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USER REVIEW CANON C200
covers) and a slot select button. As usual, you can choose to record to both slots simultaneously, or ping- pong the slots for continuous record. The audio volume controls are here, too – slightly fiddly as usual – along with a button that brings up the Audio Status on the viewfinder (like almost all the C200’s buttons, its function is user definable). The final controls here are another user definable button (with no default – knock yourself out!), Menu and Cancel buttons, along with another teeny-weeny joystick. The left side of the camera, as is usual, hosts the main user controls. At the top of the panel there is a focal plane mark with a tape measure hook, and Canon’s standard rotary power control. Below are two buttons for the ND Filter. This has the usual zero to six stop range, in two-stop intervals, but can be extended to ten stops. The upper range introduces another filter wheel, which changes the optical path sufficiently that you do need to refocus. The ND controls are some of the few buttons that aren’t user definable. Also fixed, at the bottom of the left side panel, are a red run/stop button, an iris thumbwheel and white- balance controls (which double as playback controls). DEFINABLE BUTTONS The rest of the buttons are all user definable, but default to Magn
IT’S POSSIBLE TO ORIENTATE THE DISPLAY EXACTLY WHERE YOU WANT IT
you want the camera to focus on. The side of the LCD has another menu/ cancel/joystick combo for the UI, and another couple of programmable buttons. You can also flip the image upside-down. The mount for the LCD seems pretty sturdy – it’s possible to orientate the display exactly where you want it and it will stay put nicely. All in all, the C200 comes across as a sturdy, flexible and good handling camera – you’ll need a rig and proper shoulder-mount for any serious documentary-style run and gun of course, but there’s certainly no hint of the C200 being a ‘budget’ version of the C300. The C200 is a pleasure to film with. As with its sibling, the autofocus is astonishing. Of course, most
(magnifying the display to aid focussing), Peaking, Zebra, WFM (display the waveform monitor), ISO/ Gain, Shutter and Disp (toggles the on-screen status display). The rear of the panel has a single CFast slot, also covered. Neither the CFast slot nor the SD card slots have weather seals, but they fit pretty snugly and are likely to keep out the worst of the dust, and probably a light shower, but the C200 is not stated to be particularly weather resistant. The handle-mounted LCD has a four-inch diagonal, around 1.23M ‘dots’ and is touch sensitive. However, the menu system relies on the joystick – you can’t touch menu items on the screen to select them, but you can poke a digit at the bit of the image
TOP In terms of day-to-day
ABOVE LEFT The menu system relies on a joystick – you can’t select menu items by touch. handling, the C200 is flexible and feels comfortable.
DEFINITION MARCH 2018
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