NoFilmSchool » canon

Canon Raises the Bar with New 24-70mm F/2.8L and Overhauls Two Other Lenses with Image Stabilization

Joe Marine — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:54:07 +0000

Need a new lens to go along with that new camera? Canon just announced three new full frame lenses: the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM, and updated Image Stabilized primes: the EF 24mm f/2.8 IS USM and EF 28mm f/2.8 IS USM. What’s significant about version II of the 24-70mm? Let’s take a look at some MTF chart comparisons and see if we can find out: (more…)

'Saturday Night Live' DP Alex Buono Shoots On, and Quite Likes, the Canon C300

Ryan Koo — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:51:31 +0000

Alex Buono, Director of Photography for Saturday Night Live, has been shooting on DSLRs for quite some time (the intro for the show was in fact shot on a Canon 5D Mark II and 7D). Here, he gets his hands on a C300, shoots some spots for the show, and talks about his impressions of the camera (which are quite positive). Here’s the video, courtesy Clint Milby: (more…)

Canon Updates EOS Utility, Finally Works on OS X Lion

Ryan Koo — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:26:21 +0000

Canon’s EOS Utility software, which includes the ability to edit picture styles on your HDSLR, has not worked on OSX Lion since Apple released the new OS in July. However, Canon has just released version 2.10.4 which remedies this problem. Here’s the deal with this new version: (more…)

Patent Filing Reveals Canon's RAW 4K Future

Ryan Koo — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:26:16 +0000

Canon applied for a RAW video patent in July of 2010, and it was just published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office yesterday. The filing indicates that Canon is planning to retain CF card compatibility while compressing 12-bit moving images to RAW 4K or 2K resolutions. Note that it’s a popular misconception that “RAW” means “free of compression” — RAW, as far as both still and moving images are concerned, means that the data is stored in an unprocessed manner (which allows for adjustments in maximum colorspace before converting to an output format) — not in an uncompressed manner. Indeed, in the patent Canon describes 4K uncompressed 12-bit video’s 2.8Gbit datarate as “too high for CF cards,” so, like RED, they will be compressing the data coming off the sensor. It’s going to be a very competitive next few years… (more…)

Canon's Mysterious 4K DSLR Spotted in the Wild -- Or is This the 5D Mark III?

Ryan Koo — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:49:19 +0000

The mysterious 4K Canon DSLR — or some other widescreen Canon HDSLR — has been spotted in the wild… literally. Stephen Oachs from Aperture Academy was shooting wildlife in Kenya (with a camera, not a gun) and spotted a Japanese cameraman using the unreleased Canon 200-400mm with built-in teleconverter and Canon 600mm lenses. The cameraman was also using ~~the as-yet-unnamed 4K~~ a mysterious DSLR, which has a widescreen LCD and a new “RATE” button. I’ve lightened and blown up Stephen’s image for as much detail as possible: (more…)

The Canon C300 Street Price is $16K, and More Details from Canon's Larry Thorpe

Ryan Koo — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:00:32 +0000

The Canon C300 will begin shipping January 31st for a street price of $16k. It’s not what people were hoping for, given the Sony F3 with S-Log firmware is about the same price ($16,840), and given there were rumors of the C300 coming in at $14k or even $10k without the top handle/monitor/audio inputs — but it’s finally official. Also note that the PL version, at B&H at least, is already backordered an additional month. Despite this slightly higher-than-hoped-for price, the camera is still the best option for many, so here’s a full (and lengthy) presentation by Canon’s Larry Thorpe at Rule Boston Camera, wherein he stresses that the C300 is just “the first” of Canon’s cinema camcorders: (more…)

Rodney Charters on the Canon C300, RED, and ARRI ALEXA (and a C300 Short Doc)

Ryan Koo — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:54:44 +0000

UPDATE: B&H has posted official U.S. pricing for the C300, and it is $16k (ships “after January 30″). Thanks to everyone who commented on my post about the Sony F3 versus the Canon C300, I have a clearer sense of the C300′s strengths (that post was largely about its weaknesses). As I said in a comment, for a documentary camera (especially of the cinéma vérité variety) the C300 may be the best option out there. Several years ago, for example, I shot a short doc in the Ecuadorian Amazon jungle, and in that setting the recording time — both in terms of storage space and battery power — was a chief concern, as was low light ability (there was no electricity for 200 miles and night scenes were candlelit with no other option). The C300 would be the absolute best camera in the world for this. In the below series of videos, Rodney Charters, Lan Bui and Drew Gardner weigh in on the C300. But first, since we’re talking about documentary use, here’s Dan Chung’s picturesque short C300 doc: (more…)

DP Rodney Charters Calls the Canon C300 the 'Camera of the Decade'

Ryan Koo — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:50:39 +0000

Rodney Charters needs no introduction (he’s best known as the DP of 24), and along with Drew Gardner and Lan Bui he recently got his hands on the Canon C300. The camera is absolutely the post-DSLR camera of the moment in the sense that it uses the DSLR form factor in a way that the Sony F3 does not, and also in the sense that it is convenient like a DSLR in a way that the RED SCARLET is not. But “camera of the decade?” Sure, if the decade was 2000-2010. 2010-2020… I’m not so sure. Here are their very informal behind-the-scenes videos: (more…)

Canon C300 Does Great in Low Light but White Wall 'Breaks' the 8-Bit Codec

Ryan Koo — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:10:08 +0000

Here’s an excellent test/review of the Canon C300 camcorder by Paul Steinberg. He shoots a number of low light shots with the camera but also manages to “break” the 8-bit codec, in his own words. It’s hard to make out what is C300 compression and what is internet h.264 compression, but in Paul’s words “you can see a ton of quantizing little blocks” — even when viewed on a TV. No matter how good your 8-bit implementation is… it’s still 8 bits. Is this a deal breaker for you? (more…)

With New Magic Lantern Firmware, Canon DSLRs Get Real-Time HDR Video*

Ryan Koo — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:28:17 +0000

Is real-time High Dynamic Range imaging, ala RED’s HDRx, coming to Canon DSLRs with the next version of Magic Lantern firmware? Well, yes and no — thus the asterisk. The system they’ve developed splits a 24p stream into two 12FPS exposures, one high and one low, and then interpolates the frames. It’s an interesting hack, demonstrated here: (more…)

How Do the Canon C300 and Sony F3 Compare in Low Light?

Ryan Koo — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:43:20 +0000

Cameras have been getting more and more sensitive, so it follows that low light tests are a nice showcase of the latest in camera technology. Here, Sebastian Wiegärtner pits the Canon C300 against the Sony F3 (with S-Log) and Canon 7D: (more…)

Canon's 30-Minute C300 Short 'When You Find Me'

Ryan Koo — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:13:20 +0000

A 30 minute short film sponsored by Canon and shot on the Canon C300 and 5D Mark II, When You Find Me premiered on YouTube this week and will reportedly go offline tomorrow morning. So I figured I’d share it while it lasts — if the full film has been taken down, the trailer is below. Executive produced by Ron Howard and directed by his daughter Bryce Dallas Howard, ~~here it is in full~~ here is the trailer (the full film was taken down according to schedule): (more…)

Canon 5D Mark II, Still the Best Full Frame HDSLR, Goes on Sale with Free Bundled Accessories

Ryan Koo — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:57:10 +0000

I saw mentioned on a few other blogs that the price of the Canon 5D Mark II — still the ~~only~~ best full frame video camera in the world¹ — had dropped to $2k. “Nice,” I thought, thinking back to how I paid $2500 for mine — but I wasn’t sure if that was cause for an entire blog post. Then I saw that, because of a price war, B&H is throwing in a whole bundle of stuff included in that $2k price: a SanDisk 16GB Extreme Pro CompactFlash Card, a Lowepro Adventura 170 Shoulder Bag, and the Red Giant B&H Video Production Software Bundle (reportedly worth $720 collectively). And free US shipping. You’re not going to find a better deal than this — the only question is whether you’d rather wait for the next full frame HDSLR from Canon (which is the 1DX… which will retail for $7k). The 5D Mark III probably won’t be out for quite some time, given Canon needs to give the 1DX room the breathe. One other thing to mention: the Mark II has terrific resale value due in part to its excellence as a still camera.

Link: Canon EOS 5D Mark II w/ Bundle – B&H Photo

Oops, realized the Nikon D3s is full frame… but only does 720p.

Sony F3 and Canon C300 Footage Side-by-Side (and Some C300 Ungraded Files to Download)

Ryan Koo — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:40:14 +0000

How do the Canon C300 and Sony F3, pictured respectively at left, compare? Mario Feil, director of the just-posted C300 short, has released the following comparison video. There’s also a Canon 1D Mark IV thrown in, which quite frankly looks awful at these high ISO levels: (more…)

Nino Leitner's Canon C300 Test Film and Review

Ryan Koo — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:42:28 +0000

I’ve said that for all intents and purposes the RED SCARLET-X and Canon C300 are the same price and shipping at the same time, and even though production units of the SCARLET-X started shipping first, it’s interesting that there’s a lot more C300 footage out there than there is SCARLET stuff. This is partly due to the fact that the first SCARLET units are likely in the hands of pro RED acolytes like Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher, Peter Jackson, and Greg Williams, and those guys are too busy to post camera tests or reviews — but Nino Leitner has just posted a C300 review and a short. Here ’tis: (more…)

Canon and RED Get Along Wonderfully in Tom Lowe's Stunning 'TimeScapes'

Ryan Koo — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:12:49 +0000

Despite going head-to-head with dueling camera announcements, shooters often use Canon and RED cameras side-by-side. It’s not an either-or thing, and exhibit A of this is Tom Lowe’s new timelapse-heavy portrait of the American Southwest, TimeScapes. Shot and edited at 4K, here’s the “low resolution” Vimeo clip, which is stunning nonetheless: (more…)

Where to Download the Full Canon C300 and RED SCARLET-X Manuals

Ryan Koo — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 01:59:19 +0000

Continuing their head-to-head matchup, manuals for both the RED SCARLET-X and Canon C300 cameras have been released. Neither of these cameras are available widely yet — the SCARLET-X is just beginning to ship in volume (including my own), whereas the C300 has another month or so before it’s shipping. Therefore one of the ways to get a virtual hands-on with either camera is to RTFM. (more…)

The Latest (8) Bits on the Canon EOS C300

Ryan Koo — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:43:36 +0000

Tongue-in-cheek headline aside, the more time passes, the better the Canon EOS C300 looks. Vashi Nedomansky, Vincent Laforet’s editor on Mobius, stopped by to share how far the 8-bit codec of the C300 could be pushed. I don’t regret my decision to order a SCARLET-X — one major reason being the upgrade path that the camera has — but if you’re looking to shoot guerrilla projects with available lighting, the Sony FS100, F3, or Canon C300 would probably be a better choice given you can walk into a room with natural light and more easily shoot at high ISOs than you can with a RED. For my purposes (shooting a narrative feature film), we’ll be using lights, and that’s a different situation. Here’s the latest on the somewhat controversial Canon C300: (more…)

Okii Releases MC1 USB Mini Controller for Canon DSLRs

Ryan Koo — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:40:00 +0000

There are a couple of USB follow focus controllers out there — the Okii FC1 and Helmsman come to mind — but not all controllers are follow focuses. Instead, some simply let you start/stop recording, adjust exposure, and change settings. Here’s a preview from HD Cam Team of the Okii MC1 USB controller (though at the time of the video the brand had yet to be revealed): (more…)

A Roundup of Lens Options for the New Breed of Super35 Camcorders

Guest Author — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:13:35 +0000

This is a guest post by Matthew Duclos of Duclos Lenses.

There’s no doubt that all of the new cameras announced in the past couple years are very capable in their own field and will prove to produce many, many beautiful images. Regardless of your camera choice, everyone is going to need to find a lens that fits their style and fulfills their needs for a range of productions. Whether you’re shooting a film school project or shooting a feature film, there is a balance to lensing your imagers. (more…)