- Greetings from Krabi, Thailand.
Check this out, this is the C500 Mkii.
Over the last two weeks, I've been here in Thailand.
I've been taking this thing with me everywhere.
One of the first things that I really noticed
is just the build quality of these cameras.
Now, it's not metal, it's plastic,
which is nice 'cause it's lightweight,
but these can actually go through a lot of abuse.
I've seen C300s and C200s used on so many documentaries
where they get really put through their paces
going through harsh terrain and rough environment.
Let me show you something.
I can actually submerge this in the water for a split second
and watch this, here. (laughs)
Oh my God, did I give you a heart attack
just doing that bit?
I made sure everything on the camera was super tight
before I recorded that.
No, not even I would do that.
That would 100% ruin the camera.
Why am I filming this at the edge of this pool?
This is a bad idea.
Hey, let's move somewhere else before something bad happens.
Here we go, I think this is a little bit safer
for a review, huh?
Oh my God, I'm flexing so hard right now.
I'm just like, yeah, look at our mansion
that we're staying in.
This whole place, it's nuts.
And it was like 399 bucks a night or something like that.
399 divided by five people, 80 bucks per person, yeah.
Now, there were a couple of things
that made the C300 Mkii
really a compelling documentary camera.
First of all, again, it could take a beating.
Can't throw it in the pool, but it can still take a beating.
It's pretty lightweight.
Surprisingly, a lot of people are actually surprised.
When they pick it up, they go, oh, it's actually not so bad.
I actually vlogged with it for a big chunk of this trip.
Man, the cloud just totally covered me, which is actually
not bad 'cause now we're getting much more even lighting.
And that is one of the things that you face
when you're shooting on something like a mirrorless camera.
You need even lighting, you don't have that much
dynamic range, but that's some of the beauty
of shooting on a camera like this
is that you can just be in harsh shadow
and the background could be bright
and it actually doesn't look nearly as bad.
Now, here's one of the things
that really make these kinds of cameras appealing
is that you can't always control your lighting.
See, the sun decided to come back out, ruin my exposure,
but when you have so much dynamic range in a camera,
you don't have to control your environment nearly as much.
So that's one of the first questions a lot of people ask.
Well, what's the difference between this
and shooting on something like this EOS R
and as long as you're in a well controlled environment,
you can make any camera look really good.
But when you're in harsher places,
like if you're a documentary filmmaker filming
in South Africa and you have no control over the lighting,
you just need a camera that can capture that dynamic range
and this definitely fits the bill for that.
And of course, the C500 Mkii is beautiful
with its full frame sensor.
That's something that everyone's been waiting for
in a cinema camera for awhile now.
But anyways, let me show you some footage
I shot here in Thailand.
(light music)
We're hiking through the jungles of Northern Thailand.
My camera of choice for this hike, C500 Mkii.
Am I regretting it?
Kind of, it's a little bit big.
We're getting out to some of these remote
off the grid location is a real treat,
so I really wanna get the best possible images
while I'm up there.
So I think it'll be worth it, hopefully.
(laughs)
(light music)
Now, first impressions out of this was, wow.
I was really impressed with the image quality
coming out of this.
It's much sharper, much cleaner, more dynamic range
and just overall a better image compared
to something like a full frame mirrorless camera.
Not 100% sure how it's gonna look
after YouTube's compression
and depends on what resolution you guys are watching it on,
but when I'm looking at it full screen on my 4K display,
I can 100% say this is just on a whole nother league.
I think one of the videos I need to make is this EOS R
versus the C500 Mkii,
show you some side by side comparisons.
And I don't know, is that a video you guys wanna see?
Poll, right there, bang.
Now, pretty much all of the Thailand shot,
I was using autofocus with my EF lenses.
And as you would expect out
of Canon's dual pixel autofocus, it performed great.
It was very reliable and sharp.
Perfect for when you're a solo operator
just trying to get the shot
'cause you're just looking off this little teeny monitor.
And as long as you see that square
around that subject's face, you know it's sharp on them.
So that's a great feeling to have.
And sure, I know manual focus is still the way to go
because you have a little bit more control
over how it focuses, what to rack.
It's just a lot more of an organic feel
to manually focus it.
But when the autofocus gets as good as this camera,
I'd definitely consider it
to be a professional level autofocus.
And there's a lot of benefits to go in autofocus
opposed to manual, especially when you're
on a full frame sensor and you got that nice
fast shallow depth of field lens on there.
I mean, it's hard to get that perfect focus.
So you're just putting most of your attention
onto making sure that focus is perfectly right there.
Subject moves a little bit,
you're like oh, you gotta chase it.
And if all your attention is tunnel visioned
into making sure that focus is right,
it's very easy to miss things like what's in your frame,
how is your composition.
What else is going on in the room?
Should you be getting a shot of this
instead of that or that?
I just love the feeling of just going,
all right, camera, focus on that person's face
and I get to think about other stuff.
And for the type of shooting I was doing in Thailand,
it was perfect.
And for a lot of it, I was using
the built-in image stabilization on this camera.
Now, it's not like IBIS where the sensor moves
or anything like that.
It's digital image stabilization
and I think it's very similar to the ones you would find
on a camera like this EOS R.
And the way I was just handholding it, it really helps
to have one little padding of stabilization,
so that's when I would turn it on in here.
Oh, by the way, I should mention it does not work
when you're shooting RAW.
But in the 10-bit codec I was using in 4K,
you could turn it on and it works just fine.
It does work about 98% of the time, but I don't believe
it's using any of the gyroscopic, gyroscope.
Like GoPros, it uses the data of the camera's motion
and then uses that, pairs it against the footage
and smoothens out the footage.
It's a pretty good way to go.
This does not do that.
And I'm assuming that because if I go in onto a really tight
close up and the subject is filling up most of the frame,
then it tends to track with that subject a little bit.
I notice that a lot when I'm filming my dog's panting.
'Cause the dog's moving in this panting pattern
and the camera tracks with it,
even if the camera is staying still.
And also some of this footage as he nods a little bit,
you can see that the camera's almost tracking
with him a little bit.
That's that digital image stabilization
analyzing that frame and tracking with him.
So sometimes, it can throw off a shot.
It can look a little bit weird, but again 98% of the time,
I'd say it looks pretty good.
Just in close ups is where I really try to avoid that.
So for example, this is the 100mm f/2.8.
The image stabilization on this lens
is actually really solid.
So if I'm getting a shot where I'm worried about that,
I might slap this on, turn on the image stabilization
on the lens and turn it off on the camera, just to avoid
that from happening 'cause optimal image stabilization
is a physical movement.
It's not gonna try to analyze something
or anything weird like that.
So overall, image stabilization nice, but it's not perfect.
I would say it's almost the exact same
as something you would get out of the EOS R.
By the way, funny story.
We went in to go listen to that Buddhist monk talk
about Buddhism and how he lives his life.
And it was really eye-opening.
Buddhism was not what I was expecting it to be.
It was really about just training your mind and body
to just be happy and really just be a good person.
And with that comes happiness, just on the inside
and that really sounds like Buddhist stuff, right?
But really it's like you don't need external things
to make yourself happy.
You can just be alone, quiet
and just very content with life.
So I can get behind that.
But as we were going into the temple, I was like,
oh, a Buddhist monk and he was like...
- Oh, I saw your YouTube channel.
(laughing)
Meet someone with a camera from Hollywood.
- [Potato] Really, wait, Gerard, did you do this?
- No, I did not do this.
He knows who you are.
- I was like, what?
I didn't even know Buddhist monks watched YouTube.
Turns out they stay up to speed with technology
and as long as it's helpful or informative,
they watch quite a bit of YouTube.
He started talking about his favorite comparison videos,
like the Arri Alexa cinema cameras and compare it.
I thought that was hilarious.
So to all the Buddhist monks
that are subscribed, (foreign language).
Pretty sure that's what I'm supposed to say.
I was in Thailand for 2 1/2 weeks,
I should probably know for sure.
So check this out.
This is one of the beauties of the C500 Mkii.
The way it's shaped and everything,
it fits onto these gimbals no problem.
Only downside is this cable that it comes with
is a little bit short, so if I straighten it out,
you can see it tugs.
The cable it comes with I think is 20 inches,
so it's definitely worth getting the longer one.
I think there's one for 30-something inches,
which would be perfect for something like this,
but it's also 349 bucks.
So something to keep in mind.
Definitely if you do a lot of gimbal work,
definitely worth having that extra cable.
But with this monitor set up like this, it's awesome
because I literally just tap the screen
to where I want it to focus.
I mean, these higher end gimbal setups are usually
a two, three, four-person operation.
But this is one I could pretty comfortably do it myself
and it's pretty lightweight, relatively at least.
So I'm gonna take this, hop on this one-wheeler real quick
and let's see what kind of shots we can get.
(upbeat music)
Wow, these are literally some of the easiest shots
I've gotten out of this Mobi Pro.
Usually the--
(truck beeping) Of course.
I also love how easy it is to swap
between different ND filters.
I don't have to drop anything into a Mapbox,
I don't have to thread anything on it.
I literally just push a button and it gives me two stops,
four stops or six stops and then you can also extend it out
so it layers a couple of the ND filters.
So then you could also get eight stops and 10 stops
and that pretty much covers you
for a majority of what you need.
So the convenience is all there.
This is a very convenient camera to use.
It's very pleasant.
This monitor is also nice and bright.
Even when we're getting hit by direct sunlight,
it's still very visible.
I can see my composition and my shots and color is okay.
So love that.
Another convenient button is the S&F, so I can press it
and it automatically puts me into different frame rates.
So I usually have it set to 60.
So if I'm shooting 24 frames per second,
quickly need to get a slow-mo shot, I just press that,
it puts me in that mode.
Very convenient, but you do lose autofocus
when you're in that mode.
So if I wanna shoot 4K 60, I'm gonna lose that autofocus,
which is unfortunate
because the camera itself is capable of doing it.
'Cause instead of pressing the S&F button,
if you just set the camera's frame rate
to 60 frames per second, then you maintain your audio
as well as your dual pixel autofocus.
So a firmer update, I would love to see
it still having dual pixel autofocus,
even when I press the S&F button.
And also another thing I would love to see in some of these
is better high frame rate options.
I mean, we can get up to 120 frames per second on this,
but only in super 16 crop mode,
which is a pretty significant crop.
You could still get pretty clean 120p slow-mo out of it,
but I would just love to see 120p in the full frame mode.
Now, the way the monitor is mounted,
you might be familiar with it
if you've ever shot on the C200.
And originally, I was like I don't totally get it.
It's floppy and weird, but now that I've actually gotten
a lot of time behind it, I actually love it
because of how versatile it is.
You can press it up against your shoulder, use it like this.
I've had it like this for awhile.
It was like my vlogging monitor.
And if you're a RED shooter,
you'll probably like to do something like this.
But many different ways to hold it comfortably,
so I like that.
And the weight of it, like I said, is just right there
where it's not heavy.
So in that way, I really appreciate that it's plastic
and I imagine it's hard plastic.
I mean, $16,000, I imagine they'd probably
use pretty good plastic. (laughs)
Another new thing about the C500 Mkii
is that it is gonna be modular.
You can see there's a slot for a plate back here,
a viewfinder, it can slip on right here.
I love that the viewfinder is removable.
I never really used it that much on the C300 Mkii
and it would always get in the way of gimbals.
I made a whole video explaining the layout
of all the buttons, where everything is located.
So I'll link to that right there.
But the more I use it, the more I love it.
I mean, you got your main access buttons right here
if you're shoulder rigging it.
Or if you've got it on a tripod or you're not using this,
you can access those same buttons here.
And if you're using the grip, you'll also have your joystick
and your main control buttons here.
Joystick's actually pretty cool if you're using autofocus
with face attack 'cause you have a couple different faces
on there, then all you have to do
is literally hop between faces using the joystick.
So that's been pretty neat.
Now, one of the things to keep in mind is
that this camera does drain the battery much, much faster
than something like a C300 Mkii.
For example, this big ole battery might have lasted you,
what, four hours on a C300 Mkii or C200 or whatever.
On here, it's under two hours.
I think it gave me an estimate of about 110 minutes.
So in Thailand, I definitely found myself trying
to shut off the camera as much as possible.
Luckily the boot up time is pretty good.
So I'm gonna fire her up in three, two, one
and let's see how long it takes before she boots up,
hear the fan, boom and I can already record right there.
So that's pretty good for a cinema camera.
Now, you might have noticed that I did attach
this back unit to it, so this is one of the extensions.
You've got now a V-mount battery mount
and two more XLR ports.
So this is input three, input four.
So we're talking about XLR inputs with phantom power.
So that's actually awesome.
I always felt that with my previous cameras
having two XLR inputs were just barely too little
'cause if I'm filming three people,
I at least want one Blue Mic and a LoF per person.
So that's three channels.
So having four mic inputs, love that.
You got a Dtap with 50 watt max.
You got your genlock sync right here.
Now, you still get your time code
right here on the main body.
So even if you don't have this, you still have time code
and then we got remote B, ethernet and lens control.
But just be able to slap on this female is nice
'cause now you got a camera
that can run for much, much longer.
If you don't mind the extended size and weight
of this thing, it's probably the way to go.
Although, this doesn't really add that much weight.
It's pretty lightweight plastic.
It's just the size.
Look at this thing, this looks nothing like
what we were carrying around Thailand.
That's part of the beauty of this camera
is the modularity of it.
I probably wouldn't mind one
or two extra Dtaps out of this backpack unit,
but I got one Dtap out of this V-mount battery,
so that gives me two, so that's probably gonna be running
one to wireless focus and also wireless video feed.
Of course, you got 50 watts out of here,
so you can split this no problem
and send one to another external monitor and all that.
Now, a few more things, check this out.
Zoom into there, January...
Oh, there it go!
I am officially now 31 years old.
I know a lot of people were like, what, you're 31?
You seem so immature for your age.
(laughs)
But yeah, it's my birthday now, January 24th is the day.
Thanks for celebrating that with me.
But anyways, all the shots you've seen so far
have just been shot on that 10bit codec
that's on here.
It's a very easy file to work with.
I love using it.
Here's a few shots in the 5.9K RAW.
And I'll punch in a little bit, so you can see
how much detail you can actually get out of this camera
at its maximum performance.
It's great, it's powerful, it's RAW 5.9 K.
It's amazing, but it's a little bit overkill
for most of the work I do.
So yeah, I've been happy
with that 10bit codec.
That codec is called XF-AVC
and it's a 4:2:2 10bit codec, very powerful.
I mean, it goes up to 810 megabits per second max.
So really impressive stuff, even if you're not trying
to get into that RAW codec life.
Also these CFexpress memory cards, love the speed on these.
I downloaded 50 gigabytes of data just now
and it took me 40 seconds to download it.
It literally zoop!
It was awesome.
Now, we got an EF mount on here,
but we can also switch it out for a PL mount
for some of the higher end cinema lenses.
But there are no options for the RF mount,
Canon's new lens system.
And I'm imagining it's because the flange distance
was too short and they needed
to fit these ND filters back here.
So that's my guess on why they didn't include that.
That's a bummer, I mean, I'm using the RF lens right now,
but there's plenty of EF lenses and PL lenses
that are great out there.
But overall, I'd say it's a perfect middle ground camera
to where you're gonna be able
to get definitely professional results.
It's a step up from the image quality you'll get
out of DSLR mirrorless world.
I still wanna say the image quality is as good
as something like an Arri Alexa or anything like that,
but at the same time, I'm not gonna do a massive hike
into a remote village in Thailand
while carrying this thing around.
This is the one for that job.
Anyways, let's wrap this up by reading a few comments.
April says, how did I just lose two hours watching some guy
I just found that calls himself Potato?
No regrets, though.
Yeah, that's really weird, isn't it?
I'm 31 years old,
I should probably stop calling myself Potato.
I can't wait till I'm 50 years old and still going,
hey guys, it's Potato Jet.
(laughs) What?
Oh and by the way, I've also been putting a little bit
more effort into my vlog channel.
I think I know what I wanna do with it.
So you should totally go check it out
and subscribe to the new vlog channel.
And yeah, it's my birthday,
so you have to do everything I say,
or else, you're a terrible person.
That is a fact.
Anyways, I'm gonna end this video here.
Goodbye, I'm gonna go to sleep.
Actually, I can't go to sleep 'cause I'm jet lagged.
I'm still in Thailand time.
It's 12:18 and I'm super wide awake!