More thoughts on the new Canon and Red cameras

Now that the dust has cleared a bit from Thursday's announcements by Canon and Red, I've had some time to consider the new cameras, and the compromises that both companies made when developing them.

First, the Canon C300. Physically, it's a gorgeous camera--it reminds me of classic 16mm film camera designs. What I'm less impressed with are some of the compromises in the Canon design. For example, the C300 has automatic nothing--no autofocus, auto-aperture, or white balance. The lack of automatic controls may be good for teaching cinematography, just as when learning how to drive, it's better to start by learning how to use a manual transmission. However, in the real world, cinematographers often use autofocus, especially for documentaries and sports. And why no auto white balance, when just about every other digital cinema camera has it? Another big "miss" is the lack of a dual-link HD-SDI output and no 4:4:4 mode. Yet another questionable decision is support for 60 fps only at 720p resolution, together with a sensor that, while it's technically 4K, only outputs 1920 x 1080. The result is a weird mix: Many features of the C300 are oriented toward movie use, while the output of the camera screams "broadcast" and the C300 is missing some key broadcast features.

The reason why the C300 turned out this way can be found in an interview that Larry Thorpe, Canon U.S.A.'s Senior Director, Professional Engineering and Solutions, Imaging Technologies and Communications Group, gave to Digital Photography Review. According to the interview, the C300 was a "fast-track" project inside Canon--two years from inception to product release. In order to meet the tight schedule, Canon couldn't develop new electronics for the C300, so it adapted the processor and electronics from the XF 305 camcorder for the C300. The XF 305 is a very nice camcorder, but it's not a digital cinema camera, and it's most certainly not a $20,000 camera. Most of the missing features in the C300 are due to using the XF 305's electronics.

From what Thorpe said in the interview, it's clear that the C300 is a placeholder for a broader, more functional line of digital cinema cameras coming from Canon. A few years from now, we'll probably look back at the C300 and wonder why anyone bought it, given how powerful the Canon models will be by then. For now, however, the C300 is a strange bundle--a great design, undermined by inadequate electronics.

The new Red Scarlet-X is different--it's plenty powerful enough, but it's not a Scarlet. It uses the same imager as the EPIC, except it uses it at a lower resolution and can thus utilize imagers that failed quality testing for the EPIC. It uses all the same accessories and software as the EPIC. It's the same form-factor as the EPIC. As Philip Bloom points out, it's not the Scarlet that Red's been talking about for three years, the one that was supposed to be light and cheap but still high-resolution. Perhaps the Scarlet-X should have been called the EPIC Light, and Red should have scrapped the Scarlet name. It's a niggling point--Red is going to sell lots of Scarlet-Xs--but the Scarlet-X doesn't fit into the niche that Red created for the Scarlet. Instead, it's an entry-level EPIC--perfect as a B camera to the EPIC, but not competitive in any way with the Panasonic AF101 or the Sony FS100. Speaking of which, the Canon and Red announcements have made the FS100 and AF101 look even more appealing.

New Canon XF100 and XF105 Camcorders: High quality, low price?

In preparation for both IBC and Canon Expo, Canon has announced two new professional camcorders: The XF100 and XF105. The two new models are positioned as "little brothers" to the XF300 and XF305 released earlier this year, but their performance is very similar. The new camcorders both support the same XF MPEG-2 4:2:2 50Mbps codec as the XF300 and XF305. In addition, they're designed to be used in pairs for 3D video capture, and have infrared low-light capabilities that Canon claims allow them to capture scenes in total darkness. Both models record to Compact Flash media and support hot-swapping.

As with the XF300 and XF305, the primary difference in the two models is connectivity: The XF105 supports genlock in, SMPTE timecode in/out, and both HDMI and HD-SDI out, while the XF100 only supports HDMI out. Canon hasn't released any prices, but the company's press release says that it will "...demonstrate the versatile low-cost capabilities" at Canon Expo later this week, which suggests that they'll be priced significantly less than the XF300 and XF305. Both models are scheduled to ship in Q1 2011.

My suspicion is that the XF305 will be priced close to Sony's HXR-NX5U AVCHD-based camcorder, which has a list price in the U.S. of $4,950 and a street price of just under $4,000. The XF codec should provide considerably better video quality and easier editing than the H.264/AVC-based AVCHD codec used in the Sony model.

Canon announces its first pro tapeless camcorders, the XF300 and XF305

New professional camcorders have been expected from Canon ever since it announced its new 50Mbps MPEG-2 4:2:2 codec a few months ago but no camcorders that support it. Today, Canon announced the XF305 and XF300, both of which use the new codec. As with previous Canon models, the primary difference between the two models is the number and type of connectors. The XF305 has HD-SDI out, Genlock and Time Code, while the XF300 doesn't; according to Camcorderinfo.com, these are the only significant differences between the two camcorders.

Both camcorders can record 1080i and 720p (no 1080p) at 60, 30 and 24 fps, and they also have variable frame rates between 12 and 30 fps in 1080i and from 12 to 60 fps in 720p. They both have built-in stereo microphones and two-channel XLR inputs. Also, both camcorders have fixed (non-removable) lenses.

One of the most interesting features of the new cameras is that they use Compact Flash for storage instead of SDHC cards. Compact Flash cards are available with up to 128GB of capacity, while SDHC cards above 32GB are both rare and expensive. I believe that Canon went with CF for current capacity; it's likely that the next generation of these camcorders will use SDHC. Canon will continue to sell its tape-based HDV camcorders. but I believe that Canon's customers will migrate to flash-based camcorders over time.

The XF305 will list for $7,999 (US), while the XF300 will be priced at $6,799. Both camcorders will be available in late June.