Buying Canon XC10 in 2017.

[Papiskokuji]

Hi guys !

I just bought an XC10 but i'm still in the 14 days of trial so I can return it if I want to. I got the camera for 1600€ new. Took it because I thought it was a good deal and I've always been tempted by it. I thought it would come with the CFAST card and a card reader though but I guess it's just a bundle offer for the US.

Anyway so far I haven't shot much with it because of very bad weather in Paris and the lack of time but I've been a bit underwhelmed with the camera. The grip feels too big for my hand and the bottom of the camera is somewhat a hindrance to get to the focus ring. I also thought the image straight out of it would be less "dslr" and more "blackmagic/organic", some of you said it has some kind of mojo (some people I trust on this forum). It is a nice image but nothing that I haven't seen before. (I assume you can get a cinematic image shooting c-log and color grading) Hence my question :

Do you think there's a major leap in quality with the 305mb codec ? (as I haven't been able to test it) How do you think it fares compared to, let's say, Prores LT ? With C-log pushed a bit, do you get magenta macroblocking like with S-log2 on Sony cameras ? Is there a huge difference between S-Log2 from Alpha cameras and Clog at 305mb ? Like there is with the log of blackmagic in Prores.

I would keep this camera only if I get a noticeable improvement from the other dslr cameras I already have, codec wise I mean.

And lastly, I love Canon colors from my dslr stills but I found them not that incredible with the XC10 (best profile for out of camera colors was EOS Standard) and actually the "portrait" picture profile of my sony RX100 V comes quite close to the eos standard profile !

Maybe I was hoping for a film look right out of the camera (I got spoiled with the Fuji X-T20 a friend lent me and the film simulations are soooo great for stills).

[BenEricson]

35 minutes ago, Papiskokuji said:

Hi guys !

I just bought an XC10 but i'm still in the 14 days of trial so I can return it if I want to. I got the camera for 1600€ new. Took it because I thought it was a good deal and I've always been tempted by it. I thought it would come with the CFAST card and a card reader though but I guess it's just a bundle offer for the US.

Anyway so far I haven't shot much with it because of very bad weather in Paris and the lack of time but I've been a bit underwhelmed with the camera. The grip feels too big for my hand and the bottom of the camera is somewhat a hindrance to get to the focus ring. I also thought the image straight out of it would be less "dslr" and more "blackmagic/organic", some of you said it has some kind of mojo (some people I trust on this forum). It is a nice image but nothing that I haven't seen before. (I assume you can get a cinematic image shooting c-log and color grading) Hence my question :

Do you think there's a major leap in quality with the 305mb codec ? (as I haven't been able to test it) How do you think it fares compared to, let's say, Prores LT ? With C-log pushed a bit, do you get magenta macroblocking like with S-log2 on Sony cameras ? Is there a huge difference between S-Log2 from Alpha cameras and Clog at 305mb ? Like there is with the log of blackmagic in Prores.

I would keep this camera only if I get a noticeable improvement from the other dslr cameras I already have, codec wise I mean.

And lastly, I love Canon colors from my dslr stills but I found them not that incredible with the XC10 (best profile for out of camera colors was EOS Standard) and actually the "portrait" picture profile of my sony RX100 V comes quite close to the eos standard profile !

Maybe I was hoping for a film look right out of the camera (I got spoiled with the Fuji X-T20 a friend lent me and the film simulations are soooo great for stills).

You should be a big step up from S-LOG2, but really depends on the situation. This camera is perfect for outdoor shooting, but not so much indoor. 

The baked in profiles do include noise reduction which can effect the image. 

I recommend C-LOG, exposing a stop or so over to make sure you get clean shadows. You shouldn't get noise or macro blocking if you're exposing correctly.

[Papiskokuji]

 

18 minutes ago, BenEricson said:

You should be a big step up from S-LOG2, but really depends on the situation. This camera is perfect for outdoor shooting, but not so much indoor. 

The baked in profiles do include noise reduction which can effect the image. 

I recommend C-LOG, exposing a stop or so over to make sure you get clean shadows. You shouldn't get noise or macro blocking if you're exposing correctly.

Thank you Ben ! I actually watched your XC10 videos a few times, the best along with Mattias Burling's ones. What you're saying makes me wanna try this 305mb codec but I have to find a cheap cfast card somewhere first  Great to hear there will be no magenta macro blocking, those drive me nuts ! I'll try to overexpose a bit (it's a shame there's no histogram though !) as suggested.

[Shirozina]

One of the reasons I got rid of my XC10 was the poor performance of the 305mb codec. Despite it's high bitrate it's not a very efficient codec and I found shooting outside that blue skies would show horrendous banding with the Log profile. It was a little better with the cine profile but there wasn't much latitude to work with them in post before banding set in. Also there seemed to be aggressive baked in NR which mushed fine detail in 4k. In other respects it was a very good camera and ideal to use with P&S 'camcorder' approach to filming. 

[Mattias Burling]

Weird. I never got any banding in blue skies. Clog looked nothing but great imo.

[RedWineMogul]

I did it.

I just bought the XC10 two months ago from amazon for 1589 € and get 280 € CashBack from Canon one month later. I had problems with banding in my studio environment with c-log, my BMCC has a way cleaner image there, but I bought this little thing for Run & Gun outdoors. For this it is ideal for me. I use the 305mb codec and for now I am happy with the Image I get, but I have to test it out more.