Canon has today announced the newest addition to its EOS Cinema Line, the EOS C500 Mark II. It’s the next generation of the original EOS C500 and it sees some quite notable upgrades. The Super 35mm CMOS sensor has been upgraded to full-frame, the 4K resolution has been bumped up to 5.9K, and the CFast card slots are gone, replaced by a pair of faster CFexpress and an SD card slot for proxies.
The EOS C500 Mark II is powered by Canon’s newest DIGIC DV 7 processor, offering internal recording of 5.9K Cinema RAW Light as well as 4K 4:2:2 10-bit XF-AVC. Dual CFexpress card slots also allow you to shoot your backups as you go, with simultaneous recording to both cards. Another first for Canon with the EOS C500 Mark II comes with a user interchangeable lens-mount, with choices of EF Cinema Lock and PL mounts.
5.9K Full Frame CMOS sensor5.9K Cinema RAW Light up to 60fps2K crop mode up to 120fpsCanon DIGIC DV 7 processorHDR capable with PQ/HLG and Canon Log 2/3Internal recording to CFexpress (2x) and SD (1x)User interchangeable lens mount (EF and PL)Internal ND (2/4/6/8/10 stops)Internal LUT supportFalse colour overlayWeight: 1.75kg
Canon says that when producing 4K footage from the 5.9K camera, a high-quality debayering algorithm is applied when oversampling 5.9K into 4K to help with moiré suppression and noise reduction. The sensor offers a wide dynamic range of 15+ stops, and it features a built-in motorised ND unit offering 2, 4, 6,8 or 10 stops of reduction that covers the entire full-frame sensor. As well as internal recording to CFexpress, and being able to shoot to both simultaneously for creating backups as you go, you are also able to shoot proxy files for editing while recording to an additional SD card slot. If you’re shooting 5.9K, and you want to start creating your edits in the field with a laptop, a lower resolution proxy is going to be much faster to work with before rendering out your final piece with the higher resolution source files.
Two optional expansion units are available, the EU-V1, which adds Genlock/Sync BNC interface, remote interface for the (also optional) RC-V100 remote control and ethernet interface for IP streaming or remote operation via a web browser. The EU-V2 interface has all the features of the EU-V1 but also includes a pair of XLR inputs and a 12-pin lens interface and a V-Lock battery mount with D-tap and 24v power. It’s also compatible with the EVF-V70 and EVF-V50 electronic viewfinders, also available as optional extras. As expected with Canon cameras these days, it features Dual Pixel autofocus and offers AF tracking with face detection and face priority. The touchscreen LCD allows you to quickly choose a subject in the frame and it will be tracked as it moves. It looks like a truly worthwhile and pretty beefy upgrade over the original EOS C500, rather than the usual incremental update we often see from camera companies. C500 owners who’ve been looking for something a little more might just be satisfied. The Canon C500 Mark II will be priced at £16,999.99 in the UK and €18,999 in the EU including VAT. I’ve not yet seen a US price, nor a specific release date yet, but we’ll keep you posted as we hear more. You can read the complete specifications on the Canon website.
