C500: Any Rumors of New C500 MkII Firmware?

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digitalinnovations

Well-known member
Just curious if anyone has heard any new rumblings of some new firmware with feature additions and/or refinement on the C500 MkII? I’m wondering if that ship has sailed given the releases of the C300 MkIII and C70?
 
Unfortunately, Canon rarely adds video features to their cameras through FW updates (like Blackmagic or RED).
 
digitalinnovations said:
Just curious if anyone has heard any new rumblings of some new firmware with feature additions and/or refinement on the C500 MkII? I’m wondering if that ship has sailed given the releases of the C300 MkIII and C70?
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Out of curiosity, what changes do you want? Only asking in case I ever use one and need help..
 
No, that’s a good question. I think the obvious feature for most would be a 120fps - even in a S35 crop of the sensor. I mean, the C300 MkIII and now the C70 have it so you would think their “flagship” camera would too. Audio in S&F would also be nice; I think I read the C70 has it but not 100% if that is accurate.

The other things, for me, would just be perhaps some refinement of the already implemented features like the auto-focus, etc. I haven’t used Sony’s AF but from what I’ve read/watched they may have the edge on the AF front. That said, it appears like the Sony AF struggles in brighter scenes while the Canon struggles in lower-light scenes.

All-in-all, I’m fairly happy with my pair of C500 MkIIs. In terms of actually operating and using them, their are pretty solid. The AF has been surprisingly useful when doing multi-cam interviews and when on the Ronin 2. It does slip / lose focus every now and again; more so when on wider shots in interviews and the interviewee isn’t as large in frame - which is why I hope they refine the AF a bit.

One thing I miss after switching from my ARRI’s is the color depth when shooting in ProRes4444. I find myself always wanting to record RAW in my C500 MkIIs for the bump in color and image quality but man, the data rate on 6K is killer. My computer can handle it fine; it’s more the storage requirements. If it’s a quick-turn or low-budget project I will shoot the 10bit but I find myself not wanting to for decent budget / passion projects. I’m not sure what, if any, the solution would be for this...I guess buy more hard drives :)
 
Well, according to Canon‘s track record they should release a firmware update in about two years to enable simultaneous SDI and HDMI out...
 
digitalinnovations said:
No, that’s a good question. I think the obvious feature for most would be a 120fps - even in a S35 crop of the sensor. I mean, the C300 MkIII and now the C70 have it so you would think their “flagship” camera would too. Audio in S&F would also be nice; I think I read the C70 has it but not 100% if that is accurate.

The other things, for me, would just be perhaps some refinement of the already implemented features like the auto-focus, etc. I haven’t used Sony’s AF but from what I’ve read/watched they may have the edge on the AF front. That said, it appears like the Sony AF struggles in brighter scenes while the Canon struggles in lower-light scenes.

All-in-all, I’m fairly happy with my pair of C500 MkIIs. In terms of actually operating and using them, their are pretty solid. The AF has been surprisingly useful when doing multi-cam interviews and when on the Ronin 2. It does slip / lose focus every now and again; more so when on wider shots in interviews and the interviewee isn’t as large in frame - which is why I hope they refine the AF a bit.

One thing I miss after switching from my ARRI’s is the color depth when shooting in ProRes4444. I find myself always wanting to record RAW in my C500 MkIIs for the bump in color and image quality but man, the data rate on 6K is killer. My computer can handle it fine; it’s more the storage requirements. If it’s a quick-turn or low-budget project I will shoot the 10bit but I find myself not wanting to for decent budget / passion projects. I’m not sure what, if any, the solution would be for this...I guess buy more hard drives :)
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Thanks Jeremey. Yeah I imagine 120fps would be annoying while seeing c300 iiis with it.

That's makes sense re raw. Maybe the non-arri cameras will always have to pay to play?
 
digitalinnovations said:
No, that’s a good question. I think the obvious feature for most would be a 120fps - even in a S35 crop of the sensor. I mean, the C300 MkIII and now the C70 have it so you would think their “flagship” camera would too. Audio in S&F would also be nice; I think I read the C70 has it but not 100% if that is accurate.

The other things, for me, would just be perhaps some refinement of the already implemented features like the auto-focus, etc. I haven’t used Sony’s AF but from what I’ve read/watched they may have the edge on the AF front. That said, it appears like the Sony AF struggles in brighter scenes while the Canon struggles in lower-light scenes.

All-in-all, I’m fairly happy with my pair of C500 MkIIs. In terms of actually operating and using them, their are pretty solid. The AF has been surprisingly useful when doing multi-cam interviews and when on the Ronin 2. It does slip / lose focus every now and again; more so when on wider shots in interviews and the interviewee isn’t as large in frame - which is why I hope they refine the AF a bit.

One thing I miss after switching from my ARRI’s is the color depth when shooting in ProRes4444. I find myself always wanting to record RAW in my C500 MkIIs for the bump in color and image quality but man, the data rate on 6K is killer. My computer can handle it fine; it’s more the storage requirements. If it’s a quick-turn or low-budget project I will shoot the 10bit but I find myself not wanting to for decent budget / passion projects. I’m not sure what, if any, the solution would be for this...I guess buy more hard drives :)
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You can dig up my C200 fix thread from three years ago to see how this will likely turn out. Preview: You have what you have today. Don't count on gaining anything else.
Canon could surprise but pretty unlikely.
 
I had a preproduction C500MKII and have owned one since they were first released. There were features on the preproduction model that disappeared on the release model - 1fps for example. I've asked my Canon Rep about this and other features the camera really should have. From what I've been told there is zero chance of sorting out the SDI/HDMI monitoring (I have splitters to get round this) and little chance of other major features being added, like 120 fps in 4K. I'm still hopeful time-lapse will be added and some additional codecs, but `I'm not holding my breath.
 
Eric Coughlin said:
You can't do that on the C300 Mark III or C500 Mark II? I believe you can with the C300 Mark II.
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You can only use HDMI or SDI monitor out, but not both. The C300 II could run outputs from all three ports.

I think the problem is that the HDMI can now output 4K, but the SDI monitor out is still stuck in 1080p. In order to cut down on processing, Canon just made it so you can only use one of the monitoring options at a time.

I also miss the 1fps option. I think the C70 is missing it as well. I can't imagine why Canon has started removing the option other than there being some problem with having a 1 second shutter that cropped up.
 
puredrifting said:
Just curious, what do you actually shoot with the 1 fps and how do you use that feature?
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Not exactly the same thing, but I use super-long shutter speeds (typically 2 seconds) on mirrorless cameras to shoot timelapse footage with lots of motion blur. (So, it's still recording 24fps but every 48 frames are the same frame repeated.) Then you speed up the clip as much as you like in your NLE. Just a quick and dirty way of doing a timelapse without needing to process still photos
 
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