Cameragod Checks out the C300

[b-roll]

Everyone loves playing with new “toys.” New Zealand based “Cameragod,” Stephen Press took a fully outfitted Canon C300 for a spin. The apparatus looks wild – hopefully we can get his opinions on it soon.

[2 Hungry Dogs]

Seems like a lot of extra stuff just to make the thing functional.

[cameragod]

Yes and no.There is actually less there than you would think. Zacuto viewfinder, some of a Stinger rig with some Red Rock handles thrown in. I added a extension cord for the headphone output so I wasn't fumbling with the far side of the camera every time I wanted to plug my headphones in. Plus a Sennheiser G3 radio mic.
I have to say the more I use it the more impressed I am with it.
Daily turn News too high end production, with the right lens it can do anything and do it stunningly.
Of course its not for everyone, you need to know what you are doing and I like that about it as well.

[Latvos]

Originally Posted by 2 Hungry Dogs

Seems like a lot of extra stuff just to make the thing functional.

I work with CG using this rig.

This camera is all set up ready to go in its case, and stays that way until we have to fly with it.

Our idea was to make it as simple as we could for our typical one man band style of shooting.

We needed a camera that would handle shooting interviews in often tight spaces with little light. We also needed 4:2:2 and 50mbs straight onto camera cards.

We started to see a lot of operators around here using DSLR cameras, which we found unworkable with no timecode, or decent audio inputs, just for a start. We didn't want to lose market share because of a lack of keeping up with this trend, so we decided to go the C300 way.

We would have loved to have a full frame sensor camera in a Betacam body, but they aren't building them.

Do we like it?

Yes I love the images we are getting, often in the worst lighting conditions. This camera does low light exceptionally well. The form factor took me a day or two to used to (for me it was on a "softer" job without time pressure).

We are shooting in a more structured and cinematic way where we can. But we can still shoot run and gun actuality the same as before.

More importantly do our clients like it? No... they love it. The pictures particularly in low light, or controlled shallow depth of field sequences are amazing.

[cameragod]

Ivars makes a good point in that once we mounted the camera on the rig it stays there. I literally grab the camera out of the bag in the back of the car, drop down the handles as it powers up and I'm good to go.

[Necktie Boy]

Very nice rig, and using it for news Wow!

Is the invest worth it for daily news? I know that your "steadycam" receives plenty of use.

[cameragod]

Daily news is not the market we are after but its a good place to test ourselves and the camera to see if we have it right. Also it let us show clients what it looked like.

[Latvos]

Originally Posted by Necktie Boy

Very nice rig, and using it for news Wow!

Is the invest worth it for daily news? I know that your "steadycam" receives plenty of use.

Like Stephen said it was not bought as a news camera, in fact I don't think its been used for straight news, more colour pieces in the longer story form.

But it can work as news camera. The investment has been worth it so far, there has been a lot of interest in our rig from clients and fellow freelancers alike. I guess in a way its one of our cheapest rigs all up. My PDW530 cost much more even counting the EVF and Zacuto parts on the C300.

Cameras are getting less expensive, but also becoming modular in the process. Its a sink or swim world, we wanted to stay at the leading edge and embrace the changes.

[Lensmith]

Great feedback and insight from people who actually took money out of their pocket to buy the equipment, then use it for clients.

I'm sure the low light capabilities alone set this rig apart from others toting a simple DSLR/Rube Goldberg rig.

[satop]

Originally Posted by Latvos

We would have loved to have a full frame sensor camera in a Betacam body, but they aren't building them.

why? why aren't they building them? I would love it if the still camera manufacturers would do this! Cannon(and other companies) has a video and a still department. why not combine these two?

[Latvos]

Originally Posted by Lensmith

Great feedback and insight from people who actually took money out of their pocket to buy the equipment, then use it for clients.

I'm sure the low light capabilities alone set this rig apart from others toting a simple DSLR/Rube Goldberg rig.

Thanks for the feedback Lensmith. Believe me it wasn't an easy decision to buy this camera, it took many months of cogitating before pressing the buy button.

I have always been interested in how to serve our clients needs first and foremost, and we have to make a profit doing so. Fortunately for us our clients have all responded very favourably to our new acquisition, and have got genuinely excited in a fanboy kind of way.

In the end what swayed it to the C300 for me was the beautiful clean low light images, shallow DOF capability and ability to record a broadcast acceptable codec without an off-board recorder. I have enough data wrangling to do as it is without adding another layer of complication to this.

But, there are some things that drive me crazy:

- too many steps for white balancing.
- two frames, (I would like it to be one frame) minimum record rate in S&Q (PAL) also known as interval record
- more than anything I wish it came in a Betacam style body. Why the major companies are allergic to this proven design is anyones guess.

Its not the perfect camera, but its great for us right now.

[Necktie Boy]

Thanks for sharing!

[cp16]

thanks. good info

[Ruff]

I reckon that the Sony F3 will be that shoulder mounted full frame camera.

Especially with the Fujinon 19-90

I will pick one up for doco and tv work.

C300 looks great, and small, and the images excellent. But no overcranking and the price made me cancel my pre-order.

[cameragod]

Maybe it will Ben but right now the cannon is out making money and we have clients cueing up to use it.

[Latvos]

Originally Posted by Ruff

I reckon that the Sony F3 will be that shoulder mounted full frame camera.

Especially with the Fujinon 19-90

I will pick one up for doco and tv work.

C300 looks great, and small, and the images excellent. But no overcranking and the price made me cancel my pre-order.

The F3 is a fine camera but you still need to build a rig for it. Its not shoulder mounted out of the box. No advantage there sorry.

Overcranking is not something we use very often, so no issue there, and the price when we were buying was about the same between the F3 and C300.

But the real clincher was the broadcast spec straight out of the camera. I hate how many cameras are recording at 4:2:0 35mps, then you must add a field recorder to make it pass muster.

[Ruff]

Sorry - typo... meant to say F5. The new yet to be released Sony F5.

(I hate working with the current F3, such a pain to put all the bits on).

Totally agree on everything else.

Make money with a camera today. Thats what it is there for.

C300 will be the camera of choice for a while yet.

I overcrank a lot, but I am in a different market to you guys.

[Latvos]

Thanks Ben, I wondered if you meant F5, yes that does look interesting. But I'm guessing its a wee way off before anyones actually using one. In the meantime we are using our C300 on a daily basis.