C500: C500 greater than 4K? (Canonrumors)

[Matt Turner]

Noticed this on Canon Rumours:

EOS C500 Mark II Going Higher Than 4K?
http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=26083.0

"Canon “knows it was very late to the 4K market” and does not want to be considered late to the 6K+ world."

Not much detail, but we already know Canon themselves @ NAB rumoured there would be something extra coming with the sensor.

 

[indiawilds]

That is a completely cooked up story.

 

[DLD]

The story is rated CR1, which means that there's very little behind it.

On the other hand, I have long thought that a 6K sensor is the only way to sell a new premium $30,000+ camera by the summer/fall 2015. Dragon has 6K. Weapon has 8K. Then there's a 6K Alexa, an ~ 5K F65 and a 4.6K URSA Mini. Whether for downsampling or reframing, 6K seems to be the current target for the high end image acquisition market. Should there be a C500 MK II, there is the benchmark it will have to hit.

PS. Given the plethora of sensors and lenses in Canon's stable, I wouldn't be surprised if this was a full frame/Vista Vision size sensor a la Weapon rather than an s35 size in C300 MK II. Alexa 6K has a medium format/65mm size. Canon doesn't need to go that high - Sony and Panasonic do - but FF should be well within their means to deliver.

 

[Matt Turner]

...by the summer/fall 2015.

The rumour does state a possible C500 MKII announcement date of mid-2016, which might mean shipping late 2016. That's a long ways off, and plenty of time for Canon to get 6K tech in place.

 

[Spartacus]

Together with the "Alexa Style" form factor rumor, 6K doesn't seem that far stretched. After all the C300/100 secret sauce always was the 4K to HD internally down sampled image.

 

[lovecameras]

So would only full frame lenses cover 6/8K resolving power?

 

[Matt Gottshalk]

Depends on the sensor size, but I don't see them venturing away from the S35 sensor anytime soon so IMO all lenses that are GTG on a C300 should work.

 

[Noel Evans]

So would only full frame lenses cover 6/8K resolving power?

Short answer, no.

Im trying to work out where the new C500 will sit. It's interesting, but with CN-E's not quite covering a 6k sensor from around 35mm and lower, I'd say delivering a shootable 6k is not really an option for Canon. I'm not talking about the rumour site - waste of time IMO, however, it may make sense that they use a larger sensor and apply the same tech as the c300. This though would essentially mean they would need to have 4 x the sensor (unless its a cut down version). Possible I guess, canon's 5ds is 50MP. So a 32MB sensor, they could use with the same tech as the c100 / C300 to 4k.

There would have to be real tangible benefits of doing this over the C300's new sensor. And with the C100, C300, C500 all starting with the same sensor, it would seem odd that they'd go a different way now. Not including the C100MKII which is essentially V2 of the original.

That puts us back to square 1 - which would make it unlikely. The question then has to be, so what will the C500 offer the C300 doesn't?

The C300MKII is touted at 15 stops. The C500MKII could be about workflows, grading on the fly during a shoot, higher end proxies with attached LUT files? Would seem to make sense.

Plus better EVF? Maybe more removable components, so it can be simply a brain box?

 

[DLD]

That puts us back to square 1 - which would make it unlikely. The question then has to be, so what will the C500 offer the C300 doesn't? ...

And by how much?

If you figure the "double-the-price" premise, then a $30,000 camera ($ C300 MK II x 2) will have to deliver a lot of goodies on top of the C300 MK II.

So would only full frame lenses cover 6/8K resolving power?

Samsung NX1 has an APC-S size (23.5 x 15.7mm, 3:2) sensor with 6450 pixels across and the total of 28 MPX usable. The camera has a full sensor readout, so there's your 6.5K camera - in theory - already out there for $1,300!