Canon came late to the party BUT THEY BROUGHT ALL THE BEER!!!
Canon just made several new announcements and confirmed rumors about the R5 that are really exciting!
But a student recently asked me – “what camera should I buy? Sony a7 III, FUJI XT4 or the Canon R5?” Well let’s look at these new announcements from Canon and see how that relates to what a person should buy!
It’s especially exciting with the new announcement, we know that Canon is bringing out the R5 – it shoots 8k internally, 4k, has stabilization, but they just announced that it is going to record in 10-bit 422 in 8k and 4k internally, and it’s going to shoot RAW internally in 8k and 4k! This is MINDBLOWING! No more progressive jpg and no crop!
You’ve got H265 which is a compressed codec but does have a hard time with your computer. It’s going to bog down your computer a little bit, but it’s a great codec compared to progressive jpg. The H265 is really efficient so you’re going to be able to pack a lot of information into that file which means you do have to unpack it when you’re editing which can be a pain and the Canon RAW light is not that light either so no matter what you’re doing, you’re going to have to have a really fast computer to cut this stuff together, but I’m just so happy that Canon has 2 serious codec options in this little body.
I feel like Sony has helped this process because they have brought out great cameras with great capabilities, and Canon was standing there going “what happened?!”. They were soo late to the party with the mirrorless revolution. They just missed that boat completely, but they have come in and they really have come in with a vengeance. They’ve come back with a camera that checks all the boxes. This camera, we’ve been begging for since the 5D Mark II.
This is going to be an incredible crossover camera! It really is!
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I did the math, and if you’re shooting 8k RAW internally, you’re going to get 8 minutes of footage on a 260 megabyte card that’s $400!!! So $400 for 8 minutes of footage! So I’m glad that you can shoot 4k, no crop, internally. At least, that’s my understanding, so you have flexibility in terms of both format and resolution and how much data you’re going to be burning thru at a time.
This camera does have Canon log, now we’ll see if it’s Canon log 2 and 3 or just the original. They will kinda be a dealbreaker for some people. It’s gotta be log 3 at least! If you put that kind of log in a camera, it doesn’t make sense to not be 3.
They didn’t say in the announcement, but if you pull that RAW footage into Canon’s processor presumably you’d be able to interpret it as whatever gammit you want. I don’t know. We’ll see!
They didn’t confirm any of the external HTMI out signal rumors. There are a lot of things that are still unconfirmed but I would hope that isn’t the major issue with this camera. I would hope that they give you a good signal out, but the reality is that you’ve got such a great internal recording I don’t think that’s going to be much of an issue other than storage space.
This is a leapfrog for Canon because it really puts it in the category of the S1H! Those two are head to head now and at the forefront of what you would use in a cinematic kind of situation as a B camera or a camera in a tight place, but up to this point, Canon has never delivered a camera that really competed in that arena at all.
We’ll see what the price is like! It’s not going to be cheap! Is it going to be like the 5D where it was $3-4 k or is it going to be like the 1DX where it’s $5-6? I made a comment once when I saw the 1DX Mark III “this should have been a mirrorless camera” and that’s really what the R5 is!
I think we’ll definitely see this camera in the $4-5 k range. Who knows though!
So back to my students question: is it best to go with the FUJI XT4, Sony a7 III or the Canon R5.. it’s a really difficult question to answer. If he wants this camera mostly for video but he does shoot stills.
The FUJIFILM XT-4 is a great option there because it already has the 422 internal 10-bit, it shoots 4k up to 60 fps, it’s pretty inexpensive at $1700, so you’re up and running for a very low price and it has a lot of features but it is a crop sensor.
The a7 III at this point I feel like is starting to become old news when it comes to video. It’s only 8-bit 420, you can’t shoot S log without an external system, at least, it’s not going to look great.
The Canon EOS R is terrible for video. You can get that speed booster and then the motion jpg is the worst. If you bought R, I’d say this is a stop gap camera until the R5 comes out, but frankly I would just borrow a camera if you’re going to stay in the Canon space.
You have to make a decision on which system you’re going to invest in the future in. It just seems like a Canon system with Canon glass, gives you growth! And it’s easy to get other cameras to add to that collection.
Real fast before we go, let’s talk about the C300 MK III specs! This is really a super exciting camera! It is Super35 so you don’t have full frame which is the big thing these days, but it shoots 4k RAW light and 10bit 422 up to 180s fps in 4k, which is amazing!
This camera really has what I hoped the C200 would have. It has a great range of codecs, even very high end, which makes it an incredible doc camera! If you’re shooting documentaries, it gives you everything you need to be able to run and gun. You can do 2 XLRs in it – with an expansion unit you can do 4, which is incredible because sometimes you get into a situation where you need the 3rd and you have to go back to the zoom recorder which is a great solution but it’d be nice to be able to have it all on the camera!
Another great thing about C300 is it has 5 axis stabilization, which really makes it a cinema camera, which is so cool! It’s maybe something I’d like the ability to turn on and off from time to time, but especially if you’re doing doc run and gun stuff, that stabilization is really nice!
And it has dual pixel autofocus up to 120 fps, so if you’re shooting really slow motion stuff you can still use the autofocus.
So I’m really excited about a Canon C300 and a Canon R5 together as an A & B camera because now I can use the R5 to shoot stills and I’d have a really good cinema camera to out and shoot doc style things!
Something to keep in mind about the R5 is all of those lenses are super expensive, and they’re not small either! I think Tamron did so well on the lenses they made for the Sony platform. They were compact, they made some compromises but those compromises were worth it. Their new 70-180 lens for the Sony platform is super compact and the reason they stayed at 180 was to keep it compact! I look forward to them making some super compact lenses for the R5 that will make it easy to carry around.
CONCLUSION
I feel like Canon just ARRIVED! They finally came to the party with all the cameras that you really need, from a crossover camera to a really incredible cinema camera. I feel like they finally got the lineup that the market has pushed them to for a long time. I really hope the camera is as good in hand as it sounds on paper!
Closing thought: I wonder what Sony is up to right now! Hmmm
Keep those cameras rolling and keep on clickin!
GEAR USED:
Canon C200
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Canon 24-70 2.8
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Sony A7 RIII
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Canon EOS R
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Tamron 24-70mm 2.8 G2
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Tamron 28-75 2.8
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Tamron 17-28 2.8
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KLM audio module
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Vanguard VEO 2 Pro 263CPV
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Platypod
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Spyder Color Checker
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Kobra Modifier
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