Canon XF100, XF105 add 50Mbps video to cheap pros

Canon on Tuesday added a pair of new pro camcorders that should bring high-bitrate video to a more affordable price grade. Together, the XF100 and XF105 record at 1080p30 and use the newer XF Codec of the XF300 series to produce accurate video output. The standard gives them 50-megabit, 4:2:2 sampling MPEG-2 that should both produce better accuracy than HDV and suit itself well to chromakeying or other effects where distinct colors are important. Most of their sacrifices are inlenses, which use less ambitious 10X (30.4-304mm) lenses versus the 18X glass on the higher-end models.

Both models have 3.5-inch LCDS to go with their electronic viewfinders and even have assists for 3D and infrared shooting, such as a lens shift mode to coordinate two same-model cameras and both infrared reception as well as an emitter to produce the expected result even when no light exists to help the shot.

Differences between the two are relatively slight. The two have twin XLR inputs in addition to a stereo mic, but the XF105 adds an HD-SDI output and terminals for genlock and timecodes. Canon doesn't expect to ship the cameras for sometime and plans to launch them in early 2011. Pricing isn't available as a result, but they should cost less than the $7,000 XF300.

By Electronista Staff