Hello,

With all of the talk over the internet the past month, it was so great to see this in person. What a great feeling camera, very solid and comfortable. I really didnt want to leave that booth. The lens rings are very smooth with a manual SLR lens feel, i really liked that compared to how loose the HVX 200 rings are. Screen menu fonts and display is changed but for the better. It is clear and clean when compared to the XH series. I liked how the menu is out of the way enough(bottom left corner) so if you change something you can see the image still. Overall, it felt great and solid while holding it(much more than the EX1 body and design), but this is all i can comment on. Wish i had a CF card while i was there. Cant wait for it to come out and play with it some more. I tried to go close up to show abit of the footage, Canon had their demo uploaded on the CF card in the camera and it was beautiful, really hope they put that up soon. Heres some photos and a little clip i took on my iphone, might be useful to some.

dan

Canon XF 300/305 (pics, short clip) on Vimeo

-the photos cut back, vimeo error. Sorry about that.

It does look really solid and well made - and that lens, wow! All the Canons have been solid reliable units though in my limited experience of them (EX1 Hi8, XL-1, XL-H1).
The thing about the Canons has always been that they've done things slightly different to the rest and for some users they were perfect and others a bit left-field. Seems they're continuing the trend!
Is it me, or is it a pretty ugly looking camera though? Not that it's very high on the list of priorities of course.
Steve

I held one yesterday. It's a hefty camera for me to hand-hold and very front heavy, presumably because of the huge lens!
:-)

Here is a picture comparing XF305 with my XHG-1s. The XF is substantially bigger.

I have just uploaded a very quick web gallery with a selection of detail pics of the XF305: Gallery (http://www.nickwb.co.uk/xf305/)

Thats awesome, thanks for the pics nick! I love how much bigger it is than the xh series. I personally like holding a big camera you can feel and manuver. Much more control i find. Plus, this xf gives off a nice professional look :).

Dan