C100: Some questions regarding basic operation of the Canon C100

M

mitteg

Active member
Hello,

I have a brand new Canon C100, I tested it a bit and I have some questions:

  1. While does exposure change while I zoom with the Canon 24-105 f4L ? At 24mm the image is bright and at 105mm it gets darker. Isn't this lens supposed to be constant fstop?
  2. The shoulder strap keeps getting in the way with the LCD screen, very annoying! Do you guys get rid of the shoulder strap?
  3. The iris ring is not stepless, so you cannot change the iris in a smooth way
  4. When shooting Canon WideDR, ISO 850 I can see noise in the picture. It is not ugly noise, but it is there even in good light compared to say some Sony cameras (EX1, etc). True it gives a cinematographic look to the picture, but I expected the camera to deliver a more noisefree image. Have a look:



Thanks!!
 
mitteg said:
  1. While does exposure change while I zoom with the Canon 24-105 f4L ? At 24mm the image is bright and at 105mm it gets darker. Isn't this lens supposed to be constant fstop?
Click to expand...

That is because of the lens. Its *supposed* to be, but isn't. I personally really hate that lens, heh, but you can't argue with the range. Some people have suggested it doesn't get darker if you are at F4, other people say otherwise.

mitteg said:
The shoulder strap keeps getting in the way with the LCD screen, very annoying! Do you guys get rid of the shoulder strap?
Click to expand...
Yes, take it off. I don't know anyone who has it on the camera actually.

mitteg said:
The iris ring is not stepless, so you cannot change the iris in a smooth way
Click to expand...

Correct. You can do it with manual 'declicked' lenses (duclos modified / rehoused lenses, rokinon cine lenses, etc) but for most lenses, they click through.

mitteg said:
When shooting Canon WideDR, ISO 850 I can see noise in the picture. It is not ugly noise, but it is there even in good light compared to say some Sony cameras (EX1, etc). True it gives a cinematographic look to the picture, but I expected the camera to deliver a more noisefree image. Have a look:
Click to expand...

Not seeing anything out of the ordinary on that one. I'm sure others can chime in, but looks like what I'd expect!
 
Noise on WideDR at 850: There's always going to be noise in your image, at any ISO, but it should not be a problem at 850, if the image is well exposed. You may be looking too closely, and your monitor might not be well calibrated. Try watching some footage on your HDTV?

Also, some people (like me) feel that WideDR is not the best for noise in the image, especially at higher ISO's. See this recent thread: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?340735-C100-Noise-above-850-ISO
 
Well, don't know which levels of noise do you find acceptable, but in my opinion, this frame is quite noisy. Have a look at the link below.

BTW, what is your preferred method to adjust the correct exposure? I keep looking at the horitzontal exposure meter on the screen but I find that the "centered" position gives me an underexposed picture in any situation so I tend to just look at the LCD and ignore this camera hint. Thanks!

Canon C100
Wide DR
25 PsF, 1/100, ISO850

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1631432/c100_noise.jpg






drummondb said:
Noise on WideDR at 850: There's always going to be noise in your image, at any ISO, but it should not be a problem at 850, if the image is well exposed. You may be looking too closely, and your monitor might not be well calibrated. Try watching some footage on your HDTV?

Also, some people (like me) feel that WideDR is not the best for noise in the image, especially at higher ISO's. See this recent thread: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?340735-C100-Noise-above-850-ISO
Click to expand...
 
remsyatassi said:
Definitely give the 24-105 a spin wide open. It does not get darker on my copy.
Click to expand...

I've seen it happen on my 24-105, and two different DPs I've worked with have said they've seen the same issues on their copies. But the effect is pretty minimal which is why I think so few people report it. On my last location shoot, my DP had to point out the problem to me when I zoomed in from 50 to 105, and I could see what he was talking about. That said, I upped my brightness in post on the tighter shot, and everything was a match. Another reason to always use C-log, IMO.

For L-glass, the 24-105 is a pretty good bargain, and it's well matched with the C100. I use mine quite a bit -- mostly for daytime outdoor work -- despite it's quirks. During editing, it's always clear to me which shots I used my Canon 24-105 with compared to my cheaper (but still decent) Sigma glass. Yeah, it can be soft under certain situations, and the zooming issue is there, but seeing as you can pick up one of these for less than 450 clams on eBay, it's hard to complain.
 
That frame looks fine to me. And since you saved it as a JPG, there's presumably some extra compression/noise added to the screen-grab (though possibly very little).

To minimize noise, I believe the manual suggests frequently doing an auto black balance, as often as between any and all ISO change, though that is obviously not practical for a of of people. You could also activate a little bit of noise reduction in the settings for your picture profile. And you can even experiment with picture profiles other than WideDR. Though again, I don't think your image is noisy. You might post a clip on vimeo so we can have a look. Maybe shoot a short take and upload the raw file?

Your exposure looks good too. Some other methods would be to keep an eye on the waveform and try to keep as much picture information as possible between he bottom and the top. I also use zebras a lot. Set them to 70% IRE and expose so that the brightest highlights on faces is just at or below 70.
 
drummondb, this frame is from the video I posted at the beginning of this thread. Please have a look. So, anyone here using the WideDR plus Noise Reduction setting? Is that the way to go? In my opinion this frame is noisier from what I could shot with say Sony EX1 or Sony RX10 II. Though I guess these two camera apply more agressive in-camera noise reduction.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

drummondb said:
That frame looks fine to me. And since you saved it as a JPG, there's presumably some extra compression/noise added to the screen-grab (though possibly very little).

To minimize noise, I believe the manual suggests frequently doing an auto black balance, as often as between any and all ISO change, though that is obviously not practical for a of of people. You could also activate a little bit of noise reduction in the settings for your picture profile. And you can even experiment with picture profiles other than WideDR. Though again, I don't think your image is noisy. You might post a clip on vimeo so we can have a look. Maybe shoot a short take and upload the raw file?

Your exposure looks good too. Some other methods would be to keep an eye on the waveform and try to keep as much picture information as possible between he bottom and the top. I also use zebras a lot. Set them to 70% IRE and expose so that the brightest highlights on faces is just at or below 70.
Click to expand...
 
It doesn't matter if you are shooting wide open on the 24-105 or not the image will get darker when you zoom in. That being said it doesn't get that much darker and its something easily fixed.
 
Dafilman21 said:
It doesn't matter if you are shooting wide open on the 24-105 or not the image will get darker when you zoom in. That being said it doesn't get that much darker and its something easily fixed.
Click to expand...
Mine don't get darker when I zoom in, at F4 that is.
 
re: the strap...
I've had a few shoots where I'm either taking both stills and video or I'm moving around a lot while carrying too much crap, so I've needed the strap. The only way I've found to use it is to put a keyring where the strap would normally attach and then clip it on and off from the strap with a carabiner. I've got both the keyring and the carabiner wrapped so they don't make any noise against the body of the camera. Not perfect, but much better than leaving the stock strap on there. The other benefit is that the strap doesn't get all tangled on the LCD if it's only attached at a single point. I've switched all my stills cameras to this system too, with the clip on the left side. It's just so much nicer to have the strap only attached at one point. I also tend to sling the cameras so they sit at my side instead of the tourist method of having it hang in front at stomach level.
 
Wow good point, although not sure if I understood you correctly. A quick picture to illustrate would be awesome!

Andrius Simutis said:
re: the strap...
I've had a few shoots where I'm either taking both stills and video or I'm moving around a lot while carrying too much crap, so I've needed the strap. The only way I've found to use it is to put a keyring where the strap would normally attach and then clip it on and off from the strap with a carabiner. I've got both the keyring and the carabiner wrapped so they don't make any noise against the body of the camera. Not perfect, but much better than leaving the stock strap on there. The other benefit is that the strap doesn't get all tangled on the LCD if it's only attached at a single point. I've switched all my stills cameras to this system too, with the clip on the left side. It's just so much nicer to have the strap only attached at one point. I also tend to sling the cameras so they sit at my side instead of the tourist method of having it hang in front at stomach level.
Click to expand...
 
mitteg said:
BTW, what is your preferred method to adjust the correct exposure? I keep looking at the horitzontal exposure meter on the screen but I find that the "centered" position gives me an underexposed picture in any situation so I tend to just look at the LCD and ignore this camera hint. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Why don't you use the Waveform...? Or the Zebra...?
 
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