Canon XF705 Professional Camcorder

https://youtu.be/gK7z-qcRLjQ

This is Melanie Hardage second original piece. The handheld camera using manual focus with the obviously better color is the XF705. The only manipulation of the file was to convert it to ProRes 422 HQ and then encode it to MP4 30 mbs for YouTube.
 
FWIIW: Adobe Media Encoder will not transcode the BT.2020 color space XF HEVC files. Media Encoder works only for the sRGB.709 color space MXP HECV files.
 
Canon XF705 sample footage:

https://youtu.be/fc9JHOO5aeU

The XF705 is white-balanced on the gray target separately for sunlight and shade, ND 1/64 in sunlight, Gain 3 db for sulight and 12 db for shade, 24p at 180 degrees, approximately f 4.8 to f 5.6, autofocus except when inadvertently turning focus ring, exposed gray target at 40 on WFM, 4K HEVC 160 mbs, Canon Wide Dynamic Range picture profile, sRGB .709 color space (Adobe Media Encoder won’t work with the .2020 space), renamed file from .mxf to .mpg, transcoded to ProRes 422 HQ by Adobe Media Encoder, assembled on timeline and exported with Media Encoder 2 pass to 50 mbs 4K h.264 for YouTube upload. No manipulation of the image whatsoever.
 
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The table is exactly the shade of faded turquoise blue that it appears in the video. I am impressed with color fidelty and shadow detail. One can see good shadow detail in the porch through the arches at the same time that one can see the perfectly exposed white brick wall and white clouds. As long as the aperture is f4.8 or higher, zooming the full range does not detectably change the exposure reading of the gray target on the WFM. The entire sunlight portion of the video, through all the zooming, was shot with the same exposure settings with the aperture set at f5.6.
 
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Thanks for posting. Nice looking footage. I do think it is odd to need such small apertures to stop the lens ramping. f4.8 and indoor filming just sounds like a horrible combination. I am sure the gain can male up the difference it just sounds like the camera will always need a fair amount of gain when shooting indoors or not in sunlight.
 
Thanks. Yes you are right about using the gain to compensate for the ramping in lower light levels with larger apertures. F4.8 is the largest aperture that does not ramp.
 
https://youtu.be/xLaNmX6TcF4

Canon XF 705 - Bright Diffuse Coastal Light

59.94P, 180 Degree shutter, 4K 10 bit 422 Wide DR BT.709 H.265/HEVC 160 Mbps, +3 db gain, 1/64 ND, Custom WB on gray target, exposure 95% zebra on brightest white in scene, approximately f5.6, autofocus, manual zoom, image stabilization off, night scene +33 db gain, rename .mxf to .mpg, Adobe Media Encoder transcode to ProRes 422 HQ, assemble, transcode to h.264 at 50 mbs, upload to YouTube. No image manipulation. Lightweight tripod with moderate breeze.
 
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Thanks for sharing. Looks pretty good. I would say if you are committing to the camera, some profile tweaks could help the image imho. The highlights look pretty good. Nice rolloff but this always can be improved. The blacks look a bit compressed. Not as bad as the DVX200 but I think this is an area to focus on. The greens and overall color looks a bit flat. Maybe try lowering the red saturation while raising the color saturation of everything else as the reds will bloom. I do not know the controls given but there should be enough to go after these bits.

This is all my opinion though. Some like undersaturated video but I think it makes pro cameras look consumerish. But I am approaching this as video, not film...
 
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I really wish I could find some information on how the 705 stacks up to the cinema series in terms of color and ISO/gain. I was using an XC15 as a C cam for the cinema series. Even just a comparison with the 705 to the XC cameras would be useful for me to understand if this camera would work well with the cinema series.. I realize that the cinema series and the XF series are for different markets, but I figured there would be more comparisons available now for those of us interested in both.
 
cpreston said:
I really wish I could find some information on how the 705 stacks up to the cinema series in terms of color and ISO/gain. I was using an XC15 as a C cam for the cinema series. Even just a comparison with the 705 to the XC cameras would be useful for me to understand if this camera would work well with the cinema series.. I realize that the cinema series and the XF series are for different markets, but I figured there would be more comparisons available now for those of us interested in both.
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With our own tests and what Canon Burbank has told me, up to the 3200 ISO equivalent in db gain is clean. As for the color DNA, its the same as the C series. The DOP appears/seems to the eye closer to the C series S35 sensor than the XF305's 1/3" sensor. The touch screen DPAF is just like the C200 and the new C300 MK II Touch kit (which we just got in).

Jim Martin
CinemaWorks
 
Jim Martin said:
With our own tests and what Canon Burbank has told me, up to the 3200 ISO equivalent in db gain is clean. As for the color DNA, its the same as the C series. The DOP appears/seems to the eye closer to the C series S35 sensor than the XF305's 1/3" sensor. The touch screen DPAF is just like the C200 and the new C300 MK II Touch kit (which we just got in).

Jim Martin
CinemaWorks
Click to expand...

Thanks, Jim. 3200ISO is about where the XC series fell apart as well. Have you seen any indication if the 705 has any built in color profiles that would allow it to be cut interchangeably with the c300 MK II without color correction? Or with the C200? Canon has never seemed to be concerned with any of the cameras matching, but I did find that the XC15 in it's wide DR production camera matrix was a very close match to the C300 MKII in the same settings. Canon Log wasn't even close for some reason.
 
cpreston said:
Thanks, Jim. 3200ISO is about where the XC series fell apart as well. Have you seen any indication if the 705 has any built in color profiles that would allow it to be cut interchangeably with the c300 MK II without color correction? Or with the C200? Canon has never seemed to be concerned with any of the cameras matching, but I did find that the XC15 in it's wide DR production camera matrix was a very close match to the C300 MKII in the same settings. Canon Log wasn't even close for some reason.
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I'd say we're good at 3200....above that and the noise shows up. If I remember, 1600 was tops for the XC10 & 15 with anything above that, noise is there. Also, remember the noise on Canons moves, mimicking film grain. As for the gammas, there are 4 normals, all close to 709, and WideDR & Log 3.

Jim Martin
CinemaWorks
 
I'm still surprised only one comprehensive review (RedShark) has come out so far. Anyone find any others out there? Anyone? Bueller?
 
Jim Martin said:
I'd say we're good at 3200....above that and the noise shows up. If I remember, 1600 was tops for the XC10 & 15 with anything above that, noise is there. Also, remember the noise on Canons moves, mimicking film grain. As for the gammas, there are 4 normals, all close to 709, and WideDR & Log 3.

Jim Martin
CinemaWorks
Click to expand...

So an extra stop of gain and close to an extra stop on the lens means that it is somewhat useable indoors. My biggest problem with the XC15 is that it would fall apart with movement even if I couldn't see any noise. The XF705 lets you control the noise reduction so I am interested to see what it looks like when not in automatic mode. I see that the XF705 has only two color matrices, video and neutral, but it can probably be made to match since it allows for full color matrix tuning.

It seems like a decent camera. I am guessing it might be getting more attention of Canon had bit the bullet and stuck constant f/2.8 lens or lower on the camera.
 
Canon XF705 0% 24m Lease Available & In Stock at Texas Media Systems

Canon XF705 0% 24m Lease Available & In Stock at Texas Media Systems

The Canon XF705, XF405, XF400 now has 0% 24 month, 0% 12 Month, and 1.99% 36 Month Lease Financing available through March 31 2018.

Leases can be completed in 1-2 days if you have good credit.

Canon will honor Film & TV Sales Tax Exemptions that are available in Texas, California, NJ, NY, Florida, etc. Equipment insurance is required.

We have one Canon XF705 available that is arriving today that we can ship to arrive tomorrow.

Canon XF705 Five Video Tutorial Series: From Prep to Post now available on YouTube.

Canon XF705 $6999



 
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