I was fortunate enough to spend the afternoon at the Canon Expo in New York City. Most of my time was spent with an XF305 in my hands. All I can say is wow!

The Canon folks were great-knowledgeable, accessible and they left me alone to play.

The camera "felt" good. Nice weight, nice balance.

I very much liked the LCD, easily on par with EX1 (all of these remarks are based on a well lit set and pick ups in areas with decent light) and I loved the fact that the LCD can be viewed from the left and right side of the camera body.

I liked the ergonomics, the buttons and switches felt like they were in the right place.

I liked the menus-and in the past I thought Canon's menu structure was poorly structured. I liked the choice of color in the menus-the orange/white combo really jumped out and never bled as in the case with reds and blues I've seen on my Sony and Panasonic cams.

I really liked a button labeled "status" which allowed full access to review all of the camera's settings, very handy.

The lens was sharp and the images produced on a 42"LCD looked great.

I can"t speak of how captured images looked. I did not shoot to a CF card and bring it back to my studio for me to examine. All I did as "play" with the XF305 for 90minutes and afterwards all I can still say is-wow!

I'm sure others will have their own views.

Thank you Canon for putting on a good show. I look forward to a "real-world" test drive of the XF305/XF300.

Be well

Rob
Smalltalk Productions

Thanks for the review, Rob.
What camera do you use now? You compared the XF to an EX1. Is that what you're used to?

Glen-

Thanks for the thanks.

I wouldn't really call the above a "review" but rather a first impression.

I have owned and used: JVC DV500, DVX100B, HVX200, EX1. Each camera worked very well, each camera had it's drawbacks. 1/2" (DV500 & EX1) is lovely because of less light needed and shallow dof. DVX100B made very nice sd images and played well w/others. The HVX200 + P2 was easy w/FCP but I never liked its lcd. On my last shoot, we used the Pannie HPX500 which also made some lovely images.

Canon's XF305/300 takes many of the above features and puts them into a body that, a first blush, I find comfortable.

I really need more time w/the XF305/300 so that I can shoot some footage and evaluate the requisite workflow.

That all said, what I have seen I do like.

YMMV

Be well

Rob
Smalltalk Productions

The Luminous Landscape is mostly related to outdoor stills, but there was a long review of the XF 305. Interesting comments about the on / off switch (though the overall review was favorable).

The Luminous Landscape (http://www.luminous-landscape.com)

richard-

thanks for the link.

very enjoyable read.

be well

rob
smalltalk productions