Getting My Hands On The Canon C100

My hands on review can now be found here.

Many Canon C100 cameras are getting into the hands of cinematographers and I’ll have my hands on one Monday. I rented the C100 from lensRentals.com for seven days so I can play with it and also shoot two news image promos with it. I’m excited! From the looks of the footage I like what I see. The images coming from the camera are very similar to what we have seen from the C300 and that’s very positive because that’s one nice camera. The C100 is very sharp, has pretty good dynamic range and also some interesting settings to play with. I’m most interested in the flat wide dynamic range log look since I like to color grade. Speaking of log settings it surprised me a bit that Canon has a log setting for the C100 since the 8bit 4:2:0 AVCHD codec wouldn’t be considered a strong gradeable codec. I’ve had success with grading footage shot with the AF-100’s AVCHD codec but most would rather shoot with a baked in look. I don’t. I set the camera up with a flatter look. Nothing like Canon log on the C100 but flat for the AF-100. This is going to be fun! Both spots are going to be shot mostly outdoors so I’m going to have to deal with lighting issue. Lots of silks and bounce boards. I’m praying for a gray day. Love that natural soft light and in the winter months the sun is more at an angle making it a much nicer light source. Here is where the highlights and how they roll off will be interesting to see, as well as how the camera renders skin tones since these are news promos with our news staff.

To get ready for the C100 all I needed is the camera and three batteries from lensrentals.com. I already have three EF lenses. Canon 24-105 f4L, Canon 70-200 f4L and the fast plastic fantastic Canon 50. I also have a Zeiss 85mm ZF that I can use with a Fotodiox Nikon/EOS adapter. I sold my Canon 17-40 early this year. Darn it!! This should cover me for the shoot and If I can get my hands on the Canon 24-70 f2.8 that would be great. My Tilta rig will work if I need to get a matte box on the camera but I don’t think that’s the plan since the C100 has built in ND filters and I have lens shades for all my lenses. I want to use the camera as it was intended to use. Small and compact. The only thing I want on the camera is the wireless receiver. Hopefully. If I need to do walking shots I’ll pull out the FigRig.

A couple of features I wish the C100 had was higher frame rates. This does stick out since most cameras at least have 60fps. Even DSLR cams have that now. Maybe a firmware update can add it in the future. Please don’t charge extra for this Canon! Another is the lens mount. I’m spoiled with the versatility of the MFT mount. Practically any lens can be mounted on them. EF not so much. No way to use a PL adapter. Bummer. If you want to use PL lenses then you will have to get the C300 PL version. You have to choose. That’s a tough call.

Well that’s the plan! I hope I have something cool to show in a few weeks or at least a couple samples in a few days. Anything you might want to see from the camera? If I can I will try to shoot it.

Cheers!

Filed in: Camera News • Canon Cinema EOS • Equipment Reviews • New Release • Post Production