Canon has made a serious move on the motion picture production industry with the announcement of its Cinema EOS System. This new professional digital cinematography system spans the lens, digital video camcorder and digital SLR camera product categories.

All-New Cinema Lens Lineup

The Cinema EOS System targets a new area of imaging expression for the company, having already earned accolades in the entertainment industry for the EOS 5D Mark II digital single-lens reflex (SLR) camera, which has been used in the production of blockbuster Hollywood motion pictures and hit television programs.

Canon’s new Cinema EOS System offers compatibility with Canon’s wide array of EF lenses, but the Japanese imaging company has also introduced seven new 4K EF Cinema Lenses—four zoom lenses and three single-focal-length models.

All seven new lenses deliver 4K (4096 x 2160 pixels) optical performance and offer compatibility with Super 35 mm-equivalent sensors. Additionally, the three single-focal-length lenses can be used with cameras equipped with 35 mm full-frame sensors.

EOS C300/C300 PL Interchangeable-Lens Digital Video Camcorder

The company further announced the launch of the EOS C300/C300 PL interchangeable-lens digital video camcorder, equipped with a Super 35-mm-equivalent CMOS sensor. A new digital SLR camera is also currently under development that features a 35 mm full-frame CMOS sensor supporting the recording of 4K video.

The Canon EOS C300/C300 PL is an all new digital video camcorder available in two models: the EOS C300, equipped with an EF lens mount for compatibility with the current interchangeable EF lens lineup; and the EOS C300 PL, offering a PL lens mount for use with industry-standard PL lenses. The camcorder features a Super 35 mm-equivalent (approximately 8.29-megapixel) CMOS sensor ideally suited for digital cinematography.

In addition to MPEG-2 Full HD (MPEG2 422@HL compliant) compression, the EOS C300/C300 PL employs 4:2:2 color sampling for high-resolution performance that minimizes the appearance of “jaggies” at chroma edges. Additionally, with a maximum recording rate of 50 Mbps, the camcorder supports the recording of high-quality video.

The camcorder’s video and audio recording file format adopts the industry-standard MXF (Material eXchange Format), an open source file format ideally suited for non-linear editing systems. Recording to CF cards, the EOS C300/C300 PL realises high cost-performance and, equipped with two CF card slots, makes possible the simultaneous recording of video data to two CF cards.

New Digital SLR Camera with 4K Movie Function (Under Development)

Although details such as product name, specifications and scheduled launch date have yet to be decided, Canon has also announced plans of a next-generation digital SLR camera currently under development. This new dSLR will come equipped with a 35 mm full-frame CMOS sensor, with the ability to support the recording of 4K video at a frame rate of 24P, with Motion-JPEG compression (cropped to APS-H-equivalent size with dimensions measuring approximately 80% vertically and horizontally of a 35 mm full-frame sensor, when recording in 4K).

“As a leading company in digital imaging, Canon’s debut in the film and TV production industry provides a tremendous opportunity to enter into a thriving market. In South Africa this industry is definitely growing at a tremendous rate and local films have been palming in many international awards over the past few years,” says Roger Machin, Photo Video product manager at Canon South Africa.

“Reflecting upon the achievements that Canon EOS Digital SLRs have had in the industry thus far, we are confident the new Cinema EOS series products will bring that success to a whole new level, at an affordable price. We’ve managed to combine great value with the best technology available.”
 
In related Canon news, the company has recently unveiled their latest DSLR flagship, the Canon EOS 1D X, while also providing more details on the Canon Expo, to be held at the Sandton Convention Centre from 9-11 December 2011.