Canon FX205 High-Definition Camcorder.
Several years ago I reviewed Canon's new XF300 video camera, which brought 50 Mbps MPEG2 video recording to the table. I liked the camera so much, I ended up purchasing one for my video production business. For this reason, I was very excited at this chance to review the new Canon XF205.
There are two models for this new camera—the XF205 (which is what we evaluated), which includes broadcast-level features such as 3G/HD-SDI, HD-SDI, genlock, and timecode interfaces, and then the XF200, which eliminates this functionality for those who don't need them. With the exception of these four items, all comments and descriptions following apply equally to the XF200, as well as the XF205.
Overview
The XF205, like the XF300, records its MPEG-2 format video to CF cards, and offers 50 Mbps constant bit rate at 1,920x1080 and 1,280x720 with a 4:2:2 chroma sub-sampling (Wikipedia has a good article on what this means); 35 Mbps variable bit rate at 1,920x1,080, 1,440x1,080, and 1,280x720 with a 4:2:0 chroma sub-sampling; and 25 Mbps constant bit rate at 1,440x1,080 with a chroma sub-sampling at 4:2:0. In the 1,080 format you can record at 30p or 60i. Unlike the older XF300, however, the XF205 adds an SD card slot for recording H.264 MP4 video clips. You can simultaneously record to both CF and SD cards, or pick which you want to record to. In the MP4 format, you can record 1,080p at 35 Mbps or 24 Mbps; at 720p you can pick from 17 Mbps or nine Mbps; and 360p at three Mbps for generating low-res proxy clips, in addition to HD clips on the CF cards.
And—wait for it—the XF200 and XF205 finally brings 60 fps at full 1,080p to Canon's camcorder lineup. Sweet. That was the one hesitation I had when buying the XF300: that it didn't offer 60 fps at 1,080p. As I researched a little for this article, I understand now that 60 fps at 1,080p is not supported by the MPEG-2 codec, and since that was the only codec option in the XF300, it wasn't possible to provide that frame rate. With the support of MP4/H.264 in the XF200/XF205, it's now an option.
The external video display built into the camera is now OLED instead of LCD, providing a crisper and more vibrant color rendering with a wider dynamic range—and it also looks very nice.
"Bottom line: this camera is a top performer and an excellent choice for a house of worship. At $3,500 for the XF200 and $3,999 for the XF205, it would be hard to go wrong with this selection."
The XF205 is quite a bit smaller in size than the XF300, but doesn't skimp on the level of manual control and provides a good number of physical controls on the camcorder, despite the size of the body. It has three rings on the lens for manual control of zoom, focus and iris; two physical switches to switch between manual/auto focus and manual/auto iris; buttons to turn on peaking and zebra; switches to activate full auto mode and to activate manual control of the shutter speed; and a push-button to temporarily activate auto-focus for quick assistance in setting up a shot.
Some manual control options are adjusted via soft functions accessed through the joystick and OLED display, much like what Canon implemented in its C100 cinema camera, but you generally do not need to navigate into the menu system to change them. For example, to change the shutter speed, you press the joystick in to activate the setting-editing mode, then move the joystick left or right to quickly navigate to the shutter speed indicator on the OLED display, and then up or down to change the shutter speed.
The XF205 has both an internal two-channel microphone as well as two professional XLR inputs with phantom power. You can pick separately whether you want channel one and two to come from the internal mic or the XLR connector; or, the camera adds four-channel audio recording to the lineup when recording in MPEG-2, allowing you to record both the internal mics as well as the external audio inputs simultaneously. The audio meters on the front panel only show two channels, however, so monitoring levels in four-channel recording is a little problematic. The handle located on the right side of the camera body is rotatable, letting you reposition it for whatever angle works for the shot you're trying to get—this is a nice feature. And the lens hood has a built-in lens cover that flips down via an outside lever, which is also nice; you never need to wonder where you put the lens cap.
The XF205 has three levels of optical image stabilization available: standard, dynamic and powered. Dynamic provides a higher degree of stabilization for situations like walking or running with the camera, but at the possible expense of image artifacts at the edges of the image. Powered gives you better stabilization when zoomed in tightly on a subject, but isn't suitable for shots where you are panning or tilting the camera.
Another new feature of the XF camera lineup is the inclusion of both wired and Wi-Fi networking functions. Users can connect to the camera via a web browser from a tablet, smart phone or PC and control the camera, change camera settings and see a live preview of the camera image or view and download MP4 video clips. In addition, the camera has a built-in FTP server for transferring video clips. And finally, the XF205 has an infrared mode for shooting in the dark.
Performance
The XF205 is an excellent camera, and the features it offers for the size are outstanding. The smaller form factor means things like the three rings on the lens are closer together and thus easier to accidentally turn one ring when manipulating another, but this is not a big problem, and should be expected when buying a smaller form-factor video camera.
The 60fps 1,080p footage looked great, and is such a welcome addition to the product line. While I prefer the MPEG2 codec for editing (it's much easier on NLEs in the editing process than H.264), adding the SD card slot for H.264 to get the ability to get the 60fps at 1,080p capability was smart. And I'm glad they took this approach over dumping MPEG2 altogether.
The two CF card slots allow for both relay recording for extra-long shoots, or you can pick dual-slot recording for redundancy in case a CF card should fail on a critical shoot. And, the CF card slots have separate covers, so that you can remove and replace a CF card while shooting uninterrupted. The networking functions are an interesting addition, but not super helpful. The live preview via web browser does indeed work, however, I found that if you use Wi-Fi for both the camera and your computer or tablet, the live preview had a one to five second delay in the preview. Hard-wiring the computer used for remote control and preview by using an Ethernet crossover cable improved this greatly, but the delay was still typically between a half-second and one second.
While the camera includes a neutral density (ND) filter, the filter is tied to the iris control, kicking in when you iris down sufficiently. This is great for general shooting, but it limits your creativity if you wanted to have the iris wide open for minimum depth of field by kicking in an ND filter. However, the front of the lens is threaded and you could screw in an external ND filter if desired. The size of the camera enabled it to work great with my Manfrotto fig rig when shooting an outdoor track and field-type event, where I wanted to move quickly but have as much stability as possible.
The image stabilization also worked excellently, and the dynamic mode provided remarkably stable footage, even when walking fast. For low-light performance, the camera did reasonably well. With a shutter speed of 1/30, I didn't need to start adding gain until my lighting levels got down to about 10 fc. +3 dB of gain was still very clean, with just a little bit of added noise. +6 dB was needed at 7 fc of light, and had more noticeable noise, but it was still quite usable. At 2.4fc, I needed to go to 15 dB of gain, and the video noise was definitely noticeable, but depending on your application, didn't make the footage unusable. The HD-SDI and genlock functions worked perfectly, and the comment from Hope Community Church's video team (Raleigh, N.C.) is that they would not hesitate to use this camera as an on-stage run-and-gun camera (ninja cam) for IMAG and broadcast.
Bottom line: this camera is a top performer and an excellent choice for a house of worship. At $3,500 for the XF200 and $3,999 for the XF205, it would be hard to go wrong with this selection.
