Canon EOS C500 PL Brochure

EOS C500

“How much can I push the envelope with the C500?

I really had nothing that stopped me in the most dramatic

LEAVE NO STORY UNTOLD

– GO WHEREVER THE STORY TAKES YOU

The EOS C500 4K Digital Cinema Camera is a camera with few competitors. It capitalizes on the superb ergonomic design and incorporates the same Canon-developed Super 35mm 4K CMOS image sensor as the EOS C300, retaining identical capabilities in terms of in-camera recording of HD video onto Compact Flash (CF) Cards. But it is there that the similarities end.

The EOS C500 oers signiﬁcantly more contemporary high-resolution motion imaging choices. The camera supports uncompressed 2K or HD 4:4:4 RGB video components – with an additional choice of 12-bit or 10-bit depth for each – at up to 60 progressive fps, which are externally recorded. By employing the YCbCr componentvideo set at a 10-bit depth, the EOS C500 can extend that picture capture rate up to 120 fps.

In addition, anticipating the inexorable march of 4K production, this same camera can be switched to a 4K imaging mode that is user-selectable between the cinema-centric 4096x2160 format, or the television-centric 3840x2160 UHDTV format (sometimes called QuadHD). In this imaging mode, the camera delivers a 4K RAW output to the external recorders. But what sharply distinguishes the EOS C500 from all other 4K-capable cameras is that this RAW video output is uniquely conﬁgured to precisely comply to the SMPTE 424M and SMPTE ST 425-1 3G-SDI video standards. In terms of systemization, this capability oers very signiﬁcant workﬂow advantages.

Canon has collaborated with some of the most respected worldwide manufacturers of solid-state digital recording systems – no less than six, at this juncture – to help ensure that end users have a broad choice in how they record the EOS C500’s 2K/HD/4K uncompressed video outputs and manage the associated workﬂows.

way I could.”

Jeff Cronenweth, ASC / Director of Photography for “Man & Beast ”

Above: Behind the scenes on the set of the 4K short film “Man & Beast.”

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CANON CINEMA & EF LENSES

– A NEW WORLD OF HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGING

The EOS C500 is intended to be a major production tool for high-end motion imaging – in the globally established 2K motion picture production and HD television production arenas, as well as in the steadily emerging 4K motion imaging sectors. With that in mind, Canon launched a large Cinema EOS project that encompassed a parallel development of four Cinema EOS cameras and a family of Cinema Prime and Zoom lenses. The latter have been carefully designed to meet the full optical performance expectations of 4K imaging. This unique strategy ensures the exceptional creation of HD and 2K images, as well as the production of a ﬂexible 4K lens-camera motion imaging system without peer. The PL camera mount is recognized as the industry standard for large-format cinematography – for both motion picture ﬁlm and digital cameras. Cinema Zoom lenses are all available in PL mount and, accordingly, provide the most contemporary optical performance to all Super 35mm digital and ﬁlm cameras, as well as the Canon Cinema EOS C500 and C300 cameras. But Canon also recognized the existence of a huge global constituency of still-image photographers using the extensive range of Canon EF lenses, with many aspiring to transition to digital motion imaging. Therefore, Canon chose to make the Cinema Zoom lenses available with the alternative EF mount, and has also developed a range of EF mount 4K Cinema Prime lenses. In concert with this strategy, the EOS C500 camera is also available in PL mount or EF mount.

Canon Cinema Lenses

Canon oers a complete line of cinema lenses, including Zooms, Compact Zooms and Primes. All of these lenses fulﬁll contemporary 4K production standards, further enhancing the performance of any HD imaging system. And each lens features an 11-blade aperture diaphragm to help ensure beautiful bokeh. Markings on both sides of the lens barrel simplify focus reading and aperture setting from behind or on either side of the camera, while torque of the control rings maintains proper resistance. To enable ﬁlm crews to change optics quickly and without adjusting the rig setup, each category of Cinema Lenses shares a uniform front diameter, rotation angle for operational controls, and gear positions.

Canon Cinema Zoom and Compact Zoom Lenses

Canon Cinema Zoom and Compact Zoom Lenses use new optical glass materials, new optical coatings and powerful new design techniques to oer extraordinary 4K optical performance. All Zoom Lenses feature large aspherical lens elements that help achieve sharp, consistent images, and a geared inner-focusing mechanism helps minimize focus-induced changes in the angle-of-view, greatly reducing focus breathing. All of these lenses are available with industry-standard PL-mount or Canon’s EF-mount.

The wide-angle Cinema Zoom CN-E14.5–60mm T2.6 L S/SP represents a masterpiece of contemporary optical design, with a focal range that was chosen to meet a wide range of needs in movie-making and high-end television production, and resolution that exceeds 4K. The Cinema Zoom telephoto CN-E30–300mm T2.95–3.7 L S/SP lens rivals best-in-class zoom lenses, in a surprisingly low-weight, opto-mechanical housing.

Canon Cinema Compact Zoom Lenses oer 4K resolution in form factors that enable more ﬂexible, less intrusive shooting. The CN-E15.5–47mm T2.8 L S/SP delivers a wide to medium range of focal lengths, while the CN-E30–105mm T2.8 L S/SP covers wide to modest telephoto shots. Both zoom lenses are ideal for Steadicam™ and hand-held shooting.

Canon EF Series Lenses – A Wide and Varied Selection

Perfected in Canon laboratories and proven in the ﬁeld, Canon EF Lenses incorporate a rare array of the world’s most advanced optical, micro-electronic and manufacturing technologies. Many EF lenses utilize the advanced Canon Peripheral Illumination Correction feature, which helps to ensure beautiful, consistent color and brightness across the entire image plane. In addition to oering full compatibility with existing lenses, the EOS C500’s EF mount opens up new, creative possibilities with Canon specialty lenses, including Tilt-Shift, Macro and Canon’s exhilarating EF 8–15mm f/4L Fisheye USM zoom lens.

Tilt-Shift Lenses — TS-E lenses incorporate tilt and shift functions to extend the shooting advantages of technical-view cameras to the EOS system. Tilt movements alter the angle of the focal plane between the lens and image sensor, modifying depth-of-ﬁeld independently of the lens aperture. Shift movements slide the lens’ optical axis along the plane of the image sensor, enabling photographers to correct or alter perspective to almost any angle, and help add unimagined drama to a scene.

Macro Lenses — By revealing the ﬁnest detail and achieving extraordinary edge-to-edge accuracy at very shallow depth-of-ﬁeld, macro photography can be an ultimate test of optical performance. Canon EF specialty lenses include six ultra-precise macro lenses and three screw-on, close-up lenses. Accompanied by the Life-Size Converter EF and two Extension Tube accessories, Canon’s macro lens array provides valuable imaging options for the EOS C500 camera.

Fisheye Zoom Lens — Super wide-angle and special-eects photography let you capture each subject from a unique perspective. The Canon EF 8–15mm f/4L Fisheye USM is the world’s ﬁrst ﬁsheye zoom lens to create circular images with a 180-degree angle-of-view on full-frame DSLRs.

Canon L-Series Lenses

Canon L-series Lenses are highly regarded by video professionals who demand uncompromising optical performance. These specialty lenses incorporate a number of innovative Canon technologies, including Ultra-low Dispersion (UD) glass, ﬂuorite and aspherical lens elements, plus Super Spectra Multi Coating.

Canon Cinema Prime Lenses

The ﬂexible series of Canon Cinema Prime Lenses oers spectacular 4K-image quality and a full-frame image circle, in lightweight, compact designs. This family of lenses features high optical speed, produces exceptionally sharp images and superb contrast, and maintains tightly controlled focus breathing and geometric distortion. These EF-mount models oer consistent form factors and markings that have been optimized for motion picture production, and represent the beginning of an evolving family of cinema primes.

Canon Cinema Prime Lenses are also compatible – under manual operation – with all Canon EOS DSLR models, including the fullframe EOS-1D X and EOS 5D Mark III, as well as the EOS 7D and EOS 60D models that use APS-C sized image sensors.

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OUTPUT

THE KEY TO SUCCESSFUL DIGITAL CINEMA

– SUPERB IMAGE QUALITY IN HD/2K AND 4K

The EOS C500’s superb imaging abilities start with the highly innovative, 4K image sensor that was developed by Canon speciﬁcally for high frame rate motion imaging. The 8.85 Megapixel sensor’s performance has been acclaimed in the EOS C300 for its outstanding sensitivity, and that same range of ISO 320 to ISO 20000 – a product of the novel photodiode design and the larger photosite area – is fully maintained in the EOS C500 for 2K/HD and 4K operation. The uniquely organic nature of the image sensor noise (devoid of any ﬁxed pattern noise) at high ISO settings has been widely commented upon as being evocative of motion picture ﬁlm grain. The 12-stop dynamic range imparts a superb tonal reproduction, as well as an exposure latitude that helps ensure clarity in deeply shadowed areas of a scene while also preserving details in overexposed portions. The rich color reproduction is a product of Canon’s mastery of Color Filter Array (CFA) design and image sensor spectral response.

HD and 2K Origination

A central design goal for the EOS C500 was to ensure that this large-format single-sensor camera would produce the highest possible quality HD or 2K over a broad range of frame rates. The EOS C500 originates 1920x1080 HD in the same unique manner as in the EOS C300. This entails direct readout of the 4K image sensor (operating in a 3840x2160 QuadHD sampling mode), not as the traditional singular RAW signal but rather as four parallel 1920x1080 video components. This capability immediately creates an RGrGbB, 4:4:4:4 12-bit component set without any debayering process whatsoever, thus totally avoiding any reconstruction errors associated with that process.

The subsequent summation of the two green video components – Gr and Gb – creates a uniquely enhanced green that has exceptionally high sharpness and virtually zero horizontal and vertical aliasing. This summed green component is also endowed with an increased eective dynamic range. The EOS C500 thus prepares an exceptionally clean 12-bit 1920x1080 RGB 4:4:4 HD component set having unrivalled overall image performance.

In the alternative cinematic 2K mode, this component set is derived from the 4096x2160 photosite sampling of the image sensor and becomes a 2048x1080 RGB 4:4:4 set, with each component at full 12-bit depth.

Canon Log Gamma

Canon Log – E nsures tonal reprod uction for bot h highlight and

lowlight regions during post-production.

2K/HD RAW Data Signal Processing

EOS C500 Camera

High Speed Parallel Readout

2048

1080

• ISO Setting and White Balance

• Sum the Two Green Components

• Apply Canon Log to Each of the RGB RAW Components

• Multiplex the Three RAW RGB Components into a 3G-SDI Serial Interface

-- According to SMPTE 424M and SMPTE ST 425-1

External Digital Recorder

2K Multiple Output Formats

Mode Resolution Frame Rate

2K RGB 4:4:4 12-bit

2K RGB 4:4:4 10-bit

2K Slow and Fast Motion Recording Chart

Mode Resolution Playback Rate Record Rates

2K RGB 4:4:4

2K YCC 4:2:2

Recording Formats:

12-bit or 10-bit HD/2K RGB up to 60P 10-bit HD/2K YCrCb from 62– 120P

2048 x 1080 / 1920 x 1080

INPUT

4096

2160

RAW

R Gr Gb B

3G-SDI

2K/HD RGB RAW

59.94p / 29.97p / 23.98p / 50.00p /

25.00p / 24.00p

59.94p / 29.97p / 23.98p / 50.00p /

25.00p / 24.00p

60Hz / 24:00

50Hz

60Hz / 24:00

50Hz

1–30 in 1 frame increments 32–60 in 2 frame increments

1–25 in 1 frame increments 26–50 in 2 frame increments

1–60 in 1 frame increments 62–120 in 2 frame increments

1–50 in 1 frame increments 52–100 in 2 frame increments

Normal 1

Canon Log

2K and HD RAW Signal Outputs

It is important to recognize that the RGB video component set that has been originated remains a genuine RAW signal set. The components are directly originated in the image sensor itself, and they fully preserve all of the wide dynamic range and low noise of this unique image sensor, combined with the excellent colorimetry of the special Canon Color Filter Array (CFA). A signiﬁcant extension to the performance attributes of these 12-bit RGB components is the ability to operate at high frame rates. The only processing baked into these RAW signals are two gain settings: one related to the camera ISO setting, and the second related to white balance.

Canon Raw is stored as ﬁle clips, and each frame is in a Raw Media Format ﬁle. A speciﬁc take within a shooting project is stored in a folder containing multiple ﬁle clips. From origination within the image sensor to ﬁnal playback through the digital recorder, there is no loss in overall picture quality in either HD or 2K modes. Full color space and exposure latitude are preserved, and downstream digital image manipulations are superbly supported.

Canon Log

One of the critical design goals of the EOS C500 was to ensure that the uncompressed 2K or HD component video set could be interfaced with multiple well-known digital recorders via a standard serial digital interface. As such, the total data rate over this interface had to be carefully managed. A key element is that Canon Log is applied to the three RGB component-video signals, as is ensuring that the full 12 stops of dynamic range are protected in that recording process.

It is important to note that this is the only form of video processing applied to these signals and, accordingly, their RAW integrity is ensured. The associated mathematics and coding levels of Canon Log are published on the Cinema EOS website; this information allows restoration in post-production of the RGB components to three linear video components at bit depths of 14 or 16 bits. Traditional RGB video processing is subsequently applied in the grading and ﬁnishing processes.

HD and 2K Recording

Because the Canon RAW signals are, in fact, a 4:4:4 RGB component-video set, they are carefully multiplexed in the EOS C500 in strict accordance with the SMPTE 424M and SMPTE ST 425-1 3G-SDI video standards. (This standard lays out how to multiplex four component RGB+A into a single serial stream.) The EOS C500 features two separate 3G-SDI interface connectors. At the internationally standardized progressive picture capture rates of 23.97/24.0/25/29.7/50/60P, only one of the 3G-SDI interfaces is required to transport the 12-bit 4:4:4 RGB video components to the relevant external recorders.

When higher frame rate operation is desired for slow motion eects – up to a limit of 120P – then the two 3G-SDI interfaces are required in order to transport the far higher data rates entailed. And here, the component set will be switched from 12-bit RGB to 10-bit YCbCr. The EOS C500 can also be switched to deliver an alternative 10-bit RGB via the single 3G-SDI output serial interface if either the image recorder or the post-production system operates at this lower bit depth.

Slow and Fast Motion Recording

In addition to the EOS C500’s operation over the range of ﬁxed, worldwide picture capture rates listed above, creative ﬂexibilities are dramatically extended when the camera is switched into a mode called Slow/Fast Recording. This allows selection of a range of progressive frame rates – starting as low as 1 fps and increasing in incremental steps up to 120 fps – to support eects shooting that seeks speeding up or slowing down motion capture. From 1 to 30 fps, the selection is in one-frame steps; from 32 to 60 fps it is in two-frame steps; and from 62 to 120 fps the YCbCr component operation is selectable in two-frame steps.

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