Bye Bye Canon XC10

[Mark Dobson]

I was an early adopter and sadly after 2 weeks of really trying to like the Canon XC10, and there are lots of things I have liked about it, I've had to let it go.

The picture quality is just not there. Sometimes you think you have found it's sweet spot and after faffing about with the cheap plastic viewfinder you also think you have nailed the focus but no amount of careful grading ( I mainly used CLog ) could make up for a basic lack of 4K resolution.

I really wanted it to work, to compliment my C300 for cutaways etc but it just can't cut the mustard. I would recommend extreme caution for those thinking of buying this camera because there are better alternatives, 4K picture quality wise out there.

I loved the ergonomics, the cinema eos style twist grip on the side, the very responsive and well designed touch screen controls. I even liked the lens, well it's focal length, and the ease of manual zooming. But the focus controls were just frustrating, very slow auto focus, and a weirdly geared manual ( fly by wire ) focus.

I used a variable ND filter on it to try and enhance its usability, this meant the lens hood wouldn't fit on.

So a big relief that it has gone because I don't have to keep on deciding whether it takes great pictures or not.
When I get round to it I will post some of the better shots I've taken, and some of them are pretty with that nice Canon feel to them.

So to replace the Canon XC10 I've now got the Sony RX10 Mk2. Both cameras are small fixed lens 4K offerings but the quality of the Sony over the Canon is like Chalk and Cheese. Superb, very detailed, rich coloured inviting images no doubt helped by the 2.8 lens which adds a depth the Canon just can't emulate. The Sony RX10 also has a very accurate Oled viewfinder that makes accurate focussing far easier.

I had really thought that the new XF-AVC codex, the very high bit rate and the digit 5 processor would have produced a lovely little camera, that's why I bought it. Shame to see it go really because the Canon, apart from the viewfinder and the quality of the images, is a much nicer camera to use.

[Jim Giberti]

You know I thought this was the ideal camera to add to our production kit..a pair in fact.
But the "VF" that isn't, the slow variable zoom just kill a great "almost" there concept.

I actually grabbed an RX10 primarily for it's size, lens and slomo but simply never used it because of the IQ and like the XC10, it was gone quickly.

But the new RX10 II, again as a small tool, looks to have gotten right what Canon didn't - for a lot cheaper - and honestly the $ isn't the issue.
We'd be running around with a pair of XC10s right now - perfect form factor for several projects in production.

Any given project would pay for them, but the kludgy lens and VF (kind of important stuff to screw up) and surprisingly not great 4k just doesn't cut it. Really disappointed w/ Canon after this.

But should I be? They've been playing the half-arsed game for a few years now on too many of their cameras.

And the reason we have BM cameras is because of this kind of stuff.

[Art Bell]

I too had many reservations...On paper it had many negatives...then I lived with it.

I hate the menu system - but if you look at the quality of the codec, the 4K cinema lens and the data rates - ( 3 times the NEW SONY A7R 2 - 305mb/s vs 100mb/s) This has quietly become an amazing little 4K camera for us in combination with our Canon c500

This is a test from our second day testing...on the Ronin M. Our test settings are along with the test footage.

Canon XC10 on Ronin-M test on Vimeo