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Canon 4k 1DC


Kevin Horn

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Shane Hurlbut, ASC has a great review of Canon's new 4k DSLR, along with the first short film ever shot on it.

 

Check it out here.

 

Thoughts? I thought it looked great most of the way through. Where I thought it lacked was the 8-bit color depth. I still can't believe Canon would step up to 4k but is still in 8-bit. I also thought the 60p stuff looked pretty awful but I'm pretty sure Hurlbut kept it to a low shutter speed to compensate for light. Definitely a step up from the C300 and 5Dmkiii but I don't see this giving RED or Arri a run for their money.

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omg she was dead the whole time? no wai! didn't see that coming!

 

 

but, yeah, yawn.

 

I've seen some great stuff coming out of the FS100 even, so this doesn't impress me. It looks on par with everything else that's coming out, especially at the price range they're giving it.

 

And I'm still confused as to why it's an SLR form factor.

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The rolling shutter is pretty noticeable just from the flourescents. I wonder if that would cause similar issues with HMIs. It kind of looks like when I try to take a still with my iphone under HMI lighting.

 

Here's a still where it's particularly obvious.

 

I find Shane's boundless enthusiasm tends to rub me the wrong way. He comes across as a Canon shill.

 

Take this quote: "When you harness 4K into the small footprint of a 1D, give it the processing power to record to little CF cards with no external recording devices needed, then deliver an image that crushes the F65, Epic, Alexa in one fell swoop."

 

I find a claim like that rather hard to accept, but maybe I'm just too cynical.

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No Matt; I think you speak for a vast, oft silent, majority. Honestly, I don't see the point of 4K in this fashion. It just makes so little sense. I suppose as a "Crash cam?" maybe, or for lightweight 3d work, or something... but in the end, it seems.... well... ok; I guess.

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His enthusiasm for the company feels so forced. I'm sure Canon pays him well to promote this stuff because as a guy who came from the world of film, why would he care so much about these cameras? He does have nice things to say about becoming more efficient when shooting with these packages but that seems to be the only advantage. The 1DC seems like 4k for the sake of 4k. They rushed a camera out before it was fully developed because they were afraid of falling behind to the competition.

 

If anyone has seen Shane's short "The Last 3 Minutes" I think that was his best work with the Canon DSLRs. That was on the 5Dmkii+Canon L series lenses and to me it looked better than this. The 1DC still feels really video-y.

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I don't even know what 4k means to Canon - the 5D 2 and 3 barely resolve 700 lines when it's described as 1080. Perhaps that means that the new 4k model will finally resolve 1080 sharply. That would certainly make it a better option for a cheap C-cam to rig in places where a fully dressed red or alexa wouldn't fit.

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Well 8 bit color depth is good enough for TV production, i think thats where they aimed at the first place, since you only have 24fps with 4K. Then in the scene where the actors are running in the street, shot on 1080p 60fps, so 4K wasn't there, which means the final project was brought down or was meant to be 1080p in the first place.

Once again the remarkable performance of this camera is the sensitivity, lots of night scenes with natural ambient light around, no noticeable noise in the footage, just like the C300 / 5D MarkIII...

 

Still a DSLR is a DSLR, they were designed to take photography, and as for the price, I dont think $15,000 is the right one, since the 1Dx is less than the half of it: $6,800, basically you are buying a 1Dx with 4K recording on it.

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I don't see the point of 4K right now and frankly I don't buy the idea of "shoot now in 4K because 2 years from now you'll want to go back to that material and re-release it". Sure, maybe I would, but I don't see Rodriguez re-shooting Sin City from scratch just because he shot the first one on F900.

 

But sooner or later, 4K will be the standard (here in Italy we're still shooting TV series on S16mm and there's been an increase theatrical features shot digitally due to the introduction of Alexa), I just don't get why people would spend so much money on tools that will be necessary in the future. Last time I checked, we live in the present, and the present is not 4K (some would say it's not even 100% 2K).

 

What I get even less, is packing a sensor with a resolution we don't need (at the moment) in a body that wasn't designed for shooting motion pictures. Ok, so Canon had an incredible luck with the 5D mark II, something they openly admit they weren't expecting, and after introducing a camera that somehow looks and handles pretty much like a "real camera" (the C300) they pull another DSLR-for-video out of the hat? For 15.000$? And people should buy just because it's got 4K, pretending not to see the inherent limitations that come with that design? The images might look good, even great, but do people actually enjoy buying or renting that TON of accessories to make a DSLR barely usable in a real world/set scenario?

 

(and even if I like Hurlbut's work and his enthusiasm for filmmaking and cinematography in general - I really do - I can't help but think that comparing a DSLR to a F65 or an Alexa or an Epic is easier when you have a business that relies on selling accessories for that kind of camera...then again, I haven't put my hands on the 1DC, he has and did a good job with it, so my opinion is pretty much irrelevant)

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I don't see the point of 4K right now

 

I do. I love it. Let all the people with money and the ones who have been shooting for a while use it and work out the kinks haha

 

Someone I was talking to who wanted to direct a couple of features was talking about shooting in 4K and I mentioned a couple movies that were done in 1080 and were perfectly fine. Especially since he was new and still building up a portfolio. 4K seemed like an unnecessary expense right now.

I could see if you had a specific shot lined up where you wanted the space for reframing or a shot stabilizer, but I'm more interested in other features in cameras like color space, range, and frame rate, but even that one's not a big deal. I guess ease of use too. That SLR form factor is just not fun to shoot with unless you have a decent rig.

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  • 3 weeks later...

(...)

 

Ok, so Canon had an incredible luck with the 5D mark II, something they openly admit they weren't expecting, and after introducing a camera that somehow looks and handles pretty much like a "real camera" (the C300) they pull another DSLR-for-video out of the hat? For 15.000$? And people should buy just because it's got 4K, pretending not to see the inherent limitations that come with that design? The images might look good, even great, but do people actually enjoy buying or renting that TON of accessories to make a DSLR barely usable in a real world/set scenario?

 

(and even if I like Hurlbut's work and his enthusiasm for filmmaking and cinematography in general - I really do - I can't help but think that comparing a DSLR to a F65 or an Alexa or an Epic is easier when you have a business that relies on selling accessories for that kind of camera...then again, I haven't put my hands on the 1DC, he has and did a good job with it, so my opinion is pretty much irrelevant)

 

Sure, there's business behind. I've never seen the 'luck factor' to play any part in this show, have any of you?

 

Canon has now a dedicated division operating in hollywood; RED is already feeling the pressure under people like Laurence Thorpe or the support of names such as Martin Scorsese (who had shot on Alexa as we all know), among their market sweet spot (the Lake Forest company has been trying to create even in pages of these same boards : )

 

And everything has began when Canon decided to merge along late 2008 their professional photography department with the video divison, until then especially targeted to wedding video makers. And transferred their own staff with years of business experience to the new 'sales lab' where came the forthcoming cinema division. Where they helped to develop the DSLR concept, as for instance the firmware upgrade is a fine example.

 

Yes, they say they weren't expecting the 5DII sales (launched in 2008 ;-) in hands of moviemakers, they say. This helps to make the legend too. To each their own marketing ; ) But can we call it luck? Only if between commas...

 

an-epic-begins-with-m.jpg

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(...) they pull another DSLR-for-video out of the hat? For 15.000$? (...)

 

It looks like they only wanted to 'listen' the market once as same as happened with the C300 for example also announced for US $20,000 and going in the street for $15,999... the 4K C-DSLR price is dropping for much less:

 

http://www.techrific.com.au/canon-eos-1d-c-digital-slr-camera-body-only-1dc-free-gift-12mth-local-warranty-p-2956.html

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