Last February, when Canon announced its first pro MPEG-@ codec, it was clear that it was at last preparing solid-state products for its professional line of camcorders. As predicted, it followed up with two models to supplement and succeed its two-year old prosumer models - the Canon XHG1S and the XHA1S.
The Canon XF300 and Canon XF305 camcorders are Compact Flash-friendly. And they\'re essentially more compact but a bit heavier containing some really improved features.
Essentially, the biggest improvement is the move to Compact Flash. The cameras support UDMA with dual slots. And there is a SDHC slot on the bodies. This slot is for stills and transferring settings.
The new Canon XF Codec encodes MPEG-2 video with 4:2:2 color sampling at a maximum bitrate of 50 megabits per second. The camcorders can handle a variety of resolutions and frame rates. Most importantly, there\'s a maximum of 1080/60i/30p/24p and 720/60p/30p/24p. The files use MXF wrappers for software compatibility.
The Canon XF300 and Canon XF305, like the older, similar models, distinguish themselves simply by a set of jacks. These jacks make the Canon XF305 appropriate for multi-camcorder, broadcast, environments. Then there\'s HD-SDI output, genlock and SMPTE time code) (in/out). Canon\'s also increased the resolution so that it now incorporates three 1920/1080 sensors. And the lens has been decreased from 20x to a wider angle 18x model, with a 35mm-equivalent range of 29.3-527.4mm and an improved manual, focus feel.
The lens also incorporates the image stabilisation advances that Canon introduced in its 2010 HFS series of consumer models. This really provides very good compensation for shake during motion. The XF 300 and XF 305 also use Canon\'s DIGIC DV III image processor, (similarly to the prosumer models) which offers traditional consumer-level features, like face detection.
The LCD and viewfinders are really great. The LCD has a diagonal size of 4 inches and a resolution of 1.23 megapixels, while the viewfinder is 0.52 inches (a little smaller than the XH models) with a resolution of 1.55 megapixels.
In relation to editing, all the major softwares will support the XF300 and XF305\'s files natively which of course, makes footage transfer extremely simple - just slot the CF card in your computer\'s card reader.
Basically, these camcorders are very versatile and can be used for a whole host of things. The first things that come to mind though, are the needs of documentary, \'reality\' producers. For events such as weddings videography they\'re absolutely perfect given they\'re able to record a whole day\'s events on two cards. And this is all without the requirement for any post-shoot capture or transcoding.
Learn more about the Canon XF305. Stop by Nicola George\'s site where you can find out all about various HD cameras and what they can do for you.