XAVC real world test - Canon C200

So it’s clear to see that the Canon C200 is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to shooting its data hungry Canon Raw Light format. But what about it’s XAVC format?

Let be honest, the Canon Raw Light recording mode is something that will be used much less frequently than the more lightweight recording options the camera has - well, I speak for myself and my typical client requirements anyhow.

So how does this highly compressed lossy format stand up when shooting in the real world and when pushed in the grade? Well, it turns out pretty damn well.

In this short film I wanted to push the grade to see how the footage will stand up. I graded in a way that gave it a sense of mood and atmosphere, yet still felt warm - despite it actually being freezing cold that day!

If you’re looking at the specs alone, XAVC on the C200 isn’t going to ‘Wow’ anybody. It’s 4:2:0, 8 bit at 140mb/s in 60fps UHD. Which, on the surface would make you think that a lot of data and colour information will be binned by the codec. However, through some kind of Canon magic - they manage to produce an incredible image with CLOG 3 which is an amazing base to work from when grading. Colours our punchy with plenty of saturation. Dynamic range at 13 stops is good - I mean it’s not the 15 stops of Canon Raw - but I’ll take 13 stops with files this size.

For most projects and most client requirements, XAVC on the C200 offers an excellent cost effective solution to capturing really high fidelity images with a beautiful cinematic feel.

Purbecks from Day to Night - Canon C200 Cinema Raw Test

This video is my first test of the Canon C200’s Cinema Raw Light, shot over the period of a winters day in a few spots around the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset.

I was keen to really push the ability of Canon’s Cinema Raw Light format, shooting challenging scenarios that would require me to make the most out of the Clog2’s quoted 15 stops of dynamic range in post.

I’d been watching the weather for about a month, waiting for a day that was going to offer varied shooting conditions. Luckily this day didn’t disappoint, with pockets of bright and dark areas, rapidly changing cloudy and partly cloudy weather along with a stellar sunset.

The locations featured are Chapmans Pool, nr Worth Matravers, Corfe Castle Village and Corfe Castle itself. All are within the Isle of Purbeck, Doset.

With the grade, I wanted to create a heavily stylised and moody look that really made the most out of the colour information in the Raw footage and allow me to see how far I could push the footage before it started to fall apart. It turns out, pretty far - but there are certainly limits. When pushed, visible issues occur mostly with banding and noise in some highlight areas (seemly the sky in some shots) - but this could quite possibly be down to the how I’ve graded the footage and my limited knowledge of the format at this point.

Also worth noting that this is (only) 10bit as it was shot at 60fps. 12bit is available when shooting at 30/25fps. I will continue to experiment with the footage in different NLE’s to understand how best to make the most out of Canon’s excellent raw format.

Camera is Canon C200

Lenses are Sigma 24mm f1.4 Art, Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art and Sigma 50mm f1.4 Art.

Format is Canon Cinema Raw Light in Cinema Gamut, Clog 2.

Edit and Grade in Premiere Pro with Lumetri.

LUT is from Canon’s offical C200 Clog2 LUTs with further tweaks to colour and gamma curves.

It's worth noting, for the video geeks out there. This was graded in rec2020/DCI P3 however uploaded to YouTube in Rec709 as I'm still working on exporting correctly HDR from premier pro, so there is a huge amount of colour loss and does not represent the full quality of Canon Cinema Raw Light. In the near future, when I can correctly export this in HDR Rec2020 I will re-upload! If you liked this video, please help me out by sharing this content for others to see. Thank you!