Canon Cinema EOS C300 Mark II Exhibits Black Hole Sun Phenomenon

Canon Rumors Guy

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<p>In certain situations, it appears the Canon Cinema EOS C300 Mark II exhibits what is known as “black hole sun”, which is where highlights burn to black in certain situations.</p>
<p>The likely fix is a firmware update which could come quite quickly. I imagine Canon knows about the issue.</p>
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Blackmagic had this problem for awhile and has since been addressed in a firmware update. I'm not sure if this is a "deal killer" sort of issue/bug/programming when it's happening to a sub $1K camera - it can be forgiven if it's eventually addressed (despite many who were outraged over the issue).

When this is happening to a $15K+ camera, it's a different class of problem. At that price tag, these are issues people never expect to see. It's likely a "simple" mathematical calculation in combination with codec. (Unless it is present on output as well?) I hope they fix this soon before there's a group of DPs who stop recommending the C300 as their go-to solution, regardless of if it actually impacts THEIR work or not.
 
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bgoyette

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Feb 6, 2015
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I'm not sure what this guy did is evidence of a "problem" with the camera, no more than shooting under fluorescents without white balancing and complaining about the green, or underexposing CLog2 and complaining about the grain. This example only seems to exist to prove a point, but isn't indicative of any normally occurring phenomena with the camera. I've been shooting with the C300II for months now, and I've pointed it at many light sources to the point of flare. I've never seen it.
 
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bgoyette

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Feb 6, 2015
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Just as a quick test. I just pointed my C300 Mark II at the sun, and ramped the exposure up so it was completely blown out...(essentially, overexposing the scene, and then pointing the camera at the sun.) Lets just say anyone shooting this way is kinda missing the point...but I'll let you judge whether there is a black hole or not.

https://vimeo.com/160116991

This article should be taken down. It's based on a single russian video, with no proof that the camera involved is a C300 Mark II.
 
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The black sun happened to me a couple months ago when I first received my C300 Mark II, Canon acknowledged the problem and gave me a full refund. C300 Mark II cameras with this problem will experience much higher than normal noise levels and may have disgusting looking magenta flares that coat the entire frame when aimed at bright light sources.

Buyers beware!!!!!!!
 
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Feb 28, 2013
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Watching it again just proves to me what a stupid test it was. No one in their right mind would over-expose a shot to that degree and expect it not to over-load the light wells & spill into adjacent pixels over-loading them and the anti- blooming circuitry. A more controlled test should be conducted and measured against another type of camera.
 
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jeffa4444 said:
Watching it again just proves to me what a stupid test it was. No one in their right mind would over-expose a shot to that degree and expect it not to over-load the light wells & spill into adjacent pixels over-loading them and the anti- blooming circuitry. A more controlled test should be conducted and measured against another type of camera.

I agree that it's kind of a dumb test. However, I can remember Blackmagic cameras getting hammered mercilessly as being a tool not up to professional standards due to the exact same issue.
 
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