Canon announces new handheld studio quality camcorder EOS C300
Canon’s newest camera, the EOS C300, features a single Super-35mm-equivalent sensor able to deliver full bandwidth individual read, green and blue video components without the need for any debayering algorithms. The EOS C300 will be avaiable in two modles: One with an EF lens mount thay is compatible with Canon's EF lens system, and one with a PL lens mount for use with cinema-standard PL lenses.
The brand new CMOS sensor offers an active image size of 24.4 x 13.5mm and an effective pixel count of nearly 8.29 megapixels. The camera uses MPEG-2 compression to record video at 50Mbps, 35Mbps or 25Mbps bitrate, and it supports both NTSC and PAL video signals. At a 1920 x 1080 resolution, the C300 offers frame rates of 60i, 30p, and 24p recording, as we 25p and 50i frame rates. The camera does not offer 1080/60p recoring, but a 60p frame rate is avaialble with 1280 x 720 recording. Video is recorded to Compact Flash memory cards, and the camera is outfitted with two card slots.
To accommodate different shooting styles, the viewfinder tilts up to 60 degrees, the 4-inch LCD monitor/control panel rotates 270 degrees, it's got Start/Stop buttons in four different locations and large dials are positioned in two places to allow operation from the side. It features a removable handgrip that's completely rotatable in 15-degree increments. And an onboard waveform monitor and vectorscope eliminates the need for external exposure and color analyzers.
The camera includes all the video connectivity options you’d expect from a professional camcorder. These include an HD-SDI output, Genlock and Timecode terminals, audio ports with Linear PCM recording, a headphone jack, wired remote terminal, DC-input, and HDMI output (as well as a few others).
The Canon EOS C300 (EF mount) is scheduled for release in late January 2012, while the PL mount version (Canon EOS C300 PL) should be available in late March 2010. Both versions of the EOS C300 have an estimated list price of $20,000.
