C300MKIII vs. C70 - An Unsolved Mystery

[chris f]

Will probably make another video or two out of all the tests I ran, but here's my findings so far on the Canon C70 vs. my C300MKIII:

[Ben_Ericson]

Will probably make another video or two out of all the tests I ran, but here's my findings so far on the Canon C70 vs. my C300MKIII:

Nice work. Extremely detailed and thorough.

Agreed, Canon really need to update their LUTs and sort out the post work flow. The downloadable LUT pack for the C70 or C300iii even includes conversions for gamma profiles that no longer exist with the new sensor! (CLOG2/BT709.)

I am also curious why there is no CLOG2 to REC709 LUT?

[chris f]

Thanks Ben! Yea I don't understand Canon's thinking on their LUTs, it seems like they could just pay a proper colorist like a couple of day rates to get their LUTs dialed in for the new cameras, save the LUTs and upload a new bundle.

[puredrifting]

Thanks Ben! Yea I don't understand Canon's thinking on their LUTs, it seems like they could just pay a proper colorist like a couple of day rates to get their LUTs dialed in for the new cameras, save the LUTs and upload a new bundle.

Chris, applying logic and practicality to what Canon does?

[aygie]

It's funny as I've been testing and comparing the R5 and my C300 MKiii for sharpness (Oddly I thought the R5 wasn't looking particularly sharp, must have been a wrong setting being used) and half way through my tests I watched your video Chris and went and got the latest Canon LUTs I could find and and applied the "CinemaGamut_CanonLog2-to-BT709_WideDR_33_FF_Ver.2.0.cube" LUT to all three clips (screen shots below) and to my surprise they looked very very close. This obviously might not be relevant to the C70 conversation but I found it super interesting non the less and wanted to share as I've always had difficulty with matching even when using a Colour Checker and didn't expect the R5 to be so close.

In term of colour correction (I'm in FCPX) all I did was raise the overall brightness on the 8K clip +0.05 as it was a fraction under vs the other clips, apply the Canon LUT and applied the exact same curve to each clip for some contrast. No saturation or other colour manipulation. I did punch in on the R5 to match the Super 35 crop and the XFAVC image had Digital IS on (doh) with is why it's got a slight crop.

Ps. Ignore the quality of the shots, it was a very quick and dirty sharpness test. Also they seem to have been compressed quite a bit when uploading.

8K.jpg
4K CRL.jpg
4K XFAVC.jpg

[lacuna]

Hi Chris, I finally got around to viewing this. Great work, good to watch.

I use long GOP for corporate work and as per your testing, don't really see any difference between it and All-I compression.

What I do see a big difference in (and could in your test also) is RAW vs XFAVC. That's what puts me off the C70, the lack of RAW. For my personal projects and things I care about I much prefer Canon CRL.

To me in all the reviews of the C70 I've had a cursory look at all the talk is of C300mkIII image quality (and how "the image is that good, you don't need Raw")... well for me CRL is a big deal. XFAVC looks mushy by comparison, even in that short YouTube comparison you did. I'd take C200 CRL footage with a touch of Neatvideo over the XFAVC from the newer cams (workflow aside).

I'm hoping Canon releases a camera in a very similar form factor to the C70 that includes CRL (an EVF would be nice too).

Thanks for your work - like your review style. Clear, facts based, not full of boorish self promotion - you come across really well.

[chris f]

Hi Chris, I finally got around to viewing this. Great work, good to watch.

I use long GOP for corporate work and as per your testing, don't really see any difference between it and All-I compression.

How has the long GOP been in editing? I haven't done much with Long GOP outside of my tests yet, but have had several people mention that it can be harder on your system to edit (I haven't noticed any performance issues on my end)

[lacuna]

How has the long GOP been in editing? I haven't done much with Long GOP outside of my tests yet, but have had several people mention that it can be harder on your system to edit (I haven't noticed any performance issues on my end)

Hi Chris, editing everything on a 16” mbp in FCPX just fine with basic corrections. No missed frames.

I haven’t even tried an ALL I project as I can’t see a visual difference and mostly what I shoot is long form interviews.

I do see quite a jump stepping up to CRL.