Canon USA Announces Cinema EOS C300 and EOS C300 PL Cameras
Today Canon announced their “historical” Cinema EOS series cameras.
Specifications
8.3mp 2160×3840 Super-35 CMOS sensor (4K resolution)
DIGIC DVIII Processor
Canon XF Codec
Dual Compact Flash Slots
Exposure and focus are both manual only
Uses existing BP-955 and BP-975 batteries
Sold as a system, including LCD monitor / XLR audio unit, side grip, and top handle.
Availability: Jan. 2012; Price: appx. $16,000 USD
New Lenses (PL & EF Versions)
Canon Zoom Lens CN-E14.5-60mm T2.6 L S
Canon Zoom Lens CN-E14.5-60mm T2.6 L SP
Canon Zoom Lens CN-E30-300mm T2.95-3.7 L S
Canon Zoom Lens CN-E30-300mm T2.95-3.7 L SP
Three New Primes for EF Mount Only
Canon Prime Lens CTZ-029 (24mm)
Canon Prime Lens CTZ-030 (50mm)
Canon Prime Lens CTZ-031 (85mm)
New Super35 Sensor (From DVIinfo)
The 8.3 megapixel Super-35 sensor in the C300 is a new CMOS design by Canon. It is not borrowed or re-engineered from the still photography side of the company; instead it has been created “from the ground up” and dedicated specifically to digital cinema applications. The sensor has a resolution of 2,160 pixels tall by 3,840 pixels wide, which qualifies as native 4K. Canon claims that rolling shutter skew is greatly reduced in this sensor relative to current HD-DSLR camera models. Also, each frame can be scanned by the Digic DV III processor more quickly compared to an HD-DSLR, such as the 21 megapixel CMOS sensor in the Canon EOS 5D Mk. II, which has 2.5 times as many pixels as the C300.
Canon says that their Digic DV III processor reads this new sensor differently; it does not use the line-skipping method found in high-res HD-DSLR sensors. Instead, every four pixels (two green, one red, and one blue) are sampled for each final output pixel. In other words, color is assembled the same way as a traditional three-chip sensor block… two megapixels of red, two megapixels of blue and four megapixels of green (twice as much green as red or blue, since green carries the luminance info). Each primary color sampling off of the sensor is native 1920×1080, each color value alone is equal to the final output resolution. Canon claims that the processed signal has 1,000 lines of TV resolution, and the moire, diagonal line stair-stepping and other artifacts are greatly reduced in this chip compared to HD-DSLR cameras.
The benefits of using a large Super-35 sized sensor are high resolution output, high image sensitivity in low-light shooting situations and shallow depth of field for fine focus control.