C300 @ 16,000 ISO, frame grabs & hj link to download MXF file

cowpunk52

cowpunk52

Veteran
Just found this little gem through Vimeo:

"I managed to bootleg a little more footage. This time I used one of the Canon C300 cameras with the new Canon 14.5-60mm PL Zoom lens. This was a little test area Canon had set up in the Hollywood Expo area. I borrowed a CF card... and simply put it in the camera and hit record. I tried to do it with the new telephoto zoom but the camera had a record block or something. The Canon C300 held up quite well at 16000 ISO. There was little or no rolling shutter on the whip pan. I am quite impressed that it did such a great job under the conditions."

Here is a link to the OP's original blog post on his own site, which also includes a "screen grab of what the room looked like to the naked eye:"
http://wideopencamera.com/cameras/canon-c300-16000-iso-with-canon-14-5-60mm-pl-zoom-lens-footage/

And this is a link to download the MXF file from the C300:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7739716/Canon C300 .MXF File/AA0004/AA000401.MXF

VLC will play the MXF file. This is not Canon LOG format. It does look like the OP had trouble keeping accurate focus during the roll. And, while I'm certain a lot of people will find plenty to complain about in the footage, personally I'm very impressed with how well the 16,000 ISO footage holds up.

Vimeo link:

Here are some snapshots from the MXF.

Full size imgur links:

http://i.imgur.com/Xxecc.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/3sSLM.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/45K03.jpg


3sSLM.jpg


Xxecc.jpg


45K03.jpg
 
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I had seen the Vimeo footage but hadn't noticed the download, good find!

First, this is 16kISO, so I recognize that it's A LOT of gain. I've shot with +30dB on the FS100 which puts it at 16kISO as well (although I believe the C300 can go a bit further given the native ISO) and this does look cleaner in the darks. In the lighter areas, the FS100 does pretty well even at 30dB, but not this good.

Two things I find interesting:

1) The blue cast of the image. All the talk about cameras leaning towards one way or another, especially given the gain being used, it's interesting to see here. One thing in cameras like the 7D or 5D from Canon is when the image got dark, saturation disappeared in the image. With the AF100 and F100, that is not the case. They stay very saturated (almost too much I feel in the AF100) but that can be dialed down. I think the colors in this scene given the approximation shot of what it really looked like to be pretty good.

2) The noise pattern you see is really locked into position. I hadn't noticed this as much on other sensors, but when the camera shifts across say the dumpster, you see the noise pattern stay on the sensor where it was, so patches of noise appear to move across the dumpster (although the dumpster is actually what is moving in the field of view).

Given focus is all over the place, it's hard to really judge the sharpness. Here and there are tidbits of sharp goodness.

The noise is very similar to noise (albiet MUCH lower) in the 5D and 7D. Same multi chromatic signature. I can't say I am a huge fan of that, especially for VFX work. Granted, it's the same as in the FS100 and I deal with it, however, the noise in the AF100 was monochromatic and made keying and such of noisy images MUCH MUCH easier. Less color contamination from noise. BUT, let's be realistic. This is 16kISO, so in that regard, here is something that is vastly more usable than most cameras.

With a sharper image and some neat video, it would be interesting to see what this yields. Definitely shows off the low light though.
 
Rick Burnett said:
1) The blue cast of the image. All the talk about cameras leaning towards one way or another, especially given the gain being used, it's interesting to see here. One thing in cameras like the 7D or 5D from Canon is when the image got dark, saturation disappeared in the image. With the AF100 and F100, that is not the case. They stay very saturated (almost too much I feel in the AF100) but that can be dialed down. I think the colors in this scene given the approximation shot of what it really looked like to be pretty good.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if the blue cast is conclusive. Some of the set lights had color gels. Also, this was bootlegged footage off of demo cameras so he did it really quick. We don't know what the camera settings were or if it was white balanced exactly.
 
Piolet is right, there were some very dim lits with heavy CTB, which is probably accounting for the blue shift in the scene. In the wider shots, if you look up into the rafters where the light grid hangs, you'll see that there is no blue cast there.
 
Definitely can understand that, just something to check :) My first guess would be the temperature setting in camera, then lights. I shot a lot of day for night for a film, and most of it looked like this :)
 
I just can't believe that one of the demo cameras was left unguarded. :D Good to see some footage, although shot hurriedly to avoid detection. I am not sure if Canon will like this. :-) And if I were the Arri executive whose name he mentioned, I would not be happy either to get into this kind of limelight. ISO 16000 is no joke. It seems this camera has got very good low light capability. I am sure there will be many who will rundown and say that DSLRs have higher ISO. I have used ISO 12800 out of compulsion in my Mark IV before dawn and after looking at this footage from the C300, I think this looks good. I would love to use this camera. I am sure within a month's time Canon is likely to release some more footage from production cameras. Thanks for sharing. Cheers, Sabyasachi
 
I was in the theatre for the screenings on the launch day and played around with the camera on that lit set. Some of that blue might have been from the rest of the room. The security guard goes around and turns of the lights. We kept playing with the ISO's and it does see in the dark. Could not believe what it looked like on the monitor, and then when you looked up you could see how dark it was.
 
Looks good, though you shouldn't need it in a controlled studio situation like that even with a limited budget on lighting.

I'd like to see this on the street, or in a forrest under a thick canopy doing doco work where you don't go much light to work with and a much slower max aperture for super-tele lenses etc.


I think the most impressive part of the shot is how the noise is very uniform at this high level ISO, which makes it useable for colour filming.
 
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