C200: Canon C200 EF to PL Mount Swap

M

mitch@provideo

DVXuser Sponsor
As of today Canon is offering a EF to PL mount swap on the C200. It has to be sent in to a Canon Service Center (call 855 Cine EOS or 855 246 3367) and is $1500. Your EF mount parts are shipped back with the camera as well should you need to switch back. That PL back to EF will be cheaper but there isn't a number on it quite yet. We should be getting additional details soon but that's what you need to know if you plan on making a swap.

Mitchell Gamble
mgamble@provideoandtape.com
503-598-9142
Finance the Canon C200 for $215 a month, 0% $0 down available
Finance the Sony FS7M2 for $375 a month, 0%, $0 down available
Apply Now
 
While I will never do this with my C200, I think it's uber cool that Canon is at least offering it as an option. Guess all of the EF mount whiners need to put up or shut up! ;-) And yes, I would have rather have just had a locking EF mount, obviously.
 
Very cool. Three thoughts:

-I wouldn't want to give up DPAF...

-Love to see what some folks would come up with using nice cine lenses on C200.

-Does this mean a C200 PL version is coming soon?
 
Last edited:
puredrifting said:
While I will never do this with my C200, I think it's uber cool that Canon is at least offering it as an option. Guess all of the EF mount whiners need to put up or shut up! ;-) And yes, I would have rather have just had a locking EF mount, obviously.
Click to expand...

Agreed on the locking EF mount, but we can still hope. This is a bold move that seems to indicate Canon has high aspirations for the C200. Hopefully PL mount C200's will find their way into rental stock soon.
 
Last edited:
To me, PL mount lenses mean you generally have an AC or two, FF, video village and are doing something with a real crew, most solo shooters or even small crew can get by with still lenses or something like the new CN-E compact servos on a camera like the C200 for most of the projects we typically shoot. But having PL Mount available automatically elevates the C200's status, at least a bit. EVA 1 will not accept PL mount but the C200, BMD UMP, and Sony FS5, FS7 will with a Metabones adapter will although you'd think that Canon could have made it user swapable like BMD did. $1,500.00 is kind of lame when others are doing it for under 1/3 of that, but Canon must believe the camera is capable of high end imagery or they wouldn't have bothered offering the option.

But I would love to see someone shoot a piece with the C200 with killer lighting, really nice set of cinema primes or a top line cinema zoom, shooting it all on Cinema RAW Light with the full HDR/ACES workflow and really see what the camera is capable of. I am shooting some nice images with it, some in RAW but I'd like to see someone like Charles, or some other DP I have been talking to lately like John Toll, ASC, or Russell Carpenter, ASC with his regular team shoot a short film, feature or pilot with it to see what is possible with it. Not a test film like "The Calling", a real film with a great script, name talent and a good director at the helm. People might be surprised.
 
Last edited:
puredrifting said:
But I would love to see someone shoot a piece with the C200 with killer lighting, really nice set of cinema primes or a top line cinema zoom, shooting it all on Cinema RAW Light with the full HDR/ACES workflow and really see what the camera is capable of. I am shooting some nice images with it, some in RAW but I'd like to see someone like Charles, or some other DP I have been talking to lately like John Toll, ASC, or Russell Carpenter, ASC with his regular team shoot a short film, feature or pilot with it to see what is possible with it. Not a test film like "The Calling", a real film with a great script, name talent and a good director at the helm. People might be surprised.
Click to expand...

I'd only be surprised if the production you described did not look amazing. Other than to solve issues of weight, size, or AF, no one will use the c200 on anything where the stakes are that high. I've spoken to ACs who think the Alexa mini is a "toy".
 
rob norton said:
I'd only be surprised if the production you described did not look amazing. Other than to solve issues of weight, size, or AF, no one will use the c200 on anything where the stakes are that high. I've spoken to ACs who think the Alexa mini is a "toy".
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think it will only happen as an experiment, just like when they used a Canon 5D MKII to film that season finale of "House". But I bet some A-list DP will be curious enough to perhaps put one to work as a B or C camera on a high end piece.
 
puredrifting said:
Yeah, I think it will only happen as an experiment, just like when they used a Canon 5D MKII to film that season finale of "House". But I bet some A-list DP will be curious enough to perhaps put one to work as a B or C camera on a high end piece.
Click to expand...

Yeah true, otherwise maybe for ease of AF for extreme telephoto shooting? Or maybe multiple operators in an action scene? I know a c200 owner who owns the 300 2.8 for stills. The camera has completely brought that lens to life for video work.

It'd certainly help your cause for some extra high end material to push around. You'll be able to at least know for yourself next time you do BTS work on a larger set - maybe you could "borrow" its lighting while people are on lunch. It probably couldn't go public but you'd at least see for yourself :laugh:
 
rob norton said:
Yeah true, otherwise maybe for ease of AF for extreme telephoto shooting? Or maybe multiple operators in an action scene? I know a c200 owner who owns the 300 2.8 for stills. The camera has completely brought that lens to life for video work.

It'd certainly help your cause for some extra high end material to push around. You'll be able to at least know for yourself next time you do BTS work on a larger set - maybe you could "borrow" its lighting while people are on lunch. It probably couldn't go public but you'd at least see for yourself :laugh:
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the BTS part of our business seems to be pretty rapidly going away. We used to produce pieces for the studios that were sold as a premium add-on to entice people to buy the Special Edition DVD and or Bluray of the show or film. That model is essentially dead now, nobody buys their entertainment on pieces of plastic anymore and nobody seems to want to pay a premium to see the "deluxe" streaming version of a TV show or film with added bonus material. So our work is now ending up as a half hour TV special once in a while or just out on YouTube, which the studio cannot monetize. So why do they want to continue to hire us to shoot BTS when they cannot monetize their investment anymore? I suspect I may not be doing too much more of the BTS stuff on the regular basis.

The project I am shooting this week is additional material for a YouTube RED show, not sure how they are going to leverage it. But we're not shooting BTS, we are shooting wholly separate pieces, using talent from the show. I have a feeling this material will just end up on YouTube. The business is changing, radically for me. Thank goodness shooting documentary features seems to swept in to replace BTS for my business. At least so far.
 
Eric Coughlin said:
Which is why they are ACs and not DPs.

From what I've seen Alexa Mini is pretty commonplace now in high end productions, as I've also heard Dan (puredrifting) state.
Click to expand...

don't understand the contempt for ACs here.
every AC know that the mini produce a very nice image, and that is why indeed more and more high end production are using it because is costs less.

but it is as well a "toy" regarding the usability : much more difficult to use accessories with it than with a regular alexa, so you have to use many many others parts that make it look like a christmas tree and....which is as big as the alexa and not at all mini anymore.

I think that whys those ACs (including me) refer to it as a "toy" - but we all know the quality is tremendous.
 
Eric Coughlin said:
Which is why they are ACs and not DPs.

From what I've seen Alexa Mini is pretty commonplace now in high end productions, as I've also heard Dan (puredrifting) state.
Click to expand...

I more meant if the mini is a toy, the c200 doesn't have a chance from a production camera standpoint, unless special application.

I'm a big fan of the mini, it's becoming very popular here, the image is amazing. I looked through an Arri VF recently for the first time and can't understand why it looks so good. Though I've heard RED's new VF is great too.

Eric why don't you buy a mini instead of the Amira?
 
rob norton said:
I more meant if the mini is a toy, the c200 doesn't have a chance from a production camera standpoint, unless special application.
Click to expand...
I guess yeah, if the Mini was a toy, but it's not, considering it's become a standard professional tool, even if some ACs may not like it since it lacks features that ACs like and use.

But that doesn't really have much bearing on the C200. I don't imagine the C200 will get much use on big budget productions; it's too crippled even though it has RAWlite. C300 Mark II is not crippled, and doesn't get used that often on big budget productions, though sometimes it does.


rob norton said:
I'm a big fan of the mini, it's becoming very popular here, the image is amazing. I looked through an Arri VF recently for the first time and can't understand why it looks so good. Though I've heard RED's new VF is great too.

Eric why don't you buy a mini instead of the Amira?
Click to expand...
Seems one of the main selling points of a the Mini is for gimbal use, and one of the main reasons people use gimbals is because they can't afford a Steadicam operator (not saying Steadicam is always better, just generalizing here). I get free Steadicam on all of my shoots (since I don't charge myself) and my Steadicam can handle the Amira (though fully loaded it's getting near the limit, so I may upgrade my Steadicam at some point (also so I can handle the Alexa XT and other bigger rigs)). I don't own a gimbal and am generally not a fan of how gimbal footage looks. Good for some stuff, but I don't imagine I'd choose it over Steadicam often enough to make it a worthwhile investment, at least for now. Probably will get one eventually.

With the C300 Mark II, you spend more time rigging, and the Alexa Mini a very much a rigging type of camera. Amira is very simplified in its rigging approach. Camera pops right on the shoulder, ready to go. This article compares the Mini to the Amira, and shows how to counter balance with the 17-120 on the shoulder, the Mini actually ends up weighing slightly more than the Amira, while you had thought the Mini's light weight was one of it's main selling points.

Three XLR inputs are nice while the Mini has none. Amira seems to be capable of more types of shoots; documentary, for example, I see the Amira much more commonly. Perhaps the Mini is more commonly used on narrative and commercial, but the Amira is still well suited to those shoots, while I feel the Mini is rather lacking as a doc and corporate camera due to it's poor audio setup and less shoulder friendly ergonomics.

I don't imagine I'd shoot ArriRAW very often.

I believe the body with licenses is around $10k more than the Amira (I haven't thoroughly researched Mini prices), then perhaps another $5k for rigging, putting it around $55k, $15k more than an Amira. Plus, there's more used Amiras in the wild, going for as low as $28,500-$35,000. I'm hoping to find one for around $28k to $29k, just waiting for a good deal on one that is in good condition with accessories I'd like. Harder to find good used deals on the Mini, so really more like $20k or so cheaper to get the Amira. I bid up to $31k on one a few weeks ago, which sold for $31,200 or something like that, so I lost and got second place in the bid. Adorama has had some up, but they sold recently and there aren't any on Ebay now. Pretty much ready to buy now, so just waiting to find a good one. Kind of like marriage.
 
Last edited:
coutard said:
don't understand the contempt for ACs here.
every AC know that the mini produce a very nice image, and that is why indeed more and more high end production are using it because is costs less.

but it is as well a "toy" regarding the usability : much more difficult to use accessories with it than with a regular alexa, so you have to use many many others parts that make it look like a christmas tree and....which is as big as the alexa and not at all mini anymore.

I think that whys those ACs (including me) refer to it as a "toy" - but we all know the quality is tremendous.
Click to expand...
I wasn't trying to diss ACs; I'm saying they may have different priorities than say a DP such that the Mini's lacking features may bother them more, while the DP is more concerned with image. Thus, an AC may be more likely to consider it a toy than a DP.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top