AGENDA
NEWS
Canon’s mid-range flagship The all-new C400 sits in the centre of the EOS Cinema range but has specs to shame its siblings
A fter almost five years without a new full-frame cinema camera, Canon has taken the wraps off the all-new EOS C400. This is complete with a stacked 6K sensor with triple base ISO, RF lens mount and internal 6K/60p Raw shooting, as well as 4K/120p in high-quality 4:2:2 10-bit plus the latest-generation AF. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the price – just £7799/$7999. That’s a tad cheaper than the Super 35 EOS C300 Mark III and £1300/$2000 less than the full-frame C500 Mark II, yet it sits in between these cameras in the range – both of which were launched pre-2020 and use the old EF mount.
The new C400 takes advantage of the larger RF mount, but is also compatible with a £1599/$1599 Canon RF/ PL mount adapter to make it suitable for cinematographers. Canon’s only other RF mount cinema cameras are the Super 35 EOS C70 hybrid and full-frame EOS R5 C, which is a more filmmaking-orientated version of the R5 mirrorless. Without an RF-fit, full-frame cinema camera in its line, Canon was in danger of being left behind by the likes of Red which offers its Komodo and V-Raptor series with an RF mount. Of course, Red is now owned by rival Nikon, so that must have niggled Canon. At the heart of the camera is a new 6K full-frame back-side illuminated stacked sensor that holds some similarities with the sensor in the EOS R3 sports mirrorless camera. Unlike other Cinema EOS cams, the C400 does not use a Dual Gain Output (DGO) sensor but is the first to offer three native ISOs. You can manually choose the native ISOs or set Auto mode. When shooting in C-Log 2, 3 or Cinema Raw Lite, base ISO settings are 800, 3200 and 6400. Change to Canon 709, BT. 709 Wide DR, PQ or HLG and it’s ISO 400, 1600 or 6400. In standard BT. 709 it’s ISO 160, 640 or 2500. The C400 is claimed to have 16 stops of dynamic range, a stop more than the C500 Mark II and equal to the C300 Mark III with its DGO sensor. And oversampling from the 6K image capture can produce high-resolution C4K. The new camera can shoot in Canon’s 12-bit Cinema Raw Light in LT/ST/HQ flavours up to 6K/60p, 4K Raw up to 120p and 2K Raw to 180p. The edit-ready 4:2:2
10-bit XF-AVC and all-new MP4-based XF-AVC S and XF-HEVC S formats offer up to 120p with no crop. All these options are recorded to the camera’s CFexpress Type B slot with sub-recording and proxy options available to the SD slot, which allows for simultaneous recording even when shooting Raw. The files are
ideal for broadcast workflows with professional filename and metadata support. To make it an ideal production camera as well as a cinema camera and ENG machine, there is support
for genlock, return input and 12-pin lens terminal, ideal for live multicam productions. Also find mini-XLR audio inputs, DIN connectors for timecode, 12G-SDI and 3G-SDI monitor outputs, full-size HDMI output, built-in Wi-Fi connectivity and Ethernet. The cam also features SRT protocol for IP streaming. The 38.4x20.2mm sensor uses the Digic DV7 processor, same as the slightly larger C500 Mark II and C300 Mark III. The C400’s sensor uses two layers of circuitry stacked together, which hugely increases the speed at which the sensor can send data to its processor – and offers huge advantages in autofocus. That means it’s the first Cinema EOS to use Canon’s Dual Pixel CMOS AF II, providing 100% coverage across the sensor plane, face/eye/body tracking and animal detection and tracking.
BRING OUT THE GIMBAL Relatively light weight means the new Canon will work on most stabilisers
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