control rings with end stops to ensure the camcorder has a decent level of manual control. This lens is one of the truly standout features of the XF705 and, as it has done before, Canon has sought advice from broadcasters and cinematographers on the design of this camera. The lens handling is where this is most obvious. The focus ring can be used as a true manual control with a calibrated scale and end stops. However, if you press a button and turn the lens barrel behind the focusing ring, the calibrated scale disappears and the focusing ring becomes an ‘endless encoder’, with both manual and auto-focus. If you want to use the lens ring as a zoom ring instead of the rocker, there is a simple slider control directly behind it. While on the subject of autofocus, the XF705 features Canon’s amazing, wonderful and unique Dual Pixel autofocus. This system is so brilliant it’s persuaded many an anti-autofocus shooter to use it. On the XF705, this provides the normal accurate and fast autofocus with
to deal with the extra processing needed for the big jump in resolution and other data-hungry processing. The body also has some large air intakes to keep things cool, but ours was a pre-production model so this might change when you order yours. Arguably, with this new 1.0-type sensor you can start experimenting with depth-of-field to a certain degree, especially when you use the monitor’s touchscreen to focus – another box ticked. You can also consider the XF705 as a possible back-up for some of the larger sensor cameras. In front of the sensor is a fixed L-series Canon lens with a 15x optical zoom range, and a maximum aperture of f/2.8 that drops to f/4.5 at longer zoom settings. The wide-angle is equivalent to 25.5mm and the telephoto is equivalent to a lengthy 382.5mm. There is also five- axis image stabilisation, including the well-known Powered IS, which tries to simulate a tripod mode and does a pretty good job of it. This lovely L lens has three independent
touch focus control, face-detection AF and object tracking. You also get a graphical guide to support accurate focusing when making manual adjustments. The attention to detail isn’t limited to the lens controls. There are plenty of dedicated buttons for zebra, peaking, image stabilisation and so on – all well placed and logical. You also get a motor-driven ND filter with three densities: ND 1/4, ND 1/16 and ND 1/64.
BELOW Bright, intuitive menus make navigating the XF705’s controls a breeze
“Canon has sought advice from broadcasters and cinematographers on the design of this camera”
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SPRING 2019 PRO MOVIEMAKER
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