If you’ve recently invested in a 4K TV only to realise how little 4K content is actually available, Canon can help out. The company recently released the XC10, a compact video and digital stills camera that Canon believes is powerful enough to be “stand-alone camera for independent filmmakers or the perfect accompaniment as a supporting B camera in larger productions”.

The XC10 makes use of a specially developed 1” CMOS sensor and Canon’s DIGIC DV5 image processor to record UHDTV standard 4K footage. Want to rather take photos? Well you have 12 megapixel images to your disposal, or 8.29 MP if you want to extract images from 4K video footage. You also have access to 1200x fast motion in 4K/Full HD, and up to1/4x slow motion in HD.

Canon punts recording speeds of up to 305 Mbps on a CFast 2.0 card, or full HD footage to an SD card at up to 50Mbps, with pro-standard 4:2:2 colour sampling for high resolution performance. Furthermore, it supports Canon’s new XF-AVC H.264 codec.

In keeping with its video recording/ photography usability, the body of the camera comes with a rotating grip to better help with different shooting setups, while there is also a manual zoom and focusing ring for videographers to help with shooting. Due to the fact that this is a compact camera, you unfortunately don’t have a range of lenses available to your disposal as with the EOS range, rather a 10x optical zoom, that covers a 27.3-273 mm focal range (35mm equivalent).

Framing takes place on the 3” vari-angle touch LCD display, while Canon also notes an included optical loupe viewfinder, that fits the LCD, for a more traditional shooting experience. As with many modern cameras, the XC10 is also Wi-Fi enabled.

No official local release date or price has been announced just yet, but watch this space for more.