GEAR USED FOCUS – CANON C200 RAW MONEY MATTERS The Canon EOS C200 offers filmmakers incredible 12-bit footage at a great price WORDS AND PHOTOS ADAM DUCKWORTH W hen Canon launched the EOS C200, it was at the bleeding edge of technology for one REDEMPTION
for much more. The used market is bursting with excellent-quality Canon C200s. What it has never offered is a 10-bit, 4:2:2 signal out of the camera, with lots of genlock and timecode options, or multiple SDI and HDMI in/out connectors. You are pretty much stuck with the Canon Raw Light files, which are glorious and big, or 4:2:2 8-bit files – decent, but nothing special. Sadly, there’s nothing much in-between. Its Super 35 sensor is shared with the far pricier C700 and C300 Mark II Canons, but in a much smaller and lighter body. So it has a similar ISO and dynamic range, plus all the regular pro features like dual XLR inputs, built-in ND filters and the tall Canon body style. Of course, with the new C700 FF, C300 Mark III and C500 Mark II, Canon has moved away from this to a more conventional, modular cinema camera body. The Canon C200 doesn’t record actual full Raw data off the sensor, but what Canon calls Raw Light, which is a compressed format much smaller in size than a genuine
big reason – it could record Raw internally, for the ultimate control in post-production. For filmmakers who knew how to get the best out of these files in post, it was the relatively affordable camera many had been crying out for. Even though it did cost £7698/$7499 at launch, and it recorded to a quite pricey CFast card. Five years on and the C200 might not be the only camera to offer Raw recording internally, but it’s still just as good. And the price of big CFast cards has dropped, making it much more affordable to have enough for a day’s shoot. The C200 is still in the current Canon range, which is staggering for a camera so long in the tooth. But the price has dropped to a much cheaper £5029/$4999 new. That means there are lots out there, and they typically go for half that price, or less if well used. But even if they are pristine with just a handful of hours on the clock, they don’t go
“Its Super 35 sensor is shared with the far pricier C700 and C300 Mark II Canons, but in a much smaller and lighter body”
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