Canon has announced a new lightweight video and digital
stills camera, the XC10, which can record Ultra HD (3840x2160) video and will
cost £1,600 (about $2,400) when it ships in June.
Although it is not part of the Cinema EOS range, it does
offer some of their features, and is designed to be suitable as a B camera for larger
productions. However, it is essentially competing with a couple of established
4K cameras, the Sony A7s, which offers wonderful low-light capabilities with a
full-frame sensor for about the same price, and the popular Panasonic GH4,
which is slightly cheaper.
It uses a new, specially developed 1-inch CMOS sensor (very
slightly bigger than the Super 16mm film format) and Canon’s latest DIGIC DV5
image processor, and can record UHD at 25/30 frames per second to an internal
CFast 2.0 card at up to 305Mbps using Canon’s new XF-AVC MXF H.264 codec, or 50/60
fps HD (1920x1080) to an SD card at up to 50Mbps, with pro-standard 4:2:2, but
8-bit, colour sampling. There is also five-second cache recording (pre-record)
in HD.
For shooting in low light, it offers a high ISO of up to
20,000, and a reasonable 12-stop dynamic range (similar to the original C300,
but short of the 15 stops available on the new C300 Mark II), to capture some
detail in highlights and shadows.
The XC10 also offers Canon Log Gamma and Wide DR movie mode
to enable users to extract greater picture quality in post production and to
help match the video with shots from the Cinema EOS cameras.
It doesn’t take interchangeable lenses, but has a 10x
optical f/2.8 - f/5.6 zoom (with manual zoom and focus ring), which includes
optical and electronic image stabilisation (as used on the XF200/XF205). In
video mode, this will give the equivalent of a 27.3-273mm focal range (35mm
equivalent). Minimum focus distance is 50cm across entire zoom range, and about
8cm at the wide macro setting.
The camera will also capture 12MP (4000x3000) photographs in
stills mode (capturing 4:3 aspect ratio pictures where the lens ranges from
24.1 -241mm equivalent, 3:2 aspect ratio, giving 25 - 250mm equivalent, or 16:9
aspect ratio, giving 27.3 - 273mm). However, the photos are JPGs only, not Raw.
Users can also extract 8.29MP stills from the UHD video. There
is only one single density (1/8 equivalent) ND filter built-in. For focus
control it has auto focus, face detection AF and tracking, Push AF, AiAF (Photo
Mode), the manual focus ring, and a touch focus function.
It has a rotating grip (above), making it more comfortable to use,
particularly for high or low shots, while keeping the main controls at your
fingertips. There is also a 3-inch (7.66cm diagonal) adjustable touch screen
LCD, with 100% field coverage, for direct access to menus via a simple set of
cross keys.
An included optical loupe viewfinder (above) fits the LCD, useful
for critical focusing and bright sunlight - as there is no EVF. Features
include peaking, zebras, markers and focus assist. For audio there is a built-in
stereo microphone and a 3.5mm stereo mini jack for external microphones,
recording two channels of Linear PCM (16 bit, 48 kHz).
Timecode is available via HDMI, and is a feature that can be
accessed by external recorders from Atomos, notably the 4K Shogun, which can
take the clean HDMI feed from the XC10. This will give direct to ProRes/DNxHR
10-bit 4:2:2 4K recording (up to 2160p30) and ProRes/DNxHD recording (up to
1080p60), plus a 7-inch monitor with various professional features, such as a
vectorscope, longer record times, and a breakout XLR connection for both
balanced analogue XLR audio and 48v phantom power options. The Shogun can also
trigger stop/start on the camera via HDMI for recording.
The camera includes various slow and fast motion recording
modes – including up to 1200x fast motion in 4K/HD, and up to 1/4x slow motion
in HD – as well as interval shooting.
The XC10 also comes with a built-in WiFi connection,
enabling remote control of key features (aperture, focus, WB, shutter speed,
ISO/gain, shooting mode, start/stop recording) via a browser, smartphone or
tablet.
The supplied accessories (above) include: lens hood, (loupe)
viewfinder unit, remote controller (RC-6), 7.2v battery pack (LP- E6N), HDMI
cable (HTC100/S), compact power unit (CA-570), AC cable, interface cable
(IFC-300PCU/S), and a shoulder strap.
By David Fox