C300 Mark II - Skin Tones and Autofocus

[jcs]

For professional work, the C300 Mark II is looking really good- look at the clean detail and skin tones, little or no RS or aliasing, excellent DR:

Focusing in 4K is challenging, especially for a moving subject and/or camera. This is especially true without a focus puller. The C300 Mark II autofocus is looking really good:

15 stops DR, excellent autofocus, and of course superb color science and skin tones make the C300 II look really good compared to even the ARRI Alexa/Amira. It's not out until October, and at $16K it might seem expensive compared to an FS7 or Ursa/Mini. However I haven't seen any footage from anything short of Alexa with such nice color and skintones. The 'killer app' exclusive feature is the autofocus- no one else has something that works as well. The C300 II looks to be the best bang-for-buck pro 4K camera on the horizon.

[cpc]

The autofocus features are beautiful. Dual pixel AF was great on the prev gen C cameras, and this is another step in the right direction. I like how they are pushing this with face tracking, manual focus guides and the movable AF area. A dream for documentaries.

I think this is the most interesting camera of the recently announced/released bunch. Curious which features will propagate down to the next c100.

[Inazuma]

I think Canon colour science is bigged up a bit too much. I can't see it being worth (together with autofocus) an extra $8000 over the FS7/Ursa Mini. I mean if you're directing a lot of high end stuff then sure. But if you are directing a lot of high end stuff, you're probably less likely to be running and gunning as a one man crew.

 

[jcs]

While there are diminishing returns as the price goes up, the most important element of a camera is color science. Spec-wise, the F5, F55, Red Dragon, etc., all look pretty good compared to an Alexa (which only recently added "4K" (around 3.2K scaled up). ARRI cameras have been pretty much exclusive recently for all academy award winning films. For professional work, color is king. If for one's personal/hobby projects cameras with lower quality color will work, then all is good. When people are paying for the work, they want the best color they can afford. Even for personal/hobby projects, "fix it in post" gets old after a while, especially when one realizes that there are better color science cameras available. The C300 II will likely be very solid and stable. The FS7 and URSA are still buggy. For paid pro work, an extra $8K up front is worth it for more profit and less headaches later.

[docmoore]

I think Canon colour science is bigged up a bit too much. I can't see it being worth (together with autofocus) an extra $8000 over the FS7/Ursa Mini. I mean if you're directing a lot of high end stuff then sure. But if you are directing a lot of high end stuff, you're probably less likely to be running and gunning as a one man crew.

 

And a C100 Mk II or older C300 may work.

I played with the FS7 today ... lots of plastic and a garbage LCD loupe ... could not focus with it ... without it the screen was gorgeous.

At 8K I expect a marginally better experience ... shucking low end components with a great sensor and codec seems to 

be the Sony ethic ... surprised they did not sell used cars at some point.

Bob

[Policar]

I think Canon colour science is bigged up a bit too much. I can't see it being worth (together with autofocus) an extra $8000 over the FS7/Ursa Mini. I mean if you're directing a lot of high end stuff then sure. But if you are directing a lot of high end stuff, you're probably less likely to be running and gunning as a one man crew.

 

Canon has a lot of cache among producers. C300 and Alexa are buzzwords. (I think rightfully, but that's just me.) I see C300s and Amiras whenever I walk down the street it seems, Dragons occasionally. Yet to see an FS7.

If you're investing this much money as an owner/op, you want something producers are likely to hire. If you are buying it for your production company or as a hobby it is up to you.

I agree Canon's colors are still second best to Arri, but they are both leagues above anyone else, although Dragon is not bad it just needs more love in post.