C300: Maxing out my new C300MKIII

chris f

chris f

Veteran
Since getting my brand new camera with dream specs, these are the paid jobs I've gotten to use it on now that things are picking up:

Live Stream Streaming to YouTube at 4500kbps in glorious 1080p
Political Ad The creative called for it to look like selfie videos so I shot on my iPhone 11Pro and recorded sound from my boom mic into my C300MKIII because I don't have a sound recorder.
Political Ad Actually got to shoot in UHD AVC, yay.
Host to Camera Edited live via ATEM Mini Pro ISO in glorious compressed 1080 .mp4 stream
Episode of Cable TV Series is in season 7 and they're keep the specs the same as previous seasons: 1080p.......29.97 (eek!)


It's funny to think of the spec wars among camera manufacturers and TV makers and the max quality possible that we all drool about, and yet we could probably be doing most of our work on the C100 or the original C300 and it would be just fine.

I love my new camera and hopefully one day I'll have a project that requires what it's capable of, ha.
 
I've learned over the years that it's usually the solo freelancers - many whom get paid relatively lower rates than they should - are mostly the ones who are always striving to provide the best for their personal clients with some of the nicest equipment while others don't and/or even more serious work ends up being produced on what many of us view as lackluster equipment.
 
CHris when I 'got into' video more than a decade ago I had a roster of hotel clients that I was doing stills for. Those stills were regularly made from 2 frames - the int and the window ext.

This made me a dynamic range nut for video cameras - for a reason.

As it happens that work dried up and Im mainly happy with 400mbs from the FS7 my frustration and desire to upgrade video cameras now is the horrific ergonomics of the current batch.
 
I think there's a very good reason we aren't seeing producers clamouring for FX9s/C500iis and the latest generation of large-sensor cameras, in the same way they did for the original C300, and then the FS7 after that - we're already at a point of good enough.

For most online or broadcast work, people simply can't see any appreciable difference in the end deliverables. So they just don't really care that much any more.

It's why I think camera choices today, should be driven more by ergonomic and functional motivations - which camera is going to make your shooting days easier to get through? Because that's the decider now, rather than any particular image quality considerations.
 
There are situations that demand top cameras - like the hotel and the sea view - but that shot is also gonna require a pile of (time consuming) post that the prodcer needs to pay for..and producers paying is a rare thing :)

90% of shoots dont need much better than 400mbs FS7 or whatever a bmp4k can deliver

So yes its all about ergonomics HFR cashce record and other things that the new generation dont deliver any better than the gen before !

(apart from AF which is better now)
 
CHris why did you buy the camera. ??

I have very good (or at least clear) reasons to want to despose of my FS7..

-no AF
-too heavy
-no audio in HFR
-HFR soft and slow
-not much cache record
-audio 3-4 not well used

Ill consider other cameras that 'solve' some of these 'problems'
 
chris f said:
Since getting my brand new camera with dream specs, these are the paid jobs I've gotten to use it on now that things are picking up:

Live Stream Streaming to YouTube at 4500kbps in glorious 1080p
Political Ad The creative called for it to look like selfie videos so I shot on my iPhone 11Pro and recorded sound from my boom mic into my C300MKIII because I don't have a sound recorder.
Political Ad Actually got to shoot in UHD AVC, yay.
Host to Camera Edited live via ATEM Mini Pro ISO in glorious compressed 1080 .mp4 stream
Episode of Cable TV Series is in season 7 and they're keep the specs the same as previous seasons: 1080p.......29.97 (eek!)


It's funny to think of the spec wars among camera manufacturers and TV makers and the max quality possible that we all drool about, and yet we could probably be doing most of our work on the C100 or the original C300 and it would be just fine.

I love my new camera and hopefully one day I'll have a project that requires what it's capable of, ha.
Click to expand...

My experience has been the same this year, even with my C200. This is what I am a constantly noticing and observing too in our business.
So much of what is driving professional camera development is for an audience of one, the camera owner. Clients, largely, don't care about
and most importantly, won't pay for all of the "innovation" that most of us obsess about. The sad part is, even as Covid and the Pandemic fade,
I think we are kind of in the new normal. There is some work, a lot of it live streaming and frankly higher end cameras are not being needed or used
as much as they were in 2019. My three Fuji X-T3s are what is working right now with the C300 MKII and C200 only used on a couple of projects this
year.

Will 'regular" production ever come back? Of course it will, but at what level and will budgets ever rebound? I've had to do almost twice as many jobs
this year as in previous years, to make less money. Live streaming has no post production and as we all know, many of us make significant profit editing
or even being a producer/production company for post. Those of us staying in the business are going to have to work that much harder, just to survive.
 
morgan_moore said:
CHris why did you buy the camera. ??

I have very good (or at least clear) reasons to want to despose of my FS7..

-no AF
-too heavy
-no audio in HFR
-HFR soft and slow
-not much cache record
-audio 3-4 not well used

Ill consider other cameras that 'solve' some of these 'problems'
Click to expand...

I'm not answering for Chris but didn't his two C200s get stolen and he used the insurance to replace with the C300 MKIII?
 
This is a great post, Chris! And frankly, a very honest one as well.
Each time some new & shiny camera gets dangled in front of me (I was seriously considering "upgrading" my FS7 for the 300mkIII for about 2 weeks)... I have to stop and ask myself - what request from what client did I get in the recent past that I was unable to deliver - that this new thing will help me achieve. Or what feature / spec on this thing will be better (to make me faster, easier shoots, better workflow, better ergo, etc.). And then I sit back & wait for the next announcement to do it all over again...
 
I actually haven't shot a job since the R5 came out because now everyone only wants 8K but all I can afford are 4K cameras! (jk)
 
puredrifting said:
I'm not answering for Chris but didn't his two C200s get stolen and he used the insurance to replace with the C300 MKIII?
Click to expand...

Correctomundo.

Most of my purchases these days fall into two categories:

1. Would owning this gear help me get hired on jobs that are the next level up for me?
(and by that I mean I could work on a DSLR or mirrorless for most of my clients, but if an opportunity arrises for me to hop on a bigger production shooting on cinema cameras am I going to be confident and comfortable sliding right into that workflow? so it's less about my exact gear and more about trying to work in a way that larger shoots work - heavier cameras, easyrig, monitors, wireless systems, syncing timecode, filtration, etc.)

2. Would owning this gear make my day to day easier?
(internal recording specs and the autofocus of C300MKIII ticks those boxes)

3. (bonus category) Does this gear have specs/features that would elevate a passion project of mine?
(raw if I want highest quality possible, high frame rates of C300MKIII tick those boxes)
 
I also think that even I'd the C300III is overkill, it's still a fine investment if you use it for 5 years. And all the while, you have upped the quality of your output (by better camera design as well as sensor/specs, if only marginally). If you're losing money on an excess investment, you're certainly not losing a lot.
 
chris f said:
2. Would owning this gear make my day to day easier?
(internal recording specs and the autofocus of C300MKIII ticks those boxes)
Click to expand...

a big fat check on those boxes from me.

I received one of the first C300iii in Germany. Off course I was thinking if there was the need in this unsecure times. Looking back I had to check when I received the camera. It was 21st of June. I had the impression it was much longer than 4 months. I shot interviews, testimonials, virtual events, product presentations, more work than I expected. It's my 1st Canon cinema camera and it feels very much familiar. The AF made my life so much easier and gave me more options, so did 4K100p (in PAL). I didn't regret it for a second, even not when the C70 was presented.
 
When I bought my C200s I knew they were going to be a transitional cam cause the internal codec was so weak (and no way to jam timecode), but with the C300MKIII I really feel like I'm not going to need or want another camera maybe ever. By the time the camera is "obsolete" I'll hopefully be at a place where I'm just directing or I'm renting cameras on a per-project basis.

Anything outside of adding GoPro Hypersmooth type of image stabilization inside of a cinema body, I can't really think of a feature that would cause me to purchase another camera (outside of maybe adding something like a C70 or something as a B-Cam)
 
chris f said:
...Anything outside of adding GoPro Hypersmooth type of image stabilization inside of a cinema body, I can't really think of a feature that would cause me to purchase another camera (outside of maybe adding something like a C70 or something as a B-Cam)
Click to expand...


Give it a year or so. It's the manufacturers job to make us want what we don't need and they are really good at it. Did you NEED the DGO sensor? No, of course not, I saw your C200 work and you are a good cinematographer and made those cameras sing. But did Canon make you WANT the DGO sensor?
Heck yes, they are good at marketing. Same with FF sensors, HDR, BT2020, etc. all features that very, very few of us actually NEED, as in our clients specifically ask us to shoot a FF imager camera anamorphic in BT2020. But so many of us WISH that we had clients who were DEMANDING that. But they really aren't
for the most part. Even with me, still shooting my lowly C200 and well used C300 MKII, both cameras are capable of making fantastic images yet I still feel envy and WANT a C300 MKIII while I most assuredly don't NEED it. For live streaming, even the C200 is mostly overkill.
 
puredrifting said:
Give it a year or so. It's the manufacturers job to make us want what we don't need and they are really good at it. Did you NEED the DGO sensor? No, of course not, I saw your C200 work and you are a good cinematographer and made those cameras sing. But did Canon make you WANT the DGO sensor?
Heck yes, they are good at marketing. Same with FF sensors, HDR, BT2020, etc. all features that very, very few of us actually NEED, as in our clients specifically ask us to shoot a FF imager camera anamorphic in BT2020. But so many of us WISH that we had clients who were DEMANDING that. But they really aren't
for the most part. Even with me, still shooting my lowly C200 and well used C300 MKII, both cameras are capable of making fantastic images yet I still feel envy and WANT a C300 MKIII while I most assuredly don't NEED it. For live streaming, even the C200 is mostly overkill.
Click to expand...

Damn you and your tough love reality check!

Now, should I lease for 24 months or 36? ; )
 
ozmorphasis said:
Damn you and your tough love reality check!

Now, should I lease for 24 months or 36? ; )
Click to expand...

Ha, ha, you're a camera junky, just admit it.

Anyone who buys new toys and gets into profit with them QUICKLY, I have zero problem with that, it's in my signature ;-)
It's just that so many's business is languishing in 2020 and some of them are dropping tens of thousands on new cameras they don't need and nobody is hiring them for their new cameras. That is bad business.
I bought two new open box Fujifilm X-T3s this year. One job easily paid for both of them and now I charge $250.00 per day per camera and they are making me PROFIT! That's how you should buy a camera.
A three year lease to buy on any camera is insanity because they are all outdated in about 6 months. Nothing worse than making payments on an outdated camera that nobody wants to hire.
 
Last edited:
puredrifting said:
Ha, ha, you're a camera junky, just admit it.

Anyone who buys new toys and gets into profit with them QUICKLY, I have zero problem with that, it's in my signature ;-)
It's just that so many's business is languishing in 2020 and some of them are dropping tens of thousands on new cameras they don't need and nobody is hiring them for their new cameras. That is bad business.
I bought two new open box Fujifilm X-T3s this year. One job easily paid for both of them and now I charge $250.00 per day per camera and they are making me PROFIT! That's how you should buy a camera.
A three year lease to buy on any camera is insanity because they are all outdated in about 6 months. Nothing worse than making payments on an outdated camera that nobody wants to hire.
Click to expand...

I agree with you puredrifting, but if you're still buying xt3s then doesn't that indicate that cameras aren't outdated THAT quickly?

$250 is a nice rate to fetch for an xt3 - that's where I think the iphone will really make its impact. You ask the client for 250/camera and they say that their last guy gave them 3 iphones for 250 total and it looked great. And it could look great, assuming you dont need servo zoom capabilities and you can deal with usb-c (which I'm assuming it will eventually have) to wherever you need to go
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top