I like the look of this camera and at £1920 I think this will be the new C100. The 10x fixed lens is fine by me, mainly for a dust free sensor but its not a constant aperture lens in fact its f2.8 to 5.6 which is two stops of a difference…shame.
You can record onto SD cards for full 1080 50p HD 422 8 bit or CFast cards for 4k 1080 25p at 422 8 bit, once again quality at 4K is compromised running at 8 bit .
Love the handle obviously taken from the C300 and the petiteness of the camera overall. The 10x optical zoom is 24.1-241 mm (still images) and 27.3-273 mm (video).
I suspect the XLR unit for the C300 MarkII may fit onto the hot shoe for professional audio connections but as with Canon of old, don’t hold your breath.
Its got one ND filter, no specs yet and a 3.0” VGA+, 1.03 million dots (3:2), capacitive touch panel, vari-angle supported LCD. I think this camera would be a great “B” camera for a C300, C100 and the C300 MkII in 4K 25p mode.
Shame this camera is almost there, but falls so short in many ways? 10x lens great…. F2.8 falling to F5.6????? Records 4K internaly yessss…. at 25P????
Rubs disbelief out of eyes and slowly shakes head sadly.
HDW : To be fair the GH4 only records 4K 25p as does the C300 MkII, I would not expect 4K 50p on a £2K camera.
F2.8 to F5.6 is 2 stops. The Sony AX100 is lower cost and can record for longer on less expensive media. Sony 12X zoom or 24x with Clear zoom , lens is F2.8 to F4.5. Just 1 and 1/3 stops. I would have thought Canon could have done better. An obvious Sony move is an upgraded RX10 with 4K XAVC-S. The current RX10 has a 8x zoom with constant aperture F2.8 lens at less than half the cost of the Canon.
Ron Evans
You can get 3 £600 Panasonic FZ1000s for the price of the XC-10 and get UHD on affordable SD cards, a 20x zoom, 20.1MP stills plus a built-in EVF and a fully articulated LCD. I could be wrong, but I don’t think many people outside of hard core Canonites are going to spend an extra £1300 for an ND filter, a headphone jack and 4:2:2.
Have Canon lost their mind!? Don’t they even look at their competitors? We can get Twice the camera for the same money in the Panasonic x-1000
This cameras feature set feels half-hearted and lazy.
HDW : Rod I don’t think you can compare the HC-X1000 to the C300MkII for picture quality and low light performance not to mention the 15 stops of dynamic range. The Sony FS7 is a better comparison and a far better price !
Hi Philip
I too was going to point out that the X1000 does 4K 50P at a similar price. It’s not like it can’t be done in budget as the X1000 proves. The x1000 also remains relatively constant throughout its zoom range! The fact that the XC-10 doesn’t come up trumps on important features as these is just cost cutting that renders the camera LESS useful for the professional market.
Why have they done this? There are two reasons that come to mind….
1. They think they know best and 25P will be fine. Professional videographers can just pay over the odds for their video cameras but the hell with choice between 25P and 50P! They know people don’t want slow motion, or aren’t going to be filming fast moving subjects! Never mind that annoying flickering down the viewfinder, it doesn’t effect people trying to film this way at all!
2. They are cost cutting because its a couple pounds cheaper to just include 25P and miss the 50P feature off altogether! Who need a constant aperture down the zoom, if its low light they can bloody well get closer, right?
It’s the little things that make such a huge difference in todays world. Canon have made great cameras in the past, the 5D’s for example!!!! But these days they just don’t go the extra mile and keep “dragging back” what CAN be done for their consumers and producing cameras that are…. inadequate? WHYYYYY?
Sorry about the rambling but I just can’t get my head around it Its 2015 already and cameras need to keep pace. 4K needs to start where HD left off surely, not go backwards.
The c300II is another example of not going that extra mile in features, but knocking a camera put at HUGE prices? It’s insane! £12 for a camera that doesn’t do what i want, that gives me no choice? No thank you.
Really disappointed in canon over the last few years and won’t even be tempted in looking in the direction of this particular camera again. Theres no need, its just not there, not even close!
Hi Philip, Sorry, I wasn’t Comparing the Panasonic XC-1000 with the C300Mk 2,- I was comparing it with the price and spec of the above review of the Canon XC10. Not wide enough at the wide end, not long enough at the zoom end, No 50P. Light on ND, no servo zoom, No XLRs out of the box, I could go on.
At least the XC-1000 has all these things for around £2000. (I agree the FS 7 is clearly the way to go for the money) -But as your very own interesting reviews point out, there is also much to question about the Sony FS Too! -How about the wide end of that G lens? Plus all the other niggles you mentioned.
At the end of the day, I guess nobody makes a ‘Perfect” camera Unless you want to spend 18-20K
This thread is about the Canon XC-10, right?
I think I’ll stick with my much loved FZ1000. For the money it is simply the best 4K film camera out there. I just wish I could see the bloody LCD screen in bright light. Can somebody please make a dedicated VF loupe?
Sorry Canon.
I guess I’m not the only person to be unimpressed with this camera. Unless we are missing something, offerings by Sony, Panasonic and JVC give us much better cameras at a better price. I suspect this camera will make as big a splash as the Canon M did on the mirrorless market. Gerry
News Flash “Filmmakers”! This video camera was NOT produced or being marketed to you. From the big media outlets, docu-makers, news video and your hired/freelance MoJo (Mobile Journalist) this is what the doctor ordered. Across the world, especially in the States, big media news outlets like Washinton Post, NY Times, etc will hand massive numbers of these out. Small market print, traditional TV and OTT channels will find the value in this “tool”. Everything people are commenting on here and woefully on other camera blogs about how Canon is “out of touch” by not having X feature(s), it’s something the target user could care less about. No 10-bit? no problem. 30P (NSTC) is perfect for 21st social media video news. 10x Fixed “slow” zoom? Perfect for the pimple-face recent college grad who’s been assigned run-n-gun packages. The fact that Canon is saying the xc10 can also pull light-duty work alongside the EOS Cinema line (dedicated BTS shooter is popular now on many production sets for social media engagement) further puts this squarely where it belongs. I’ve been in this industry for quite sometime and in the past 5 years or so I never seen so much whining from people claiming to be camera operators mascarading under the name of “filmmaker” and “cinematographer”. The “DSLR Generation” feels some entitlement and always ready to throw a top tier manufacturer under the bus when they don’t release a new camera with the latest greatest broadcast/cinema grade specs and features… for $500 on the brand’s consumer line. Canon (and Sony for that matter) are “Age Old Money” multi-billion dollar conglomerates that have not made it this far by making bad product choices in this industry. They have company philosophy/mission statements to adhere to and shareholders to answer to. They’re not about to bend over backwards and cannibalize their high profit margin offerings for this new unfaithful and ungrateful breed of shooters who want to ARRI out of a GoPro. Never in time has today’s shooters had such a wide range of tools to craft their creative work with, yet some just need to remove the silver spoon from their mouth and get to doing it.
Bill, all some of us are saying is “Same money, better spec elsewhere”
Hi Rill
I think what were saying is that there are already a thousand cameras like this one…. when are they bringing out that something special to put them in front again…. just not seeing it?
I could not imagine that Canon consistently drives the mediocrity.
Yes, they can.
1“ sensor, fixed f2.8-5.6,
64 GB CFast 2.0 for 4k ~ 300,- € !! (64 GB SDXC 10/3 for 4k in GH4 ~ 35 €)
No EVF, touch screen is nice, but it’s not usable when the loupe is mounted to it
2.500$ ??!! Get a GH4 with a 2.8/12-35 instead and you’ll have the real thing.
I understand better what Canon‘s branding effort means:
“Canon See Impossible” – We see that it is impossible to catch up with competition
Hi Rill,
arrogance is the mother of ingnorance. . . no, it’s not you, it’s Canon.
Hi Gary,
It’s always important to remember that the 5D video features in the first dSLR was NOT what Canon intended the outcome to be. It was to give photojournalists the ability to shoot some video along with their assignments, not to make shorts and feature films. It’s also important to remember that Canon has long, planned out roadmaps for their gear and the whole dSLR video revolution threw a wrench in those slow, methodical gears. Again, when you look at who this camera is geared to, there is something very “special” and tale-telling with the XC10 and that’s the ability to grab a 4K frame from the video and whoosh it off to the designated media dept along with a 4GLTE-managable proxy video… ALL IN CAMERA via WIFI. In the world of news media, being first online can make a huge difference in getting the jump on the competion…The XC10 will allow many in the field to do such without compromising image/video quality on todays ever-increasing “retina” displays. I don’t own a GH4, so unless it can do that, it just again shows who this camera is geared to. I always told my compadres that once 4k takes hold the BIG Camera makers will have to make some hard decisions just like they did when cellphone cameras took off. I’m sorry to brea the news, but there will never be a 5D with 4k video. For too long stills-only photographers have complained of why are they “paying for video” with each subsequent 5D iteration. For Canon, they can improve their profit margins on the 5D that saw a significant price increase with “1080p video” implementation and now stay close to that price point by just sticking with HD video going forward. Canon is drawing some hard lines in the sand with these new camera announcements and from a business standpoint it makes sense. As far as your question about Canon “being in front again” it’s keen to remember that Canon has always been a conservative camera maker. Without going back to the film days, look how long it took for Canon to implement 1080/60P for video in any camera capable of video. Another thing to remember is Canon has the 2nd most desired “look” and color science behind ARRI, in my opinion. Right now everyone is hung up on the specs and the poorly produced xc10 demo video. But I think once this camera and it’s high bitrate codec+CFAST2.0 is in the right hands of a compentent shooter and colorist we’ll see some wonderful docu-style films and commercial work done with this new tool. And some indie filmmakers will take the xc10 and “make it work”. If you’re looking for cutting edge features and tech, albeit with a different look, then Sony, Panasonic, BMD, and even JVC would love to have you on board with them.
Hi Rill, you’ve stated:
“I’m sorry to brae the news, but there will never be a 5D with 4k Video”
Please learn, that some predictions which start with
“There will never be…” live for one week only. A prediction as this sells convincingly believe as well-known truth, even as news.
Here is my “News”:
Soon there will be Canon 5D IVc announced, 4k video, 18MP, ISO 100-204.800, dp AFIII
Rill, you have stated:
“For too long stills-only photographers have complained of why are they “paying for video” with each subsequent 5D iteration”
Today’s pro stills photographers may well benefit from an exciting new feature, namely taking stills out of 4K video. Why then should they complain paying for the video feature?
And, most of all, these
photographers may well use their 4k camera for stills, without video. They are paying for the hardware mainly, not for the application.
At the time the 5DII was launched the value of the camera had to be paid, not the utilization. This hasn’t changed. Why complain? What’s the issue?