Some interesting facts about Canon 1D C you probably don't know about

marvinhello

Well-known member
How many of the following do you already know?

1. The reason why Canon chose M-JPEG for 4K recording is because of the raw liveview buffer is JPEG, it's fast and convenient to convert the buffer into M-JPEG and wrap it in a .mov container. They've considered the possibility of H264 but it would consume too much power and High 422 mode isn't universally compatible.

2. In 4K and 640x480 mode, Canon uses BT.601 colour matrix, which is a standard definition profile. It switches to BT.709 in all other modes, which is HD profile.

3. Although 1D C doesn not have the 29min 59sec record time limit because it's sold as a video camera, it still has a maximum movie length limit which is 12 hours.

4. The base sensitivity of 1D C (and 1D X, 5D MK3) is ISO400, this ISO setting gives best overall image quality and sensor dynamic range. Below this ISO you may notice vertical stripes and banding in some areas of the image, it's particularly obvious when Canon Log mode is enabled.

5. Different sampling methods are used in the different shooting modes, it's full sample in 4K mode and three different down-sampling algorithms are applied in S35 crop, full frame 24/25/30, and full frame 50/60, making S35 crop sharper than full frame 24/25/30, and full frame 50/60 being the softest (similar quality as C300 720p60 upscaled to 1080p).

6. Compared with 1D X hardware, 1D C has a better heatsink, slightly overclocked DIGIC 5+ chip, a headphone jack instead of flash sync port and a locating pin hole at the bottom. 1D C is approximately 150g heavier than 1D X.
 
Thanks, great info! Curious how you obtained the base ISO for the 5D3. Any ideas what the base ISO of the 5D2 is?

Also, still confused why S35 crop is sharper, as shown by any tests I've seen
 
Thanks, great info! Curious how you obtained the base ISO for the 5D3. Any ideas what the base ISO of the 5D2 is?

Also, still confused why S35 crop is sharper, as shown by any tests I've seen

Base ISO is clearly stated in the metadata of the files from 5D3

S35 is sharper because it uses a better down-sampling algorithm, it's not a full sensor readout so it's easier to achieve.
 
Is anyone working on 2k MJPEG and an S35 crop mode for the MKIII? I want to believe Canon are implementing these features on April 1, but it is April fools so I imagine they won't.
 
Why buy FF if you want to crop?

Re: ISO 400 sensitivity, is that for stills? Can someone explain how an ISO of 400 is preferable to 160 or 320?
 
The reason it crops is because it uses 1:1 pixel mapping from the sensor, if you were to crop a 4K frame out of a 1DC still, it would basically be the same thing. 1.3x crop isn't too bad though, the DoF isn't as outrageously thin as FF.

Re: ISO 400 sensitivity, is that for stills? Can someone explain how an ISO of 400 is preferable to 160 or 320?
Philip Bloom and others have done extensive testing on the subject, when the 1DC is simultaneously in 4K and C-Log mode, the native ISO becomes 400. If you use less than ISO400, the Log icon on your screen will begin to blink, warning you that you are throwing away the highlights and risking banding. No one is really sure on a technical level why this is so, in any other combination of modes, you can use less than ISO400 no problem, it's just 4K + Log.

I'm personally not surprised that Canon took so many processing power shortcuts to get 4K, they already had to use the 1DX as the base because of the extra processors over the 5D3, and even then the Digics had to be overclocked, and thus need extra cooling. It would be interesting if in the future Canon added a dedicated video processor/encoder chip.
 
Why buy FF if you want to crop?

Re: ISO 400 sensitivity, is that for stills? Can someone explain how an ISO of 400 is preferable to 160 or 320?

For all previous generation Canon DSLRs, the base ISO is 100, 5D3, 1D X, 1D C, and potentially 6D uses a new generation CMOS sensor which was tweaked to 400 base ISO to improve low light performance, hence the roughly two stops cleaner ISO.
 
Philip Bloom and others have done extensive testing on the subject, when the 1DC is simultaneously in 4K and C-Log mode, the native ISO becomes 400. If you use less than ISO400, the Log icon on your screen will begin to blink, warning you that you are throwing away the highlights and risking banding. No one is really sure on a technical level why this is so, in any other combination of modes, you can use less than ISO400 no problem, it's just 4K + Log.

That does not translate to other cams. For the 5dmarkIII and 1DX, ISO 100 is very clean and does not clip highlights or cause banding. Even in the 1DC this does not happen if not using LOG. Also in stills mode and RAW ISO 100 is clearly the cleanest and has the most dynamic range.

So basically, no, you don't have to use ISO400 on the other Canon cams. Saying that the base is 400 only works for the 1DC.
 
That does not translate to other cams. For the 5dmarkIII and 1DX, ISO 100 is very clean and does not clip highlights or cause banding. Even in the 1DC this does not happen if not using LOG. Also in stills mode and RAW ISO 100 is clearly the cleanest and has the most dynamic range.

So basically, no, you don't have to use ISO400 on the other Canon cams. Saying that the base is 400 only works for the 1DC.
Are you sure you're replying to me? I never wrote that it's for all Canon cameras, only the 1DC, only in 4K and only with C-Log on.
 
Oh, well I agree there, all 35mm stills cameras have a native ISO of 100, as anyone can tell by going to DxO Mark. If a camera had a native ISO of 400, 100 & 200 would be "pulled" exposures, and result in reduced imaging quality, but this clearly isn't so for stills shooting.
 
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