Canon EOS C100 review – an underestimated cinema camera

For this video specifically: All sponsoring income from this video will go to the “rainbow of hope” children’s home in Moldova.

The most affordable of Canon’s “cinema cameras” the EOS C100, has been around since late last year when I had a chance to test it in a real world environment (see video above).
In the light of recent camera announcements at NAB and the current C100 price drop I’d like to share my experience and tell you why I think the EOS C100 is one of the most important and underestimated cameras of 2013.

Everyone tells you that each project requires a different tool. Well that’s certainly true and sounds very professional, but if you’re interested to read about the C100 your budget probably limits your shooting style and choice of camera to only very few valid candidates currently available.

In this price range you are like so many others still looking and waiting for a camera that truly supports and helps you express your filmmaking ambition, be it documentary or fiction or anything in between.

Here’s a camera I can truly recommend. It has no big red labels screaming things like 4K, 12bit, or 3D for that matter (that was last year’s hype), in fact it has nothing too fancy about it: It’s HD, it does 30p max and has a mediocre file compression system. But don’t be fooled by technical specs, because this camera is superb within its boundaries and a surprisingly strong, well rounded tool from top to bottom.

Let me give you some examples:

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Atomos Samurai Blade – new affordble disk recorder with 720p IPS panel

Atomos updates the Samurai, their famous SDI harddisk recorder, and adds a high quality 720p lcd screen on top making it a true solution as a monitor / disk recorder combination.

We have checked out the Atomos products several times in the past as they offer an affordable solution to get more quality out of our large sensor cameras. These devices allow you to record the live hdmi or SDI feed from your camera directly into a high quality format, widely used Apple ProRes among others.

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Atomos OS 4.0 brings Avid DNxHD to their harddisk recorders

Atomos just announced a firmware update for their harddisk recorders that brings the long awaited Avid DNxHD codec support.

People who have been using the Atomos Ninja 2 and Atomos Samurai field recorders were limited to the use of the Apple ProRes codec the devices support. Last year Atomos announced the addition of Avid DNxHD, but up until this point people have been waiting for the upgrade to happen.

The new firmware is already available for download here: LINK

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Canon 5D mark III – uncompressed hdmi-out in April 2013!

Canon decided to give us uncompressed hdmi output on the Canon 5D mark III. This means that the camera will output uncompressed quality that can be recorded on an external device like the Atomos Ninja 2 or similar.

Press release:

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., October 23, 2012 — Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, today announced a new firmware update for the EOS 5D Mark III Digital SLR camera that significantly improves the camera’s performance and usability. In response to requests from professionals working in the fields of cinema and television production, the firmware update enables the use of uncompressed HDMI Output support, making possible more efficient video editing and monitoring procedures. Additionally, the upgrade supports the advanced needs of photographers through improved AF performance when capturing still images.

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