Canon's RED?
Received this spec list in regards to a video camera with an EF mount.
Specifications
– Unconventional case, more like a Hasselblad.
– Alloy heatsink for extended shoot times and lower heat related picture noise.
– FF 4k sensor, no line skipping and much reduced jello effect
– ISO 100-1600
– Pellicle Mirror however it can be flipped up if a OVF isn't required to regain the lost 2/3 stop.
– EF fitment
– AF when pellicle mirror is down
– Digital Follow focus to control lenses electronically
– Twin CF slots
– Add on module with SSD drive for extended shooting, like a virtual film mag.
– 4:4:4 SDI out
– HDMI out
– 3D LUT capacity
This is currently a “skunk works project that was initiated with the 5D video explosion. Designed to be a base body, leveraging the existing EF glass. 3rd parties left to develop rails, matte boxes etc.”
cr
66 Comments
It’s not to say that it wouldn’t be technically possible for Canon to come up with a camera with these specs. I just don’t think it is commercially logic or predictable. Canon commercial strategies don’t seem to point in that direction…
They usually avoid competing in the same higher end market of the brands who buy lenses from them, like more broadcast oriented divisions of Sony, Panasonic or JVC. Even RED is a good customer for their lenses, when it comes to 35mm sensor digital cinema cameras, that record 3, 4 or 5k.
What I think Canon will be competing in, is the range of prosumer cameras such as the announced Panasonic AG-AF100 or the upcoming Sony entry level 35mm camera annouced at NAB 2010.
I would expect a camera with a sensor between 4/3″, APS-C or 35mm, but recording Full HD, not more than that. The sensor size would benefit shallower depths of field and would probably be the kind of sensor we now have on the 5D Mark II or the 7D… The same way Panasonic used the GH1 sensor as basis for the AG-AF100.
It should obviously be an interchangeable lens model and whether it will use the existing EF lenses or new ones with proper video functions (AF, stop focus…), I don’t know. Maybe both. This should have at least 50mbps data rate and 4:2:2 color, for flash card recording… and maybe 2gbps and 4:4:4 through SDI, at best!..
How the XF305 will sell from next year on, is a mistery to me… With all these larger sensor cameras coming up at lower prices, I don’t know how the XFs will keep selling at $7k… But that’s something Canon will have to figure out themselves.
In the past, Canon was known for coming up late for the race, but with somewhat better products than the competition… However, at the speed that technology is evolving lately, I think Canon did a bad move in waiting this long to release the XFs. I think this time, they got to the race too late.
I hope this wakes them up for the need of releasing the new camcorder as soon as possible. We definitely have waited too long for the replacement of the XL-H1. I think now Canon needs to reveal in Spetember’s Global Expo, the new camcorder that will compete with these new larger sensor cameras that Panasonic and Sony will be releasing in the end of 2010, beginning 2011.