Having been a tad negative about the Canon C100 I gave it a spin today on a paying job and discovered it was far better than I was expecting.

Loosing a lot of the features I have come to expect from the C300 I was some what surprised to find a few new surprises, on the switch side of the camera Canon now include an ISO/gain button, very useful, the ND buttons have been changed for a rotating filter switch, far more positive.

Before shooting I set up the “Custom Picture” to AC Neutral which was concocted by Alister Chapman before he sold his C300. I didn’t have time to check it against the C300 so off I went to film a 2 month old baby near Edinburgh. My first small disappointment was the lack of HD SDI socket but the full size HDMI was fine for my Sony 740 monitor.

I did the main work with the trusty C300 then decided to take the C100 out for a test drive, to my surprise it matched the C300 perfectly. A great feature is the carry handle with its onboard XLR connectors and adjustments on the other side not to mention an inbuilt microphone, so much better that the C300.

Here is a frame from todays shoot and the shots were indistinguishable from my C300 even shot at 1080 50i. I brought the 24Mbps footage into FCPX to allow me to get a few frames, I must take my hat off to Canon the C100 is a great wee camera.

These are not C300 4:2:2 50Mbps pictures but C100 4:2:0 24Mbps pictures but were equally stunning.

The only side of the C100 that I didn’t take to was the LCD for focusing but I used peeking which helped and I will use my extended Hoodman on Sunday when I will be taking it out for a further spin.

At just over £4,400 the C100 is a delight to use especially the lighter body, you can get better handheld shots far more easier with this camera and is a must for anyone using a C300 who needs a “B” camera.