It has been a very exciting week. 2 big camera announcements within a few days from Canon and Panasonic. Let’s talk about the Pro’s and Con’s for the Canon C200.
The Canon C200 – RAW for under 10.000$
The C200 seems to be Canon’s first serious attempt to play along in the sub 10.000$ 4K resolution cine camera market. With the Blackmagic Ursa Mini Pro and Sony’s very successful FS5 and now the new kid on the block, Panasonic’s EVA1 – this segment is really heating up.
The C200 is bringing it’s internal 4K Cinema RAW light and Canon’s own Dual Pixel Autofocus to the table. 2 very serious arguments for a sub 10.000$ camera. Although internal RAW is making the indie filmmakers heart race at first, question is how practical it is to pursue a RAW workflow as a 1-man-band.Plus you’ll need Cfast cards, which are significantly more expensive than SD Cards. Another reasons why you’d probably think twice if you want to embrace the RAW workflow or not.
Some people would consider the weak hd codec a dealbreaker for documentaries or TV production
Waiting for the Firmware Update already
The 35Mbit HD 8-bit 4:2:0 Codec is also very weak. Some people would consider the weak hd codec a dealbreaker for documentaries or TV production. When even a 2000$ GH5 is recording 400Mbit at 10-bit 4:2:2 internally. It should be mentioned though, that Canon already announced that it will deliver a firmware upgrade to close this gap. But not before 2018.
So what you’ll love about the C200 is having internal RAW capabilities at the palm of your hand in this price range.And what you’ll quickly hate is that surprisingly weak HD codec…again…in this price range.
Conclusion
So in conclusion, the Canon C200 looks like a great concept at first. But internal 4K raw and the according workflow would be an overkill for a run&gun shooter. And for broadcast HD with 35Mbps just won’t work. So to me it looks like Canon tried to check a huge box here with 4k raw internal for under 10k. Unfortunately they put it into a camera that has been concepted for run&gun shooting, which doesn’t really go together.
What do you think about the Canon C200? Would you swap 4K raw internal for a decent HD and 4K Bitrate?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0dCx-UbDyI
