If you recognize something about me, you recognize I’ve been a close to life-long person of Canon Cinema Cameras, beginning means again in 2006 with the XL2. Not for any explicit cause, that’s simply how issues have form of shaken out. Since then I’ve owned the C100mkII and the C500mkII, and was given the opportunity to test out the C70 and C300mkIII once they got here round, and was very impressed with each.
Just lately I’ve been doing much more two-camera shoots and customarily have relied on my Fujifilm XT3 as my B-Cam however the limitations of a DSLR-style physique had been beginning to rear their heads an increasing number of to the purpose that it was turning into problematic. For sure issues it’s completely advantageous, however the time-limited recording and the dearth of NDs particularly had been inflicting me points. I suppose I might use the C100mkII to play second-fiddle to my C500mkII, however the distinction between the 2 when minimize collectively is fairly obvious. I had two gigs arising, a company interview model shoot and a trend marketing campaign, and the added friction of the XT3’s limitations had been inflicting me concern. You may just about get any digicam to match every other digicam within the grade, particularly when you’ve gotten matched lenses, nevertheless it does take added time that I wouldn’t essentially have on these jobs.
Particularly what I wanted was the identical 4K Clog2 picture that my C500 is kicking out (for ease of coloring/matching), prolonged file instances, built-in NDs, and audio recording.
What I wanted was a C70.
I might have gone with a C300mkIII, however I did like the thought of the smaller type issue for ease of packing/dealing with in addition to the truth that my second tripod was constructed for picture cameras and sure couldn’t maintain the burden of a full-sized physique like that, plus the picture popping out of the C70 is functionally an identical to the C300 in order that wouldn’t be a problem.
Fortunately, Filmtools was capable of lend me their ground mannequin C70 for my shoots and Canon actually upped the sport by offering me a set of Sumire primes in addition to the PL mount for my C500mkII (I used to be capable of purchase a PL-R adapter for a really reasonably priced value for the C70).
The company video went as anticipated; individuals sitting there being interviewed, so there’s not a ton to report there, however the trend shoot for UK Clothier P&Co is the place the 2 digicam setup actually shined.
I had my pal Adam Greene as my second shooter (who’s beforehand helped us do our dwell protection of reveals like Adobe MAX and NAB) and he would hop between taking pictures second angles and BTS when known as upon. The 2 of us would change cameras on the fly, with the Sumire 50mm residing on the C70 and the 35mm on the C500mkII as an alternative of swapping lenses between our bodies, but in addition as a result of among the content material I needed to shoot was vertical so the C70 was simpler to handle for that stuff.
Aside from after I noticed vertical footage, which made it apparent, I just about couldn’t inform which digicam shot what. The C500/C70 combo actually is the proper pair (particularly with the C500 simply receiving a reasonably drastic value minimize, totally masking the price of a theoretical further C70 when you needed it). The one giveaway image-wise got here right down to the rendering of the through the Sumires. At this level I’m satisfied this pairing is the proper two-camera setup for many shoots, solely being bested by two C500s.
I’ll have a separate overview of these lenses going into extra element, however as this was a trend video and we needed the picture to have some life, we shoot these issues vast open at T1.5/1.3. When stopped down the Sumires form of appear like regular CN-E primes however vast open they’ve this excellent mushy character, particularly across the edges, and a few tasteful CA in sure circumstances in addition to superb focus falloff. On this regard I used to be form of capable of inform after I was taking a look at one digicam or the opposite as a result of the C70’s smaller sensor was clearly solely recording the centermost part of the imaging circle and subsequently the sting character was misplaced. The C500 was capable of seize the total character of every lens and that was very pleasing. Moreover, taking pictures a 35mm lens on a full body digicam vast open at such a low cease gave a really cool look to the photographs, particularly within the wides, and also you higher consider that we had been nearly at all times utilizing all 10 stops of ND each cameras present. Now and again we’d cease down somewhat bit to both lengthen the Depth of Subject, sharpen up the picture, or simply shave off a few of that publicity. The opposite benefit to such a quick set of lenses was, because the shoot received later into the day, we might simply take off some ND and preserve our look constant whereas additionally permitting us to shoot means later than we ever anticipated with out having to depend on ramping up the ISO.
One other factor that was an surprising profit (and have become a teachable second for me) was the inner scratch mic. Clearly it’s not the best factor on the earth, however I did find yourself utilizing the audio it captured within the ultimate edit within the type of engine noise from the truck and bike. Weirdly sufficient I believe as a result of the sounds had been so loud it one way or the other erased the low-fi high quality you’d count on from these sorts of microphones. The shopper thought I went and received some inventory audio! The lesson, although, is to at all times deliver a mic. I used to be “positive” this shoot could be MOS, however why restrict myself within the edit? Fortunately I received away with it right here however subsequent time I’ll completely be working audio, even for issues that “for positive” won’t be utilizing audio. It’d be akin to me taking pictures 709 as a result of I used to be “positive” we weren’t going to grade it later or one thing. Why would I do this to myself?
As we had been taking pictures handheld for the overwhelming majority of the venture, the inner stabilization actually helped us out as properly. Granted it’s EIS, however clearly cinema primes don’t have OIS built-in so I used to be capable of get some pictures that will in any other case look form of low-cost, together with one occasion the place I used to be totally leaned out of the passenger facet of a automobile filming a motorbike driving by the desert on a quite bumpy highway. It additionally actually smoothed out my trusty “hip dolly” maneuver the place I mainly simply pan one path and bodily transfer within the different for some added dynamism within the picture.
One factor I like concerning the Canon Cinema Cameras is that they completely sip energy. We had been taking pictures all day on one 98kWh battery every (properly… roughly. We’d swap out to recent ones for security after we left base camp however the used bricks would normally be round 50% or so. The 2 card slots on every digicam additionally allowed us to roll all day and never have to fret about swapping playing cards which was good. Not a large annoyance, clearly, nevertheless it’s good to only preserve filming and simply dump every little thing on the finish of the day as soon as.
Within the grade, no shock, the photographs had been impeccable. We shot each cameras at 4K DCI in XFAVC, which is 10bit 4:2:2, and we had a lot of data to work with. As we had been taking pictures exterior the solar offered us with as a lot publicity as we preferred so underexposure wasn’t a priority and we received a pleasant “dense detrimental”. The remark I received nearly universally was “oh wow that appears like movie” or “that appears like a film”. And that was simply with the essential Resolve 2383 LUT on it!
One good factor concerning the C500/C70 combo is each cameras can shoot 12bit uncooked, however I knew I wouldn’t have to lean on that for this explicit shoot, particularly figuring out that I used to be going handy off the footage to the shopper after the shoot and didn’t wish to saddle them with a file format their future editor won’t be accustomed to. XF-AVC is extensively adopted by each NLE price its salt and, no less than on my modest PC, by no means chugs. My laptop, an i7-7700K and GTX1070 with 64GB of RAM, truly can edit the 4K RAW from both digicam fairly properly, however the 6K RAW from the C500 does begin to gradual every little thing down a bit. That being mentioned my PC is like 7 years outdated now so I’m positive extra trendy {hardware} might deal with it simply advantageous.
One other factor that was nice is each cameras have Timecode ports, so we ran the Deity TC-1 bins on them so after I received into the edit I might simply auto populate the timeline with all the clips and so they’d already by synced up, permitting me to edit the extra “narrative” parts of the style video even faster. Clearly for the interviews it’s a bit simpler to easily clap sync, besides Timecode is simply such a value-add to any multi-cam situation. I by no means wish to be with out it.
As a facet be aware, Adam wasn’t as accustomed to the present gen of Canon C-Sequence cameras as I used to be and for the primary day “uncovered to the appropriate” as that’s how he tends to shoot together with his private digicam. Having carried out loads of assessments over the previous couple years I knew that pores and skin ought to truly be uncovered round 50-60IRE however Adam had every little thing up within the 70-80 zone. This made me nervous at first however because the latitude of those cameras is top-tier, I used to be simply capable of pull down the publicity of his pictures with out sacrificing any high quality. Nothing was clipped and the DR wasn’t compressed by favoring the shadows like that.
One factor that folks appear to get confused about in the case of Full Body over Tremendous 35 is the imaging traits. No, Full Body doesn’t offer you a “shallower depth of area”. No, utilizing a pace booster on a S35 digicam doesn’t “make your digicam full body”. These are lens issues not sensor issues. What a bigger sensor does offer you, and I’ve proven this in my C300 vs C500 article, the power to see your entire character of bigger format lenses, much less noise, larger obvious sharpness and softer tonality. In different phrases, a transition from black to white on a gradient (or say, the transition from the sunshine facet of a face to the darkish facet) takes place over extra bodily actual property, supplying you with a softer look and extra visible knowledge to work with. The looks of much less noise merely comes from cramming extra info captured by the sensor in the identical show. Decision is one factor however bodily decision is the place it’s actually at.
Even so, and whereas I do want a bigger sensor when attainable, this stuff are sometimes instances extra educational than something. The S35 sensor of the C70 is totally no slouch and as I discussed, minimize in fantastically with the C500. Having these Sumires was the place the photographs actually received their elevate. It’d be a complete completely different ball recreation if we used, say, package lenses.
Lately the web discourse appears to be obsessive about a digicam’s “relevance in xxxx 12 months” whereas concurrently championing the thought of utilizing older cameras for no matter aesthetic or monetary causes. In my estimation, each digicam continues to be “related” when the job requires it. Perhaps when you bodily can’t get the footage off the digicam, like among the older firewire-only fashions of yesterday, then that’d be a dialogue however general each software has a objective to somebody.
That being mentioned, I do perceive the intent of these questions. When your shopper expects one thing round the usual of right now’s trendy seems to be, you wish to ship on that. I don’t essentially subscribe to the concept that the “latest hottest options” are vital for such a deliverable, however I do agree that it’s essential to have all of the instruments essential to ship on the promise of a top quality finish product. So, whereas these cameras are under no circumstances lengthy within the tooth, do they maintain as much as right now’s newer releases?
In a phrase: sure. In additional phrases: in fact sure.
I’ve put the C500 up against the Sony Venice, Alexa, FX-9, and recently the V-Raptor and in every case the C500 was visually simply nearly as good and in some instances preferable, relying on what you’re searching for. The C70 is mainly a C300 mini, and comparing the C500 and C300 as I’ve done I can let you know they fare fairly properly towards one another as properly. There’s merely no denying the standard and suppleness of those cameras. I don’t see a case within the subsequent 5-10 years the place one thing would come out that will blow the picture high quality of the trendy Canon C-Sequence cameras out of the water, and even the “decrease finish of the C-Sequence spectrum” within the type of the C70 isn’t appreciably decrease high quality than the C700FF or C500mkII. Will we get cameras with higher Dynamic Vary, Spotlight Retention, or bit depth? Most likely. Will it actually matter? I don’t assume so. It’s at all times good, positive, however as I’ve proven right here I wouldn’t have wanted it. In a high-contrast surroundings just like the desert in the course of the day I didn’t lose any info within the shadows or the highlights.
Are there downsides to those cameras? To a level. I like the physique model of the C500mkII/C300mkIII, whereas the C70’s extra “DSLR”-ish physique isn’t my favourite. The LCD display screen on it might use a tweak as properly (it doesn’t fold flat towards the facet of the digicam, as an illustration) and I’d have preferred to see an SDI port on it, however in any other case I don’t have something to complain about. I assume the C500 not doing 120fps at Super35 crop and as an alternative choosing S16 is form of lame however I truthfully don’t assume something over 60fps is especially vital for the work I do.
Closing verdict: the C500/C70 combo is totally killer for me. In comparison with different choices from Canon and even cameras from different producers, I believe they’re precisely the appropriate instruments for many jobs and have a variety of life left in them. If the C70 has a mkII, or there’s a C90, all I’d wish to see is the aforementioned LCD tweak, an SDI port added, and for it to be full body. For the C500mkII? No notes.
You may watch the ultimate trend movie I created for P&Co beneath:
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