Canon XF305 - Does it fit with the Canon 5D?

If you want to get really in deep with the XF305, then download the manual and spend some serious time with the camera to learn it…. I’m offering a series of observations based upon an all too brief time with this immensely powerful broadcast camera and how I feel it fits into my business workflow and how it will cut into other footage shot on cameras like the Canon 5D and Go Pro Hero.

If you want a real in depth nuts n blots review, Luminous Landscape conducted this test that ended with them ordering one for their own use.

The first thing I noticed when powering up is the truly great screen that really ‘pops’ with sharpness. Compared to an earlier generation XH-A1, it’s quite literally like night and day when it comes to nailing focus.

There must be upwards of fifty buttons and switches on the body of the camera and at first glance they may appear scattered randomly. Pick up the camera, power it up and in fact, they fall to hand very well, plus all the main controls are in broadly similar places as the earlier Canon camcorders. Apart from a truly fiddly power switch to go from ‘camera’ to ‘media’ for playback and a rather flimsy looking latch for holding the battery in place, both of which are a major PITA with gloves on in the cold, build quality is first rate. In photographs, it looks like a slightly revised XHA1, but in reality it’s significantly bigger and falls in between the XH Series and the XL Series in size and weight.

The single biggest step forward for Canon is the move to solid state CF Card recording. Having lagged behind the competition for years, they’ve finally introduced tapeless recording with twin slots on the rear for Compact Flash cards. Given that the camera has a BBC Broadcast standard bit rate of 50 mbs and records to 4.2.2 colour encoding in full 1920×1080 HD, I was curious to see just how quickly it would gobble up a CF Card. Formatting a 16Gb UDMA card gave a record capacity of around 40 minutes. The camera takes two cards and you can hot-swap them for continuous recording, so if you take two popular 32Gb sized cards, so you right away have 80 minutes per card. Factor in the hot-swap capability that allows you to fill a card, remove it for download wile shifting card number two, then return it, format it and have it ready, all the while recording, gives a formidable capability for shooting concerts, wildlife or long interviews. Move to the bigger 64Gb cards and you have massive recording capability.

One important note about downloading the full memory cards. It’s very important to maintain the file structure and copy across the complete contents of the card, otherwise the footage cannot be viewed. To edit in Final Cut Pro or view the footage requires the installation of the Canon XF Utility disc that comes with the camera. Those two things are potentially no big deal for a sole operator / editor. However if you factor in the possibility that you may well be working with an editor on a different machine, or as part of a multi-camera shoot, there’s the potential for a problem if your editor doesn’t have the Canon plug-in installed. To save frustration and confusion, I plan to carry a copy of the Canon software loaded onto a Compact Flash card or USB flash drive in the event of shooting with an editor remotely. That way, it’s easy to send the required software with the footage to ensure there’s no slip ups.

Buttons and modes and more modes…

This is an immensely customisable camera, by definition selecting various modes will require a good few hours sitting at home with it on your lap, just playing and becoming familiar with it. It has a whole series of ‘hot keys’ that can be customised to enable you to set it up to suit your style. Initially, I set the front three keys to engage the different levels of image stabilisation, meaning that if you need to quickly transfer from a tripod to handheld for a quick interview, a single key press brings in the stabilisation. Hit it again and it’s off as you return to the tripod. The face detection mode was also given a hot key. While I used it a little in some tests, the results I got were a little inconclusive for me to totally trust it without more experience of where it’s final limitations might be. Any settings you do customise can be saved to a memory card slot in the palm grip, so if you’re using a rental unit at any point, it’s a quick process to give it a factory reset, then install your setup and you’re up and running.

In future, I’d be using special recording modes quite a lot so next time, I plan to set those up on my preferences too. The interval recording mode, while not as infinitely adjustable as a Canon DSLR and Intervalometer, is very useful to have built-in, plus the pre-record mode could be a godsend in many fast moving situations. In pre-record mode, the camera is constantly buffering a three second burst on standby, so if you miss the start of something, providing you’ve got your framing right, you’ve got a three second safety net of footage. Assigning more of the top handgrip buttons to these modes makes the camera truly intuitive.

So what does the footage look like?

Other more qualified people with vast experience of testing broadcast cameras for the BBC have given their opinions here:

But for me, one of the single biggest things is the clarity and sharpness of the image. When this camera was announced, I felt a twinge of disappointment that it didn’t come with an interchangeable lens, as Canon produce a range of amazing EF Mount lenses, plus there are various third party lenses from Zeiss coming onto the video DSLR market. I need not have worried. Besides my own views, every technical test I’ve read has raved about the lens quality that delivers a superb image and is just one of the many reasons why this camera is now approved for use by the BBC and Discover Channel for full programme production, not just B Roll and cutaways.

I’ve no doubt I’ll be using this camera again and I’ll be updating this blog with more opinions. If you want to see how it fits into a Canon 5D workflow, this great video on the Canon Europe website shows a short shot on both cameras and edited together.

The Glidetrack had been sitting in my office for a while, frustratingly. Each time I thought a subject was coming up that would work, something happened to scupper it.
So when I managed to get hold of the Canon 1DMk4 to test for just a few days, there was a steely determination to shoot something with it. But in February, there was only one subject that I could think of that I’d been wanting to shoot that wasn’t locked away for the winter.

The Infinity Bridge over the River Tees at Stockton is beautifully engineered and even the most casual passer by always comments on the shape. At night it’s illuminated in a variety of interesting ways, but what I guess many people don’t spot right away are the myriad of detail features that go to making it up which I find facinating. The more I study it, the more engineering details I see. I’m a sucker for engineering and architecture, so combine the two and you’ve got my attention.

I shot it over two mornings, but had to scrap the first day, as the conditions were so much nicer on the second day, there was no continuity to it. Even so, we had squally snow showers blasting through every few minutes suspending activities and making consistent exposure a real battle.

It’s the first time I’d used the Glidetrack, other than just fiddling around in the office, but quickly becomes addictive as you start thinking of ways to incorporate short camera moves into your shots. Like all the best ideas, it’s really simple. A bar of extruded aluminium carries a carriage fitted with a standard tripod thread and has attachments to allow fitting to a wide variety of tripods, C stands, light stands etc, or you can sit it on the floor on it’s own feet for low moves.

It’s an easy thing to use and once you’ve mastered getting a consistent speed along the track and it really gives a look to camera moves that you’d have to spend ten times the amount to achieve with a traditional dolly track, plus you lose the fast setup time and portability of it. On really cold days, the metal picks up moisture and can judder, plus the rails are very sensitive to any dirt at all. I found the best way to ensure a smooth move was to carry a small can of WD40 and a clean cloth and give the rail a quick wipe before shooting. It takes just seconds to do and pretty much guarantees a smooth move.

Best of all, once you’re done the whole thing packs away in seconds and sits in the car boot taking hardly any space at all.

The 1D Mk4 with the full manual controls for video is superb and I’ll write more of this, it’s amazing ISO and 10 fps burst rate later.

The time lapse I cut into this was shot at the end of last year on the 5DMk2 and was added because it fits the pace of the music by Vivaldi and because I like it! Overall, I’m happy with my first shot with the Glidetrack. Things I’d change next time all revolve around getting a better tripod. The Manfrotto is OK for the money, but I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on the superb Miller I tried at the Broadcast Expo. And I wouldn’t use the ball and socket head on the Glidetrack, as with a long lens it introduces very small movements that you can see when viewed in full HD. One of the curses of shooting in full HD.

You’ve got to watch this Behind The Scenes vid of director Richard Patterson shooting using a Canon 1D stills camera firing at 10 frames per second, coupled with a rack load of Profoto light strobes, Red Rock Micro and a cool Steadicam rig. Hoping that there will be more BTS video showing the post production and how the final item looked. Who says you need a video mode on your DSLR to shoot movies?

Philip Bloom is a lighting cameraman who’s teamed up with Dennis Lennie to create F Stop Academy, specifically tailored to people who want to know how to achieve the film look from a video camera. Personally, I also think it could well be a very useful course for stills photographers like myself how are making the move into shooting video. It that’s you, here’s my thoughts on the Podcast you can download from them.

It’s kind of a two guys thinking aloud “What if we showed people how to…” It’s over 50 minutes long and can take a bit of getting through. If you’re a beginner, probably every single chunk is useful. If you’re an experienced stills photographer, sure there will be stuff you already know, like controlling depth of field explanations, but it’s worth the listen to get to the more interesting bits.

One of my main frustrations of video cameras has been the DOF thing. I love shooting stills on my 1DS with the 70-200 wide open to make the main subject really ‘pop’, but apart from the Canon 5D, I’ve struggled to get that in video and that;s one of the things these guys are talking about. Seeing as my self-publishing efforts are going to involve short productions, I also want to know more about lots of other stuff the guys chat about, including (deep breath) the best matte box, follow focus, grip gear, lighting, tape and tapeless workflow, post production grading, Magic Bullet looks, combining multiple cameras into an edit, plus I’m sure there’s more.

Sign up, download it and listen. You’ll probably break it up into chunks, I had to, as I was working. It’s slightly heavy going at times as the conversation wanders, but that”s just part of the whole informality of the piece and let’s face it we’re all guilty, so don’t worry, you’re not wasting your time. It’s limited to 1,000 downloads, so head over and grab a copy. I’m not blogging this for money, I simply thing it’s going to be a good thing and I’ll certainly be looking forward to seeing more.

Many people in the motoring and lifestyle magazine publishing industry are looking at online versions of their publications with mixed feelings right now, especially with regard to the video content..

Journalists and editors are just thinking, “It’s for the IT department, nothing to do with me, I’ll just get lumbered with extra work…. And as for doing a ‘piece to camera’, you can forget it with my accent and crooked teeth…”


Publishers are thinking, “We know it’s coming, we know we need content, but right now, the advertising revenue from online sources just doesn’t justify investing in creating bespoke content. We’ll just keep embedding those grainy YouTube clips and take the free stuff the readers send in….”


Some photographers are thinking, “Jeez, this looks like a load of work, I’m outside my comfort zone and I guess they won’t pay any more money either, so lets keep quite about it, I can’t afford a Sony Z1 / EX1 / XL1 / JVC this year…And as for editing in Final Cut, that looks horrible. Time to look at weddings…”

However, I’m thinking, “What a great oportunity – there’s never been a better time to get your reader’s attention and hold onto it…. For the first time ever, if you do it right, you have as good a chance as any broadcaster of getting an audience for your content”

But with one or two notable exceptions, everyone’s missing a great oportunity here.
I’ve been looking at some of the video clips on car magazine’s own websites this month and I couldn’t figure out why they didn’t work for me, until suddenly the fog cleared….

So where do I think they’re going wrong?

If I’m looking at any of the car magazine videos online, I DO NOT want to hear the presenter just read back to me pretty much what the printed version says – I can read that in the feature. And another thing…, it’s not fair to expect motoring writers with no experience of presenting to be a Tiff Needel or Jason Plato, or worse, Jeremy Clarkson. Those people are paid a lot more that us to do just one thing – present and entertain. You can’t compete, so stop trying to.

So what do you shoot?

I want to hear the car charging through the gears, see the bodywork curves in the right light, feel the lateral G force in the turns and watch a video that puts me right there, smelling the leather seats and feeling the grip of the wheel. It doen’t need to be long, two minutes max. It doen’t need to have funky Guns N Roses backing music. But it needs to be shot well, with good sound, a sharp driver and an even sharper edit with some really quick camera work.

But that costs money.

So right now, we’re in a transitional period. Ultimately, there will be some casualties. But if you don’t think it’s going to affect your publication, look around you. People use YouTube almost as much as Google, iPhones are everywhere and the sheer number of devices capable of displaying motion content is multiplying by the week. It’s here now and if you’ve only just begun to think it over you’re running late.

The solution? Don’t try that Bourne Identity car chase with the Mini, that will go badly wrong and the litigation will be endless. But look at your favourite car chase movie and think about the angles, the edit cuts. Sure they cost millions. But if you pay a little for the right content, photographed well, people will remember it and come back. But how do we pay for it?

One of the problems that the traditional publishing companies have with the internet is the cost of distribution. It’s free. You can’t charge for it like you do the print version, but at the same time, it needs content to be commissioned for it to work.

“But if we can’t charge for it, the advertisers won’t pay more than the printed magazine version and everyone needs to do extra work and freelance staff need to be paid, so how will it work?”

Consider this. One of the most profitable companies of our times is Google. You use it every day, but you don’t pay for it. This article in Wired is an excellent discussion on how $0.00 is the new price point. It’s a long feature and you may well not agree with it (some parts of it I don’t) , so you may want to look at it later and keep reading here.

http://tinyurl.com/2se78c

However, the key paragraph is this one:

“…..newspaper and magazine publishers don’t charge readers anything close to the actual cost of creating, printing, and distributing their products. They’re not selling papers and magazines to readers, they’re selling readers to advertisers. It’s a three-way market….”
Nothing new there, we all know that, but that’s what we need to remind ourselves of. A good feature car video has every bit as much appeal as a well photographed and written, printed magazine feature, but it remains online and is instantly distributed globally….. An advertisers dream.

Sure it will take time, but eventually, the audience will be checking you out because you make the best videos. They’ll be linking to you in the forums and generating traffic. Don’t believe it will work? The stats graph below show what happened to my own website when the Ice Driver movie went online. There’s the initial surge, but more importantly, the traffic remained high for almost a month afterwards and my site now has a permanent increase in traffic and readers.








Another example – If one more person sends me a link to that Ken Block Subaru video, I guarantee I’ll shoot them….. Everyone from from Subaru owners, to editors, even a few traffic cops I know, have all been talking about it. Get that kind of take up and that kind of viral marketing, then the advertisers will come and want to be part of the party. Of course it costs and that’s the next thing. This watershed of still photography and video imaging convergence couldn’t have come at a worse time, financially.

From my point of view, it’s yet more investment in equipment with a finite and short life and fast depreciation, more software to purchase licences for and learn how to use and of course, more time spent on location and a whole load more time editing – all this needs to be accounted for somewhere, right at a time when no-one feels like spending on “Capital Expenditure”, as my bean counter likes to call the receipts I give him.

Publishers who are savvy know it’s a chicken and egg thing – they need good, well shot content for the website to generate page views and stats to fire at advertisers for income, but they need to pay in advance for it and the good sites are spending and it shows. But what if it doen’t work? It must work. It will. We can’t afford to blink on this one, no looking back, this is where it’s going.

Sorry it this is a long post, it’s just that I really needed to say it…. Your opinions are very welcome, so fire away, be brutal and speak your mind.

You’d like to think that more than two weeks set aside for a trip to northern Sweden would be plenty to shoot a short movie about driving at high speeds on frozen lakes, wouldn’t you? Me too. I’ve been to Sweden working plenty of times before and while there may be a few days overcast with snow, it’s never long before the sun breaks through and the stunning landscape makes you catch your breath.

But as we reach the seven day point with snow waist deep outside and more forecast, the light dull and flat I’m reminded of Joe Cornish and his book First Light It’s not a book full of dawn photography, but a play on words, because as he so rightly points out, without light, we can’t do anything. Joe spends a lot of his time waiting…..and waiting…for just the right light.

Previous trips had produced similar conditions, but then I was shooting stills not video. On that ocassion, a result was needed with no time to wait, so that time, we worked around the dull skies by using Lee ND Soft Grads and a couple of strobes on Pocket Wizards, giving the shot you see here. It’s not a view of Swedish wilderness, but it illustrated the Subaru for the magazine I was shooting for. This time, the project is a video shot using the new Canon 5D Mk2, so we wait….