EOS C300: Canon goes to the movies

Canon's new EOS C300 digital video camcorder is clearly designed for filmmakers, and is already being touted as a screen rival to offerings from Sony, RED and ARRI. It comes in two separate varieties - EF mount and PL mount models - and Canon has also designed seven brand new Canon 4K lenses with it specifically in mind.

What marks it as a definite cinema camera is the lack of any automatic controls - there's no auto-focus or exposure on either of the models. Leaving out other controls like Aperture and Shutter Priority (which have been standard on Canon's previous camcorders and DSLRs) adds to the cinematic process of manually fine-tuning every single shot. That does mean, however, it won't be very useful for on-the-fly shooting for sport or documentaries.

And what about image quality? Both C300 models feature a Super 35mm 8.29 mega-pixel CMOS sensor  which, while limited to 1080 only, gives cleaner image output with less info lost. The glass includes four zoom lenses covering a wide zoom range from 14.5mm to 300mm, two models each for EF and PL lens mounts, and three single-focal-length lenses for EF mounts. Filmmakers will probably want to take advantage of the PL mounts which take 4K lenses, but for unis and corporates where versatility takes priority over image quality, the EF mount model might be a better option as you can carry on using your existing EF lenses.

The form factor will be a big selling point for the Canon EOS C300 too. It's tiny. Canon has also made it modular to deal with the needs of your shoot - there's a removable top handle, a pivoting side grip and a monitor unit which can be clamped onto the top of the camera. These can of course be replaced with your accessories of preference.

Now for the price... Canon has set the C300 at a quite reasonable $20,000 (which certainly challenges the Sony PMW-F3K). It's not going to ship until the beginning of 2012, so we'll post up full details on UK pricing and availability as soon as we know it.

- For more information on our full Canon camcorder range, get in touch on 03332 409 306, broadcast@Jigsaw24.com or visit Jigsaw Broadcast. You can also keep up with the latest broadcast news and offers by following @JigsawVideo on Twitter or heading to our Jigsaw Video Facebook page.