C300 Discussion

[Dylan Couper]

Allan, what's coming next week?

[Melvin Feliciano]

I was optimistic until the price was mentioned. Not because I can only afford a cheaper camera, but because it's missing many important features that a camera in that price range should have. Still 2 hours for the Red announcement and I'm sure that I'm going to buy a Scarlet.

[Tom Bostick]

Originally Posted by Allan Black

The wedding and sports shooters can go home, their camera will be here next week.

Cheers.

what camera would that be?

Originally Posted by Melvin Feliciano

I was optimistic until the price was mentioned. Not because I can only afford a cheaper camera, but because it's missing many important features that a camera in that price range should have. Still 2 hours for the Red announcement and I'm sure that I'm going to buy a Scarlet.

It's looking that way for me too, if the scarlet can give me 120fps at 1080p and is under $10,000 im sold

[Jonathan Palfrey]

Biggest disappointment for me is the price. I really was hoping for an upgrade from DSLRs. Im surprised they decided to miss this section out as I'd imagine far more 5D owners would likely upgrade to an FS100 priced Canon camcorder than a £10k+.

Oh well looks like I'm moving to Sony. Not a bad choice but could have been a bit better...

[Mike Marriage]

Originally Posted by Emmanuel Plakiotis

I still don't understand how they omitted 1080 60p
No AE !!!!
No AF instead of having remote control AF of their lenses
Why 2 cameras instead of an EF with PL adaptor or vise versa?

I am disappointed.

I had also hoped they would introduce a clever interface for EOS lenses allowing remote or on body control of iris and focus. Maybe it is still to come... otherwise I see no reason for making a dedicated EF model instead of using an adapter.

With the C300 at $16,000 I don't think many F3 owners will be regretting their purchase.

Canon could have really pulled out an ace here but I'd call this a 7 of Clubs.

[Mark David Williams]

Have to say the highlights look nice and to me it does seem to have the look of 16mm film but with a larger sensor and includes the grain.

Just a shame about that price.

[Dylan Couper]

Originally Posted by Melvin Feliciano

I was optimistic until the price was mentioned. Not because I can only afford a cheaper camera, but because it's missing many important features that a camera in that price range should have. Still 2 hours for the Red announcement and I'm sure that I'm going to buy a Scarlet.

I've been saying that for 3 years, literaly. :)
I was hoping we'd get a Scarlet from Canon (even at $16,000), but whaddaya doo.

[Daniel Browning]

Is there really no on-board recording option that is more than 8-bit? If so, I would consider that a significant limitation for cinema/tv.

[David Knaggs]

Thanks for the article, Chris. It was a very balanced report. Next I'd like to see some actual footage, although I guess we'll have to wait until January.

I'm a great believer in the benefits of oversampling and suspect that 4K oversampled into 1080p will look great.

What I'm wondering about:
a) How good are the read-reset times on the sensor (which, per my understanding, is a primary factor in determining skew)?
b) How good are the Canon gamma controls (LOG gamma, etc.) compared to Sony's?

So I guess we've got a couple more months of waiting (until some footage emerges).

And I definitely agree that the C300 would be very suitable for controlled corporate shooting. Oversampling from the 4K sensor should give a very high-end look!

[Simon Spear]

As a Natural History/Underwater filmmaker who also has to shoot Corporate films to balance the books I'm certainly disappointed as there doesn't appear to be much more in the C300 that I can't already achieve with my 7D (yes I'm sure there actually is, but not enough for me to want this camera). Maybe RED will save the day, but I've been waiting so long now for Scarlet that I still don't believe it will happen tonight.....

[John Vincent]

"Most of that seems right - I'd be very surprised if it was a 2K or higher cam. Most people will be happy as clams with "true" 1080 resolution, 10 bit 4:2:2 color space, XLRs, a ND wheel, and a clean SDI/HDMI out.

If the price is $15K, I think Canon would be making a mistake - you want to sell glass? Make a cheaper camera then your competition. Either it's going to be priced more along the lines of an AF100, or more expensive then the F3 (a truly "pro" camera).

I suppose it could be both as has been rumored, but the $10-15 K pricing model seems a bit out of wack if true. Of course, that price is a lot more justifiable if the camera's 2K or higher resolution-wise... "

I wrote that in the 'something new from canon' almost 8 hours ago, and while I'm obviously not surprised at the specs (given the above prediction), I am shocked at the pricing. The same basic camera - plus included hard mounted 30.4 - 304mm lens - in the form of the Canon XF105 is $4,000. You can get "L" series glass in the form of the XF305 for $7,500.

Not sure why anyone already committed to Sony or RED would look twice at this camera given the pricing. More to the point, I'm not sure why Canon believes new buyers will flock to this camera in any substantial way.

Canon seems to have missed a very large opportunity to completely dominate the sub $10 K market, instead becoming a company that puts out a camera very similar to the Sony F3 (and presumably SCARLET as well) a year after the fact.

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Mike Marriage

I had also hoped they would introduce a clever interface for EOS lenses allowing remote or on body control of iris.

But there is, via Wi-Fi. See my article, linked in the first post.

[Allan Black]

Originally Posted by Dylan Couper

Allan, what's coming next week?

Dylan, as this is aimed squarely at the Hollywood cinema crowd and TV studios .. with no auto features, I think it's the first of the special custom purpose cams.

There'll be one for the wedding guys, one for the doco group, one for TV news, one for TV sports and others for any other shooters you can think of, fishing, airplane, cars, boats.

They'll be the same cam we see at Paramount today with very very custom specs for each group, like a set of scales for the fishing folk.

Cheers.

[Craig Panick]

Just not 'continuous' AF, right Chris?

-cp

[Daniel Browning]

Does anyone else find it absolutely hilarious that an expensive new Canon camera cannot autofocus with it's *own* lenses, yet one of it's competitors will?