C100: unhappy with 5d mkiii.. is c100 for me

T

tikigod19

Well-known member
hi guys i recently moved from shooting weddings on 5d mkii to mkiii for low light performance and have had a load of problems with it which I wont go into here unless it proves relevant but I'm now considering selling it and going for a c100 (keeping my 2x mkii's for backup/2nd cam).

I love the idea of having ND's, the punch zoom in while recording (is it better than ML?) and peaking but I'm wondering what the disadvantages and advantages are for those that have moved from a 5d to the c100. I'm worried it might not be able to balance it on my glidecam hd2000 especially with a decent xlr mic attached (is there a relatively small one recommended for use with the c100?) but as long as moire and aliasing are as good as the mkiii, the only disadvantage I can think of is not getting my super wide 14 and 16mm shots due to the crop factor.

Would love to hear your thoughts as I'd hate to buy one at the wrong time and regret it..
 
For me, XLR's and ND filters are enough to make the move. It's a proper video camera that works like a video camera should. For wide shots, use a Tokina 11-16 or a Canon 17-55 F2.8.
 
Ah yeah I didn't think of the tokina. I'd still be keeping my FF dslr for video so wouldnt want to sell any lenses but to be honest other than the 16-35 I don't know if I have any FF only lenses.. I assume all sigmas 35, 50 and 85's are fine on a crop.

I have a load of questions about the c100 but before I get lazy and post them all here I'll try my best to research each one individually but I'm sure I'll end up back here.. its often possible for one long time user to answer all of the questions in 1 minute but I don't like being told off for being lazy..!
 
thanks dustylense, thats what I saw today which got me interested. Not sure how well that push to focus thing would work in reality but I'm unsure of whether this is a firmware upgrade or a hardware upgrade or a new line of c100's etc.. what do you need to do/pay to get those AF features?
 
100% worth it.
In all honesty, once you shoot something with the C100, you will never want to use your DSLR's again.
You will really wonder how you managed to get by using DSLR's to shoot video - as they were never intended for that.
This comes from someone who made the switch - and I still use my 550D for my B Cam - with ML installed. I wish I could justify two C100's instead of a DSLR as a B Cam.
Yes, the push in zoom is better than the ML push in zoom.
Not sure that the 2000 would work , I know that most use the 4000 and it balances fine.

- it costs 500 for the upgrade - which I will be doing when it is available.
 
You won't regret the upgrade.
I went from using 550d / 5dmkii / 5dmkiii for weddings -> none of them compare to using the C100.

I have an old Glidecam 1000HD or something. I have to put all the washers on it, and I cant have the audio handle on the camera or its too heavy and won't balance.
I've used the C100 w/several lenses & mics using the glidecam 4000 -> works great. You'll likely want to upgrade from the 2000.
 
thanks chaps, really appreciate the info. I have so many thoughts going through my head at the moment.. I'm just going to unload my mind in this post and number my points.. please chip in with your thoughts!

1) EF-S lenses are fine.. great, I assume that means that most of my existing lenses will be useable.. (70-200, sigma 35, 50, 85 primes, 100 f2.8 macro) the only one I own I suspect won't work is the 16-35
2) Record time. I think I read somewhere 2.5hrs on a 32gb card.. what gives.. does the video quality not suffer at this huge compression rate? Would I be able to use a huge card (maybe a 128gb) in one slot as a backup and use a series of 16gb's in the other slot?
3) Battery life - I've read it's good, but can't find any exact stats. Also for weddings a battery dying is a nightmare so is the on screen indicator accurate? I assume its canon only on a machine like this, no 3rd party batteries?
4) Aliasing and moire.. the 2nd reason I switched from mkii to mkiii but in my eyes what you gain by saying goodbye to moire and aliasing you pay the price for with a lack of sharpness. I've read the c100 is sharper than the mkiii. How does it compare to mkii and if it's that sharp.. hows the moire?
5) Low light.. (the number 1 reason) i switched from mkii to mkiii. How does it compare to mkiii?
6) Handling noise from mics - I get a lot of handling noise from my videomicpro. If I attach an xlr mic it appears I have to use the c100's clamp and not a rubber band suspension type mount. Does this mean theres much handling noise?

The advantages for me and the reasons for switching:
- The sharpness I've read of
- Record time
- Battery life
- Articulating screen
- Dual card record
- XLR mic (well, lots of people mention this but its less of a concern for me.. other than the handling noise Ive always been happy with the sound quality of the videomicpro as I only use it for ambient sound, I run a dual audio system. Why do you guys love it?)
- ND filters!

The single thing playing on my mind is will I miss the "full frame look"

Am I right in saying f2.8 at 50mm will have a deeper dof on the c100 than a full frame DSLR at the same focal length and aperture. I love my narrow dof and its why my clients book me. I'm concerned about losing this..

Sorry for the length of this post. I started the day happy with my setup except my mkiii and I'm now contemplating a big change..
 
Half of your questions and concerns could be easily solved by watching footage. Have you tried searching Vimeo and YouTube for C100 footage and comparison videos?
 
yes and I've found some awful unscientific rubbish! The one that keeps coming up concludes that the c100 has lots of moire and the 5d mkiii is better in low light...

I know it sounds lazy posting all of those questions but the guys in this thread have been so helpful so far and I know if somebody posted similar questions about the 5d I'd love to chirp in to help someone out, just hoping someone here will feel the same!
 
I've never used a DSLR, but I came to the C100 from an HPX500 and HPX250. Because I shoot documentaries for broadcast I was concerned about the switch to AVCHD, but the images from the C (which I convert during ingest to ProRes) are terrific out of the camera with very little grading - and if well exposed don't suffer down the line.

As for moire, it's less than any other sub-$14,000 camera I've ever used, and can be controlled with tweaking. And who was lame enough to say that the C100 suffers in low light? That's absurd, it sees in the dark.
 
dustylense said:
Please take notice that they had the C100's NR off! The MK2 always runs NR. The C100 destroys the Canon 5d's in every aspect. EVERY ASPECT!
Click to expand...


I thought the lcd screen was crap? You can get a lot of features using magic lantern, but the autofocus looks great. I'm holding out for the possibility of global shutter. Think that would add the most to wedding videos:
http://www.canonrumors.com/2014/01/...utter-for-2-5k-video-on-an-upcoming-dslr-cr1/

look at the handheld footage here:
https://vimeo.com/86378280
 
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2) Record time. I think I read somewhere 2.5hrs on a 32gb card.. what gives.. does the video quality not suffer at this huge compression rate? Would I be able to use a huge card (maybe a 128gb) in one slot as a backup and use a series of 16gb's in the other slot?

AVCHD compression is pretty good. Yes you can use a 128gb in 1 slot and a series of 16gb's in the other and dual record if you'd like, no problem.

3) Battery life - I've read it's good, but can't find any exact stats. Also for weddings a battery dying is a nightmare so is the on screen indicator accurate? I assume its canon only on a machine like this, no 3rd party batteries?

Battery countsdown by the minute. It literally says "XXX mins remaining" for battery life (same for memory card space left) Very accurate in my experience. I have 2 Canon batteries which will last me about 10 hours. Haven't looked into 3rd party


4) Aliasing and moire.. the 2nd reason I switched from mkii to mkiii but in my eyes what you gain by saying goodbye to moire and aliasing you pay the price for with a lack of sharpness. I've read the c100 is sharper than the mkiii. How does it compare to mkii and if it's that sharp.. hows the moire?

4k sensor downsized to HD I believe, definitely better than any DSLR, but still present. Yes the C100 is sharper, by far. Check youtube/vimeo, you'll find tons of examples.

5) Low light.. (the number 1 reason) i switched from mkii to mkiii. How does it compare to mkiii?

Destroys it. Hands down.

6) Handling noise from mics - I get a lot of handling noise from my videomicpro. If I attach an xlr mic it appears I have to use the c100's clamp and not a rubber band suspension type mount. Does this mean theres much handling noise?

Haven't used the clamp yet. I don't get a ton of noise from the videomic, although I use Lavs a lot.

Like others have said - check vimeo/youtube for comparisons
 
tikigod19 said:
this was the video that showed mkiii as better at high iso than the c100
https://vimeo.com/56883106
Click to expand...

I can make the C100 look worse too, but if you're doing it right then the C100 kicks the 5D3's butt.

It seems a lot of people turn NR off, don't ABB and then wonder why high ISO looks worse than they thought. Perhaps they have an agenda, and it's one that's justifying their 5D3 over a C100.

You can't sharpen a 5D3 to look as good as a C100 looks SOOC.

Look at that video, go to 38s as an example, read the words on the building. Pay attention to the details. You can always NR after the fact, but you can't add back detail that was lost. And that's just one example.

If someone offered to swap my two (now almost unused) 5D3s for an additional C100 (which I used a lot!) I might be *really* tempted to bite their hand off.
 
Wow. This is pretty unanimous.. I'm very tempted.

Do you guys know of any dof comparison photos between full frame and c100?i REALLY love that narrow dof look
 
iunknown said:
I thought the lcd screen was crap? You can get a lot of features using magic lantern, but the autofocus looks great. I'm holding out for the possibility of global shutter. Think that would add the most to wedding videos:
http://www.canonrumors.com/2014/01/...utter-for-2-5k-video-on-an-upcoming-dslr-cr1/

look at the handheld footage here:
https://vimeo.com/86378280
Click to expand...

I own all three cameras being the C100, 5dMK3, and the BMC4k. They all do different things. Mk3 is my stills camera of course. But if going into a run and gun limited crew situation with lots of changing conditions I will still carry the C100 into the shoot, even over the BMC4K. The C100 just delivers if you control your exposure and WB "decently". Has all the tools built in and now with the AF upgrade its just a great camera that gives great images and can go all day on two small batteries.
But yes, global shutter is quite nice as is the 4k. But my C100 will get PLENTY of use.
 
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