C200: Newsshooter's 'Canon C200 Production Camera review'

Paul F said:
Having the fan go off during recording seems like a good feature. But at the point the camera needs the fan the most, it turns it off. That doesn't sound right. If it comes back on at some point during a long recording, I'd feel better that the reliability is not being compromised for the sake of silence.
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Yes, that will be a testing thing too. I shoot a lot of long interviews so I am sure I will find out soon enough or perhaps the spec for that is buried in the manual somewhere or Loren from Canon can give us the lowdown on the fan triggers and what they are.
 
By the way, IIRC Allard said the fan was annoying because it blew in his face on his shoulder, not that it was loud. I've never had a problem with the C100 or C300 fan noise.
 
My C200 fan is considerably louder than the fan on my C100 or C300. Also, the fans on my older cameras rarely turn on, whereas the fan on the C200 has only shut off when hitting record. Other than that, it's on all of the time.
 
puredrifting said:
My C200 fan is considerably louder than the fan on my C100 or C300. Also, the fans on my older cameras rarely turn on, whereas the fan on the C200 has only shut off when hitting record. Other than that, it's on all of the time.
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Good to know. Must be because of the internal RAW shooting. Wait; is the fan on even when in MP4 recording modes?
 
Eric Coughlin said:
I'm a bit confused. The exhaust vent is in pretty much the same location as the C100 and C300, and that hasn't been a very noticeable issue for me before. So unless the C200 is a lot louder and hotter I wouldn't think this would be much of an issue.
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The exhaust vent is in the same location as the C100, but the C300 Mark II has the air intake there instead and the exhaust vent on the other side of the camera. I haven't had the chance to test the C200 yet so I'm going completely by Matt's review. There's a lot of intensive processing going on in the C200 especially with raw lite, so it wouldn't surprise me if the fans were louder and camera got hotter.
 
I would say I heard the C200 fan is so loud you can't use the camera during a wedding because the noise would be too distracting, but I didn't actually hear that...because I couldn't hear anything due to how loud the C200 fan was.



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So Dan, have you tried recording 4K RAW (or MP4) for a long duration, and did the fan ever kick on, or does it always stay off while recording?

With the C300 and C100 you can either set it to on or to automatic, and with automatic it is generally off, even in Florida heat. But when it's on it's not that loud. Of course I've heard people had issues with the C500, so I'm wondering if the C200 is going to be as problematic as the C500 for fan noise.
 
Anybody that had used or own a RED camera is used to the FAN loudness when the camera is not recording. This doesn't bother me at all. Canon is a serious manufacturer and I'm pretty sure this camera had been tested in all temperatures.
But I hope you guys in the south start using it for long takes in very warm days and tell us if there is any issue.
 
Eric Coughlin said:
I would say I heard the C200 fan is so loud you can't use the camera during a wedding because the noise would be too distracting, but I didn't actually hear that...because I couldn't hear anything due to how loud the C200 fan was.



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So Dan, have you tried recording 4K RAW (or MP4) for a long duration, and did the fan ever kick on, or does it always stay off while recording?

With the C300 and C100 you can either set it to on or to automatic, and with automatic it is generally off, even in Florida heat. But when it's on it's not that loud. Of course I've heard people had issues with the C500, so I'm wondering if the C200 is going to be as problematic as the C500 for fan noise.
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So far, I have recorded multiple clips until the card was full, the fan would only kick on when I stopped recording and I have recorded three 34 minute clips and the fan did NOT turn on during the full clip recording.
 
Considering they managed reversing the airflow side on the C500, a bit odd that it's back to blowing on op now. I guess it's better than facing up so as to be a debris collector.
Also..no timecode i/o or timecode i/o option on a $7k "cinema" body?
 
Gweilo66 said:
Also..no timecode i/o or timecode i/o option on a $7k "cinema" body?
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Surprised? It's Canon. Their lower line models always lack pro features the next model up has. Marketing 101. You want the pro features, you pay the pro price. And actually you can use the Tentacle Sync https://tentaclesync.com/ set up through the 3.5mm audio input if time code is that important to you. But obviously not genlock.
 
Surprised because of the level/price of cam vs the current competition. I'm aware of the tentacle/Mozegar audio ltc approach..but this omission will likely exclude the cam from a number of productions. Should at least have an option a la FS7.
 
Gweilo66 said:
Surprised because of the level/price of cam vs the current competition. I'm aware of the tentacle/Mozegar audio ltc approach..but this omission will likely exclude the cam from a number of productions. Should at least have an option a la FS7.
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To get genlock on the Sony FS7 you need the Sony XDCA-FS7 Extension Unit which is $2,000. For $2500 more than the C200, you can get a C300 Mark II which has genlock with no need for a bulky add-on module. That's only a $500 difference between Sony and Canon to get genlock and Canon's is more streamlined.



Does the Panasonic EVA-1 have genlock? I'm not seeing that listed.

I think the C200 is more of a competitor to the Sony FS5, which also has no option for genlock. The C200 is more expensive than the FS5 because it's Canon and because it's newer. The C300 Mark II is Canon's competition for the Sony FS7.
 
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Genlock is not necessary for the typical 1 or 2 cameras with audio master setup and lockit type TC boxes (tentacle, mozegear etc) on cams. Nice for studio switching scenarios though..
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explor...ersus-sync-how-they-differ-and-why-it-matters
"Because it synchronizes frames, genlock can be used to keep multiple devices from drifting apart. But it is tricky because, unlike timecode, the camera or recorder must always be hardwired to the source. On top of that, where different length cables are used, each camera must be calibrated to take into account the length of the cable run. In a fixed studio setting this isn't a big problem, but it can be in the field. And it is especially problematic in cinema production where the setup might change with every shot."

They might have included TC i/o without genlock if that's a differentiator. Or maybe only TC in (or one selectable in vs out)...sound world doesn't trust Canon (Most cams, really) for master TC anyway.
And in cam world..C300 mkII doesn't have the internal raw lite feature AFAIK./now..but does have more intermediate compression options methinks.
Canon world is a bit muddled at the moment. Maybe Jackie Chan can explain..(referencing XC10 release)
Something like "We kick you hard for our color science. Hai Yah!!"
 
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I've been doing this professionally for 20 years and honestly I can't remember when, if ever, we've genlocked cameras on ENG/EFP multi-cam shoots(2-5 cams).

And yes, Canon cameras are the absolute worst when it comes to holding TC on their own(not being constantly connected to a TC source). Flipping the camera over to playback or even just powering it down for a few minutes is enough to cause you to have to re-jam.
 
Eric Coughlin said:
I think the C200 is more of a competitor to the Sony FS5, which also has no option for genlock. The C200 is more expensive than the FS5 because it's Canon and because it's newer. The C300 Mark II is Canon's competition for the Sony FS7.
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It is a weird camera in terms of competition. I'd agree with you about it competing with the FS5, if it weren't for the fact that it shoots RAW internally.

I guess how it competes depends on what you intend to do with your camera. If you intent to ignore the RAW and shoot long interviews and docs for broadcast, yeah the weak (on paper) MP4 codec and lack of timecode places it firmly on a lower rung than the FS7 and C300 (even the mark 1).

But if you intend to shoot narrative and use that RAW recording primarily, it really competes more with RED and Blackmagic.

I do 100% agree that the C300 Mark II is competition for the FS7.
 
chappelldigital said:
Nearly done watching it - Its almost making me think something is strange with the C200. Nearly every comparison or shots I've thought "wow it looks soft... maybe its just the web compression".

I just got through the low light and then the C100ii / C300ii /C200 matching and in every single shot, the c200 looks extremely soft, almost as if it was shot out of focus almost (but for every shot, so I'm sure thats not the case).

The C100ii vs C200 in low light looks like C100ii vs Blackberry... it looks THAT soft (look at the tree on the left)....

ANyone else come away with that impression?
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It would make sense if the RAW footage is in DCI 4K and not UHD, then there might be issues with interpolation when it's shown on an HD screen.
 
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