Canon 1DC

EOSHD.com has pitted the Canon 1D C against raw 1080p footage from the Canon 5D Mark III. They writes, "I feel the 5D Mark III in raw is both amazing and feature packed relative even to the professional $12k and $15k C-series offerings let alone other DSLRs. It is a dream for anamorphic shooters, offering very clean 2.5K anamorphic images with a 1280p vertical resolution...The 1D C is of course top dog for resolution but the image cannot be graded with the freedom of raw, even from Canon Log. Colour and gradation, especially when it comes to skin-tones are better on the 5D Mark III with raw. The cleanness of the full frame 1080p mode is also excellent on the 5D Mark III in raw, ahead of any other DSLR on the market and so close to the $15,000 Canon C300 that in the real world it makes no difference.

RedShark News delves into the market for the Canon 1DC, writing, "The Canon 1DC is a curious camera. Based on a top-end DSLR design, with essentially only some additional firmware it becomes a 4K camcorder as well. But where does it fit into the increasingly complex matrix of options around high res, high dynamic range (i.e. RAW) devices that are available today at approximately affordable prices?

Adam Wilt of DVInfo.net writes:  In the beginning there was the Canon 5D Mk II. It wasn’t the first HD-capable DSLR, but it was the first one good enough for serious work. Once Vincent Laforet’s “Reverie” went viral, there was no putting the large-sensor, low-light, super-shallow-depth-of-field genie back in the bottle—no matter how soft the images, how prevalent the aliasing, and how much bother it was (for the two years prior to firmware version 2.0.3) to deal with 30p images in a 24p world.

Watch a side-by-side comparison of footage from the Sony F55 and Canon 1DC courtesy of Cinema 5D. The 4K footage is shown in its log outputted format as well as color graded. (via RedShark News)

Philip Bloom shot the music video for Olly Knights' "Bitten by the Frost" with the Canon 1DC and describes the process in a behind-the-scenes blog post.

Says Bloom about the concept, "I wanted the video to show the mundanity of everyday life that the song plays on. My idea was that his life is so mundane that we are literally passengers in it, and we drift through days with little changing, until the whole thing just becomes an endless cycle. To show this, I wanted Olly to stay in the frame in the same position in every single shot. Only the background would change and I needed his performance to be quietly intense but without too much expression, as we are going for a mundane life type feel. I also needed real everyday things for him to drift through. Bed, breakfast, tube, work etc. But with a twist being that things go a little differently on one day…"

In this video from Slanted Lens, they go over the pros and cons of pulling still frames from video shot with the Canon 1DC as well as giving tips for settings that are ideal for both. Watch below.

Filmmaker Nino Leitner shoots with and reviews the Canon 1DC, writing, "By releasing the 1DC, Canon has finally proven that they are indeed serious about putting proper video functions into their DSLR line. It’s their first serious attempt, so let’s not be too demanding. The Canon 1DC definitely is the most versatile and accessible professional 4K camera on the market right now."

Watch his test footage below and read more here on his blog.

Watch Philip Bloom's Canon 1DC test film, "4 Inches of Ice" below. Says Bloom about the experience of shooting with the camera, "Shooting was a breeze. It's a DSLR, it may have been shot in 4k but it operates the same way! Miller DS20 tripod. Lenses were Canon 16-35. 24-105, 70-20 F4, 100mm Macro (used for the interview for some utterly bizarre reason!) Audio was a Rode NTG2 into a Roland R26 and B-roll audio was the Rode Video Mic Pro.

"I had a lot of issues in post though. This was shot in 4K, downscaled in to full HD for editing (I do plan to remaster as a 4k version soon). In the edit I noticed a lot of problems, banding, magenta tinges on parts of the frame. Basically we worked it out and it was down to a number of things. The compression of the 4K, combined with the Canon log mode shooting below the native ISO of 400 which is a bad combination."

Filmmaker and longtime Canon user Andrew Wonder reviews his experiences with the Canon 1DC. He writes, "I was pleasantly impressed with how easy the camera worked. It was no different than the 1DX and the 128GB CF cards I had worked splendidly. The experience was no different than my 1DX but with a sexy new feature set."

Read his in-depth review here. Watch a short doc he shot with it below.

Cinematographer Johnnie Behiri tests out Super 35mm at 1080p on the Canon 1DC in the video found below. Observes EOSHD, "It is a very good Super 35mm 1080p camera, but only 8 bit. It also lacks the built in ND and other handling niceties of the much cheaper C100. If you’re happy to use an external recorder there are better options for Super 35mm out there for less money."

Read their full take here.

Philip Bloom reviews the Canon 1DC in the in-depth video found below. He writes, "The price of the camera and the 24p limitation at 4K put me off the camera, despite this beautiful footage. So what is it that made me really want to check it out properly? Is it actually worth the dosh? What is the image like, and of course, is it any good? All of these questions and many more are answered in my video review."

Watch below and download his raw files here on his blog.

EOSHD has some tips for justifying the $12K price tag of the new Canon 1DC, including being able to charge more for 4K footage and putting the camera itself on a layaway program. Read it here.

Cinematographer Marcus Skogstrom has shot some footage on the Canon 1DC and made it available for free download. He writes of the camera, "It has clean 1080 HD out via the HDMI port for use with external recorders, but the real draw here, and what would justify the $12,000 price tag, is the internal Motion Jpeg compressed 4K files."

Read more and download his raw files here.

This short video released by Canon showcases the quality of pulling still frames from the 4K video of the Canon 1DC, explaining the pros and even some of the cons. Says photographer Dean Bentick, "The print quality that we're getting off a printer, it was essentially coming from a JPG quality and not having a raw image, that was a bit of a disadvantage. However, the blacks I thought held up quite well. But generally other than some quite light adjustments, we were getting some pretty amazing prints straight off the camera."

The 1DC was just released yesterday. Watch below.

As 2012 comes to a close, cinematographer Abraham Joffe reflects on one of the year's big announcements, the Canon 1DC, and what it means for DSLR filmmakers and wedding vidoegraphers who are extrapolating still images from video. He writes, "Whilst I was super excited to see and edit the 1DC’s footage playing on a 4K display, what screamed out to me the most to test and analyze was the camera’s ability to capture images using the motion. The prospect proving a new photographic tool was terribly exciting."

Read his full post here.

Adorama, the leading supplier of pro video, photographic and consumer electronics products, is teaming up with Adorama Rental and Canon to co-host a special event around the Canon Cinema EOS cameras, including the brand new groundbreaking C500 series.