Thanks to Canon, I was invited to Cinema EOS – South East Asia Tour 2012 featuring the renowned Vincent Laforet. He is the person that opens my mind about filming on DSLR with his short film, Reverie. The event was held at GVmax at Vivocity (on 7th January). We were able to get some hands on on the C300 before main crowd arrives.
In the picture above, the C300 (PL Mount) looks like a beast. However, if you have seen those used by film makers, this is like a baby but with great potential.
A close up of the lens.
There are two types of mount for Canon Cinema EOS C300. They have EF mount and the PL mount. Most DSLR users will be familiar with EF mounts. Surprisingly, C300 with EF mount can accept EF or EF-S lenses without any conversion kit/jig needed.
Here is a picture of the C300 in EF mount.
Here is another view
Canon has a range of lenses for the Cinema EOS camera.
Do you know that C300 has 2 CF card slots? They can be configured so that the 2nd slot is a redundancy slot (copying the same data in case the CF card fails).
And on its side, it has a SD card slot for film makers/directors to allow the transfer of settings from one unit to another easily.
The C300 also allows external Hard Disk via the HD/SD SDI (Serial Digital Interface) port.
And here is a picture of of the buttons on the side of the C300.
In the demo unit, they connected an external display on top of the C300.
A closer look at those buttons.
The C300 has a large battery and good thing is that it has a battery power checker built in.
I did a short video on this Canon Cinema EOS C300.
Before we break for lunch, we were told that Canon has made an effort to loan some K-35 lenses (their first Cinema lenses) from India to Singapore to let everyone see. Heard that Bollywood is still using them 🙂 .
After lunch, we finally got to see Vincent Laforet in person. Currently, Vincent is part of the Cinema EOS South East Asia Tour. Singapore is his first stop.
The event started with an opening speech by Mr. Andrew Koh, Senior Director & General Manager of Canon Consumer Imaging & Information Products Group.
This was followed by an in-depth presentation by Mr. Johnny Ng from Canon Professional Video Products, on the features of Canon Cinema EOS C300.
Finally, we got to meet the man, Vincent Laforet. He talked to us about his photography work, how Canon 5D Mark II has transformed him from photography to motion film making.
During the talk, he shared a lot of his views (which is good) and one important thing: What are the apps he used to aid his film making and photography?
Thanks goodness, he gave us 10 seconds to take picture of his list of apps (meant to be a joke. He gave us ample time for that). He also briefly explained to us how they have helped him.
I like the fact that the presentation is NOT boring. He showed us behind the scenes of some of his works and also the actual end “products”. Wow.
He also showed us his latest short film, Mobius, using the Canon Cinema EOS C300 and explained to us the advantages of using it (ie. super high dynamic range).
Some of the audiences asked him what he would like to take if it is not a commercial assignment or projects. His answer is simple, “Anything”.
Here is a shot of Johnny from Canon and Vincent Laforet in the Q&A.
However, he stressed that for those who wish to become a film maker, good planning is a must. And most of his time is spent on planning prior to the shoot. Right now, he is planning to do a long length film but he has yet to get a good script.
Finally, towards the end of the talk, we were presented with three short films
- Max Is Back by Richard Crudo
- Sword by Felix Alcala
- XXIT by Sam Nicholson
I don’t know about the rest. I love XXIT. Many scenes were film in Green Scene and thanks to C300, the output is very clean and it means that the superimpose of the actors to the scenes are superb.
You can watch it here (only my favorite)
Once again, thanks to Canon for the invite.
[ad#img]
[ad#boxlist]