Back at the end of February, shortly after they hit the market, I picked up a Canon c300 (one of the first 100 made!). While I love the size and look of the 5d, I've been itching to put together a new camera package, something thats much more functional and post friendly then HDSLRs. I have shot a TON of RED and Sony F3, but after getting a chance to play with a c300, I realized it was the camera for me! So far I'm totally in love (maybe its just the honeymoon, who knows). In the last month and a half I have shot A TON with the c300. The last 6 weeks have been crazy, involving a travel schedule that looked something like this: NYC --> LA --> Portland --> NYC --> PA --> NYC --> Boston --> Miami --> NYC.
(Mt Hood and Downtown, LA)
First up was a multi-cam agency job for Draft FCB, two c300s in a makeshift studio. After that I worked on a new series for Sky Arts (UK network) following around super model Lily Cole while she hung out with big time artist like Gabriel Orozco and Christo.
(Portland, OR for a multicam shoot with Draft FCB)
I also worked with photographer Matt Gunther, to shoot a new campaign for Harvard Business School. I also DPed a series of Interviews for PBS/Art21's web series "New York Up Close" (Last years series, which I also DP'ed got a Webby nomination, pretty cool!). I also shot some interviews with the Miami based New Urbanism firm DPZ.
Oh, and I also shot a personal project, The American Eagle Flies Again, about a motorcycle dare devil named Louis "Rocket" Le. And this super wild music video by director Brad Hasse.
All of these shoots, despite being vastly different, had one thing in common. Most of them would have been 5d shoots if it was not for the c300. So whats so great about the camera? Well if you follow camera news then you are all aware of the many advantages, but here is a quick run down of my favorite upgrades. I'll keep it short as these have been stated over and over again.
I love the 50mb on board bit rate. This means I can shoot for networks such as NatGeo, Discovery and in my case the BBC/Sky Arts without an external recorder. I also love the timecode and jam syncing options for big interview / multicamera shoots. The built in peaking with red outlines is also amazing for run and gun work. Same with the built in NDs.
Being able to shoot C-log is great, but also having the option to use a built in look is wonderful for projects without color grading budgets. I'm using a slightly tweaked version of the Abel Cine EOS Match setting for in camera looks (Thanks to the awesome AC Matt Hamm for tweaking the settings!).
(Waiting to interviewing Mayor Bloomberg for SkyArts, Grading C-log footage at Post Works)
All and all I'm very happy with the camera. I have also assembled a great package including the Zacuto Studio baseplate and the RedRock's new FF. It intergrades great with my existing gear, which includes the Small HD 5.6 monitor and all my Canon glass (24mm 1.2, 85mm 1.2, 70-200 2.8 and 24-105mm).
While I'm sure I'll continue to shoot on various cameras depending on the job, I'm very happy to have a great camera package together that I really know the ins and outs of. Hit me up if you are interested in chatting more about the c300! Oh and Instagram's new Android app happened to coincide with all my travels, so here are a bunch of Instagram photos!
(Art 21 Interviews at the Bushwich studio 1896, Shooting at DPZ in Miami, FL -- The Canon 85mm f1.2 and the c300 is a WONDERFUL combo!)
