Canon C300 XF camera launched

New Canon C300

There is a new addition to the Canon XF line with the newly announced C300, which will cost around $20,000 and should be available January 2012 for the EF mount model (which is Canon's regular electronic mount) or in March for the PL-mount model (suitable for use with a wide range of cine lenses, from the likes of Zeiss or Arri - or other stills lenses via adaptors) - the mounts don't appear to be interchangeable. Canon also launched 14.5-60mm and 30-300mm cine zooms in EF and PL-mount versions and 24mm, 50mm and 85mm primes for EF-mount only.

Canon also announced a new DSLR camera that will shoot 4K video at 24p (Motion JPEG) using a full frame sensor (cropped to APS-H size for video - about 80%), but that is still in development.

The important features of the EOS C300 camcorder are...

• Newly developed Super 35mm-sized (APS-C) CMOS sensor.
• Approximately 8.29 million effective pixels, with a pixel size that is larger than that for conventional professional camcorders, enabling greater light-gathering capabilities for enhanced sensitivity and reduced noise - the pixels include two green pixels for each red and blue.
• Full HD (1920x1080) video signals for each of the three RGB primary colors, decreasing the incidence of moiré while offering high resolution, with 1,000 horizontal TV lines.
• A heightened signal read-out speed (apparently 120fps) reduces the rolling shutter skew you normally get with a CMOS sensor.
• High-performance DIGIC DV III image processor.
• MPEG-2 Full HD (MPEG2 422@HL compliant) compression.
• 4:2:2 color sampling.
• Maximum recording rate of 50 Mbps - like the other XF cameras.
• It uses the MXF (Material eXchange Format) video and audio recording file format
• Recording to Compact Flash cards.
• Two CF card slots, which enables simultaneous recording to both CF cards (for an instant backup).
• Compact body design measuring 133 (w) x 179 (h) x 171 mm (d) - making it tall and narrow compared to a DSLR.

Canon C300 camera

• The camcorder can be outfitted with a handle, grip, thumb rest and monitor unit.
• HD/SD-SDI video output for external recording of high-quality (uncompressed) video content. 
• Can be controlled remotely by a smartphones or tablet PC using a WFT-E6B wireless file transmitter for EOS digital SLR cameras (sold separately).
• Offers Canon Log Gamma, enabling flat image quality with subdued contrast and sharpness for maximum freedom in post-production editing and processing
• Frame rates of 59.41i, 50i, 29.97p, 25p, 24p mode and 23.98p.
• Fast-motion shooting (time lapse), to create action up to 60x normal speed (presumably at 1 frame per second - although that would be frame rate dependent), and slow-motion down to 1/2.5x (only in 720p mode).
• Frame rates between 1 and 60 frames per second (in 59.41 interlaced mode) can be adjusted in increments of 1fps.
• A selection of Custom Pictures lets users freely adjust image quality for greater control over how content looks.
• Built-in ND filter, which works with any lens without the need for a matte box or Fader ND filter for each lens.

There is a whole lot more info on the Canon knowledge base site.

You can see what the camera can do, thanks to a new video shot by Vincent Laforet.

There is also the behind the scenes video - shot by Blake Whitman at Vimeo.

Plus, you can take a closer look at the camera in this video by the guys at Zacouto.