This is the Canon C70, and based on the comments
I've read over the last two months, in order for everyone
to be happy, this thing needs to be
the perfect upgrade to the C200,
an uncompromising budget version of the C300 Mark III
and a viable alternative to Sony's recent releases,
but with an RF mount. So is it all those things?
Yep. Let's get undone!
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What's happening, everybody? I'm Gerald Undone,
and my ISO is over 9000.
As usual, let's start things off with some disclosure.
Canon lent me this camera for about a week
to make this review. I do not get to keep it,
I was not compensated in any way, and Canon
does not get to preview this video before it's posted.
I also borrowed some lenses from Camera Canada,
so shout-out to them for always coming through in a pinch.
Big fan of that store! All right, now before we jump
right into me yelling numbers at you, I highly encourage you
to watch my C300 Mark III review.
This camera is nearly identical to that camera
in so many ways that I wouldn't want to waste
over half of my viewers' time by remaking that exact video again.
So instead, we're going to build off of it.
By the way, I mention over half of my viewers' time,
because on average, only 55% of you are subscribed.
What are the other 45% of you doing?
Press that subscribe button already!
But jumping back to the C300 Mark III,
I would say that one of the most impressive things
about the C70 is just how much of the C300 Mark III is in here.
You're getting the same sensor, the same image performance,
same battery type, a fully featured audio system,
built-in NDs, a fully articulating screen,
13 customizable function buttons,
and even a BNC timecode port.
Every inch of this thing is smartly used and stuffed
with functionality, and it's very intuitive to operate.
It's chunky, but not unwieldy, and comes in at 1.4 kilos,
or 3 pounds, with a battery and SD cards installed.
Physically, it feels like you're holding
the biggest DSLR of all time.
But the grip is substantial, deep, and well-textured,
and it actually utilizes some of the controls
that you'd expect to see on Canon DSLRs.
Like the position of the top control dial,
and the rear set dial.
It also features a small function dial,
which can be mapped to several operations, and a joystick.
I did have a couple minor fit and finish issues
with my version of the camera, but I'm thinking
these are probably just related to my specific demo.
My joystick was a bit sticky at first
and it wasn't as responsive when pressing it to the right,
and the thumb wheel on the back feels a bit loose.
The joystick has gotten better over time,
and for the most part, I have no complaints
about the operation of the camera.
I do wish it allowed me to map the big wheel on the back.
I would like to be able to set this to ISO,
but I can only do that with this tiny wheel.
But I choose not to, because I'm constantly
accidentally hitting this with my palm.
Right now, you can't map any settings to the big thumb wheel,
and I think this is a missed opportunity.
I am very impressed, however, by how many function buttons
they retained, and the placement of them,
which is something I found a bit annoying about the Sony FX6.
I also much prefer this touch screen operation
compared to the FX6. You can easily
move your focus point by just touching,
and there are also touch options for changing exposure
and white balance without leaving your shooting display.
The only thing I can really take points off for is the fact
that the full menu is not touch-navigable, and in order
to activate tracking, you have to first press a button
and then touch the screen, just like we saw
on the C300 Mark III, which was my favourite
autofocus implementation until the a7S III came along,
because the a7S III streamlined this by making tracking
a simple “touch once” operation, and improving the stickiness
of that tracking over what Canon currently offers.
But before we get too deep into autofocus,
I'll summarize by saying I prefer using the C70
over the FX6, and it's a close second just behind my a7S III.
All right, now let's talk about what's missing on this camera
from the C300 Mark III. First off, there's no EVF,
and the screen has a few less positions and angles
it can take on. You can supplement this
with third party accessories,
but out of the box, it's slightly less versatile
for viewing angles compared to the C300.
I didn't find this to be too big of a problem though,
and the screen can be made reasonably bright,
and is a decent size and resolution.
No major complaints.
It also doesn't have an SDI port, but it does have
a fully-featured HDMI output with no known quirks.
Everything just seems to work.
You have full control over your on-screen display,
and you can individually add or remove display items,
and obviously output a clean feed as well.
There's no limitations when it comes to autofocus
when using HDMI, and no screen blackouts
in any setting I tried.
The only thing that's missing from the HDMI output
is the ability to apply a LUT from the camera over HDMI.
You can only apply the LUT to the built-in LCD,
which means you'll have to install your own LUT
onto your external device.
Luckily, Canon does provide the same LUT
they use in the camera for free on their website.
Just go to the C300 Mark III support page
and download the lookup tables.
Also, whether you record internally or externally,
there is no raw recording on this camera.
That's something you'll need to go to
the C300 Mark III or beyond to get.
But to be honest, I don't particularly like
Canon's raw implementation, and always find myself
shooting 10-bit XF-AVC anyway, and it's the recommendation
I gave in those previous reviews, even though
those cameras did have raw. So I personally don't feel
like I'm missing anything here.
And if you're a C200 user looking to upgrade,
or maybe you skipped the C200 because of the lack of 10-bit,
rest assured, the C70 has 10-bit internal recording
in both ALL-Intra and LongGOP modes on this camera.
And it even has an HEVC option, which offers the same quality,
but at slightly smaller file sizes,
and using an MP4 container instead of the MXF.
So I find the codec options on this camera
much more useful than on the C200.
However, there is one more shortcoming
compared to the C300 Mark III: you can't record ALL-Intra
above 30 frames per second. This is a limitation
that comes from this camera using only SD Cards.
The 50p or 60p ALL-Intra modes require 810 mbps,
which is higher than what a V90 SD card
can guarantee for continuous, reliable video writing.
But you can record up to 60 frames per second in LongGOP,
and up to 120 frames per second when using the S&F mode.
And you can actually get away with just V60 cards
for most of the recording modes on this camera.
The only mode it asks for a V90 card is the 120p S&F,
but I was actually able to record the 120 on a V60 card
as well without dropping frames, but it's not advised,
and the camera warns against it when switching modes.
The last potential shortcoming
on the C70 would be the XLR inputs.
Thankfully, unlike the FX6, on this camera they're located
right inside the body, instead of being on the top handle.
The C70 comes with a top handle, by the way,
if you want to mount a shotgun mic.
However, in order to fit those ports on the body,
they had to use mini XLR.
I'm used to this from my Blackmagic cameras,
but if you're coming from the larger cameras,
you'll need to use an adapter cable.
But regarding audio and the aforementioned 120p mode,
the C70 does have one trick the C300 Mark III doesn't.
You can record a separate audio track in real time
on the second card slot while recording
slowed-down 120p footage on slot 1.
So in post, you'll have that audio if you want
to do speed ramping or need a sound bed.
This is a clever way to remove the audio limitations
of the S&F mode.
[slo-mo] Very smart.
However, that does mean
that you can't do redundant recording while in S&F mode.
But when you're in normal recording, you can use
the second SD card slot as either a backup,
or put it in relay mode to swap to the next card
when the first one is full.
And you can open the card door and swap out the one
that isn't being written to as well
without stopping your recording. So that's great!
There are still some other considerations
to make, though, regarding the S&F mode.
First, I wish the fast motion was more flexible.
The lowest you can go is 12 fps,
which is only gonna give you a 2x speed multiplier,
versus the 24x, or 1 fps, on the Sony cameras.
However, compared to the FX6, the C70
has more autofocus versatility in the S&F modes.
The FX6 disabled autofocus for many frame rates,
including DCI 24p and 48p.
The C70 also has limitations in this regard.
For example, there's no autofocus in less common speeds
like 72, 75, or 96 fps,
or the slow speeds, like 12 fps.
But there is autofocus in 30p, 48, 50, 60,
100, and 120, as well as DCI 24.
However, just like with the C300 Mark III,
the autofocus performance takes a major hit when you use
S&F mode, and the face tracking is also disabled.
You can compensate for this a bit with the autofocus settings,
which offer plenty of customization,
but it just never quite gets back to the confidence
and speed it has when shooting in normal recording modes.
This whole section is one area where the C70
felt like a downgrade when compared to the Sony a7S III.
On the a7S III, not only can you record 120p normally
without needing in-camera slow motion, but enabling it
has no consequences on autofocus performance,
face or eye detection, or image quality.
There is a slight crop though, which the C70
doesn't have when shooting 120p, but overall, the a7S III wins
in the high frame rate and autofocus categories.
Because unfortunately, the C70, just like
the C300 Mark III, disables its Dual Gain Output
when shooting higher than 60 fps.
Again, if you don't know what I'm talking about,
please watch my C300 Mark III review.
But the short version is that your image
becomes more noisy and you lose about a stop of dynamic range
when you switch from 60p to 120p.
That being said, the image is still very usable, and that 120p
dynamic range is still a respectable 12 stops,
it's just noticeably worse than when shooting
at lower frame rates. Part of that
also has to do with the lowering bit rates.
At 60 fps, you're getting 160Mbps
in LongGOP, and the image looks pretty great.
But by 96 fps, you're down to 130Mbps.
And then at 120p, you're at 108Mbps
and there is a noticeable loss in detail.
This is not enough for it to be a deal breaker, in my opinion,
and in many scenarios, it isn't even that noticeable,
but you should be aware of it, because if all you care about
is 4K120, the a7S III is probably the better option.
But in normal recording mode, this camera is fantastic
all the way up to 4K60, and the dynamic range is stellar.
I once again busted out the Xyla 21-- thanks again to DSC Labs
for providing that terrific chart-- and I measured 13 stops
of dynamic range with a signal-to-noise ratio of 2,
the very same score I got on the a7S III.
But this is more impressive if you consider two things:
one, this is a super35 sensor on the C70, and two,
the C70 got that score without noise reduction enabled,
where on the a7S III, noise reduction can't be turned off.
On the FX6, when I turned off noise reduction,
the score dropped to a little below 13 stops,
so thus we can safely determine that the C70
is slightly better in dynamic range than the FX6
or a7S III when shooting at ISO 800 at 60p or below.
And that's quite impressive.
So if you're somebody who shoots generally at 60p or lower,
and below ISO 12,800, I think you'll be very happy
with the image out of the C70.
If you like to shoot at ISOs 12,800 and above,
the two options from Sony
will drastically outperform this camera.
It's not that the noise performance is bad on the C70.
In fact, it's quite good, and it even rivals
full-frame sensors like the a7 III.
It just can't really compete with the cameras designed
specifically for low light, like the a7S III or the FX6.
I'd say up to ISO 6400 is excellent on the C70,
and even ISO 12,800 is very usable,
but beyond that, it really starts to fall apart.
But the workflow for the C70 is terrific.
Shoot CLog2 for maximum dynamic range and expose neutrally--
which you can use the excellent meter
and the built-in LUT to help with that,
because there's no need to overexpose
on a Dual Gain Output sensor.
And then in post, just drop on the CLog2 to 709 LUT
and you're in business. Each stop of ISO increases
the exposure normally with a logical increase in noise,
and there's no fancy principles for exposing.
It's very simple and intuitive.
The white balance tool is excellent.
It's not as customizable as the a7S III.
You don't get a controllable target box.
This operates more like FX6 and previous Canon Cine cameras,
where it just evaluates the scene.
But unlike the FX6, this camera does
a nearly perfect job every time at nailing the white balance,
and you do it with just the press of a single button.
All of this adds up to a very easy experience
when it comes to creating technically precise images.
Beyond that, it's all up to taste.
The Canon LUT will give you mostly accurate colour,
but it's still Canon colour, which means
that it leans a bit more pink than the competition.
Love it or hate it. It is what it is.
But these are robust 10-bit images, and you can make
the colour whatever you want
without the risk of too much degradation.
It has the same rolling shutter performance
as the C300 Mark III, which is to say, passable.
It's not excellent, and the a7S III
definitely outperforms it, but it passes the threshold
of usable, and is better than most other mirrorless cameras.
The rolling shutter drastically improves when you're above 60p,
though, because when the Dual Gain Output turns off.
So the dynamic range goes down, but the read speed
goes up, giving you excellent
rolling shutter performance at that point.
One thing I prefer on the C70 over the FX6 is the DCI 4K mode,
On the FX6, the DCI crops in to a 1:1 readout,
but on the C70, it does the more logical thing
of expanding to DCI 4K.
This is actually because the FX6 is oversampling in Ultra HD
and using a larger portion of the sensor,
and then stops doing that when you switch to DCI 4K.
But on the C70, it's doing the opposite.
It's reading out closer to 1:1 in Ultra HD
and then expands for DCI 4K. The difference is pretty minimal,
but I find the C70 makes more sense to my eyes when switching.
And regarding cropping, the C70 has an improvement
over the C300 Mark III.
Remember in my C300 review, when I said
that the sensor was actually slightly bigger
than your standard 1.5x APS-C super35 sensor?
I mentioned that so you would be careful about using EF-S lenses,
because you might see some vignetting.
Well, the C70 has a built-in EF-S mode
in the menu that compensates for this and recreates
the APS-C crop to remove vignetting on EF-S glass.
So, that's pretty cool.
Also regarding crop factor, the biggest difference
probably between the C70 and the C300 Mark III is the lens mount.
The C70 is using the RF mount instead of the C300's EF.
This means that not only can the C70 use RF lenses,
but more importantly, it also allows
for Canon's RF to EF speed booster.
Now, I don't have that adapter to test, but having used
speed boosters a lot in the past, I know what to expect.
And since Canon is quite competent at making glass,
I assume it should be of good quality.
And with that, you'll actually be able to beat
the C300 Mark III in both field of view and light gathering
with the speed booster, bringing you much closer
to a full-frame equivalent when mounting EF lenses on the C70.
So that's fantastic, and a huge value add.
Another value upgrade and something else that I found
quite impressive about the C70 is the battery life.
It comes with a battery only half the size
of the one from the C300 Mark III.
This one uses the 45 Watt-hour BP-A30,
versus the 90 Watt-hour BP-A60 of the C300 Mark III.
But I was only getting around two hours of battery life
on the C300 Mark III, and I'm getting
over three hours here on the C70,
and around 2 hours and 20 minutes
when using S&F 120p mode.
And considering the A30 batteries are $200 cheaper
than the A60s, I was really happy with this result.
I also tested the effects of a sudden loss of power by yanking
the battery out mid-record, and after performing the file
recovery option in the menu, the camera retained
all but the last two seconds of the recording.
So that's excellent as well.
And just like the FX6, the C70's battery charger
can also be used to deliver mains power to
the camera via its DC IN port, which even has some thoughtful
cable routing beside it, near the exhaust vent.
And yes, this camera has exhaust vents, because
it's actively cooled with a fan, which means no overheating,
and the fan speed can be controlled in the menu.
However, the fan can't be turned off completely
unlike some of the bigger cameras.
It can only ever be set to low, whether recording or in standby.
At first I was concerned about this, because the fan
is quite audible at even one meter away,
but I was surprised to find out
that even though I could hear it,
it wasn't that intrusive in the recordings,
and my noise floor didn't really change
whether the camera was on or off.
It only went up by about 1dB.
So I don't think it will be a problem,
but due to the consistent nature of the sound,
if it is bothering you, it should be easy
to remove in post because the speed is constant,
so it should be easy for noise reduction software to target.
But again, I wouldn't worry about it.
And in fact, I'm gonna go ahead and boot the camera up
so we can talk about the boot-up time,
and I'll let you hear it, too. So I just flick it on now...
And... booted. That's-- that was pretty fast.
What was that, like, three seconds? Probably less.
And this is what it sounds like:
So it's right up by the mic.
[low, soft whirring]
And here it is, maybe, less than--
just under a meter away.
[nearly inaudible whirring]
The audio system on this camera is fantastic.
In fact, let me plug my mic into it and record this next section
of the video on the camera itself so you can hear it.
It has two mini XLR inputs, one 3.5mm mic input,
and a built-in mic as well.
It has a 3.5mm headphone out, and manual input controls
on the back of the camera behind the flip screen.
Each input can be set to line level or mic level,
and the XLRs support 48V phantom power.
There's a quick button for audio status on the back,
and you have complete flexibility in how
you want to mix and monitor your channels.
There's built-in attenuators, a limiter,
a low cut filter, and a 1kHz setup tone.
Honestly, for a camera of this size, I don't think
I've ever seen a more robust audio interface.
Absolutely fantastic.
All right, switching back to my Zoom F6 audio,
I want to mention a few more features
that I was asked about on Twitter and Instagram.
It has 6 stops of regular ND, and up to 10 stops
of extended stacked ND. It has shutter angle.
It has anamorphic support, HDR profiles, and HDR gain control.
It has waveforms, a vectorscope, zebras, false color,
a wide array of markers, and focus peaking.
Although I prefer Canon's excellent manual focus guide,
which has found its way onto this camera as well.
It has Time Code In/Out via BNC,
and it has menu options for RF lenses to control
the rotation of the electronic focus ring
for a linear response.
It has a tally lamp, and an SD card access light,
as well as a button for easily switching card slots.
Lastly, let's talk about stabilization.
It has Digital IS, just like the C300 Mark III
and C500 Mark II, which works quite well,
and I prefer this method over the FX6's gyro data
that requires cranking your shutter
and using Catalyst Browse.
And when the C70 is paired with a stabilized lens,
I find I can get pretty steady handheld shots at even 105mm.
But even though this thing is quite chunky,
you can still mount it on a one-handed gimbal.
It has multiple mounting points on the bottom,
and the weight is distributed in a way that I find it
quite easy to balance on my DJI RS2.
OK, let's wrap up.
Many of the questions I received were about comparisons.
You want to know which is better:
this, or the FX6, or the a7S III.
But I think it's more complicated than that.
That question only really applies if you're starting
from scratch, or willing to change systems entirely.
And as usual, it depends what you're using the camera for.
For example, if you want a camera
with a viewfinder that can also take pictures,
of those three, the a7S III is the only choice.
When it comes to dynamic range and image quality,
you can't really go wrong with any of them.
But if you need extreme low light,
you need to get one of the Sonys.
And like I said in my FX6 review,
I would choose the a7S III over the FX6 every time,
unless I needed DCI 4K in true 24p.
But if you don't need extreme low light
and you still need DCI, I would get the Canon C70.
It's less expensive than the FX6, easier to use,
and has smarter ergonomic and design choices.
But if you don't have any specific restrictions
and just want the all-around best video camera you can get
for the money, I still think that's the a7S III.
It's $2,000 cheaper than the C70, offers more flexibility
with better low light, photo capabilities.
It's more compact, has true 4K120
with fewer compromises, full frame, IBIS, etc.
It's the better camera for the money.
And for what I do, if I had to buy
one of those options today, and I had no lenses
or requirements, I'd buy the a7S III.
But when it comes to cinema cameras
with those extra cinema camera features,
the C70 is my new favourite.
You're getting 95% of the C300 Mark III,
but at half the cost,
with an RF mount and speed boosting capabilities.
It's an incredible value proposition.
But in my opinion, this isn't a question
of the a7S III vs. the Canon C70.
This is more a question of does Canon have an answer to
the a7S III, so that people who have Canon lenses or who've been
waiting for a C200 replacement but can't justify
the C300 Mark III, have an option
that's competitive with what the a7S III is offering,
without needing to change systems.
And thankfully, yes, that's exactly what the C70 delivers.
This is an absolute win for any Canon shooter looking to get
a powerful, dedicated video camera,
and it's easily the best cinema camera available under $10,000.
But that's gonna be it for me. I hope you found
this video entertaining, or at least helpful.
And if you did, make sure you leave it the old thumbs up
and consider subscribing if you haven't already.
But if you did not find this video helpful or entertaining,
try setting the playback speed to 75%.
Alright... I'm done.