Something new from Canon on Nov. 3rd...

[Peter Wiley]

From Film and Digital Times:

"Canon has been teasing us recently with intimations of a major product announcement in Hollywood. The rumor-phone has been ringing and OMG how the tweeterati are txting. Now hear this:

"Canon U.S.A., Inc. just announced the opening of the Canon Hollywood Professional Technology and Support Center in the Sunset Gower Studio lot at 6060 Sunset Boulevard in LA. Canon sources say, “the office will serve our film and television production clients and will provide a local site for support, research, service and training in Hollywood’s thriving entertainment industry.”

"It doesn’t take a Wall Street analyst to figure out that this looks like a major push by Canon into major motion pictures.

“We want to offer a one-stop shop where our clients can come to ask questions and explore our various products with the help of our highly qualified technical and engineering staff members,” said Yuichi Ishizuka, EVP and general manager, Canon Imaging Technologies and Communications Group."

Full story here: Canon in Hollywood | Film and Digital Times: News

[Glen Vandermolen]

Well, gee, that doesn't sound much like a new camera announcement. Unless, of course, they do introduce some new digital cinema cameras that their support center will ...um...support.

I dunno, guys, Don't get your hopes up too much. Although based on all the postings here, it's way too late for that.

Edit - However, the arrticle does say Canon is looking into "new professional imaging technology." That sounds like a lot more than a new DSLR. Hope for the future!

[Chris Hurd]

Huh? We reported the Canon Hollywood facility thing almost three weeks ago:

Canon Hollywood Professional Technology and Support Center Premieres in Los Angeles at DVInfo.net

Where have you been? You need to be looking at DVi News all the time, you'll
get your info a lot faster. Jon's a great guy, I just saw him in New York a couple
of days ago, and I love his publication -- but you are reporting old news here.
In fact, we've been running a separate discussion thread for it since Oct. 12th:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/digital-...s-angeles.html

[Brian Drysdale]

A well known DP who runs a web site for professional cinematographers says he'll be attending the Canon announcement rather than Scarlett announcement just up the road, so I imagine there's camera hardware of some sort being shown.

[Don Miller]

The 4K capture and 2K recording would seem to be a good way to match Red in some specs without putting too much extra hardware in the camera. Binning down 4K to 1080p would seem not difficult compared to what they do on the 18mp 1DX sensor. Apparently the 1DX doesn't do line skipping.

Philip Bloom made a comment awhile back that he felt Canon's XF codec may not support 4K well. Although I'm not sure why a newer codec wouldn't be designed for resolutions beyond 1080.

Originally Posted by Brian Drysdale

A well known DP who runs a web site for professional cinematographers says he'll be attending the Canon announcement rather than Scarlett announcement just up the road, so I imagine there's camera hardware of some sort being shown.

Since Scarlet is certainly less than Epic I suppose it's not as interesting except for those looking to purchase equipment.

[Brian Drysdale]

He's already seen the Scarlet before, so I guess Canon appears to be the new stuff and I suspect he could arrange a hands on with the Scarlet very quickly if there's something totally new..

[Peter Wiley]

Where have I been? Hmm. I've been working with not a lot of time to read all of the six thousand websites I am supposed to be reading daily ;).

To be fair to Jon, he reported the support center news on 10/21. I didn't see any reference to it in this thread, so I thought it might be of interest to the discussion. I suppose I should have searched the whole forum.

[Chris Hurd]

It's all good, Peter, but you really need only one web site... this one.

As previously indicated, news about the Canon Hollywood
facility warranted its own discussion thread, linked above.

Yes, Jon published his press release the same day we did, back on Oct. 12th.
The single best way to use DV Info Net is to come here first and use it as a
*primary* information site. Whatever it is, we usually have it first, or at least
the same time as everybody else.

[Chris Barcellos]

Only one Icon on my desktop for gear news..... DVInfo for sure.

[Peer Landa]

It would be cool if DVinfo could also podcast the event ;^)

-- peer

[Chris Hurd]

Canon USA told me that they really don't want anybody Skyping from
an iPad at the Nov. 3rd event. They're treating it like a black-tie affair. I
haven't worn a suit since I was in high school and don't even own one,
but I'm attending this thing in my good shirt. The two following days,
Nov. 4th and 5th, are much more relaxed in terms of formality (and
dress code, probably). I'll do what I can on Friday.

[Don Parrish]

Chris will this be a 12:01 am announcement post on DVinfo ?

[Chris Hurd]

Nope, it'll be later in the day... as soon after 3pm (pacific) as I can manage.

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Don Miller

The 4K capture and 2K recording would seem to be a good way to match Red in some specs .......... Binning down 4K to 1080p would seem not difficult compared to what they do on .

If you use a photosite count of 3840x2160 (effectively 16:9 4k) it becomes remarkably easy to do a simple (but effective) read to get 1080. You just have to think of it as a 1920x1080 matrix of blocks, each:

B G
G R

So read out directly (instead of deBayering) and you get R,G,B samples at 1920x1080 resolution - or true 4:4:4 1080.

Philip Bloom made a comment awhile back that he felt Canon's XF codec may not support 4K well. Although I'm not sure why a newer codec wouldn't be designed for resolutions beyond 1080.

Uncompressed data rate for processed 4k output will be 4x that for 1080 at the same frames rates, and the XF codec is designed for 1080p/25 and 720p/50. (Which it's extremely good for.) I'd also hope that if they do use a 4k sensor, then the 4k capture mode is something like RAW - which is likely to need a lot more than the 50Mbs of the XF codec.

I've said it before, but what I'm hoping for are two cameras - both with a 4k sensor, both recording 1080 to the XF codec, but with the more expensive model also recording 4k RAW. And with the former at FS100/AF100 price, the latter at F3 price. But we'll soon know for certain......

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

Nope, it'll be later in the day... as soon after 3pm (pacific) as I can manage.

Can we check how that relates to other time zones, Chris? Am I correct in thinking the area is still on Daylght Saving Time - so PDT, not PST? If so, I reckon that corresponds to 22:00 GMT?

[Jon Fairhurst]

Daylight savings time is in effect until Nov 6th.