While the video resolution war is still ongoing, there is one more battlefield: sensor size. Canon is fighting on that ground with some new heavy artillery: the EOS C700 FF cinema camera, which boasts a full frame sensor, almost a 6K frame size, and 15+ stops of dynamic range.
Body
The camera is built according to the current cinema standards, providing a well-balanced magnesium body weighing 7.6 pounds with a built-in top plate for attaching a multitude of Canon and third-party accessories.
Sensor
The most obvious feature of this camera is its sensor size. Larger sensors have always been appreciated by photographers and filmmakers, and this camera has a 38.1 mm by 20.1 mm CMOS sensor, which gives you a frame size of 5,952 x 3,140 pixels or a 20.8-megapixel image at a 1.89:1 aspect ratio. Canon states it has 15 stops of dynamic range.
Recording Formats
The base configuration records internally in ProRes or XF-AVC formats to CFast 2.0 cards. With an optional CODEX CDX-36150, recorder it can record 12-bit raw video. You can choose between different ProRes options from 10-bit 422 to 12-bit 4444. Frame rates vary between the options for file formats and sensor modes. Full-frame 4K can be recorded up to 60 fps. Switching to Super 35mm sensor mode allows for recording 4K at up to 72 fps. Moving down to Super 16mm mode can give you up to 168 fps at 2K. Raw recording is limited to 60 fps.
Image Quality
Canon states that this sensor and the way it processes the information from it provides a very high-quality image even at high ISOs.
Lenses
The size of the sensor allows the use of the full coverage of existing full-frame lenses, but for those who want to use glass designed for smaller sensors, the camera can be switched to a Super 35mm or even to a Super 16mm mode.
Lens Mount
The camera comes with an EF or PL mounts that can be changed out. The EF mount is compatible with the vast range of Canon lenses and takes advantage of the Canon Dual-Pixel autofocus technology. The PL mount, on the other hand, can work with the Cooke /i Technology standard to provide lens metadata.
Ports
Alongside the power inputs and outputs, the camera has a standard XLR 3.5 mm and two XLR audio inputs. There are seven video output terminals: four SDI, two monitor outputs, and a 4K HDMI output port. You can also attach a GPS or a Wi-Fi adapter.
Storage
It has two CFast card slots for recording your footage. There is also an SD card slot where you can store LUTs, camera settings, or proxy files.
Battery
Works with standard 14.4V batteries that can be mounted onto a V-Lock battery adapter attached to the camera.
ND Filters
Built-in ND filters are a great feature of the C-series Canon cameras. This one has a motorized ND unit with two-, four-, and six-stop ND filters. If you choose to use an expanded ISO range, you can even expand the range of NDs to eight and 10 stops.
Canon will not discontinue any products with the introduction of this camera. They say it's a new product that is added to the C700 series. The camera is expected to be available in August, 2018 with a price tag of $33,000.
Lol at this coming from Canon "15+ stops of dynamic range", I'll believe it when I see it. If it turns out to be true I'll look forward to them trickling it into their camera bodies 10 years from now.
I don't think they will incorporate a high dynamic range in the video of their DSLRs, if you mean that by "camera bodies." If you talk about stills cameras, they are still ranged at 10+ values although in my opinion DSLRs (and mirrorless) are good only in situations with less than four stops of dynamic range.
Keep in mind the dynamic range metrics are laboratory-based. We, the users, can only measure it buy the level of satisfaction we have when we bring detail back.
Sooner or later Canon has to catch up to Sony. It may have reached that point, we'll just have to wait and see. Remember, it's a sensor/processor combo at work, it's not just a "sensor" thing. However Canon sensor/processor combos are for the most part the laughing stock on the still camera world. Sony sensors with Sony/Nikon/Pentax/etc processors blow them away, or least have done so up to now. We shall see.
Canon can catch up right now. Problem is they just want to limit their entry level cameras, forcing you to pay them thousands more for C series.
I have been working on getting the most from the sensor through picture profiles, and even with limitations of that technique, i was able to pull more dynamic range than expected.
Below you have a comparison, upper is canon 6D with my custom profile, lower is A7s2 with slog3. Same lut applied to both. Some minor tweaks are still needed though.
Yeah, custom profiles (like the Technicolor one for Canon) do a great job. If you compare it with a cinema camera, though, not a mirrorless, you will see more differences. I still think that you can do a lot with a DSLR if you don't shoot beyond its dynamic range limitations. The attached image is a comparision between a cinema camera (left) and a DSLR (right) in different lighting situations and you can see that on the bottom comparison the DSLR is almost as good as the cinema camera, because of the lower contrast of the scene, just like in your situation.
this pisses me off so bad!
why in the video department they can squeeze up to 15+ stops of dynamic range while in the photo department we have to work with only 13.5? and the backlight buttons! Why do I have to wait (and maybe don't get) for another 1D-series? Nikon does this for AGES!!
Wait, Canon has 13.5 stops of DR? Isn't it at about 11-12?
DXO says that 1DxII has! and I find that is way better than the original 1Dx BUT if I have more room to play with why not!
Yah, just checked as well. The 1DxII and 5DmkIV has finally been improved, but not on par with Nikon and Sony.
The reason why I always go back yo Nikon (currently owns a D850) is because of the wider dynamic range.
For me is not so easy to go all the way in with Nikon, when I have 35k in Canon gear! I hope they will improve this aspect in the near future
If you always push the limit and need an extra stop for each one of your images and your business relies on that, that would be a reasonable complaint. Otherwise you can squeeze it from the software.
Also, nobody from the viewers really cares or sees the difference between 13.5 and 15 stops.
trust me I see the difference between the 1Dx and 1Dx II even without DXO Mark: a lot of times when I'm shooting in backlight I can squeeze a lot of details from the raw of the 1DxII that in the 1Dx I can't. 1.5 stops is going to reflect on all the iso values.
I went to Iceland this month and I was shooting the aurora but for the excitement, I forgot to set the right ISO and I shot at 100. In post, I've recovered all the information without adding too much noise (is maybe better than 800 ISO) and the photos are still usable (for me)
I don't know a lot about this particular type of gear, so I will simply have to ASSUME that this camera has a global shutter. Nowhere in the specs I've seen, or this video, does it say it does. It would be an incredible brain fart if this camera does not have a global shutter.
At $33,000 however, I wonder if there isn't money better spent elsewhere.
At $33,000, the competition starts at Alexa Mini, RED Weapon-W/Monstro and goes up to Sony Venice and Alexa LF. Canon is playing catch up again and barely get to be on par with the competition, but mostly falling short. I'm a full time 1st AC and I almost never seen Canon C-cameras unless it's on the lower end of production.
Oh, and in regards to global shutter, none of the big cinema cameras other than the Sony F55 has it, so it's not that big of a deal if the readout is as fast as say the Alexas.
The older versions of C700 had models with a global shutter. On another article Canon comments they can change the sensor in their services with one with a global shutter.
BTW, "Need for speed" was shot on a C500.
This is the professional version. The entry-level is in a smaller box.