm this? This is great news and hopefully an effective implementation.

[Paul Chiappini]

I previously owned an A1 and think this was solved in the A1S:

Will the XF allow you to record audio from the internal mic in addition to the an attached XLR mic?

[Russ Johnson]

Does anyone know whether the camera has intervalometer and single frame functions? Any news on the viewfinder resolution?

If it really can capture a 11-12 stop luminance range, then I'm probably sold on it already.

[Paul Chiappini]

Russ,

From the Canon USA site:

Interval Recording
With this feature, users can program the camera to record a specified number of frames at specified intervals. The technique can be used to observe natural phenomena over extended periods, making it ideal for time-lapse applications. The interval can be set in 25 levels ranging from 1 second to 10 minutes.
60i/30p: Selectable between 1, 3, 6 and 9 frames
24p/60p: Selectable between 2, 6 and 12 frames

Frame Recording
This setting allows a specified number of frames to be recorded – ideal for projects such as clay animation.
60i/30p: Selectable between 1, 3, 6 and 9 frames
24p/60p: Selectable between 2, 6 and 12 frames

Professional Camcorders - High Definition Camcorders and Lenses - Standard Definition Camcorders - Software - Professional Camcorder - XF300 - Canon USA Consumer Products

HTH,
Paul

[Michael Galvan]

Originally Posted by Russ Johnson

Does anyone know whether the camera has intervalometer and single frame functions? Any news on the viewfinder resolution?

If it really can capture a 11-12 stop luminance range, then I'm probably sold on it already.

Viewfinder is even higher than the LCD for resolution.

0.52 inch 1.55 megapixel VF, 100% field of view.

[Lonnie Bell]

I had a 60MB/s card next day'd to me just for the test. And yep, found out the hard way the cameras do not record - they say in about 3 weeks...

Lonnie

[Russ Johnson]

Thanks for the info., Paul and Michael.

This thing is sounding more and more like a winner - a really well thought out machine. I'm a fan of "Citizen Kane" and other deep focus films, so no depth of field issues for me. I am a little skeptical about the luminance range, so I'm waiting to see some in depth reviews of the image quality. Maybe an Adam Wilt review....

-Russ

[Olakunle Olanrewaju]

looks like i am begining to fall in love with this cam but so far I still want the SD so EX1r is still ahead

[Daniel Caruso]

maybe i read wrong, but in an earlier post did chris not say canon told him it will have SD settings?

EDIT
i mis-read and therefore really evaluating my decision now.

chris wrote: I'm sorry Olakunle, it appears that you are right about this. I put a
query into Canon USA and have received a prompt reply confirming
that there is no Standard Definition recording capability.

I have withdrawn a couple of posts from public view which stated
otherwise, just to avoid any possible confusion. Olakunle is correct;
the XF series camcorders do not have any Standard Definition
recording capability.

for anyone who has been in the broadcast industry, is this a bad choice to not have SD for certain jobs? Thanks

[Tom Hardwick]

It's only time that's lost Daniel. If the client wants SD then with this new Canon you've got to do the conversion in camera on replay so he can walk away with the SD footage. A camera that 'shoots in SD' isn't really doing that of course, it's downconverting on the fly between chips and recording medium.

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Michael Galvan

Any chance you can ask Canon about the XL version of the XF cams?

I did, as a formality and as a responsibility to you guys, but they told me exactly what I expected them to say:

"Canon never comments on future products; however, new products are always in development."

In other words, they could not say anything specific about an XL F, but they did say that there will be more to follow.

[Mark Fry]

Originally Posted by Thomas Smet

It would be nice if Canon would make a version of the A1 that recorded to a single CF card with the 25 or 35 mbit codec. I think this alone might be enough for most users who still prfer CCD. The main problem with the A1 isn't the camera itself it is the HDV tape.

Hear, hear! I'm afraid the XF300 is out of my price- and weight-range. However, I would seriously consider a solid-state XH-A1s, especially if it included some of the other XF300 improvements, such as the 3 ND filters, and the focus/exposure tools.

50 Mbps is no advantage to me. It will double my space requirements and increase the time to make a Blu-ray disc by as much as 10 times: Using my current XH-A1 (HDV MPEG2 25 Mbps), there is no conversion necessary from the camera to the time-line (Avid Liquid) nor from the time-line to the disc (up to 120 minutes). The only things that need rendering are edits, transitions and occassional colour- or exposure-corrections (which I use only when really needed), all of which are done in background as I go along. Moving to a higher bit-rate camer codec requires a complete render of everything, which is very much slower than rendering to DVD formats (on my system), and would probably not look any better on a customer's TV screen than my current work-flow. I realise that this analysis does not apply to those who do a large amount of post-processing as a matter or course.

I don't expect my XH-A1 will need replacing for a few years yet, and when it does, I hope there will be a Canon competitor for the NX5/AX2000 that records in a Blu-ray native format. Otherwise, I'll have to snap up an XH-A1s before they are discontinued.

[Josh Dahlberg]

Originally Posted by Russ Johnson

If it really can capture a 11-12 stop luminance range, then I'm probably sold on it already.

Me too. In the field with time pressure, limited resources and less than ideal light / conditions, lack of dynamic range is the #1 issue I struggle with using small sensor (<2/3") cameras.

Greater DOF control, clean low light images, better codec, higher resolution... such features are all nice, but if proven, a discernable leap in dynamic range over the competition would make me switch back to Canon.

I look forward to someone confirming this :-)

I'm really pleased Canon has addressed the LCD / VF issue and added histograms - one of the major reasons I switched from Canon to Sony was the lacklustre monitoring on my XLH1 & XHA1. The hi res 4" LCD is a big deal.