Want to lay hands on a camcorder that renders extraordinary image quality with a wide array of attractive features? The wish is granted! Canon has just proclaimed the XF305 and XF300 professional camcorders.
Designed to deliver a great user experience, both new models take advantage of an MPEG-2 4:2:2 50Mbps codec – Canon XF Codec – for capturing and recording native 1920 x 1080 video onto affordable, universally available Compact Flash cards. By combining video, audio and metadata into a single file, the devices utilize a Material eXchange Format File Wrapper, a widely supported open source format, to maximize compatibility with existing industry infrastructure and non-linear editing systems.
The devices embrace a convenient, freely rotating 4.0-inch, 1.23-megapixel LCD monitor that can be positioned at either the right or left side of the camcorder body, allowing for easy viewing even in the most difficult shooting positions.
“The creation of HD video content continues to grow across every market category,” commented Yuichi Ishizuka, executive vice president and general manager, Consumer Imaging Group, Canon USA. “We are proud to introduce the new Canon XF305 and XF300 Professional Camcorders, which provide extraordinary image quality, a generous array of features and seamless integration with file-based workflows, all at an attractive price. These camcorders provide the convenience, production cost and quality that the HD video market has been asking for.”
The new camcorders feature a Genuine Canon 18x HD L-series lens to proffer the focal-range versatility. Pretty impressively, each model comes equipped with three Canon native 1920 x 1080 CMOS image sensors, and the new Canon XF Codec for extreme color detail required for accurate chroma-keying, color-grading and compositing for digital film making.
Further, for finer transitions in tone and color, 4:2:2 color sampling brings forth twice the color resolution of HDV and other 4:2:0 formats. Apart from this, the company has integrated each model with the ability to record at multiple bit rates, resolutions and variable frame rates for slow and fast motion.
Canon’s XF305 Professional Camcorder is slated to hit the shelves in late June with a price tag of $7,999 (approx Rs. 354,424), while the XF300 is slated to be available in late June with a price of $6,799 (approx Rs. 301,352).
