Canon has unveiled a pair of video cameras capable of capturing 4K footage, but are located on two different ends of the market. The XC10 is a high-end video camera that will cost $2,500 when it goes on sale, while the EOS C300 Mark II Digital Cinema Camera is aimed at cinematographers, and is estimated by Canon to carry a hefty price tag of around $20,000 when it ships later this year.
The XC10 has a 12-megapixel 1-inch CMOS sensor paired with a DIGIC DV 5 signal processor and a 10x wide-angle zoom lens, providing up to 12 stops of dynamic range, a max ISO of 20,000, and a 35mm-equivalent of 24.1-241mm for still images, and 27.3-273mm for video. A dedicated focus ring is offered along with a Push AF button for easier manual focusing, though it also has a Continuous AF mode with face detection, and it also has a vari-angle LCD display and Wi-Fi connectivity for remote control.
Video can be captured at 3840×2160 H.264 4:2:2/8-bit at 30fps to an internal CFast card, or at 1080p 60fps to an SD card, with added support for cinematic 4K at 4096×2160. It actually uses two codecs for recording video, with 4K using XF-AVC Intra and Full HD using XF-AVC Long GOP. The resulting 4K video can be played back to a monitor via its HDMI 1.4 port.
Canon expects to ship the XC10 this June, bundled with a SanDisk 64GB CFast 2.0 card and card reader.
Canon XC10
The C300 Mark II builds upon the original EOS C300, first revealed in late 2011. Packing an 8.85-megapixel Super 35mm Cinema CMOS sensor with dual DIGIC DV 5 processors, it has a dynamic range of up to 15 stops and an ISO of up to 102,400, with a bitrate of up to 410Mbps. The modular design allows for the LCD, control panel with XLR inputs, and the hand grip to be removed, depending on the shot, with it also having dual CFast 2.0 card slots and one SD card slot.
For video, it can record a 4K 10-bit 4:2:2 video with resolutions including 1080p, 2048×1080, 3840×2160, and cinematic 4K’s 4096×2160. A new Canon XF-AVC codec is also being used by the camera, and it can output uncompressed RAW video to an external recorder using its 3G-SDI ports.
The Canon EOS C300 Mark II is set to ship in September.
Canon C300 Mark II
