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Opinion: Page (1) of 1 - 11/04/11

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The new Canon Cinema EOS

By Jeremiah Hall

Okay, I'll admit it. The first thing I did after leaving the Canon event was call my wife.

The conversation went like this:

ME: Hi.

HER: Hi! How was it?

ME: Could you go embezzle $20,000 when you're at work tomorrow?

HER: No, but it is a pretty camera.

I love her. She knows me so well.

Which beings us to the camera, the Canon EOS C300. This is the camera I wanted when I was 25. I was working as a news photographer then. A phone call from a friend and co-worker got the wheels turning. He had an opportunity to shoot some music videos, but needed someone to help write and shoot them. I had the grand idea of buying a video camera to do this, and make it look like film with After Effects.

So I went into hock and bought a Canon GL-1 (I couldn't afford an XL-1 then). And shot with it. And learned. Took me a couple of years to pay it off, tv news paying peanuts (still pays peanuts, but it is fun).

The music video business dried up, but the ideas didn't. I shot everything but the kitchen sink with that GL-1. Eventually I helped shoot a digital feature as second unit with it. I used it as a deck to cut together demo reels. I shot a couple of horror shorts. I shot weddings. I shot my newborn eating strained peas. I SHOT. But my dream was to shoot films. Read that as FILMS. Arriflex and Panavision, Kodak and Fuji. Films.

I sold it to help pay for an HDV camera, when HDV was the new thing. I was looking for the Holy Grail of video - a video camera that looked like 35mm film.

Which brings us to the new Canon. This is what I wanted when I was 24. I watched three shorts and two trailers. All had action. Some had serious action. Rolling shutter? I didn't see it. Pans? They are there, but not the rolling shutter. Action shots galore. It looked like Kodak and Fuji.

The directors of those shorts and trailers told the audience their various shooting presets. One director, who had a cyberpunk-style short, shot sometimes at ISO 16,000. Nope, not hundred. Thousand. I couldn't tell. Neither could the DP sitting next to me. I would lay you even money few  in the audience knew.

After the presentation, I tried it. I lifted it. Held it. Put it on my shoulder, thanks to a Zacuto support system, and did a few pans. And some tilts. It felt right. This is a light camera. It is a comfortable camera. It has possibilities.

When I was in my 20s, I would have sold my soul for a camera that could do what this can do. I'm 37 now. Thirty-seven with a wife and child and cats and dogs that I love.

So I won't go into hock for a camera again.

Well maybe not.

We'll see.