Canon XC10 new price point makes it a great purchase

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slavikb

Well-known member
In my original Newsshooter review I mentioned that if the XC10 was $1000 cheaper it would be a no brainer for many shooters. Well, it's now there (or close to there).

The current Canon rebate brings down the price to $2000, but I just bought an "open box" XC10 from Pro Video and Tape's ebay store, where they are going for a little over $1700. But from inspection it looks to be completely new, and comes with a full warranty. It includes a SanDisk 64gb Cfast 2.0 card currently selling for $220 on its own, as well as a SanDisk Cfast reader valued at $50. Which makes the XC10 itself less than $1500.

Personally after shooting and training with the Sony RX10 II for a while, the XC10 is so much simpler and fool proof for various skill levels, and the image stabilization is crazy good even at 2x teleconversion and hand held at about 500mm full frame equivalent.

Also, not sure if this is an error or not, but right now the XC10 at the Canon store is listed as $1499, though there is some dispute as to whether Canon will honor this price. https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/...ce=DVInfo&utm_medium=Banner&utm_campaign=XC10

With a Juicedlink Riggy Micro XLR preamp this camera becomes even more versatile for a variety of multimedia production.

Canon-XC10-Juicedlink-Rm222.jpg

Hope this helps some of you who have been considering the XC10 for a while but were waiting for a more affordable price point.

Cheers,
Slavik
 
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Do you use this camera?

Any examples.

Im kind of interested in a camera to just have in a bag and maybe a small monopod.

While I like to shoot with a small form I need to be able to do wide, med and CU with one lens

also im very interested in a deep codec that can really be worked in post.

My concerns are I guess..

Ability to focus (manually - I find nearly all AF lenses make me feel disconnected)
Ability change controls very fast and intuitively (I find canon DSLR way better than my sony FS7)

S
 
I do use it to teach video production to multimedia journalists (radio, web, and some TV people), and it's really easy to learn all the video components without the intimidation factor. Plus it looks great out of the box, even with C-log or WDR, without extensive grading.

For my own productions I usually shoot with C100s, but have used the XC10 as a way to capture simple stories without all the gear - or like you said, just a camera, a small monopod, and a Lav mic. Here's a short example I did down the street, walked around for a few minutes, found a story, shot it handheld and came back and edited all in under an hour - https://vimeo.com/139900490

You won't like the focusing on this camera or any one that has fly by wire electronic focusing, and the ISO is a little harder to change than higher end cinema cameras. But there are trade offs of course.

In my experience you can usually call a shop like Pro Video and they may get you an even better deal than the ebay listing. I think the original $2500 price was a little steep for the XC10's offerings, but now that it's down to about $1500-1700 it's a lot more attractive even if you already have a higher end kit.

Cheers,
Slavik
 
Interesting .. the shots look nice (stability, composition, DOF) .. looks a little ungraded to me but I guess the meat is in the file.

Iris? can you change that nicely? (right forefinger?)

With my FS7 basically I change ND and use my manual iris not really touch ISO... id be lost with the electronic iris and the control on that camera.

Do you find you can operate and interview at the same time and have a good eyeline? mono pod?

S
 
I always thought the form factor of this camera was cute. Seems like a great little run and gun camera. But even at $1500 it's a hard sell. At least for me. When I can get a GH4 for around the same price with a larger sensor and interchangable lenses or even one of those new A6300 cameras with a lens for around the same price but again have interchangable lenses, S-Log and an S35mm sensor with higher res stills, that makes this a hard purchase. I think Canon's sweet spot for this camera is around $1000, but they'll never do that. At least not for a few years.
 
roxics said:
I always thought the form factor of this camera was cute. Seems like a great little run and gun camera. But even at $1500 it's a hard sell. At least for me. When I can get a GH4 for around the same price with a larger sensor and interchangable lenses or even one of those new A6300 cameras with a lens for around the same price but again have interchangable lenses, S-Log and an S35mm sensor with higher res stills, that makes this a hard purchase. I think Canon's sweet spot for this camera is around $1000, but they'll never do that. At least not for a few years.
Click to expand...

I have a GH4 and for the 'quick fun shoot at the food fair' it is not the right tool... or I have not managed to make it that.

-The shape of the body means you cannot get hold of a focus ring, certainly with a short prime.
-You cannot easily get a zoom that goes from wide, mid, cu
-the image is pretty sketchy above 400ISO
-no ND filter

if im going to the 'food fair' I would strip down my FS7 and take that over the GH4.. but I want something smaller than a naked FS7.

the GH4 has other applications, vehicle mount, gimbal, steadicam, b-cam at interviews but not 'food fair cam' :)
 
It is an appealing handy little camcorder. I like the XC10 as a possible replacement for my 10 year old GL2. Big step up in IQ with the same convenience for less money than the GL2 cost.
 
Interesting .. the shots look nice (stability, composition, DOF) .. looks a little ungraded to me but I guess the meat is in the file.

Iris? can you change that nicely? (right forefinger?)

With my FS7 basically I change ND and use my manual iris not really touch ISO... id be lost with the electronic iris and the control on that camera.

Do you find you can operate and interview at the same time and have a good eyeline? mono pod?

S
Click to expand...

It's ungraded C-log. Yeah, Iris you can change with the right forefinger, you can enable one of the custom buttons to turn on/off ND.

Yeah you can operate and interview from the side, though I usually prefer to interview direct to camera. You'd want to have face detect on, or stop down so you're not worried about losing focus - the screen only tilts up, doesn't swivel to the left or right.

Cheers,
Slavik
 
morgan_moore said:
I have a GH4 and for the 'quick fun shoot at the food fair' it is not the right tool... or I have not managed to make it that.

-The shape of the body means you cannot get hold of a focus ring, certainly with a short prime.
-You cannot easily get a zoom that goes from wide, mid, cu
-the image is pretty sketchy above 400ISO
-no ND filter

if im going to the 'food fair' I would strip down my FS7 and take that over the GH4.. but I want something smaller than a naked FS7.

the GH4 has other applications, vehicle mount, gimbal, steadicam, b-cam at interviews but not 'food fair cam' :)
Click to expand...

Totally forgot this camera had built in NDs. That's a nice touch.

I've never shot with the GH4 but used to shoot this style with a GH1 and 2. So it can be done, but I get you, it's a little easier with an all-in-one package.
Like I said, I think it's cute and I don't mean that negatively. Just that the price is a little much.
 
roxics said:
I think Canon's sweet spot for this camera is around $1000, but they'll never do that. At least not for a few years.
Click to expand...

I dunno. It would be nice to have reasonable quality cheap grab cam, I'm thinking, for example, the $700 Pany FZ1000 has 1" CMOS, longer faster lens, proper EVF, basic 4k, or pay currently at least another $1000 to get single ND, SLog, dual card, higher 4K bitrate on the XC10 - is it worth it for most buyers? I think Canon could be thinking along those lines as well. Also remembering what they did with EOS M pricing.
 
i don't see $1499 pricing.

i wish i did!

i like the footage from the xc10.

but then again, i have also used a pair of eos-m with primes to shoot non-evasive talking head interviews.

i wonder how the a6300 will change this "small, everything camera" segment?

be well.

rob
smalltalk.productions
 
Yes the bitrate on the XC10 is definitely worth it. Looks better than the GH4. You do need a very modern computer with a fast processor and EditReady converter to convert the files from .MXF to .MOV as I'm learning. Manual focussing is hard, unless you have a dedicated focus puller, so I film in auto focus or face tracking most of the time. I was going to get the BlackMagic pocket camera or the GH4, but the BPC looked a bit soft focus and the GH4 looked good but the Canon 4:2:2 colorspace looked better.

Rainer said:
I dunno. It would be nice to have reasonable quality cheap grab cam, I'm thinking, for example, the $700 Pany FZ1000 has 1" CMOS, longer faster lens, proper EVF, basic 4k, or pay currently at least another $1000 to get single ND, SLog, dual card, higher 4K bitrate on the XC10 - is it worth it for most buyers? I think Canon could be thinking along those lines as well. Also remembering what they did with EOS M pricing.
Click to expand...
 
Here's a piece about studying abroad I shot on the XC10. Very minimal gear. Had to crank ISO to 6400 or so during a couple of the interviews for lack of light. Was a great traveling companion. https://vimeo.com/154224497

No 4k, only 1080 35mbps.
 
hearn-

nice piece.

clog?

sound straight into xc10?

stills pulled from video images/source?

(some of the still images were outstanding)

exterior skin tone was very nice.

which nle did you use and what was editing/color correction like with this codec?

thanks in advance for any info you care to share.

be well.

rob
smalltalk.productions
 
Hey rob, thanks a lot. Yes all c-log, graded with a kodak gold emulation film lut in premiere lumetri. The sound was straight into the XC10 with either the rode videomic pro or rode wireless lav kit. A couple of the interviews were a smartlav and sync'd in post. The stills were ones I shot on a Canon M3, some with the 22mm prime and some with the 55-200 ef-m. I went for the lightest gear possible for the trip because I had to do 10 flights in 16 days.
 
It still comes down to wants/needs/use/budget, for me, if i were to have a hard look at it, even at $2k, i would still lean a bit more toward a sony x70 for its better video ergonomics, somewhat more versatile lens. it of course has a lesser codec than the xc10, but again, different needs...
 
Darren Levine said:
It still comes down to wants/needs/use/budget, for me, if i were to have a hard look at it, even at $2k, i would still lean a bit more toward a sony x70 for its better video ergonomics, somewhat more versatile lens. it of course has a lesser codec than the xc10, but again, different needs...
Click to expand...
If you a have a C100 already though I think there's no comparison at all. It has c-log and the colors will match your C100. The x70 still has the handycam video look.
 
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