The Canon 1D C review

[Stuart Hooper]

Thanks for putting a thoughtful review into the wild, I feel like this camera has not been as explored in depth online as many others have.

 

I've got to disagree on handling and battery life...I used it on an extremely grueling shoot last Friday after a few days of half assed testing and thing was a joy.  Got heavy in the hand by midnight but other than that...I popped an adhesive z-finder frame on it and just shot...I guess I love the DSLR form factor, so it depends on what your tastes are.  Battery seemed really healthy, and with only two I was able to rotate, never going under half full all day long.

 

I was also amazed at the stills I could pull from the 4K stream, especially at 100 shutter which I cheated up to now and then without affecting my love for the video image.  Still too expensive, not something I can see justifying for either corporate business in Panama or spending the money for cinema applications that could be spent on talent, food, transportation, etc, but I do wish one of these cameras would just fall in my lap, it'd be the only thing I'd shoot on for the next year or so anyways.

[FilmMan]

The 1DC has its weaknesses and takes time to figure out.  It is a lot better than most people realize. 

[ScreensPro]

there's no way a camera like the 5D Mark III needs to cost as much as it does

 

Ridiculous statement.

 

It's one of the best full frame cameras in the world with 100,000s of very happy users.

[Murray]

The 1Dc is no harder to use than any other canon DSLR.. has more useful video modes than pervious models. It's expensive, has some good features and some flaws and like most cameras. It's a DSLR so lacks features of a dedicated video camera. So what! It will be good for some & not others depending how people like to work and budget etc. No ones arm is being twisted to buy any camera.. plenty of good products out there and lots of detailed information to make an informed choice. Negative crusading and emotive terms is not objective advice.

[Germy1979]

People like Canon. Even the haters. Behind every negative remark regarding Canon, is a little love for them. The cameras are rugged and nice as hell. I'd love to have a 1DC because I could take it anywhere for crying out loud. But damn it's $12,000 and it bands for fux sake. Why? Personally, that is my only issue with Canon. You can't pull down a highlight until $25,000. (Sans external $$$$$$.)

[Andrew Reid]

Thanks for putting a thoughtful review into the wild, I feel like this camera has not been as explored in depth online as many others have.

 

I've got to disagree on handling and battery life...I used it on an extremely grueling shoot last Friday after a few days of half assed testing and thing was a joy.  Got heavy in the hand by midnight but other than that...I popped an adhesive z-finder frame on it and just shot...I guess I love the DSLR form factor, so it depends on what your tastes are.  Battery seemed really healthy, and with only two I was able to rotate, never going under half full all day long.

 

I was also amazed at the stills I could pull from the 4K stream, especially at 100 shutter which I cheated up to now and then without affecting my love for the video image.  Still too expensive, not something I can see justifying for either corporate business in Panama or spending the money for cinema applications that could be spent on talent, food, transportation, etc, but I do wish one of these cameras would just fall in my lap, it'd be the only thing I'd shoot on for the next year or so anyways.

 

If one fell in my lap I'd be more willing to put up with the sheer travesty of $12,000 as well.

[Stuart Hooper]

I wouldn't sell it, haha.

[NOC40]

Andrew, great detailed review.I just had a couple of technical points.

You said "4K also gives you the ability to crop in post if shooting 4K and delivering in 1080p but that will further reduce the full frame look of your lenses." How does it reduce the full-frame look? You're just cropping an image. The DoF stays exactly the same.

Second, battery "capacity" isn't measured in mAh, it's mAh times (average) voltage. Are you sure all the batteries you are comparing have the same voltage?

[danto]

I have now shot two high end TVC with the 1D C, I wasnt sure at first but having seen 4k Playback on a 4K monitor I would not shoot anything else, 4k will be everywhere in 3 to 4 years and I dont want to have to ditch my footage like anything that I have on SD now, so shooting 4k at this time is future proofing.

I could have shot on RED, Alexa, but chose the 1D C with Cinema primes, the image is beautiful, and no camera touches its low light ability, it is made to hammer in nails, the BMC still has to prove this to me, I cant afford it to break on a shoot. For the same price as RED I had 2 x 1D C on set, the workflow was easy, you do have to be spot on with exposure.

I agree in the form, it does need a few things to to make it "More Movie" but I feel at this stage its to get the 1D X users into 4K, they know where all the controls are, and when you have a new toy sometimes you just want to pick it up, shoot and know you are doing, familiarity I guess is the thought.

 

For what we shot it was the only camera of choice, I think this camera is not getting the respect it deserves, as well as being 4k it is also one of the worlds best stills cameras.

[HurtinMinorKey]

I have now shot two high end TVC with the 1D C, I wasnt sure at first but having seen 4k Playback on a 4K monitor I would not shoot anything else, 4k will be everywhere in 3 to 4 years and I dont want to have to ditch my footage like anything that I have on SD now, so shooting 4k at this time is future proofing.

 

 

I think you underestimate the time it will take for 4K to be commonplace. We're still waiting for true 1080 to be "everywhere".

[Germy1979]

I think you underestimate the time it will take for 4K to be commonplace. We're still waiting for true 1080 to be "everywhere".

Amen. They are still making cameras with a 720p option.. Lol. When Best Buy throws up a 4k display in the store, i imagine it will be received like a veil has been lifted and people will spontaneously crap their pants when they see it. I personally haven't so I can't knock it. I wonder if it will be the same day-night experience 480p - 1080p was.

[danto]

When you see 4k it is almost beyond the experience of 480p - 1080p, I agree free to air will take time, but where you wills see 4k is the internet. It will only take a company like apple to launch a 4k iMac. TV manufacturers need to sell units after the 3D fail, they will be the ones pushing this.

[Wesley Issac Richardson]

I shot with the 1DC recently and initially I was a little disappointed in the form factor and the menus. I was used to shooting with C300 and for this project we decided to pair the C300 with the 1DC. The main reason we chose it was option  to shoot 4k internally to a flash card.... at the time of the project  the  c500 was available to rent,but the 4k recording device needed to work was not, so this became the  best option for the price point of the project. Phillip Bloom did the world of cinematographers a great service by providing an honest hands on review to know what to prep for when using it.  Specifically in regards to the menu  I guess I wanted more simply because this  Camera is in canons cinema line thus warranting a that expensive (C) on the camera I really wanted a more proper video menu.

 

After using the C300 I hate to say but  user wise until you see the image the camera will just seem inadequate for run and gun,  or some other styles of production. Say all that to say this it's Dslr yes with some great bells and whistles but it's a Dslr none the less.  At the end of the day I just look at from a Director/DP/Producer/Editor/ perspective which is "Is this camera the best to  execute the project, and,does the shoot allow time for rigs, monitors  external sound devices, and expensive flash cards in place of external 4k recorder... if yes than this camera is for you and your project if not shop around.

[Andrew Reid]

The CF cards are certainly cheaper than spending $8k on a 4K recorder for the C500. Well, it's less than that now thanks to the Odyssey 7Q but you get the point.

 

However, the fact remains that the 1D C does its image a huge disservice by offering zero changes over the 1D X for double the price, other than the image itself. Zero. Nothing. Put that image in the C300's body Canon please. Next time they may get it right.

 

And whilst they're at it, please sort out the low end and DSLR video. It is a bloody mess. More video features are being reversed engineered out of the 5D Mark III than Canon's own engineers added in the 3 years between the 5D Mark II and 5D Mark III. They could have 2K raw video, maybe also 3.5K MJPEG 1:1 crop in that camera at the drop of a hat. I have no idea what the hell is stopping them.

[hmcindie]

Andrew, great detailed review.I just had a couple of technical points.

You said "4K also gives you the ability to crop in post if shooting 4K and delivering in 1080p but that will further reduce the full frame look of your lenses." How does it reduce the full-frame look? You're just cropping an image. The DoF stays exactly the same.

 

Andrew is right. Cropping the image is actually the exact same thing as cropping the sensor.

[eco_bach]

Wonder if there would be as much 1DC bashing if it weren't for the price. Yes jello is a huge problem if you shoot 4K, but not so much in S35 mode(less than 5d3 -2 anyways). IMHO the 4K images, even at 8bit are really stunning and unmatched for their cinematic quality. Especially when compared with anything from the BMCC-GH3 (unless you really luv the oversharpened look). Shooting 4K without having to worry about moire, noise using a high quality compressed codec. Yes there ARE shortcomings, many of which I hope Canon will fix soon with firmware updates, but I for one am loving my new purchase!

[kirbyfilms]

Interesting review, but it assumes way too much. For a start, I for one love the DSLR form factor, and the fact that the 1DC is a DSLR is a big selling point for me (admittedly the lack of XLR's will always be an issue, but you get used to it).

Secondly, the image absolutely destroys the C100. I use both cameras regularly, and I would never choose the C100 over the 1DC. From hundreds of hours of use, the only possible reasons to pick the C100 over the 1DC is XLR's and the built in ND's, but they really should not be the limiting factor.

Recording sound separately isn't that big of a deal (once you've got used to it) and built in ND's, while very useful, can easily be replaced by a decent fixed ND, that you deliberately stop up and then down when required (after all, it's not a smooth ND transition anyway).

The things that really make the 1DC shine above the C100 are it's low light capabilities, beautiful cinematic image, great portability, and other income strands - I rent mine out and shoot 4K stock footage, which either the C100 can't do, or has little market for.

Yes, the 1DC is expensive, but I for one don't mind that. There are too many "amateurs" with a bit of spare cash picking up 5diii's and pretending to be professionals. If the price of the 1DC, and the ability to increase value in stock and rental sales, let alone increased job rates, helps differentiate you from everyone else, then it's worth the extra money. But, one things for sure, after using the 5diii, C100 and the 1DC for a few months now, I would  choose the 1DC any day of the week.

[Europeen]

"For Canon to offer such a tantalisingly beautiful 4K image in such an ill suited form factor at $12,000 is an avoidable situation because they could easily have put this sensor and 4K image in a C100 form factor for $6000 and owned the professional video world like they do stills with the 1D X. Sadly a huge added value with minimal overheads won the day."

 

I see where you are coming from.

 

However, we are on week 7 of an 8 week feature film shoot, during which we have gotten away with things using the 1DC that never would have been permissible with another cinema camera, including C100-500 range. The form factor of this model means we can basically shoot without permits - and as your article makes clear, when one says "shoot" with the 1DC one genuinely means shoot, in a movie camera sense.

 

You talk about the menus and how some things are buried and not custom designed for movie shooting and again I see where you are coming from - but there are some custom buttons. These can be used to immediately switch into a mode you arranged yourself earlier. Haven't done that yet, admittedly, so every time we shoot I first clear all camera settings and spend a few minutes selecting my preferences.

 

We are shooting the entire film in Portrait, as Canon Log didn't seem enough of a leap and Portrait in 4K has a great look that I don't expect to grade much at all: it's a lot more like shooting on film where you try to work 'in camera' to a greater degree than you did with digital video in its infancy...

 

We're using two 128GB CompactFlash Memory Card Professional 1000x UDMAs which I think are 140 speed or thereabouts and two batteries and have never run out of memory or power. If one is shooting cinema in 4K on this camera, you need two of each really, and then I don't see problems. To be honest, I am more amazed the camera can do what it does without noisy fans etc. You mentioned systems struggling with footage but using a Retina Macbook Pro and Final Cut we find the 1DC's 4K footage always plays smoothly and natively, provided the files are on the Macbook itself (when they play from an external drive, it's slow mo) so while I don't want this paragraph to seem glib, my point is that with good equivalent equipment, the progressive 1DC does not cause a problem. Indeed, one would expect it to need equally advanced gear to operate at this resolution 24 times a second.

 

The point I really agree with you on, though, is the crop thing. I am not technical, so don't really understand this issue. But what I would have preferred and expected frankly is them using the entire frame and down-converting that to 4K, not simply dumping anything that falls outside 4K. I have heard that doing it the way I suggest can create issues and this may have been why that was avoided. But frankly I don't accept that. They should have used the entire sensor and poured all of it into the final 4K image. One of the reasons we chose this camera (and avoided the small sensors of the Black Magic 2.5K camera and the ridiculous JVC 4K model) was the large sensor. This is an area where the whole 'twelve grand for this?!' argument does actually have some merit in my view.

 

The rushes are stunning, this rivals 35mm film and has its own look.

 

We can shoot a movie digitally and nobody really notices us!

[FilmMan]

@Europeen

The rushes are stunning, this rivals 35mm film and has its own look.

 

 

I have found this too. The 1DC can give an amazing image.