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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Leica’s first full frame HDSLR – M240 video capable?

Leica M type 240- video review.
(Non of the written here is relevant to the photo section of this camera)

Deep into the 4th year of the HDSLR revolution Leica released the M 240, their full frame camera costing $6950.

Spending a day with the camera left me wondering, was Leica ever talking to any professional cameraman before implementing HD recording for this unit or just decided to “join a trend” without really meaning this camera to be a capable working video tool?.

In my opinion the video quality coming out of the camera is very disappointing and its operation in video mode is not easy/logical. I hope features/video quality can be enhance with a firmware update.

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Sony F55 & Canon 1DC – 4K side by side

cinema5D had a chance to test the new Sony F55, Sony’s new flagship 4K cinema camera. As a reference we used Canon’s most advanced HDSLR.

The F55 is an interesting camera, because it is one that ticks more boxes than any other camera over the past few years – the range of resolutions, frame rates, codecs as well as the ergonomics are unprecedented. Now it’s down to actually using it to make a judgement call.

We wanted to know how the camera performs in a normal sooting environment and took the Canon EOS 1DC 4K HDSLR with us for comparison. Some interesting conclusions can be drawn here, things you might consider if you plan on shooting with either of these cameras or would just like to see what to expect.

You can download (1GB) and watch the source video in 4K on vimeo: LINK

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Andrew praises Sony RX100 in his EOSHD review

Remember our Sony HX9v review where we called the HX9v “almost the ultimate run & gun camera”? Well the RX100 seems to be Sony’s ultimate answer for the action-camera-philes…

That pretty much sums up Andrew’s opinion:
The RX100 is a camera that fits in your jeans pocket. Would I consider intercutting RX100 footage with 1080p from a pro Super 35mm cinema camera? Yes I would.
(…) If you haven’t yet entered the DSLR video world, the RX100 is capable of similar results in video mode and even a similar standard of stills. This is amazing and I cannot believe we’re talking about a pocket camera.

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