It was obvious last February when Canon put forth its first pro MPEG-2 codec, that it was at last creating solid-state products for its professional camcorder line. And as thought, a couple of models were added to its two year-old prosumer models. These being, the Canon XHG1S and the XHA1S.
The Canon XF300 and Canon XF305, being Compact Flash friendly, offer more compact, but slightly heavier bodies. Additionally, some of the features are really improved.
It probably doesn't need to be said, that the obvious and biggest plus, is the move to Compact Flash. The camcorders support UDMA, with dual slots. And there's a SDHC slot on the camera bodies, however that's for still images and transferring settings.
The Canon XF Codec encodes MPEG-2 video with 4:2:2 color sampling with a maximum bitrate of 50 megabits a second. The XF300 and XF305 can cope with a variety of resolutions and frame rates. Importantly, there's a limit of 1080/60i/30p/24p and 720/60p/30p/24p. The files utilize MXF wrappers to aid compatibility with softwares.
The Canon XF300 and Canon XF305, like the older, similar models, distinguish themselves simply by a set of jacks. These jacks make the Canon XF305 appropriate for multi-camcorder, broadcast, environments. Then there's HD-SDI output, genlock and SMPTE time code) (in/out). Canon's also increased the resolution so that it now incorporates three 1920/1080 sensors. And the lens has been decreased from 20x to a wider angle 18x model, with a 35mm-equivalent range of 29.3-527.4mm and an improved manual, focus feel.
The lens also utilizes the image stabilisation improvements that Canon brought about in its 2010 HFS series of consumer models. This really does provide excellent compensation for movement and shake during motion. The XF300 and XF305 also utilize Canon's DIGIC DV 111 image processor. Similarly to the prosumer models, that offer traditional, consumer-type features, for example, face detection.
The viewfinders and LCD are excellent. The LCD is 4 inches in size diagonally and has a 1.23 megapixel resolution. The viewfinder is 0.52 inches with a resolution of 1.55 megapixels.
With regard to editing, the Canon XF300's and XF305's files are supported by all the major softwares natively, which allows really simple footage transfer. You simply slot the CF card into your computer's card reader.
Basically, these camcorders are very versatile and can be used for a whole host of things. The first things that come to mind though, are the needs of documentary, 'reality' producers. For events such as weddings videography they're absolutely perfect given they're able to record a whole day's events on two cards. And this is all without the requirement for any post-shoot capture or transcoding.
The Canon XF300 and Canon XF305, being Compact Flash friendly, offer more compact, but slightly heavier bodies. Additionally, some of the features are really improved.
It probably doesn't need to be said, that the obvious and biggest plus, is the move to Compact Flash. The camcorders support UDMA, with dual slots. And there's a SDHC slot on the camera bodies, however that's for still images and transferring settings.
The Canon XF Codec encodes MPEG-2 video with 4:2:2 color sampling with a maximum bitrate of 50 megabits a second. The XF300 and XF305 can cope with a variety of resolutions and frame rates. Importantly, there's a limit of 1080/60i/30p/24p and 720/60p/30p/24p. The files utilize MXF wrappers to aid compatibility with softwares.
The Canon XF300 and Canon XF305, like the older, similar models, distinguish themselves simply by a set of jacks. These jacks make the Canon XF305 appropriate for multi-camcorder, broadcast, environments. Then there's HD-SDI output, genlock and SMPTE time code) (in/out). Canon's also increased the resolution so that it now incorporates three 1920/1080 sensors. And the lens has been decreased from 20x to a wider angle 18x model, with a 35mm-equivalent range of 29.3-527.4mm and an improved manual, focus feel.
The lens also utilizes the image stabilisation improvements that Canon brought about in its 2010 HFS series of consumer models. This really does provide excellent compensation for movement and shake during motion. The XF300 and XF305 also utilize Canon's DIGIC DV 111 image processor. Similarly to the prosumer models, that offer traditional, consumer-type features, for example, face detection.
The viewfinders and LCD are excellent. The LCD is 4 inches in size diagonally and has a 1.23 megapixel resolution. The viewfinder is 0.52 inches with a resolution of 1.55 megapixels.
With regard to editing, the Canon XF300's and XF305's files are supported by all the major softwares natively, which allows really simple footage transfer. You simply slot the CF card into your computer's card reader.
Basically, these camcorders are very versatile and can be used for a whole host of things. The first things that come to mind though, are the needs of documentary, 'reality' producers. For events such as weddings videography they're absolutely perfect given they're able to record a whole day's events on two cards. And this is all without the requirement for any post-shoot capture or transcoding.
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Learn more about the Canon XF305. Stop by Nicola George's site where you can find out all about various HD cameras and what they can do for you.
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