C700: Canon C700 with viewfinder for cheap!

Jaime Valles

Jaime Valles

Veteran
I'm not the person selling this on Ebay, but I just ran across the listing and thought someone here might be interested:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/224009491084

It's a Canon C700 PL camera that includes the Canon EVF-V70 Electronic Viewfinder. That viewfinder alone costs $4000 new, so depending on how the auction goes you could buy it for super cheap.

The original C700 is a bit long in the tooth, but for this price it looks like it could be a steal. If I were in the market for a PL mount camera, I would jump on it.
 
It would be hilarious if it sold for $4k, meaning the only thing valuable in that deal is the viewfinder and they basically give the camera away for free. There will always be a market for these cameras for people who have lots of paperwork and fans or hinged doors.

The viewfinder would be much more compelling if you could use the LCD at the same time. Such a big design flaw. As it is, you spend $4k, which is a lot of money for a viewfinder for an $11k or $16k camera, and you actually lose features and usability when using it. Tough pill to swallow. While a Zacuto viewfinder is not as integrated, requires separate power, etc., it's less than half the price and can be used with the LCD. I'm not sure how their image quality compare, but I would imagine the Canon one is better at that price point.

Since Canon has not made dual power outs on their C-series cameras for the viewfinder, a usable workout would be to have a power out on the viewfinder, as they're more likely to update the viewfinder in the near term since they just released their latest iteration of C-series cameras. Zacuto has an SDI out on their viewfinder. The Arri viewfinders with flip-out LCD attached are the best thing since sliced bread, especially the Mini LF and future Arri's with the improved viewinder and larger better quality LCD screen.
 
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Hahaha! Indeed, they're practically giving away the camera. At $4K (currently) this thing is a really good deal.

I should add that I am not affiliated with the seller in any way, nor can I vouch for the legitimacy of the sale. So don't come crying to me if it ends up being a scam!
 
One of my friends bought a Canon 30-300 on Ebay which turned out to be a scam. Ebay refunded him, but it was a hassle to work on getting the refund and have those funds tied up in the meantime.

This one is a bid though with 40 bids so far, so it likely won't sell for $4k.
 
Do we have reason to believe the viewfinder isn't good?

If not, let's put it at $2000. A smidge over the BMD $1500 one.

Don't you guys feel the C700 is a great $6500 camera?

It's not the form factor for me, but it's still a 38mm sensor with a couple of convenient internal record options. I'm guessing the buyer is happy.
 
We’re saying the EVF is the only good part of the sale.

In this case, the camera is the apple stand. The evf is the xdr monitor.
 
I've shot twice with the C700. It's a nice camera but I agree with Eric, it's not really putting out a significantly better image than the C300 MKII by much
and new it cost as much as two or three C300 MKIIs. It's long and heavy too.
 
I feel like the C700 (for the right price) could make for a good studio cam. Great image, convenient ProRes options for quick delivery and easy post workflow, etc. But with that form factor, I'll take a hard pass. Would also only want the EF mount so you can take advantage of autofocus.

Having been someone who had the C500 when it first came out (work bought it) and then who bought it personally for dirt cheap long after it had ran its course I can't see myself going backwards on technology. Even if it's a good deal the convenience of new features (in my case the autofocus and internal recording of the C200) are just too good to pass up in my opinion.

At this point I would need a very specific and regularly occurring use case to go backwards....
 
I like the C700, well setup, fully-featured. I don't understand people's claims of it being heavy, as it's like half the weight of an Alexa. It gets a bit long with the raw recorder attached at the back, but so few people would want to shoot uncompressed 4k raw anyway, that I don't think that's a big issue. Size wise, it's hardly any worse than an FX9 with a v-mount plate out the back.

It came too late to the party and didn't offer anything much more than people were already getting with Sony F55s or Varicams, which is why I think it's seen so little market penetration, but for a great price like that?! It's a bargain. Plus for just $5k more, you could have Canon upgrade it to their 6k Full-Frame sensor. It's a lot of camera for the money.
 
Grug said:
...but for a great price like that?! It's a bargain. Plus for just $5k more, you could have Canon upgrade it to their 6k Full-Frame sensor. It's a lot of camera for the money.
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It's a nice camera, for sure. But for the price, I'd rather get one of the newer offerings like the C300 Mk III or C500 Mk II, plus they're smaller and lighter weight. Both of those should be better image quality than the original C700, no?
 
The 700 was just too late to the party and too expensive, especially to be a Canon camera. Yes, it actually had things I had asked for and suggested in the surveys that they had sent to C series owners years before, but it was still “a day late and a dollar short”, so to speak. If it had been introduced in 2012, it would be a completely different story.
 
Run&Gun said:
The 700 was just too late to the party and too expensive, especially to be a Canon camera. Yes, it actually had things I had asked for and suggested in the surveys that they had sent to C series owners years before, but it was still “a day late and a dollar short”, so to speak. If it had been introduced in 2012, it would be a completely different story.
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And if it wasn't in Arri Amira and RED territory on cost. If the C300 MKII, at the time, was a $10k or $12k camera, if Canon would have put the original C700 in the $18k range, it could have been a major success.
It would work great as a small crew documentary A cam for interviews and crewed support shoots, even shoulder mounted. The whole Codex thing was a mismatch as far as cost structure, way too high end for
who should have been buying the C700. I liked the form factor way better than any of the smaller Canons. I was hoping the C300 MKIII and C500 MKII
were going to be this form factor at 2/3 size.
 
The C700 was a direct competitor for the F55 and the Varicam, I don’t think it’s unreasonable that they priced it comparably, unfortunately the boat had simply sailed by the time they got there.

I think they’ve managed to leap right back into relevance again with the C500ii and C300ii though. The size, weight, feature-set and price are pretty fantastic on those.
 
puredrifting said:
I liked the form factor way better than any of the smaller Canons. I was hoping the C300 MKIII and C500 MKII
were going to be this form factor at 2/3 size.
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But are not the C300 Mark II and C500 Mark III basically the same form factor at 2/3 the size when you add the extension unit? This to me makes this generation of the C-series brilliant, as it pleases the cradle shooters and those who want a small and not long form factor, while also offering the opportunity for a long camera AB or V-mount shoulder balanced setup that doesn't rely on clunky rail setups.

If you add some other items such as a Teredek holder and or Wooden Camera C-Box 3G-SDI to the back you can make the C300 or C500 even longer while adding functionality and still not needing cluttered rails as it looks like with the extension unit it may still be slightly shorter than the C700. Again, I see this as a positive because a camera that starts longer such as the C700 or Amira starts to get too long when you add on the Teredek holder as Run&Gun had mentioned in another topic. The C-Box or Teredek holder also snap on super quick (as quickly as mounting a battery) so do not require much time to rig up and are very contained to smoothly fit as if part of the original camera.


c500-mark-ii-extension-unit-2-hands-640x359.jpg



Canon-C700FF_inline-featured--640x360.jpg



There is a certain beauty to a camera like the Amira which is so well contained so that you rarely need to spend much time rigging or derigging like you may need to do with a Mini or C300, but on the flip side, the Mini and C300 have more flexibility in being able to use in smaller spaces or on a gimbal or drone. The Mini has a downside though of having the fan on the back of the camera which means you're always needing to use a not as ergonomic cage or rail setup to mount a battery compared to the C500 Mark II or a Red.
 
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Grug said:
The C700 was a direct competitor for the F55 and the Varicam, I don’t think it’s unreasonable that they priced it comparably, unfortunately the boat had simply sailed by the time they got there.

I think they’ve managed to leap right back into relevance again with the C500ii and C300ii though. The size, weight, feature-set and price are pretty fantastic on those.
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I'm drooling over the C300 MKIII. What a great package at the right price. Canon is hitting it out of the park during the unfortunate year that never was for production.
 
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Eric Coughlin said:
But are not the C300 Mark II and C500 Mark III basically the same form factor at 2/3 the size when you add the extension unit? This to me makes this generation of the C-series brilliant, as it pleases the cradle shooters and those who want a small and not long form factor, while also offering the opportunity for a long camera AB or V-mount shoulder balanced setup that doesn't rely on clunky rail setups.

If you add some other items such as a Teredek holder and or Wooden Camera C-Box 3G-SDI to the back you can make the C300 or C500 even longer while adding functionality and still not needing cluttered rails as it looks like with the extension unit it may still be slightly shorter than the C700. Again, I see this as a positive because a camera that starts longer such as the C700 or Amira starts to get too long when you add on the Teredek holder as Run&Gun had mentioned in another topic. The C-Box or Teredek holder also snap on super quick (as quickly as mounting a battery) so do not require much time to rig up and are very contained to smoothly fit as if part of the original camera.


c500-mark-ii-extension-unit-2-hands-640x359.jpg



Canon-C700FF_inline-featured--640x360.jpg



There is a certain beauty to a camera like the Amira which is so well contained so that you rarely need to spend much time rigging or derigging like you may need to do with a Mini or C300, but on the flip side, the Mini and C300 have more flexibility in being able to use in smaller spaces or on a gimbal or drone. The Mini has a downside though of having the fan on the back of the camera which means you're always needing to use a not as ergonomic cage or rail setup to mount a battery compared to the C500 Mark II or a Red.
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Good catch Eric. Comparing those images, I think you're right on base here, forgot about the extension units. Add a shoulder mount and handgrip extension and you have a great package for shoulder mounted documentary shooting.
Still have to engineer the EVF solution yourself if you can't shell out $4k for the EVF-70 but that's do-able.
 
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Eric Coughlin said:
But are not the C300 Mark II and C500 Mark III basically the same form factor at 2/3 the size when you add the extension unit? This to me makes this generation of the C-series brilliant, as it pleases the cradle shooters and those who want a small and not long form factor, while also offering the opportunity for a long camera AB or V-mount shoulder balanced setup that doesn't rely on clunky rail setups.
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Exactly. The C300 III and C500 II are the best of both worlds when it comes to form factor. Once production starts ramping up, I'm going to be looking at the C300 III veeeeerrrrryyyy closely. Who knows... maybe by then there will be a price drop!
 
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