The launch
Canon has launched the all new EOS cinema system meant for those who want unprecedented freedom and creativity while capturing videos. This brand new series from Canon includes d-SLRs, video camcorders and various lenses. This is not the first initiative from Canon in the field of videography. The previous EOS 5D Mark II announced Canon’s footfall in the world of video recording. The camera has received great responses from the critics and quite a few films have been made with the camera as well. This is probably what encouraged Canon further to launch such an extensive series of cinema system.
The C300 camera from Canon is the vanguard of this new cinema series. This interchangeable lens camera has some great features along with the EF lens compatibility that will offer a great range of flexibility and choice for the professionals. Along with this, Canon has also come up with a series of professional lens for capturing videos.
Functionality
The C300 and C300 PL cameras from Canon use the advanced 8.29 megapixel CMOS sensor, making it ideal to capture high quality videos. The 35mm sensor is capable of capturing Full HD videos at 1920 x 1080 in all the RGB color channels. To ensure highest compatibility, it has option for MPEG – 2 compressions.
Another great benefit of using the camera is that it uses a very fast sensor read out speed. This is ideal to counter the problems of rolling shutter which is inherent in every CMOS sensor. The camera can capture high quality sound along with the video. It uses the open source MXF format to record the audio and it saves them in the dual CF memory card.
What to expect
As the camera is meant for the professionals, it must be made for use for an extended period of time at challenging situations; Canon has taken every step to ensure durability and sturdiness of the camera. To that effect, the camera is incorporated with the in-built cooling system that keeps the camera away from overheating. Another feature of the camera is the dust proof weather sealing that ensures that the camera gets going even at the most challenging conditions.
Creativity is one of the hallmarks of Canon C300 cameras. Being so, it offers the users a lot of brilliant options while capturing videos. For example, the user can select frame rates from 1 fps to 60 fps with 1 fps increments. This lends the users an unprecedented level of control over the videos that they want to create.
Few critics are disappointed with the tech specs of Canon C300. They may argue that being a state of the art camera; C300 does not have a 4 color video capturing facility. At the same time, some have showed their disappointment at the low resolution of the camera sensor. However, if you keep the specifications aside, Canon has made everything right to offer a professional video recorder that will offer superb quality and a lot of creativity.
Along with launching new camera in the EOS series, Canon has also introduced lenses specially meant for this series. These lenses are designed only to capture the HD videos at 4K. Among these lenses two are zoom lenses. The CN E 30 – 300mm T 2.95-3.7 L S and the CN E 14.5 – 60 mm T 2.6 LS are available with PL and EF mounts. On the other hand, Canon has also launched 3 prime lenses that are available with EF mount. All these lenses have 11 blade apertures.
What not to expect
After the initial launches, Canon is likely to come up with more advanced and versatile options soon. According to sources, Canon is developing a 4K camera for video recording. This camera is supposed to offer a full frame sensor of 35mm and it will offer a resolution of 4096×2160 pixels for 4K video recording. It will offer 24P video with the motion JPEG compression option. These are details that have come out on Canon’s upcoming video recording. No other details as to the date of launch or other specs are yet available.
Wrap up
Canon EOS C300 will be available in the market by January next year and the C300 PL will be launched within a couple of months from then. Both the cameras are likely to be priced at around $ 20,000. The Canon cinema system lenses are more costly as they will cost around $50,000 each.
