This is Canon’s new workhorse fixed lens camcorder, the XF605. It has a one inch CMOS
sensor, recording in 4K 4.2.2 10 bit in a variety of different codecs, a 15x optical zoom lens with
3 rings, their latest dual pixel autofocus technology with tracking and eye detection,
5 axis stabilisation, this is definitely Canon’s most feature packed camcorder yet,
but they have managed to make it really quite small
and lightweight. It weighs only 2kg and is one of the smallest 1inch camcorders on the market
with professional ergonomics like 3 rings on the lens and physical control buttons.
Our first reaction to seeing this camera though, which i’m sure will have been the same for lots
of you watching, was that Canon already make a camera with most of these features.
And a fantastic one at that, the XF705 still stands as one of my favourite camcorders on
the market, even 3 years after its release. And this is so similar, the same sized sensor,
max resolutions and bit depth, dual sd cards, same lens, same kind of ports. They look
physically very different, as you can see here, the XF605 is significantly smaller,
but on paper, theres no ignoring it, the XF705 and 605 are very similar cameras in terms of features.
But there is one big change from the 705 which I do think is very important. Because that camera
did have one drawback which came up time and time again when speaking to customers. With the XF705
Canon really went all in on their new XF-HEVC codec which is based around H.265.
It was a fantastic codec to film with, giving great image quality in really small file sizes
and low data rates, but because it was based around H.265 and 4:2:2 colour sampling,
it was really challenging to play back once you got to post production. And to get the most from
the camera, you had to use it, there was no 4K 10 bit without it. The XF605 though, does not have
that problem. Actually that XF-HEVC codec isn’t even a choice here which I find quite interesting.
Instead you get their regular XF-AVC codec just like you find on their cinema eos cameras which
is 4K 10 bit 4.2.2 All-I at 410 Mbps, the only limitation is that you can’t get beyond 30p
in this format. But swap to the 160Mbps Long-Gop version and you get smaller files and 4K 60.
Both of these give you much bigger files than the XF-705’s codec, but very easy to play back
in pretty much any editing setup. Theres then some MP4 codecs and this is where Canon have given us
H.265 encoding. There are H.264 MP4 options at 8 bit, but to get 10 bit you swap to H.265
with the choice of 4.2.2 10 bit or 4.2.0 10 bit. This is a much more flexible selection to choose
from than the XF705, if you want great quality with fast editing, theres the larger all-i, if you
want tiny files while keeping that quality, theres the MP4 10 bit options. And they both look great.
Heres the XF-705’s 10 bit XF-HEVC footage, and heres the XF-605’s 4K all-I, and the 10 bit MP4.
Dramatically different file sizes, but the quality and the detail recorded stays very consistent.
In fact, the image quality as a whole from the XF605 seems every bit as good as the XF705.
This one inch sensor from Canon is just lovely to use, you get a middleground between having
some cinematic depth of field, and still being able to make out whats behind your subject.
Plus the autofocus performance makes that depth of field incredibly easy to control as well.
This is by far the most advanced autofocus system we have seen in a fixed lens camcorder like this.
They have brought over the Eye detection, head detection and object tracking from
their mirrorless cameras like the R5, and its a perfect match for a camera like this.
It is so easy to select what you want to be in focus with the touchscreen, I recon most people
with this camera will simply leave autofocus on pretty much all of the time, its that good.
The touchscreen can also be used to control the menus,
and they have brought over their quick access touchscreen menu from the C70.
This makes it very fast to change your most frequently used settings
and actually lets you control a surprising amount. Theres enough here that you will often not really
need to jump into the full blown menu at all once the camera is set up the way you like.
The other new change is the inclusion of a new multi function accessory shoe
here at the top. Now details here are slim right now, they say it can be paired with a third party
accessory to give you two extra XLR inputs for 4 audio sources, but as of recording this,
we don’t actually know what that third party accessory is. They also have said that this
will be compatible with the mirrorless camera range, but as far as I know none of Canon’s
mirrorless cameras so far have an MI shoe like this. So its all a bit mysterious right now,
but i’m sure we will know more about what this Multi Interface shoe can do, and what
it can work with in the future. Regardless though, it is a big step forwards for Canon.
As this has been an area where they have been falling behind the competition a little bit.
Sony and Panasonic have had MI shoes on their cameras for years now which they can use to
connect more XLR ports, wireless lav mic systems, shotgun mics, even LED lights and pass data and
power through the port itself with no need for any extra batteries or cables. It makes your system
very neat indeed and so I am looking forward to seeing what will work with this over time.
The XF605 also has some really well thought out workflow solutions. Firstly, you can choose a
different codec to go to each of the two SD cards. Which sounds incredibly simple, but is actually
surprisingly rare. This has some many different use cases, it means you can do simple proxy
workflows with full resolution to one and a tiny resolution to the other. Or you can do audio only
.wav files to one to hand off to other departments for transcription or something like that. Or
you could have one card recording interlaced if you client is a broadcaster, while your other
card records progressive so that you have it for use in other projects. Or you can have the full
quality All-I recording onto one card,
while the other records in the H.265 MP4 codec to give you smaller files to share easily.
This all becomes much more powerful when you pair it with their new
Content Transfer Mobile app which you can connect to the camera over wifi or a usb
cable. You can then transfer files or just use the phones internet connection to upload
directly to an FTP server to send to your editor from anywhere in the world. This is great for
news and reporting work where you need to get those files back to base as quickly as possible.
Theres then all of your more standard connections. A full 12-G SDI port for up to 4K 60 which can be
active at the same time as your HDMI output and your LCD and EVF for a simultaneous image
on all of them. Theres then timecode in and out, genlock and sync, multiple styles of remote ports.
Theres IP live streaming and support for their new XC protocol which their PTZ cameras use for
control over IP networks. Theres no support for NDI here though while their PTZ lineup does have
NDI built in so thats a bit of a shame, it would have been nice to see that here
as well. But theres enough here that the XF605 should fit into most workflows out there.
Overall, the XF605 is a very impressive camera. It takes pretty much everything I liked about
the XF705, strips out most of the things I didn’t like, adds a few nice new touches
and puts that all into a much smaller camera body at a lower price point. If you are in the
market for a fixed lens camcorder, I think the XF605 is worth taking a strong look at,
and if you want to buy one head over to proav.co.uk. Let me know what you think
of the XF605 in the comments section, thanks for watching, and i’ll see you in the next one.