Canon announces new full-frame DSLR for professional video production
Nov 7, 2011 2:48 PM, By Michael Grotticelli
The benefits of the new EOS C300 camera are its compact size and low weight, shallow depth of field acquisition capability, as well as super sharp images due to its Super 35 CMOS image sensor.
Well, it's not the EOS 5D Mark II camera with movie-making features many were anticipating, but, for Canon, it's a clear step in the right direction (if you are a 5D Mark II enthusiast).
Throwing its hat into the ring of reality TV and epsodics shot in Hollywood, Canon has introduced a new line of "Cinema EOS" Digital SLR-inspired cameras designed for high-quality digital acquisition applications. Canon's chairman and CEO, Fujio Mitarai, introduced the new EOS C300 camera at a press conference on the Paramount Lot, where Canon said it was putting its stake in the ground to try and capture the television production and filmmaking communities' attention.
"Reflecting upon the achievements that Canon EOS digital SLRs have had in the industry thus far, we are confident the new Cinema EOS series products will bring that success to a whole new level," Mitarai said.
The camera will be available in an EF-mount version in January (for use with Canon lenses) and a PL-mount model in March (for various lens vendors' models) to accommodate the proliferation of photographic and film-style lenses already on the market. It features a single 8.29-megapixel "Super35" CMOS sensor that currently captures 1920 x 1080 and 1280 x 720 images at up to 30 progressive frames per second. It is spec'ed for 60p acquisition, but the processor and the codec in the C300 can only do 30p as of the first run of cameras. That's because the new camera borrows its MPEG-2 DIGIC DV III image processor from the previously introduced (and more traditional looking) Canon XF305 camcorder.
Many professionals in online chat rooms appear disappointed that the camera, at around $20,000 (without lenses), is not capable of higher resolutions and stereo 3-D capability, like some of its obvious competitors (Arri's Alexa, Red's Epic, and Sony's F3), but Canon mentioned a future road map that would include native 4K (4096 x 2160 pixels) resolution support at 24p using Motion-JPEG compression. The timing for the availability of this yet to be solidified concept camera "have yet to be decided," the company said in a press release.
Larry Thorpe, senior director, Professional Engineering and Solutions, Imaging Technologies and Communications Group, at Canon U.S.A., told "DPReview" (www.dpreview.com) that the C300's sensor was specifically designed for motion imaging. He called it "a very, very good HD camera, at a reasonable price."
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