34 SPONSORED CONTENT S outhampton-based video few years, one of its highlights has been Boomtown – a music and theatre festival production and livestreaming company Southpoint Films is a long-term fixture of the UK festival sector. For the past 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. However, on the DJ-oriented Origin stage, PTZ cameras were the order of the day, with touring VJs having control over remotely operated units that could be positioned and controlled as needed – which typically entailed real-time integration with artist-generated visuals. 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 mixing it in with some of his [operator-oriented “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” 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
Southpoint Films and Canon teamed up at Boomtown to test the powerful new EOS C400 Festival field test
Some cameras were manoeuvred with joystick-style consoles offering pan, tilt and zoom control
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 could dial the camera up and down without
worrying. Whatever I do with these cameras, it still looks clean and crisp. It’s just one dial that I turn to adjust the exposure on the camera without losing anything in terms of picture quality.” Storey also picks up on the triple-base ISO capability of the C400. “I remember
Powered by FlippingBook