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Rawupgrade boosts CanonC70 New firmware for the popular EOS brings internal Cinema Raw Light recording T he EOS C70 has a brand-new firmware update, with the biggest addition undoubtedly being Canon’s 12-bit Cinema Raw C70 in XF-AVC with some noise reduction on is really clean – so are the Raw files when properly exposed. But some noise reduction in post can really clean up the image. This will increase processing times.
Light, which can be recorded internally. The XF-AVC codec inside the C70 is great, but the added flexibility of shooting Raw is just awesome. As well as new time-lapse, stop- motion and colour profile additions, the upgrade consists of three Raw versions, called LT, ST and HQ, at correspondingly increasing quality levels. Each bring certain limitations. For example, when the camera is in its standard Super 35mode, you can record DCI 4K at up to 60fps in LT, and up to 30fps in ST. In Super 16mode, capture 2K in LT, ST and HQ up to 60fps. Of course, this will crop in on the sensor. If you haven’t shot Raw before, the big benefit is the ability to change parameters in post, such as colour temperature, tint, ISO, as well as colour space and gamma. You canmanipulate your image more than with the greatly compressed formats, so it’s ideal for projects where you want to heavily colour grade work. However, it can also be good for correcting exposure and white-balance in run-and-gun scenarios, where it’s easy tomake mistakes. But these aren’t the only benefits. When it comes to noise reduction, tweak the different options in your chosen colour profile. You have two: spatial filter and frame correlation. Essentially, spatial filter is a type of noise smoothing, while frame correlation involves the camera analysing the current frame with the previous frame. When looking at clips in Raw and XF- AVC with noise reduction on and off, there is a clear difference between the two. The
The trade-off for enabling this noise reduction is loss of detail, but it could be worth it, depending on the scene. It’s a good idea to experiment if you are planning noise reduction in post, as having this processed in-camera has its advantages. Yet, the flexibility of post allows for better image quality control. We also wanted to see if the new Raw modes have changed the latitude of the C70. For this, we shot Raw ST, LT and XF-AVC 4:2:2 10-bit Intra in DCI 4K in CLog 2, at the native ISO of 800. When it comes to overexposure, performance is almost identical, but there is a difference in the way skin tones transition to clipping. The Raw clips seem to have more information in those areas. You can also see more saturation with Raw. For underexposure, how you process the footage makes quite a big difference. There is no noise reduction in the Raw footage, so the XF-AVC is cleaner. But, with a bit of noise reduction in Resolve, you can get the Raw footage looking as clean. So, there’s a benefit to shooting Raw when footage is over- or underexposed. If pure image quality is most important to you, overall latitude has not improved much, if at all. In terms of detail, when comparing 4K Raw ST and LT to XF-AVC Intra 422 10-bit, we find a clear difference. There is similar aliasing performance across all of the formats, with some moiré present in the highly detailed areas. Examining the Raw formats in the Super 16mode, we see a clear compression difference between the three flavours. The biggest step is across HQ and ST, but there is still an obvious difference between LT and ST. These results aren’t surprising. Lower compression equals more detailed footage. Compared to other Raw formats, the footage is quite compressed, so it’s best to use the highest quality. But XF-AVC still has its place for fast turnaround projects. If you’ve never processed Canon Cinema Raw Light before, be prepared that editing will slow as renders take longer, playback
will be worse and process-heavy tasks, like Warp stabiliser, will take longer. These are the trade-offs for the benefits of shooting Raw: greater flexibility in post and a more detailed image overall. The sensor in this camera is fantastic and this update really lets it shine evenmore.
RAW POWER Shooting low light with Cinema Raw Light in the Canon EOS C70 means careful noise reduction is needed, but the results are worth the extra effort
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