Southpoint Films and Canon teamed up at Boomtown to test the powerful new EOS C400 Festival field test
S outhampton-based video few years, one of its highlights has been Boomtown – a music and theatre festival in Hampshire – where it has provided camera packages to deliver screen footage on two stages: Grand Central and Origin. For the former, which featured acts ranging from DJs to live bands, Southpoint has delivered a primarily operated camera set-up to achieve the required dynamic approach, augmented by a fixed camera on stage and a few PTZs. On the DJ- oriented Origin, PTZs were the order of the day, with touring VJs having control over remotely operated production and livestreaming company Southpoint Films is a long-term fixture of the UK festival sector. For the past units that could be positioned and controlled as needed – typically involving real-time integration with artist-generated visuals. ›› Whatever I do with the C400s, it still looks crisp. It’s just one dial that I turn to adjust the exposure without losing picture quality ‹‹ Southpoint Films’ founder and MD Rowan Johnson is a long-term customer of Canon, and for the 2024 event he was invited to trial the new EOS C400 prior to its launch. With a specification that includes a full-frame 6K BSI sensor, Dual Pixel CMOS AF II system, triple-base ISO and HDR capability, the EOS C400 is billed as a versatile workhorse suitable for live broadcast, virtual production and cinema projects. Recalling the approach to try out the C400, Canon UK customer marketing executive – Pro Video, Tom Storey says: “We knew that Rowan did a lot with PTZ cameras already across a wide range of live productions, and how he loved that style of camera and how he was
TILT AND ZOOM Cameras were manoeuvred with joystick-style consoles for control
mixing it in with some of his operator- oriented cameras. So when we had the C400 coming along, it seemed like a perfect match for him to try out at a festival like Boomtown, where he could control it over IP and deploy it alongside the PTZs.” Johnson says of the C400s, “They’re brilliant – and in fact, we bought two of them off the back of doing the festival. Some of our older cameras were ready for an upgrade, so it was a logical upgrade path for
us anyway. One of the things that really distinguishes the C400s is that they’re amazing in low light, which is obviously great for festivals. So I could set the cameras to be quite high ISO – very sensitive to light – which, when done on traditional cameras, would mean that you start getting loads of grain in the picture.” But with the C400s, which Johnson also praises for their versatility in lens options, “we didn’t get that grain issue due to the sensitivity and the fact I
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