Canon C300 Instruction Manual

[skimmel]

For anyone interested, the C300 Instruction Manual is available online.

http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/professional/products/professional_cameras/cinema_eos_cameras/eos_c300#BrochuresAndManuals

[Luis Caffesse]

Cool - thanks skimmel!

[AdrianF]

Thanks! Bedtime reading for us geeks

[Piolet]

Cool, thanks for the heads up! I read through most of the manual and it's a pretty simple camera to operate.

Some notable things:

- I think there's an error on page 6. Under "Audio" it says there's a built-in mic but I don't believe it has one and the Audio section on page 80 doesn't mention one.
- The battery hatch can be removed to accommodate the bigger batteries.
- Black balance takes 40 seconds.
- Iris can be control in 1/2, 1/3 stops and "fine" steps. I think someone mentioned this was like 1/8 stop steps.
- Canon recommends genuine Canon batteries, but you can use aftermarket ones. It just won't display the remaining battery time.
- All video outputs (HDMI, HD/SD-SDI, Sync Out) can operate simultaneously. You can output zebras if you want.
- There are very detailed battery run charts in the back.
- Also very detailed weight breakdowns for every component.

[alpi69]

page 61: base-ISO 850 gives maximum DR for Canon Log.

[Osslund]

I find the extensive image settings to be something out of the ordinary. Especially when it comes to handle curves, slope, knee and how the camera reacts when overexposing. I bet one can spend a week tweaking this thing to squeeze a custom profile out of it that'll satisfy any desire.

[dustylense]

I find the extensive image settings to be something out of the ordinary. Especially when it comes to handle curves, slope, knee and how the camera reacts when overexposing. I bet one can spend a week tweaking this thing to squeeze a custom profile out of it that'll satisfy any desire.

Thats the way the Canons are. The XF series have soooooooo many controls. Endless in fact. You can make many custom profiles and easily share them (think about multiple cam shots). It takes getting used to but extensive control is there.

[alpi69]

yep. a lot of good stuff, especially these customization option for knee etc.

what I realized when reading the manual: there are the two switches missing that are on every professional camera on the left bottom: the gain switch (H/M/L) and the WB-switch (Preset / A / B). I am sure they are gone, so the camera is weathersealed like a EOS camera. With 15 customizeable switches we can put them where we want, but still, I am so used to these switchs I will certinly look for them on that cam.

One more operation seems to be missing:
with the HVX and other cams you can mark a clip, then show "marked clips only". I usually mark "bad clips" and use that method to delete them to free space on the cards and to save time in the ingest/capture.
C300 does not seem to be able to show "marked /OKed clips only". But it is one of the details that might be there despite not being in the manual (or maybe I even overread it).
Hopefully there will be a ingest-plugin for FCPX soon, then we can read the metadata off the card anyway.....

[greenheron]

There is very limited Clip naming as well. I have gotten used to being able to name the clips with a job and or camera designation with my XDCAM cameras. Hopefully the metadata will become available in most NLE's soon.

[Piolet]

Yeah, no gain or WB toggle switches like a traditional broadcast video camera. The C300 has more of a cine/DSLR design influence. You can get to either function very quickly, though, by hitting a button and then spinning the selector dial or joystick. This button can be an assignable button or the FUNC button. Iris or Gain can also be assigned to the command dial on the grip.

The C300 can switch the Index screen to clips with only the OK or Checked marks (pg 114). The OK marked clips are protected from deletion. You can delete single clips or all clips (other than OK clips)...pg 22.

Clip naming is somewhat limited. Clips are six characters long 'AA0000' where the first two are letters and the rest numbers (pg 41).

There are options for User Bits and a User Memo. The latter has to be uploaded by the XF Utility onto an SD card or changed via a Wi-Fi app. There are also shot marks, S1 and S2 and you set up to 100 shot marks in one clip.