Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The new EOS C300 'digital cine' camera

This looks interesting, the C300 camera. It looks like it'll be a challenger to the Red Scarlet  and the Arri Alexa. The design has been tailored to the needs of professional cinematographers (it was revealed at Hollywood’s Paramount Studios in front of journalists and the film industry elite – including Martin Scorsese apparently). The camera is due to be released in the first half of 2012 in two options, an EF mount or a PL mount.





Here is some info from the manufacturer:

The large Super 35mm Canon CMOS Sensor allows very shallow depth of field. Combined with the new Canon EF Cinema Primes, cinematographers can balance beautiful out of focus areas with stunningly sharp details for the exact desired effect, under almost any lighting condition.




The 8.3 megapixel, single CMOS sensor captures full bandwidth, individual RGB channels for each Full HD 1920x1080 frame without the need for debayering algorithms. The single CMOS chip produces color on par with conventional three chip designs.

The Canon CMOS sensor's dynamic range gives up to 12 stops of exposure latitude, capturing more detail in each frame. This range compares to that of far–more expensive cameras.



It goes without saying that a great lens goes a long way to getting a great result. And Canon has a reputation of well-regarded optics. Canon Cinema EOS is compatible with a big family of Canon lenses - over 60 Canon EF and EF-S lenses, the all new Cinema Zoom Lenses (for EF- and PL-mount) and Cinema Prime Lenses (EF mount body only).

The DiG!C DV III processor works hand in hand with the new 8.3 megapixel Super 35 CMOS sensor. DiG!C DV III provides the power to process the information from the large 8.3 megapixel single sensor into four 2.0 megapixel channels (2xG; RGB). This design allows the single chip design of the EOS C300 to maintain high color fidelity, optimal signal-to-noise balance and smooth gradations usually found only on three-chip sensor designs – making it particularly good for green screen VFX and virtual set applications. The CMOS sensor offers stunning low light performance and incredibly clean images, even at ISO settings as high as 20,000.

It is expected to cost around $20,000 / £15,000.


Below are 2 films shot on the C300, 'MOBIUS' and 'XXIT', and the behinbd-the-scenes videos to to each of them showing the C300 in use.








Sources:

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