PROREVIEW control over exposure in the form of shutter speed, ISO settings, mechanical ND filters and what a joy these were to use in daylight. We did not use any matte box on the shoot and were still able to get a decent exposure for our shots at a very shallow depth of field. The camera has an ISO range of ISO 320 to 20,000 that was featured on the C300, and Canon’s Log Gamma recording allows for a 12-stop exposure latitude in your recordings. Regarding the latitude, we did some shots in complete darkness and were still able to obtain a picture with no noticeable noise at 1200 ISO. Even at 6000 ISO, we were able to get a very decent image. Regarding Canon’s Log Gamma, it provides a nice flat picture that is a joy for any colourist. You can play with your picture as much as you see fit in post and not break your image. Even on the MXF files, the compression is barely noticeable at 50 mbps. This is astounding for any filmmaker, who wants to shoot at night and has minimal lighting. We just used a small Litepanel as a bounce to enhance our shots and it wasn’t even at full power. The camera is also equipped with professional-grade exposure assistance controls, including zebra patterns, waveform monitors, RGB parade display, spot display, and a vectorscope display. Most of these functions have their own dedicated button on the left side of the camera, but with all of these tools you can be sure that you won’t ever have blown out highlights. There’s a dedicated white balance button on the side of the C500 and the camera has two custom Kelvin settings that can be stored in the camera’s memory. There’s also an auto white balance mode and two white balance presets for daylight and tungsten. The C500 has no built-in microphone, and it’s surprising to see that it does not come bundled with a shotgun mic. The camera features a 3.5mm mic jack and is expandable with two XLR inputs (on the external monitor attachment). And if you’re not recording live sound, you can simply remove the monitor attachment. There’s also a headphone jack on the camera and a wide variety of audio controls. If you want to, you can record good audio with this setup, but it may be preferable to use a dedicated audio recording system instead, like a Marantz. This keeps the
With the C500, you have complete control over exposure in the form of shutter speed, ISO settings and mechanical ND filters making it a joy to use in daylight, says Randjelovic.
Pros * Outputs uncompressed 4K video at different frame rates, up to 120 fps via dual 3G-SDI ports. * Comes in EF or PL lens mount versions. * Professional set of tools and feature controls.
Cons * Recording on an external recorder for 4k. * Form factor. Due to the side panel for 4k export we lost the grip connector. * The viewfinder is not ideal.
C500 less cluttered when you’re shooting video. If you’re mounting it on a rig, it is preferable to use the Zacuto EVF filmmaker. This setup worked like a charm with the C500 and is highly recommended if you plan to conduct handheld shoots due to the form factor of the camera. In conclusion, the C500 isn’t as innovative or groundbreaking as the C300, but its ability to record 4K video shows us that we are headed towards a new recording format. The C500 isn’t the only camera shooting 4K. Others in this segment include the JVC GY-HMQ10 and the Sony NEX-FS700. But the fact that Canon has decided to embrace 4K means it is willing to take the whole 4K workflow to a new level. But how can you expect to record such a huge deluge of data? Canon is working with several third-party vendors for uncompressed RAW recording. For proxy purposes, the camera also records internally to a CompactFlash card at 50 Mb/s. This covers you for emergency backups and immediate editing of proxy files. This is the Canon XF format (4:2:2 MPEG-2 with an
MXF wrapper) that the C300 also records. The EOS C500 looks impressive. The 4K workflow for now seems well thought out, but they are certainly expensive. It could have benefited from at least a recording capability of 2K on CF cards and some higher frame rates without resorting to an external recorder. You may want to use the C300 for a while as the 4K with a 4:4:4 colour profile is an expensive option if you do not plan to do any VFX work in your shots. Overall, the C500 is a great camera and the future looks bright for digital cinema. PRO Check out the movie we shot with this camera on: https://vimeo. com/56804528. Special thanks to Canon Middle East, Filmquip Media for providing us with Arri Prime lenses and Richard Latham for his support.
Stefan Randjelovic is the head of the film department at SAE Institute. He is also a freelance director and DoP.
February 2013 | www.broadcastprome.com |
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