C70 - first impressions

[Oliver Daniel]

20 hours ago, EphraimP said:

I'm really looking forward to seeing your footage with the C70 and hearing more about how it handles and compares/contrasts the A7SIII. I'd love to know if it would run well on an EasyRig style setup, paired with a 5-inch monitor for fast moving doc-style work. I'm sure it works well on a gimbal, but I personally found I prefer the hand-held look and style of shooting. I'm looking to add stability and all-day back comfort for the style and it seems like backpack-crane stabilizer style is the way to go.

I have a music video to show soon in the A7SIII, and some brand work on C70. 

I can tell you now, the C70 is a much better form factor to shoot with, but, the A7SIII is a monster. That camera is insane. 

[BenEricson]

29 minutes ago, Oliver Daniel said:

On my ProGrades, you can shoot 4k 120, BUT, the camera will tell you it can’t. It works. BUT, sometimes the card will stop a few secs after recording and day the buffer is full. Not much though. 

I would just go V90 using Prograde. Best SE cards I’ve ever used. 3 out of my 4 Angelbird cards are faulty. 

Sale on BH right now. 187 a piece.

[EphraimP]

31 minutes ago, Oliver Daniel said:

I have a music video to show soon in the A7SIII, and some brand work on C70. 

I can tell you now, the C70 is a much better form factor to shoot with, but, the A7SIII is a monster. That camera is insane. 

What makes the C70 form factor better, other than the internal VND, mimi xlrs and more buttons, if anything?

[MurtlandPhoto]

11 minutes ago, EphraimP said:

What makes the C70 form factor better, other than the internal VND, mimi xlrs and more buttons, if anything?

Ummm.. I think you just named the reasons.

[EphraimP]

2 minutes ago, MurtlandPhoto said:

Ummm.. I think you just named the reasons.

Yeah, probably. Just checking to see if there was anything else. 

I'd love to know how the C70's DIS and autofocus stack up, not that I expect autofocus to be quite that of the mirrorless.

[MurtlandPhoto]

1 hour ago, EphraimP said:

Yeah, probably. Just checking to see if there was anything else. 

I'd love to know how the C70's DIS and autofocus stack up, not that I expect autofocus to be quite that of the mirrorless.

I'd add better battery life for the C70 if you consider that as part of form factor

[BenEricson]

18 minutes ago, MurtlandPhoto said:

I'd add better battery life for the C70 if you consider that as part of form factor

I heard something like 7 hours off a BP-60? Insane.

[Gregormannschaft]

15 hours ago, Oliver Daniel said:

I have a music video to show soon in the A7SIII, and some brand work on C70. 

I can tell you now, the C70 is a much better form factor to shoot with, but, the A7SIII is a monster. That camera is insane. 

I'll be filming with the C70 later this week as a replacement cam for the C200 in RAWLite – any tips at all? I'm familiar with the C line of cameras and exposing CLOG 3 so I don't expect many issues there unless this new sensor has dramatically changed anything.

[Oliver Daniel]

8 hours ago, Gregormannschaft said:

I'll be filming with the C70 later this week as a replacement cam for the C200 in RAWLite – any tips at all? I'm familiar with the C line of cameras and exposing CLOG 3 so I don't expect many issues there unless this new sensor has dramatically changed anything.

Use V90 cards. Get used to the joystick as it’s a stubborn little bugger. Other than that, it’s very easy to shoot with. 

[aaa123jc]

The C70 looks very interesting. I think Canon finds a good balance between cinema camera and DSLR styled form factor. And I'm happy to hear it performs well. I guess I have to come up with a reason to rent it and try it out! 😉

[zerocool22]

14 hours ago, aaa123jc said:

The C70 looks very interesting. I think Canon finds a good balance between cinema camera and DSLR styled form factor. And I'm happy to hear it performs well. I guess I have to come up with a reason to rent it and try it out! 😉

I just wished it took stills as well( with flash hotshoe)

[EphraimP]

On 11/23/2020 at 11:27 AM, Oliver Daniel said:

I have a music video to show soon in the A7SIII, and some brand work on C70. 

I can tell you now, the C70 is a much better form factor to shoot with, but, the A7SIII is a monster. That camera is insane. 

So if you had a budget of around $6K for a new body and some EF lenses lying around, say an 17-40 F4L and 70-200 F2,8L plus a 50mm prime, which of the two would you get? Mainly for doc work, with the occasional corporate or event shoot and the odd multi-cam livestream. You wouldn't need it for any photo capacity; you already have a few mirrorless bodies, say Fuji XT series? And, speaking of that, does it seem like one or the other will cut better with footage from other manufactures?

[Video Hummus]

10 hours ago, EphraimP said:

So if you had a budget of around $6K for a new body and some EF lenses lying around, say an 17-40 F4L and 70-200 F2,8L plus a 50mm prime, which of the two would you get? Mainly for doc work, with the occasional corporate or event shoot and the odd multi-cam livestream. You wouldn't need it for any photo capacity; you already have a few mirrorless bodies, say Fuji XT series? And, speaking of that, does it seem like one or the other will cut better with footage from other manufactures?

C70 with speedbooster would be my choice based on your uses if you have EF glass. C70 is just a much more integrated package than the A7SIII imho.

I wonder how long we will have to wait for DGO in a FF camera from Canon that won’t be $16K. I much prefer the simplicity of DGO then the dual gain switching that Sony does. The lowlight party trick is nice but rarely see a use for it. Would rather have a clean image all the time with a linear ISO range. 

[Gregormannschaft]

Been using the C70 the past few days and have to admit I wasn’t the biggest fan at first. It felt a little unwieldy to use, I’d have loved to have been able to swivel the handle a little as the joystick is in a tricky spot to reach sometimes. The dials are also a little oddly placed. Second day filming and it feels a lot more natural after I started to think of it more as a small cinema camera rather than a big mirrorless or DSLR. As always, love the internal NDs, like having false color and so many customizable buttons. The DPAF seemed snappier than the C200 but still not perfect and not something I would fully trust for some shots. 

Footage seems clean, not overly sharp but I haven’t really had time to play around with it properly yet. I’m still not entirely sure the price is justified, it seems a little high in Europe especially, but once it drops a little with cameras appearing on the used market I think it will be a lot more attractive. The BMPCC4K, and even the LUMIX S1, have really screwed with how I perceive what a camera is worth these days. There’s so much value to be had at lower price points, it’s really becoming more about convenience features and ergonomics.

[Oliver Daniel]

I’ll let you guys see this. I had the chance to try out the C70 and A7SIII side by side on a very simple shoot. 

Using 4k100fps and 4k50fps. 

I have more interesting projects to show soon! 

 

[EphraimP]

5 hours ago, Video Hummus said:

C70 with speedbooster would be my choice based on your uses if you have EF glass. C70 is just a much more integrated package than the A7SIII imho.

I wonder how long we will have to wait for DGO in a FF camera from Canon that won’t be $16K. I much prefer the simplicity of DGO then the dual gain switching that Sony does. The lowlight party trick is nice but rarely see a use for it. Would rather have a clean image all the time with a linear ISO range. 

I'm heavily leaning towards the C70 for sure as a former Canon shooter who really wants built-in ND and would love XLRs in my next camera body, though I have both DXA Micro pre amp and a MixPre 3. But considering that the C70 has more of a hybrid body style than a regular C-series body, which I'd prefer, and the lower-priced Sony would leave some room in the budget for lenses, it's at least worth asking someone who has them both. I'm also considering that my L-series zooms are about 14 years old and really aren't the best for video, in terms of lacking image stabilization and auto focus that tends to hunt a bit. If I get the C70, it will probably make sense to get the 24-70 F4 L IS USM as the main lens that lives on the body with the speedbooster for interviews and run and gunning.

[currensheldon]

Totally agree on the 24-70mm f4 IS with the speedboosteer. It's a newer lens, has stabilization, becomes a 24-70mm f2.8 with the speedbooster, is light and small. will be a graet combo. Combine that with the 35mm f2 IS and the 85mm f1.4 IS and you have a pretty amazing three lens setup for everything. 

[ntblowz]

I would thought the 24-105 will be better? 70mm is a bit short for me.

[EphraimP]

13 hours ago, ntblowz said:

I would thought the 24-105 will be better? 70mm is a bit short for me.

Not a problem if you already have a 70-200 F2.8, which I do. Besides, the 24-70 is supposed to have better IQ than the 24-105. Plus, the 24-70 has that little sneaky macro feature, which pushes the length out to 80mm if I'm correct. Almost never break out my 180 mm L-series macro. That's a really specialized outdoor photo macro that's a bit of a struggle to use for video, I'm sure have a macro feature on the autofocus lens that will live on the camera will come in handy for detail shots.

Honestly, while I'm not as crazy for wide angle shots as some videographer/cinematographers, I don't go out to the tele end as much as I did as a photographer. Back in my journalism days, my 70-200 was my baby. I loved that lens for portraiture and only used a wide zoom to get maybe a single establishing shot per photo essay. While video/film is simply a series of moving images, I feel that they are really vastly different mediums of expressions in many ways,