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, and have never been disappointed.
Later this summer, Canon releases the new “baby brother” to the XF300 – the XF200 and XF205. While technically the little brother to the XF300 and XF305, these cameras have some features that make the XF300/XF305 seem a bit like the ‘little brother' instead.
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 the XF200, which eliminates this functionality for those who don't need them.
The XF200 and XF205 have a much smaller form-factor than the XF300, yet retains most of the easily accessed manual controls of its larger sibling. Unlike many cameras of this size, the XF200/XF205 provide three rings at the lens end of the camera for easy manual control of focus, zoom and iris. Many cameras sacrifice one or two of these rings as the body size decreases.
The XF200/XF205 use the same MPEG-2 Codec for recording to its dual CF card slots as the XF300, and allow for both relay recording as well as dual-slot recording for redundancy. However, it adds what I consider to be the most important feature of this new camera: 1080p/60fps AVCHD recording onto its new SD card slot. 60fps at full HD resolution has been noticeably absent from the XF camera lineup, primarily because the MPEG-2 Codec does not support it. Canon added the SD slot at the back of the camera body under the battery slot and uses this media for AVCHD recording.
The XF200/XF205 also increase the zoom capability to 20X, and use a single CMOS sensor for image capture. An OLED (not LCD!) display brings a rich look and more accurate color display to the user. And with OLED, black is really black.
To accommodate the smaller body size, some of the functions which have a physical control on the XF300 have been moved to “soft function” access on the OLED display, but are quickly accessible through the use of a small joystick-like nub on the back of the camera. For example, to change the shutter speed, press and release the joystick, and then move the joystick left or right to move to the shutter speed indicator on the display. Then, use the up and down motion of the joystick to adjust the shutter speed. Press and release the joystick again to exit the adjustment. Most of the camera settings can be adjusted in this fashion, and as you only need to remember where the joystick control is, it can actually be faster than using a dedicated control for each function.
So, how did the camera fair? I was very pleased with it, and you can read a full evaluation in the October 2014 issue of Church Production Magazine.
