Canon announces C300 Mark II, XC10 and new codec XF-AVC

[Mark Koha]

I dont know what market its geared towards. The press release saysbit would be good for eng work but i have a hard time believing that. It looks like it has all the problems of shooting with a dslr. No proper audio, a viewfinder that doesnt swivel down, the lack of a hand strap really stumps me. No bueno canon, no bueno. This makes me want to keep wielding my xf305 even longer.

[Jim Martin]

This camera was made for helicopters, gimbals, small/ tight situations, and people looking for an easy 4K hybrid camera that can shoot real stills......complaining about it not being a full feature camcorder (like a XF305) makes no sense. We've already had multiple phone calls from people with Quadcopters asking about specs and availability.

Jim Martin
EVSonline.com

[John Wiley]

Originally Posted by Mat Thompson

"C300mkII actually looks a lot better than I had expected. I think they've certainly done enough to prevent a tidal wave of C300 owners switching over to the Sony FS7"

"Hot Cakes"


Really ? - Why would you go for this when you can get an FS7 for £4000+ Cheaper and you get many more frame rate options.

Reliability, compatibility & familiarity. On many productions (and in rental houses) price often comes secondary to factors such as these (provided the Image quality is there).

For people wanting to shoot RAW, the price starts starts to go up on the FS7 (still not into C300mkII territory, but notably so). You also don't need to worry about lens adapters with the Canon, which means one less thing that can go wrong on set.

Personally I'd prefer the FS7 but I can see why others would be happy to pay double the price for the C300mkII.

[Jack Zhang]

Don't count on CFast taking off in terms of being able to find them. One of my NYC buddies took absolutely forever to find CFast cards for his URSA. They're still, at the moment, a rarity.

[Steve Struthers]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

Have to say I'm disappointed by the lack of a remote jack on the XC10... no LANC / Control-L. As you all know, I'm the poster boy for remote lens controllers. Although in this case I suppose you could gaff-tape your iPhone to the tripod pan handle and connect via WiFi.

But it just ain't the same!

I too, was surprised to see that the camera has no LANC facility. Come on, Canon, what are you thinking? Cameras costing half what the XC10 will cost have a LANC jack. Maybe they dropped the LANC fearing that if they included it in the XC10, it would cannibalize sales of the C-series cameras.

[Steve Struthers]

Originally Posted by Jon Fairhurst

The XC10 could be interesting for budget green screen work. It's 4:2:2. It's not 10-bits, but it is 4K. That could provide very clean detail for keys intended for 2K renders. (From an information point of view, quadrupling the pixels is similar to adding two more bits of information.)

Further, the 1-inch sensor is something like a 1.7x crop factor compared to APS-C. This may limit low light shooting and shallow DOF effects, but those aren't critical for green screen anyway. It's expected to light things well in a GS studio and it's generally better to keep the foreground object sharp for a crisp key.

Regarding the C300 mkII, it could be really sweet. I've rented the FS7 a couple of times and I love the high-speed shooting for b-roll, but I'm not in love with the look. It's not bad by any means, but there's something that says "electronic video" to me. With the new C300 offering 120 fps, killer dynamic range, less rolling shutter, native EF lens mount (I've broken a Metabones adapter), and the Canon look is a nice combination. I'll be curious to see the local daily rate...

I saw the video for the C300 MkII and it looks like an absolute powerhouse, with no less than 10 different LOG and tons of LUT settings, among other things. It looks like a worthy successor to the original C300, and Canon should have no trouble selling it to rental houses or well-heeled videographers.

I've always found Sony video to look much more 'electronic' and TV-like than anything Canon have ever marketed. Then again, Sony haven't been in the business of making higher-end still cameras for very long, but they've been making broadcast-quality ENG cameras for decades, so I would say their experience in this area tends to inform how their video output looks.

For what it's worth, I once bought a Sony FX7 camcorder that shot only 1080i and promptly sent it back because I didn't like the live-looking images it produced.

[Dylan Couper]

I could rip the rc10 apart but I'm really saving all my energy for whatever blackmagic announces on Monday.

Having said that, I'll probably buy one when they hit a massive price drop like the M camera . It does look like a great consumer camcorder.

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Steve Struthers

I too, was surprised to see that the camera has no LANC facility.

Maybe we can get VariZoom to build a controller using USB.

[Glen Vandermolen]

Originally Posted by Mark Koha

I dont know what market its geared towards. The press release saysbit would be good for eng work but i have a hard time believing that. It looks like it has all the problems of shooting with a dslr. No proper audio, a viewfinder that doesnt swivel down, the lack of a hand strap really stumps me. No bueno canon, no bueno. This makes me want to keep wielding my xf305 even longer.

The LCD panel does tilt down. You can add the viewfinder to it, if you like.
I agree about the hand strap. Strange omission.

[Dylan Couper]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

Maybe we can get VariZoom to build a controller using USB.

Forget that... I'll build you a controller using steam and some sort of geared chain drive.

[Chris Hurd]

Okay, but there's gotta be leather.

[Dylan Couper]

That's like saying... "let's go to Vegas" "ok but there's gotta be booze. "

Well OBVIOUSLY there would be leather!

Damn... Now I'm actually designing it in my head...

[Emmanuel Plakiotis]

The 2 cameras are totally different.

Chris, I think you should split the discussion into two right now, before it becomes bloated and difficult if not impossible to follow.

[Emmanuel Plakiotis]

Regarding the codec, Canon missed the opportunity to implement the newer H265 codec and leapfrog the competition.

[Jack Zhang]

Originally Posted by Emmanuel Plakiotis

Regarding the codec, Canon missed the opportunity to implement the newer H265 codec and leapfrog the competition.

Far too early to implement H.265 for production use. The ASICs don't exist yet to process it fast enough and the codec is very early stages and lacks a "High" profile.