Take a Look at the New Canon C200 With Internal 4K Raw Video Recording

The rumor mill was spinning the last few weeks, talking about a new Canon Cinema camera that was on the way, and sure enough, they were right. A new EOS C200 has just appeared on B&H and I’ve got some interesting specs to share on this new beast, as well as a video from Kai at CVP.

There’s a new recording format, lots of features, and even an attractive price point. I’ll quickly run through what we know.

Body Style

First let’s get the obvious out of the way. The body style is similar to the C300 in terms of how you’ll hold and use this camera, but the button and jack layout have a few minor changes, which include a touch-focus LCD.

Features

This thing is fully loaded with most of the options that professional productions demand, including:

• Super 35mm Sensor
• Dual DIGIC DV6 Processing
• Touch Screen LCD
• ND Filters with 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 stop
• Dual Pixel Autofocus With Face Tracking
• Cfast and SD Card Slots
• XLR Inputs
• 120 fps Continuous at 1920x1080
• Cache and Relay Recording on SD Cards
• Wi-Fi Connectivity

Recording Formats

Internal 4K raw, captured to Cfast cards, is made possible using a new Cinema Raw Light format. This is what the press release had to say about this format and its compatibility with your favorite NLEs:

Canon has worked with several partners to ensure Cinema Raw Light is integrated with various software programs. As a result, editing and grading of the Cinema Raw Light video format will be supported in DaVinci Resolve of Blackmagic Design. Editing will be possible in Media Composer from Avid Technology, using Canon Raw Plugin for Avid Media Access. This format can also be processed using a Canon application, Cinema Raw Development.

Support for Cinema Raw Light is also scheduled for EDIUS Pro, Grass Valley’s editing software, during 2017. Additionally, a future version of Final Cut Pro X from Apple Inc. will support Canon’s Cinema Raw Light, using Canon Raw Plugin for Final Cut Pro X.

Note the absence of Adobe Premiere from the above.

As you might expect, Cinema Raw Light is going to be a somewhat compressed format, but you’ll still need plenty of cards and hard drives as with a 128 GB Cfast card, you can expect to record only about 15 minutes of footage.

If you don’t need raw, the C200 can capture 4K UHD at 150 Mbps. HD is also available at 35 Mbps. These bit rates aren’t the greatest when you consider other options currently on the market, so factor that into your research is considering a purchase. Down the road, there may be a firmware upgrade to bring the XF-AVC codec to this camera, as suggested by the press release, but likely won’t be until 2018.

Dynamic Range

The C200 will offer about 13-14 stops of DR when using Clog3 and 15 stops are available when recording raw.

Price

The camera is listed at $7,500 at B&H, with preorders starting June 5th.

What’s interesting to think about is where this camera fits in the market. I see it as obvious competition to the Blackmagic cameras, with internal raw and a price point of under $10,000, but without needing a bunch of expensive batteries and accessories to get recording. The C300 Mark II is still a great camera but currently listed for $12,000 and lacking some of the new features that the C200 has, so might we see another price drop for that camera?