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CANON C200 USER REVIEW
SYSTEM FREQUENCY The camera is capable of recording MP4 up to 120p at 1920x1080. Selecting the over-crank frame rate you want is a little fiddly – you have to set the system frequency to 59.94 mode, then select Slow-Motion recording to get 120fps. Achieving 100fps would require setting the system frequency to 50. As with many cameras, changing system frequency requires rebooting the camera – a process which takes around 13 seconds. There is a customisable My Menu to which you can add your own items from the main menus, which can make all this less taxing, but it would be nice to have some camera presets so you could set up, say, a preset for 12-bit Raw 4k 25p and another for MP4 HD 120p. The top of the camera has mounting points for the supplied top handle, which itself has further threaded bushes and a cold shoe. There are front and back mounts for the (again, supplied) LCD mount and on-camera shotgun mic (not supplied). Thankfully, even on this cheaper camera, Canon has learned from the original C300’s problems and the cable to the LCD has a connector at both ends, so you can replace only the wire when it breaks,
rather than having a tethered cable and needing an entire new LCD assembly for the sake of one busted cable. The right hand side of the camera has a very nice detachable rotating handgrip – complete with run/stop button – Canon’s usual forefinger thumbwheel, a customisable button (defaulting to Focus Guide) and a teeny-weeny joystick, which as well as navigating the user interface menus is also used to move the autofocus area. The handgrip, if you use it, is very comfortable. Also on this side of the camera is the connection for the LCD, and at the rear all of the I/O connectors. The C200 has both audio XLRs on the body, which are switchable to Line, Mic (with phantom power) and AES/EBU input – you’ll find a 3.5mm mic input under a little flap, just above the focal plane marker. There is also 3G HD-SDI output, HDMI 2.0 (up to 3840x2160 UHD), a 3.5mm headphone jack, Ethernet (RJ-45), LANC and DC power input. It would be nice to be able to get 4k out of the unit over SDI, but UHD is available on HDMI. There is no time code input, which is more of a problem. Time code output is available both over HDMI and SDI,
so provided you are happy (and able) to lock the rest of your production to the C200, this isn’t too much of a limitation. Of course, if you are filming with two C200s you’re out of luck. The FS7 doesn’t have time code input as standard either, but it is available on the (expensive) I/O expansion unit. COOLING This side of the camera body also has a large intake for the cooling fan – the hot air exhausts on the other side of the unit. Unlike some other cameras in this price range, the fan can be set to stop running when the camera is rolling – though it will kick in if the internal temperature gets too high. The rear of the camera houses the battery, but is dominated by the EVF. It’s a nice viewfinder, though I know a lot of people complain that rear-mounted EVFs are, basically, in the wrong place. I’m not sure that’s true, at least in some situations – I find that with no rig on the camera, and resonantly light, autofocus glass on the front, the combination of the EVF and the handgrip gives me a surprisingly stable hold, more or less at head height. On the rear of the camera you also find two SD card slots (with
ABOVE Canon has taken careful aim at Sony’s FS7, with the C200 cheaper than its competitor.
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MARCH 2018 DEFINITION
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