LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., April 7, 2010 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, today announces the Canon XF305 and XF300 Professional Camcorders. Both new models employ an MPEG-2 4:2:2 50Mbps codec – Canon XF Codec – for capturing and recording native 1920 x 1080 video onto affordable, universally available Compact Flash (CF) cards. Uniting video, audio and metadata into a single file, the Canon XF305 and XF300 use an MXF (Material eXchange Format) File Wrapper, a widely supported open source format, to maximize compatibility with existing industry infrastructure and non-linear editing (NLE)systems. Priced under $8,000 per model, the Canon XF305 and XF300 are engineered for multiple production applications including broadcast news, documentary and independent filmmaking and event videography. Canon will be demonstrating a variety of professional applications for the Canon XF305 and XF300 at the Company's booth# C4325 at the 2010 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The Canon XF305 and XF300 Professional Camcorders include a Genuine Canon 18x HD L-series lens providing documentary filmmakers and news camera operators with the focal-range versatility required in the field. Designed with input from professional users, each model includes three Canon developed and designed native 1920 x 1080 CMOS image sensors, and the new Canon XF Codec for extreme color detail required for accurate chroma-keying, color-grading and compositing for digital filmmaking. For finer transitions in tone and color, 4:2:2 color sampling offers twice the color resolution of HDV and other 4:2:0 formats. In addition, Canon's XF305 model features industry- standard HD-SDI output, genlock, and SMPTE time code (in/out) terminals for multi-camera or 3-D productions.
Yeah, this is oldish news, I was super busy today. :)
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26 Comments
Sensor is only 1/3″ 1920 x 1080 CMOS image sensor weak…but codec is 4:2:2 :O so it will be a lot better than the XH-A1 since it was an interlaced sensor & 4:2:0 colour sampling of HDV but this for $7K-$8K?
Don’t think so…
I’m waiting on the shoulder-mount, interchangeable lens version. However, I’m afraid of the price after seeing speculation on the price of today’s announced cams.
The 5D2 sensor may be full frame, but the video does not use any pixel binning, so the quality is no better than an image from a smaller sensor (though I’m not sure what the implications are for DOF). The 1/3″ sensors in these video cams can probably match the 5D2 for low light ability, as the number of pixels used and the pixel size are probably similar.
They have to do some kind of pixel binning because the full lens width is used in video, not a width of 1920 in the middle of sensor. I suspect that low light capabilities are also quite different (and obviously DOF).
I’m afraid they skip. If the 5DII used binning the outcome would be even more phantastic…