C100: Little bits of firmware requests

Darren Levine

Darren Levine

Veteran
Really feeling right at home with my relatively new c100, wrapping up soon with a low light comparison.

Just fired off an email to blackmagic to see if they plan to add either pulldown removal or hdmi triggering or both, otherwise, it's a ninja2.

other than that, it seems unlikely that canon will release any significant firmware updates, but here's to wishing anyways...

the 8 bit output, it's what everyone knocks about the camera. well, if canon could just squeeze a tad more out of it, call it 8bit+/9bit/etc... but outputted as a 10 bit signal, it would satisfy a ton of speculators and colorists. if 10 bit is 2 more bits per channel, give us just an extra bit and send it out as 10. or even just leave 8 bit as is, but give us a 10bit out with an estimation algorithm to fill in the missing bits, to give a little boost. Sure you can run your own programs to do such bit upgrades, but that's another step. unlikely as all hell they'd do anything near this, but sure would be a nice bone if possible.

the photo mode. silly as heck to mention, yes. but on my Galapagos trip i thoroughly plan to use it a bit. would be great it they had that use the full res of the 4k sensor, which would give it a very respectable photo mode. and this is certainly something that wouldn't threaten any of the c line cameras.

power zoom. somewhere they mentioned looking into making an EF power zoom lens, and im very much looking forward to that. give us something along what sony did with the vg series lens, and this will thoroughly replace my ex1,

handle options. i don't mind that the handle is crucial for operation, but it does bother some. it seems it would be darned easy to make a flat cap for the handle mount that has a mini joystick built in so you can retain full control with the handle off. on top of that, if and when they do release a power zoom, here's to hoping they make a new handle with a built in proper zoom rocker. THEN we're talking incredible versatility!

just wanted to get that out of my head. mostly unlikely, but never hurts to drop it in the comment box

also wondering if they will allow the usb port to be use with ef-utility or similar function.

cheers
 
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imdjay said:
Just fired off an email to blackmagic to see if they plan to add either pulldown removal or hdmi triggering or both, otherwise, it's a ninja2.
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I did so as well, Darren, but I have to say, the Ninja-2 is pretty badass. Had a few issues with it on its first shoot, but hopefully got that ironed out. Will be using it heavily on Sunday.

the 8 bit output, it's what everyone knocks about the camera. well, if canon could just squeeze a tad more out of it, call it 8bit+/9bit/etc... but outputted as a 10 bit signal, it would satisfy a ton of speculators and colorists.
Click to expand...

It's the "right" 8bits. I've done some tests. Not an issue. Seriously impressed.

but give us a 10bit out with an estimation algorithm to fill in the missing bits, to give a little boost.
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I don't see how this will be any different than recording to 10-bit ProRes HQ like the Ninja-2 does. I would assume that the C100 to Ninja-2 (10bit 4:2:2 ProRes HQ) will be like the AF100A at the very least. Again, did a gradient background test that the AF100 demonstrated banding on and there wasn't any off the C100.
 
imdjay said:
Just fired off an email to blackmagic to see if they plan to add either pulldown removal or hdmi triggering or both
Click to expand...

Ha, me three from the other day. Perhaps they'll get annoyed with us and add the feature to keep their inboxes from overflowing!
 
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In the vain hope that Canon may lurk in these forums... "Like wot Darren sez" but...

- White balance 1: please can we have a more ‘spot mode’ for white set – currently we must fill the screen for an accurate white set, often requiring we remove the camera from its position, move to the subject and white set. We don’t have long ENG lenses to isolate a bit of white, and I note how EASY it is to achieve poor WB if you don’t fill the screen with a white sample.

- Intervalometer: Timelapse is a staple of videography – make dull exteriors or boring subjects like crowds or queues interesting by a little timelapse (1 frame every 1-10 seconds) – WITH SLOW SHUTTER. The latter is vital to achieve the ‘smeary/dreamy’ look. We could bring a DSLR and do it properly, but 1) it requires another ‘camera ecosystem’ with power, lenses, etc) and more importantly 2) I work alone, and don’t want to leave a camera unattended where it could be a H&S or even theft issue. EX1 was a dream in this respect (and if the C100 is made for Videographers like me, why does only the C300 have it?)

- Focus Magnify: we need to be able to move the focus area (like a DSLR) so we can check critical focus on areas other than dead centre during a shot. Rule of thirds composition usually means interviewees eyes are always tantalisingly out of the magnified area just when we need this most. Secondly, the 1x/2x/4x dual zoom mode found on DSLRs would be much appreciated – especially if using the EVF!

- Shot Duration: with almost all interviews, at the end of the take a presenter will ask ‘how long was that?’ – surely a simple option to incorporate a ‘Duration’ display in place of the ‘Timecode’ display would be easy to implement, but I see it’s not even on the C300? This is a very valid requirement on pro video kit - we don’t have Production Assistants with stopwatches any more.

- Is it possible to set the progressive recording modes to a proper Progressive, rather than ‘PSF’ mode? After all, 'Malignant PSF' was a term invented by the reaction to Canon's PSF interpretation.

- Will Canon be encouraging AJA, Black Magic and Sound Devices to implement their slightly odd implementation of HDMI? Currently, only the Atomos Ninja plays nice with the C100 – due to a lot of hard work by Atomos.

- Whilst we have ‘Preset free-run’ TimeCode which can be approximated to Time Of Day Code, a proper ‘Time of Day’ code which respects the clock settings (specifically shifting the time zone) would be appreciated.

A bit whiny but hey - we British invented whinging!
 
Great list Matt D. I doubt we'll see any of these features - but since the competition is really hotting up in this price sector, just maybe Canon will see the sense in making the C100 more competitive by making it more useful/featurer rich.

Most of all I want to see 1080p50/60 AVCHD2.
 
Your camera just came out, imagine us C300 owners who've been waiting for a year for simple things like zebras below 70! Turns out there is a secret firmware version to minimize color fringing, but you have to send your camera into Canon for that, assuming you know about it and Canon technical service admits to it.

I would think offering AVCHD 2.0 wouldn't be a big deal firmware wise for the C100 and wonder why Canon didn't implement it in the first place? Panasonic has offered it on the AF100 for a $250 download cost for months.
 
Dino said:
Your camera just came out, imagine us C300 owners who've been waiting for a year
Click to expand...

However, this is Canon, chaps. Usually last to the party, but with something with an eye for the long term - XL1 & 2, XLH1 (seem to remember PSF funnies with its HDV - plus ca change), 5d Mk2 and now the C300/100. Hopefully they won't do anything awful at NAB like unveil the C301/101 with all this stuff in it. Or will they?

Sometimes, I wonder if we (the consumers) brought it on ourselves - rapturous applause when cameras announced, moans and groans when prices announced - too much for not enough. "Right" says Marketing Department, and picks up the red Feature Deletion pen. "They can have it for less but we cut features out - don't worry, we'll add them in to v2." - 1080p50/60? I'd yell 'Bah, humbug', but I got three jobs last year on the basis I could shoot 1080p50.

So, really, I hope Canon realise that their camera (just like the rest) are a bit of glass at one end, a storage device at the other, and a computer in the middle. Computers get bug fixes, and they get upgrades.

We live in hope.
 
MattDavis said:
In the vain hope that Canon may lurk in these forums... "Like wot Darren sez" but...

- White balance 1: please can we have a more ‘spot mode’ for white set – currently we must fill the screen for an accurate white set, often requiring we remove the camera from its position, move to the subject and white set. We don’t have long ENG lenses to isolate a bit of white, and I note how EASY it is to achieve poor WB if you don’t fill the screen with a white sample.

- Intervalometer: Timelapse is a staple of videography – make dull exteriors or boring subjects like crowds or queues interesting by a little timelapse (1 frame every 1-10 seconds) – WITH SLOW SHUTTER. The latter is vital to achieve the ‘smeary/dreamy’ look. We could bring a DSLR and do it properly, but 1) it requires another ‘camera ecosystem’ with power, lenses, etc) and more importantly 2) I work alone, and don’t want to leave a camera unattended where it could be a H&S or even theft issue. EX1 was a dream in this respect (and if the C100 is made for Videographers like me, why does only the C300 have it?)

- Focus Magnify: we need to be able to move the focus area (like a DSLR) so we can check critical focus on areas other than dead centre during a shot. Rule of thirds composition usually means interviewees eyes are always tantalisingly out of the magnified area just when we need this most. Secondly, the 1x/2x/4x dual zoom mode found on DSLRs would be much appreciated – especially if using the EVF!

- Shot Duration: with almost all interviews, at the end of the take a presenter will ask ‘how long was that?’ – surely a simple option to incorporate a ‘Duration’ display in place of the ‘Timecode’ display would be easy to implement, but I see it’s not even on the C300? This is a very valid requirement on pro video kit - we don’t have Production Assistants with stopwatches any more.

- Is it possible to set the progressive recording modes to a proper Progressive, rather than ‘PSF’ mode? After all, 'Malignant PSF' was a term invented by the reaction to Canon's PSF interpretation.

- Will Canon be encouraging AJA, Black Magic and Sound Devices to implement their slightly odd implementation of HDMI? Currently, only the Atomos Ninja plays nice with the C100 – due to a lot of hard work by Atomos.

- Whilst we have ‘Preset free-run’ TimeCode which can be approximated to Time Of Day Code, a proper ‘Time of Day’ code which respects the clock settings (specifically shifting the time zone) would be appreciated.

A bit whiny but hey - we British invented whinging!
Click to expand...


Nice list and I second all of these - especially Timelapse. On the Magnify function it would be nice to be able to choose if it also magnifies on the HDMI out. When you use another EVF (which is necessary) you can't check focus with the hand grip. It would have to be a menu change so that if you're using a Ninja you could disable it.

Canon really needs to have a spokesperson out on one of these forums and as a company they need to show that they care about what their customers want and need. Lurking around and then kicking out a camera without good feedback (or only the feedback they want to get) is why some of these things aren't on the C100 in the first place.

Bob
 
wojdarm said:
Canon really needs to have a spokesperson out on one of these forums and as a company they need to show that they care about what their customers want and need. Lurking around and then kicking out a camera without good feedback (or only the feedback they want to get) is why some of these things aren't on the C100 in the first place.
Click to expand...

Well, except that the C100 is selling like mad right now, so why should Canon feel the need to do this?
 
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