C300: C300 mkiii?

Back to the C300 mark iii (And C500mii) design.
Somebody somewhere had a question about the Original Canon battery placement. BP60 / BP30. I have too. Is it really secure? Afraid of knocking it off when pressing it to your chest?
Im used to film in cradle position with the C300markii. Could one film like that with this design?

I guess BP30 would sit more firmly in place, not risking be knocked from above?
 
Barry G said:
sorry...I was being funny...not criticizing you at all. I guess the part about choosing that location for green screen, seemed like an odd choice on the producer side...and one of those things we laugh about here in the sticks when when our $500 client wants us to do something they saw on tv last night... but as you say...do as you're told.
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It's the downside of being a producer/DP. When I have my DP hat on, I often am looking at what the producer and director want to do and just shaking my head as a producer. I see so much waste is the main thing that bugs. I've worked on many shoots where I see BTS the amount of time and money that was expended and then I see the final result and notice how much effort and expense was expended that never made it to the final cut. I know that's the nature of the beast, but it kills me to see money, especially in the low dollar documentary world I live in mostly, wasted. I like spending the money and seeing the final project and saying to myself, "Wow, it looks good, sounds good and those locations/talent/wardrobe/hair/makeup were totally worth it".

I shot a project a few years in a couple of different foreign locations. We spent days and days with a crew, tooling around big cities, shooting some amazing b-roll. Time lapses, waiting until the sun rose or set to get the perfect light, really some visually breathtaking shots. A year later, I see the final cut screened and NONE of the b-roll we shot was used, it was all replaced with not very well shot drone shots, photographed at the worst time of day. The project lost all of the sense of the street, traffic, pedestrians, variable points of view. The production wasted many thousands of dollars shooting all of this great footage, it all ended up on the cutting room floor. If they would have combined some of it together with the drone shots, it would have been magic. But they used only the drone and the shots got really boring and repetitive very quickly. Not me wearing my DP hat, wearing my producer hat, it made little sense. All of that money, no footage used.
 
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puredrifting said:
It's the downside of being a producer/DP. When I have my DP hat on, I often am looking at what the producer and director want to do and just shaking my head as a producer. I see so much waste is the main thing that bugs. I've worked on many shoots where I see BTS the amount of time and money that was expended and then I see the final result and notice how much effort and expense was expended that never made it to the final cut. I know that's the nature of the beast, but it kills me to see money, especially in the low dollar documentary world I live in mostly, wasted. I like spending the money and seeing the final project and saying to myself, "Wow, it looks good, sounds good and those locations/talent/wardrobe/hair/makeup were totally worth it".

I shot a project a few years in a couple of different foreign locations. We spent days and days with a crew, tooling around big cities, shooting some amazing b-roll. Time lapses, waiting until the sun rose or set to get the perfect light, really some visually breathtaking shots. A year later, I see the final cut screened and NONE of the b-roll we shot was used, it was all replaced with not very well shot drone shots, photographed at the worst time of day. The project lost all of the sense of the street, traffic, pedestrians, variable points of view. The production wasted many thousands of dollars shooting all of this great footage, it all ended up on the cutting room floor. If they would have combined some of it together with the drone shots, it would have been magic. But they used only the drone and the shots got really boring and repetitve very quickly. Not me wearing my DP hat, wearing my producer hat, it made little sense. All of that money, no footage used.
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I mainly just produce passion project short films these days, so seeing producers making mistakes when I freelance DP doesn't tend to bother me too much. It's their or their client's money. I tend to get annoyed in the rare cases where I'm just a cam op working under a DP and see the DP making what I consider mistakes, and knowing it's not my place to point out those mistakes or correct them. Like, "You're keying from the wrong side, the background is blown out, you're breaking the 180 degree rule, etc."

Sometimes the DPs I work under are actually good so it's a less frustrating experience, but other times, not so much.
 
Vino said:
Is it really secure? Afraid of knocking it off when pressing it to your chest?
Im used to film in cradle position with the C300markii. Could one film like that with this design?
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I shoot the same way, up against my chest. The A60 does kind of dig into your body in a not-entirely-comforting way (although it's plenty secure), so what I did was get a DTap to XLR cable and I just carry a V-Lock with me in a MOLLE pouch or even my hoodie pocket. Get a right-angle connector if you can, that way you can center the camera more on your chest if you need.
 
Are the power connectors the same on all these cameras?

Remember the reports of 3rd party batteries toasting an expensive circuit board in C200s and the C200 loosing power connection via the power port?
 
Stills2HDConvert said:
Are the power connectors the same on all these cameras?

Remember the reports of 3rd party batteries toasting an expensive circuit board in C200s and the C200 loosing power connection via the power port?
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The new cameras, I believe, finally went to an industry standard 4 pin XLR LEMO connection for power? Can't tell from the press images because the plastic protector cover is over the connection
but it certainly looks like they did. Barry G or Liam or someone with a C500 MKII could verify? The spec sheet just says 4-pin LEMO.

Last year, I tried once again to power the C200 with a V-Mount and still had the same intermittent power cutting in and out when hoisting the camera from the handle carry to my shoulder. Have had the
same issue with the C300 MKII also. I just use a BP-A30 on the camera, then power with the V-Mount and for that split second the connection loses power, the BP-A30 picks up the slack. But it still drains
from the power connector if you have the battery hooked up, other than for that split second it loses the connection.
 
owlbot said:
I shoot the same way, up against my chest. The A60 does kind of dig into your body in a not-entirely-comforting way (although it's plenty secure), so what I did was get a DTap to XLR cable and I just carry a V-Lock with me in a MOLLE pouch or even my hoodie pocket. Get a right-angle connector if you can, that way you can center the camera more on your chest if you need.
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Interesting solution, makes a lot of sense.
 
With the current design, the battery is taking all of the pressure. It is secure though. There are four screw holes directly off the back so you could easily put together some type of plate or guard to protect the battery and give a bit more of a cushion. In fact, I already saw a picture of somebody who had put together a small v mount plate to attach to the back using the four mounting screws.
 
owlbot said:
I shoot the same way, up against my chest. The A60 does kind of dig into your body in a not-entirely-comforting way (although it's plenty secure), so what I did was get a DTap to XLR cable and I just carry a V-Lock with me in a MOLLE pouch or even my hoodie pocket. Get a right-angle connector if you can, that way you can center the camera more on your chest if you need.
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I had a similar solution with the EVA1 / Inferno Shogung combination.
I always left a small battery in the camera in case the d-tap cable lost connection.
 
cpreston said:
With the current design, the battery is taking all of the pressure. It is secure though. There are four screw holes directly off the back so you could easily put together some type of plate or guard to protect the battery and give a bit more of a cushion. In fact, I already saw a picture of somebody who had put together a small v mount plate to attach to the back using the four mounting screws.
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That reminds me of the HVX200. Don't recall if any of you experienced it but the production company I was at bought half a dozen of them. The plastic battery tabs broke off on many of them, resulting in a non-operable camera, always at the worst possible moment.
Why companies wouldn't laminate some steel or aluminum in with the plastic for any battery tab is beyond me, it's probably the highest potential failure point on any camera. No issues with any of our Canon cameras with that. I don't think the BP-A60 protruding from the back
of the cameras C200/300/500 is nearly the problem that none Canon users who have never owned one think it is. I see it in pictures and it looks as if it is really protruding but in use, never an issue.
 
Did anyone end up pre-ordering one of these cameras?

I've been noticing this sort of pastel look to the colors. The Mk3 seems to have a different look than the Mk2. Something about the image reminds me of the Panasonic cameras. I am wondering if it has anything to do with the new dual ISO sensor. It's almost like the footage is either too saturated in the Red and Blue channels or too de-saturated over all.

"The sensor combines images using pixels shot with a saturation-prioritizing amplifier for bright areas and a lower-noise noise-prioritizing."



 
I saw the first two...not sure about the Mark II (been a while), but looks like regular Canon color science like the C200 to me.
 
Ben_Ericson said:
Did anyone end up pre-ordering one of these cameras?

I've been noticing this sort of pastel look to the colors. The Mk3 seems to have a different look than the Mk2. Something about the image reminds me of the Panasonic cameras. I am wondering if it has anything to do with the new dual ISO sensor. It's almost like the footage is either too saturated in the Red and Blue channels or too de-saturated over all.

"The sensor combines images using pixels shot with a saturation-prioritizing amplifier for bright areas and a lower-noise noise-prioritizing."



Click to expand...

Some of the footage reminded me of the effect of "colorizing" certain parts of a B&W image, while the majority of the image remained B&W.
 
I think this looks very promising, especially since it was apparently shot in XF-AVC and the only color correction was the standard FCPX LUT.


 
Gary T said:
I think this looks very promising, especially since it was apparently shot in XF-AVC and the only color correction was the standard FCPX LUT.


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That looks terrific. I have a feeling the C300iii might go down as one of the great S35mm cameras. The form-factor and feature-set are fantastic (genuinely one of the richest any camera has ever offered), and the image quality looks basically good enough for anything you might care to do - from web content, to commercials, to long-form narrative.
 
ahalpert said:
Is it possible that higher DR cameras have more washed out color?
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no, do Arri's, Venice, and Red's look washed out? This C300mk3 footage has nice contrast. The Panasonic S1 has a bunch of DR too, no?

Some people like the low con look and may not fully crunch down the Log curve. But it is not the purpose of higher DR to see every stop equally.

Anyway, you keep asking if higher DR cameras have lower contrast. And that may be if some one uses the same LUT on all footage. But not the case if LUTs designed for the individual cameras are used.
 
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