CVP Glasgow “Canon Open Day”

Miscellaneous

CVP Glasgow “Canon Open Day”

HD Warrior 11/12/2012 3 Comments

Today I was invited to the CVP Glasgow Canon day out at the Hub, CVP’s new premises. It was a typical frosty sunny Monday morning and I got a cracking shot of the Glasgow science centre.

The CVP window…very modern, Colin and the boys have done well to get their new offices up and running so quickly and it’s just the job for the odd open day.

Colin handing round the McVitties biscuits, there were four cameras on show from the C100, C300, C500 and the 1Dc.

Canon’s cinema expert Sundeep Sohal was available to offer some good advice on all aspects of the “C” range of cameras.

Danny from CVP was on hand as usual testing the water for a possible sale, Danny is the kind of salesman who does not sit in your face and is also quite technical which is also an asset.

Learning the trade, this wee girl was with her mother and took a keen interest on all the cameras though the Canon XF305 was the only camcorder on offer with a servo zoom.

So that was my morning at the new CVP Glasgow premises, this is such a major location for CVP being close to many of their customers and a bonus for me being on the South side of Glasgow.

Managed to catch the last 15 mins of the open day after we wrapped early 🙂

Was really good to see the c100, c300 and c500 side by side.

Initial thoughts on the c100 (my main reason for attending)

Pros
-Lighter than I thought it would be
-LCD screen not as bad as some some have said (though not as good c300)
-Rotating LCD screen (although limited – not side view or ‘self shooting’ angle)
-Top handle XLR grip module seemed pretty solid, not ‘loose’ as some have reported
-One touch auto focus worked, but was pretty slow
-Record to both SD slots at the same time (something I really loved about my z5 days, recording to CF card and tape at the same time, back up and peace of mind)

Cons
-The grip handle is removable, but I noticed there is only one joystick to control the menu, this is on the grip handle, so while you can remove it, you can no longer control anything in the menu (iso, WB etc…) – got a few puzzled looks when I mentioned this….

-I would have liked the XLR modules to be more integrated into the body. like the c300, once you mount a shotgun and a couple of wireless receivers on top of the the xlr top handle, I get the feeling it would be very top heavy, and less ergonomic than initially hope to be. Trade off being that the design is modular I suppose

-Didn’t get a chance to record anything, so can’t properly compare the footage, but foir not broadcast, non heavily graded / processed footage, I think the codec will be more the good enough

-Viewfinder , this is embarrassingly bad. Its not articulated, the image is TINY, when you press you face up to it, your forehead mashes against the back to the top handle and your cheek presses against the LCD screen, hard. This is probably my biggest gripe with the C100, while I only had 10 mins to play with it, I really can’t see how the viewfinder is of any use.

– no 24p, no 50p (for slo mo, not even in 720p, as there is no 720p mode as far as I can tell.

-Not 25p but 25 PF (or was it 25FP?) From what I’ve read online this is canons proprietary pseudo ’25p’ mode, that is a 25p wrapped up in 50i container. Apparantly this can lead some NLEs to ready the files as interlaced, causing issues.
Not sure how this ’25fp’ will mix on a timeline with say 5d3 25 footage (in terms of frame rates, synch etc)

I’ve read this can be fixed by simply telling your NLE to interpret the files as progressive. Fair enough, but requiring people to perform a workaround on the files right out of the gate? not cool 🙂

I remember chatting to folks at a BBC Scotland c300 open day this time last year, and discussing the possibility of a ‘stripped down’ c300 that was at the £4-5k price range. Well canon have more or less done this for us, with the C100. It’s ever so slightly dearer than I was hoping, with ever so slightly less features than I was hoping (no 24p, no 720 50p, weird 25fp instead of good old plain and simple 25p) But I understand canon have to protect the c300.

All in all, the C100 looks good, and is priced reasonably well. It’s half the price of a c300, but I would say its better than half the camera of a c300.
(75% maybe?)

3 thoughts on “CVP Glasgow “Canon Open Day””

James Strange says:

11/12/2012 at 5:53 pm

Managed to catch the last 15 mins of the open day after we wrapped early 🙂

Was really good to see the c100, c300 and c500 side by side.

Initial thoughts on the c100 (my main reason for attending)

Pros
-Lighter than I thought it would be
-LCD screen not as bad as some some have said (though not as good c300)
-Rotating LCD screen (although limited – not side view or ‘self shooting’ angle)
-Top handle XLR grip module seemed pretty solid, not ‘loose’ as some have reported
-One touch auto focus worked, but was pretty slow
-Record to both SD slots at the same time (something I really loved about my z5 days, recording to CF card and tape at the same time, back up and peace of mind)

Cons
-The grip handle is removable, but I noticed there is only one joystick to control the menu, this is on the grip handle, so while you can remove it, you can no longer control anything in the menu (iso, WB etc…) – got a few puzzled looks when I mentioned this….

-I would have liked the XLR modules to be more integrated into the body. like the c300, once you mount a shotgun and a couple of wireless receivers on top of the the xlr top handle, I get the feeling it would be very top heavy, and less ergonomic than initially hope to be. Trade off being that the design is modular I suppose

-Didn’t get a chance to record anything, so can’t properly compare the footage, but foir not broadcast, non heavily graded / processed footage, I think the codec will be more the good enough

-Viewfinder , this is embarrassingly bad. Its not articulated, the image is TINY, when you press you face up to it, your forehead mashes against the back to the top handle and your cheek presses against the LCD screen, hard. This is probably my biggest gripe with the C100, while I only had 10 mins to play with it, I really can’t see how the viewfinder is of any use.

– no 24p, no 50p (for slo mo, not even in 720p, as there is no 720p mode as far as I can tell.

-Not 25p but 25 PF (or was it 25FP?) From what I’ve read online this is canons proprietary pseudo ’25p’ mode, that is a 25p wrapped up in 50i container. Apparantly this can lead some NLEs to ready the files as interlaced, causing issues.
Not sure how this ’25fp’ will mix on a timeline with say 5d3 25 footage (in terms of frame rates, synch etc)

I’ve read this can be fixed by simply telling your NLE to interpret the files as progressive. Fair enough, but requiring people to perform a workaround on the files right out of the gate? not cool 🙂

I remember chatting to folks at a BBC Scotland c300 open day this time last year, and discussing the possibility of a ‘stripped down’ c300 that was at the £4-5k price range. Well canon have more or less done this for us, with the C100. It’s ever so slightly dearer than I was hoping, with ever so slightly less features than I was hoping (no 24p, no 720 50p, weird 25fp instead of good old plain and simple 25p) But I understand canon have to protect the c300.

All in all, the C100 looks good, and is priced reasonably well. It’s half the price of a c300, but I would say its better than half the camera of a c300.
(75% maybe?)
HD Warrior says:

11/12/2012 at 9:18 pm

Hi James,

I must have been asleep when these Canons were announced, the C500 has NO 4K record facility !
The C100 only has AVCHD – 1920 x 1080 – 24Mbps, AVCHD – 1920 x 1080 – 17Mbps, AVCHD – 1440 x 1080 – 7Mbps once again very limiting indeed !
James Strange says:

11/12/2012 at 9:33 pm

When it comes to the C100 AVCHD codec, I’d really love to see some side by sides, comparing it to the c300

c300 vs c100 internal
c300 vs c100 + ninja

There was a good comparison on video, comparing the c100 to the 5d3, and to my eyes, the c100 won hands down