topic Re: A video camera that looks as good as the EOS 5DIII & the new 70D in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

A video camera that looks as good as the EOS 5DIII & the new 70D

thejpizzel — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 16:10:50 GMT

Hi everyone. I really want to make myself clear on my questions, so I'm going to preface them with a short wall of text. My apologies.

I work for local government and we film political meetings, PSA's, informational videos, documentaries, and local government events (groundbreakings, ribbon cuttings, roundtables, etc). We are still entirely standard definition. For the past 7-9 years we've only used Canon XL1's and XL2's, but in the last 2 years we've gone tapeless.

For our first foray into this, we first bought JVC GY-HM150U's (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/821133-REG/JVC_GY_HM150U_GY_HM150U_ProHD_Handheld_Memory.html). Our main desires here were: small, universal file type (we use several different editing systems), a "super full auto mode" for our non-advanced users, XLR inputs for microphones, relatively inexpensive, and SD or CF card slots. Obviously, we nailed all of these features with this camera, but the video quality is lower than we could've expected.

At the same time, we purchased a Canon EOS 5D Mark III for taking still pictures during events. Then, to our ultimate downfall, we started using it for interviews and documentary type shoots. I'm sure I don't need to tell you all the shock we were in for when it came to the amazing picture quality of this camera. To take these two cameras on a shoot together is pointless as the JVC's could not even come close to the quality of the Canon's. However, we cannot use the 5D as a primary camera during these shoots for several reasons (which I'll point out below). We began following the development of the new EOS 70D with interest when we found out it woud fix some of these features. Coincidentally, another department of ours purchased one and we were able to use it for a few shoots. It does seem to have as good a picture quality as the 5D, but it still lacks some features we need.

So, in preparing next years budget, I'm looking for actual video cameras with the amazing picture quality of the 5DIII and the 70D, but doens't have the limitations of a still photography camera. Any help would be appreciated.

Problems with the 5DIII as a primary video camera:

no follow focus, only records for 30 minutes segments, only 3.5mm audio input (need XLR)

Problems with 70D as a primary video camera:

no headphone output, can't adjust audio input levels while recording, still only records 30 minute segments, 3.5mm audio input

I'm an Audio / Video technician and video editor. I do a lot of filming, but do not know much of the science and technology behind the inner working of the cameras. As an example of our programs, below are two things I filmed with the EOS 5DIII.

Thank you all in advance for any help you can provide.

http://cppjvideo.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=b2a30e6d03dcf1b655814c4c59d78f2a

http://cppjvideo.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=c2144ed57f8c34ce3cec7571b37b9ec1

Re: A video camera that looks as good as the EOS 5DIII & the new 70D

thejpizzel — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 15:57:03 GMT

So...is the C100 what I'm looking for?

Re: A video camera that looks as good as the EOS 5DIII & the new 70D

Stephen — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 17:10:50 GMT

Hi thejpizzel!

Welcome to the Canon Forums and thanks for your inquiry! These forums aren't intended for immediate answers, so if your question is of an urgent nature, please feel free to CONTACT US.

Have a great day!

Re: A video camera that looks as good as the EOS 5DIII & the new 70D

TCampbell — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 17:36:23 GMT

I'm not a video guy. Canon lists their Cinema EOS video cameras on a separate section than they use for their EOS cameras.

The cinema cameras and their specs can be found here: http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/professional/products/professional_cameras/cinema_eos_cameras

Based on specs, I'm thinking you would probably be well-served by the C100. It takes the same EOS EF lenses as your 5D III so you can get the look you want. It records in AVCHD with MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 -- which is fairly common.

The cards are formatted FAT32 although it says it can record continuously for up to 12 hours. I'm not sure how it pulls this off because no single file on a FAT32 filesystem which constrains individual files to a maximum of 2GB (that's a filesystem limit... not a camera or operating system limit). I'm "guessing" that it automatically creates a new file and just keeps streaming video as one file fills up.

You should probably rent one to make sure it meets your needs.