Support accessories and systems from Wooden Camera have been very popular with our clients, so it was great to be able to visit their booth at NAB and take a look at some new items. Ryan Schorman was kind enough to walk me through some of the Quick Base, Quick Cage and Quick Riser options for various cameras, which should be available later this month. Make sure to watch the video above to learn more about this innovative system.
Canon has just announced a new firmware update for the C100, C300 and C500 cameras. The new firmware for the EOS C300 adds Push Auto Iris and One-Shot Autofocus (AF), both of which were much requested by C300 owners. The C300 firmware also allows for a 1440×1080 pixel recording mode at 35Mbps. This spec is widely used in digital television broadcasting and allows the camera greater versatility in broadcast settings. Also new in the firmware is the ability to move the magnified area during Magnified Focus Assist, which will be extremely useful in judging focus for subjects that are outside the center of the frame.
Canon recently announced their new 1.0.8.1.00 firmware for the C300, which features the following updates:
- Some EF lenses can now be controlled more reliably when mounted on the camera
- Corrections to the Spanish and German text in the View Assist function
- The color fringing seen when a subject is of high contrast has been corrected
You can download firmware 1.0.8.1.00 for the C300 and the C300 PL directly from Canon’s support site. Watch my video above to see the straight forward method for updating your camera. If you’re interested in learning even more about the Canon C300, our full-day Canon C300 & C500 Workshop is coming up in NY at the end of the month!
Canon has released their very easy to use Cinema RAW Development software for Mac OS Lion and Mountain Lion, which allows you to ingest, play, and export Canon RAW files. The user interface is very intuitive; just click on a clip and it immediately shows up in the Preview window. You can play it straight, scrub, go through it frame by frame, and set in and out points. The Preview window also includes some basic look controls, such as viewing gammas, sharpness, white balance, and brightness controls. There is also the ability to view frame and clip information. You can also use the software to play your footage out to an external monitor using an expansion card with SDI output.
When you’re ready to export your footage, simply add it to your export queue and choose the codecs you’d like to transcode to. Canon gives you the options of outputting 10-bit or 16-bit DPX as well as ProRes 4444. You can also export a 720×480 or 1920×1080 proxy version at the same time in either codec, and apply a Rec709, Canon Log, or Wide Dynamic Range gamma to the footage.
Canon has produced a great little program to handle their RAW footage that makes the idea of “RAW” much less scary and you can download it directly from the Canon Professional website.
2012 was a very busy year for us here at AbelCine, and we are excited to make 2013 even better. Here is a list of our top blogs for the year. Hitting the top of the list are our scene file blogs, workflow blogs and some new product announcements. We’ll keep this type of content flowing if you keep stopping by.
…continue reading Top 10 AbelCine Blog Posts of 2012
Canon launched its Cinema EOS product line last year with the C300; since then, it has expanded to include the EOS-1DC, C100, and C500. Each camera fills a different need and production environment, from B-cameras to documentaries to feature films. To help you get a better idea of each camera’s features and see how they compare to each other, we’ve put together this Cinema EOS Camera Lineup chart. We’ve included information on sensor size, internal codecs, recording capabilities and more. You can click on the image below to see a larger version, or you can download a pdf version.
…continue reading Canon Cinema EOS Lens & Camera Charts
Recently I have been getting a number of questions about Log mode in the Canon C300, which is great because that means that many of us are using this mode. However, there are some really important things to know before jumping in. Canon has recently published a white paper on Canon Log that is full of great info. It’s not exactly light reading, however, so I’ll try to outline some of the important information about Canon’s Log curve in this blog.
The most important thing to know about Canon Log is where your middle gray level should fall. The all-important 18% reflectance middle gray level is our reference when using a light meter or when using a waveform. Generally in standard video modes, the middle gray level would land around 50% on a waveform scale, but with Canon Log (like other Log curves) this middle gray level is intended to fall much lower. In the graphic below, you’ll see a mapping of Canon Log on a Video Percentage (waveform) vs Reflection Percentage graph.
…continue reading Working With Canon Log
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