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Canon's C300 Mark II cinema camera will cost you $20,000
More than three years after launching the C300, Canon is refreshing its line of cinema cameras with the C300 Mark II. On the outside, the C300 Mark II is quite similar to its EOS siblings, although it does come with a slightly tweaked design that features a wider body. But the most important changes are elsewhere. For one, Canon has made the new cinema camera capable of recording 4K internally, via CFast 2.0 cards -- as opposed to the first version, which couldn't handle this type of footage natively. The C300 Mark II sports a pair of DIGIC DV 5 processors, an ISO range of up to 102,400 and a brand new 8.85-megapixel, Super 35mm CMOS sensor, which can shoot video at full HD (1,920 x 1,080), 2K DCI (2,048 X 1,080), 4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160) and, perhaps most importantly, 4K DCI (4,096 x 2,160).
New firmware gives Canon's Cinema EOS camera line a prodigious 80,000 ISO
Those who shelled out big bucks for one of Canon's Cinema EOS cameras will be glad to know they've just been blessed with a significant firmware upgrade. Owners of the EOS C500, C300, C100 and 1D C 4K models will all see a huge increase in light gathering, with the maximum ISO jumping from 20,000 to 80,000. That's one of the highest ISO settings on a pro camcorder, and you'll now be able to roll through the entire ISO range in 1/3 stop increments instead of a full stop at a time, too. Meanwhile, the top of the line C500 model will get new DCI-P3+ and Cinema Gamut color options, along with a new high-speed, 120fps shooting mode at 4,096 x 1,080. The C300 will also get a new Wide DR color gamut and all the models will get various tweaks and bug fixes. For the finer details, check the source.
Canon teases 'exclusive screening' in Las Vegas, new Cinema EOS products coming at NAB?
With both its 1D and 5D-series models already confirmed for 2012, today's Canon teaser hints at something slightly different -- and, according to our sources, a major announcement. The event is set for April 15th -- during the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas -- further confirming that whatever imaging device we'll see will likely be geared towards the motion picture and television communities. So, what could it be? A new Cinema EOS cam with a 1D form-factor? A lower-priced model poised to compete with the RED Scarlet? We have but a month to wait for confirmation, so if you haven't already placed your C300 order, it might not be a bad idea to hang tight until after Canon's Tax Day reveal.
Canon C300 takes to the sky, hopefully still under warranty
We're not sure what sending your $16,000 (plus lens) video camera into the sky does to its warranty, but here's hoping that the folks at Horizon AP don't have to find out the hard way. They've attached Canon's C300 to a remote controlled rotorcraft to grab the kind of shots that only multiple spinning blades can. Probably best to avoid trying this at home, unless you've got a couple extra Easyshares lying around. [Thanks, Jack]
Canon EOS C300 to hit Japanese stores on the 31st, PL version coming in March
Do you have deep pockets? And do those pockets happen to be located in Japan? Well if you're also in the market for Canon's EOS C300 cinema camera, you might be in luck. The company has confirmed that its motion-picture-shooting flagship will be available in Japanese retail stores by January 31st -- exactly one week from today. As the story goes with expensive electronics in Japan, pricing is "open" at this point, meaning you might have to hit up a retailer for an amount before making two dozen trips to the ATM. But if money's no object (just that pesky release date), you should be on your way to making Cinema EOS magic before the month is out. And if your kit is best suited for the PL-mount version, expect that to ship in late March, "open" pricing in tow.
Canon EOS C300 cinema cam gets pre-order status, ships at month's end for $16,000
Back in November we joined Martin Scorsese and other Hollywood luminaries at Paramount Studios for the unveiling of Canon's latest cinema video camera, which is now available for pre-order. The EOS C300, that aims to compete directly against the Reds of the world, carries a Super 35mm CMOS sensor capable of up to 4K resolution 1080p capture, and should be helped in large part by the company's top-shelf lenses; like the 14.5 - 60mm and 30 - 300mm. When we first met the C300 we told you it'd be priced at a hefty $20,000, but that's no longer the case, instead it'll cost a less painful $16,000 for the body only. The camera will begin shipping "after January 30th," and if it seems like a little too much for you, at least you can still watch our precious hands-on time with it. Update: We've updated to clarify that while the sensor is 4K the camera only captures in 1080p.
RED Scarlet starts shipping for $9,750, first customer takes one home today
Announced at a curiously-timed event just minutes after Canon's C300 made its on-stage debut, we expected the RED Scarlet to be a hit with cinematographers the world abound. But we're perhaps even more impressed to see one actually make its way to a customer just two weeks after launch, than we were when RED revealed the 4K cam's low $9,750 price tag. Rental service owner Tonaci Tran (pictured front and center above) is the lucky winner, and if you happen to have a Scarlet loan scheduled with him, you could be too. Haven't had enough of the 4096 x 2160-pixel 4K cam? Check out our hands-on from RED's Hollywood launch event.
Canon launches C300 cinema camera, prepares to take on Red Scarlet and Arri Alexa
Well, we have to hand it to Canon -- this was one tight-lipped product launch. The imaging company just unveiled its C300 cinema camera at Hollywood's Paramount Studios, in front of a crowd of hundreds of journalists and film industry elite, including Martin Scorsese. Canon is no stranger to the professional photography community, but it has yet to make a name for itself in Hollywood, where cameras such as the Arri Alexa and RED EPIC dominate the digital filmmaking world. The C300 may not appear to be overwhelmingly powerful on paper -- stock features include an EF or PL mount (not both), 1080p capture, a pair of CF card slots, timecode and HD-SDI output -- but judging by the sample films we saw today, its incredibly powerful sensor and versatile form factor are likely to play a more significant role in making this camera a success. Canon has a new 'EOS Movies' DSLR on the way too: 4K video, 35mm full frame sensor Canon C300 makes an appearance in Vincent Laforet's Mobius, find the short and behind the scenes right here (video) Canon C300 cinema camera hands-on (video)Fujio Mitarai is saying that the camera is especially well-suited to accurate color reproduction, particularly skin tones. We're also receiving word that the C300 will cost somewhere in the range of $20,000 -- how's that for affordable? It contains a Super 35mm CMOS sensor and delivers up to 4K resolution with the outfit's new "top-end" EF zoom lenses, which come in four flavors: two 14.5-60mm lenses and two 30-300mm. And the lenses keep on coming, with three EF prime lenses in 24mm, 50mm, and 85mm variations. That CMOS sensor offers 1920 x 1080 pixels for the reds and blues and 1920 x 2160 for greens. Like we said before, list price for the C300 will be $20,000 when it hits stores in late January 2012. And that appears to be it for this very long announcement, but we'll have our first impressions soon. Full PR awaits you after the break.%Gallery-138391%%Gallery-138405%Christopher Trout contributed to this post
LG strolls into Town with C300 featurephone, offers portrait QWERTY for text addicts
Still on the lookout for an affordable QWERTY dumbphone? You might be in luck, as LG's just released this eye-catching Town C300 to cater to your texting and IM addiction on the cheap. Just like its predecessor, this new handset includes Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger, and push email integration, along with FM radio, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a 2 megapixel camera from the hardware camp. The damage? Just a mere £69 ($108) from Orange, but don't tell your friends -- keep the extra booze money to yourself. %Gallery-102995%
LG's C300 Town spotted in the wild, textin' on the cheap
It appears we missed an opportunity at IFA to spend some quality time with LG's recently-outed C300 Town, a dumbphone in every sense of the word whose main mission in life seems to be making your texting an easier task thanks to a full portrait QWERTY keyboard. It's got a few other tricks up its sleeve, though, namely support for push email, a 3.5mm headphone jack (hopefully accompanied by a decent music player), and a 2 megapixel cam on back to capture those amazing moments with enough clarity (in theory, anyway) to make for a decent MMS. We're still waiting for details on pricing and availability, but we know that it'll be available on Orange at some point -- appropriate, we must say, considering the orange accents. [Thanks, Willeke]
Crucial issues RealSSD C300 firmware fix, bricks more drives
Crucial's RealSSD C300 had a sizable problem coming out of the gate: price. Initially starting at $800 for 64GB 256GB it cost more than most laptops (it's now down to $700), but crazy people pay crazy amounts for crazy performance and so off to retail it went. Recently, Anand over at AnandTech indicated that his review sample "apparently bricked itself" before eventually coming back to life -- albeit at a ridiculously reduced speed. Yesterday Crucial issued an official firmware "fix" for his particular problem and, as you could probably tell by the use of quotes there, it isn't necessarily a good thing. Numerous people in the Crucial forums are reporting that this update has completely bricked their drives, while others are simply unable to apply it in the first place. This particular piece of firmware is still no longer available on Crucial's site (version 0002), and we would definitely advise steering clear until at least version 0003 -- maybe 0004 for good measure. Update: We heard from Kristin at Micron Technology, who passed along the following update: We wanted to let you know that we're aware of the issues some users are experiencing with the firmware update tool. Initially, it sounds like there needs to be some additional steps in the process for their specific systems. As you know, aside from the issues experienced, there were/are several users that had success with their updates. We'll post an update on the forum as soon as we have more information, and will keep you apprised with what we know. Additionally, we had the pricing wrong on the initial C300. It was $800 for 256GB, not 64GB. Update 2: We got another update from Micron. The troublesome firmware has been pulled, and we have a new statement after the break.
Firmware corruption probe implicates at least one RealSSD C300
We don't know too many folks who shelled out the dosh for Crucial's RealSSD C300, so perhaps it's no surprise that we haven't heard too many complaints about the thing. We do know at least one high roller who got his hands on one, however, and for him things are definitely not going so swimmingly. In fact, our friend Anand is apparently the proud owner of one such device that just "decided to up and stop working one day." That's not good! While the cause has yet to be determined, Crucial has been in contact and seems to think that errors in the firmware tables have resulted in a drive that is now very, very slow at powering up. It's not clear whether or not this is going to be a common problem, but if the same thing happens to you perhaps you can sleep easily that at least there's the possibility of saving your data. Or maybe you're just kicking yourself for spending $800 on an SSD. Either way, Mr. AnandTech shares insight into this -- and more, including poor performance after TRIMing the LBAs on his replacement SSD. Exciting, huh? Hit the source link to see for yourself. [Thanks, Aristo]
Crucial's 6Gbps RealSSD C300 goes on sale, costs as much as a decent laptop
You've gone for the 64GB of quad-channel DDR7 RAM, you've got your Core i26 processor, and you're running a triple pack of those Radeon Ultra HD 9000 cards in CrossFire. But something's missing from your speed demon machine -- could a $799 SSD be the answer? Crucial would have you believe that, yes, splashing all your rent money on a 256GB storage drive is a totally worthwhile investment, and early reviews of the RealSSD C300 revealed it to be "holy mother of god" fast. So no qualms about its speed, but if your benchmark lust knows some budgetary bounds, you may want to consider the slightly more reasonable 128GB variant, which comes in at $499. Both are available right this minute direct from Crucial, so either go buy one or stop this torture and go distract yourself with something cheaper. [Thanks, Rick]
RealSSD C300 tested, offers sublime speed at superlative prices
It's been a few months since Micron became the second to introduce the world's first SATA 6Gbps hard drive (Seagate was the other), and regardless about who was earliest we now know which is currently the fastest. TweakTown put a Crucial-branded C300 through its paces and came to a rather simple conclusion: "At this point in time there is no other drive, platter or solid state that is in the same league as the Crucial RealSSD C300." It blitzed through all their tests and at the end, when others would be a smoking ruin of high access times, it still performed as good as new. There was one catch, though: Windows Media Player performance was abnormally low, something that testers believe is a glitch to be addressed in firmware. Other than that, if you want the best this is it. But can you afford it? A 128GB model will set you back $499, and the 256GB one is $799. Yeah, ouch.
Micron RealSSD C300 becomes first SSD to leverage SATA 6Gbps interface
Seagate may have claimed the rights to the planet's first SATA 6Gbps hard drive, but it's Micron claiming the same feat in the SSD realm. The outfit's new RealSSD C300 is the first of its kind to natively comply with the wicked fast new specification, which will (at least in theory) provide read speeds of up to 355MB/sec and write speeds of up to 215MB/sec. It's also the first solid state drive to use ONFI 2.1 high-speed synchronous NAND, and while we're obviously eager to see what real-world benchmarks show, the demonstration vids after the break already have our mouths watering. As for availability? Tthe drive is currently sampling in 1.8- and 2.5-inch sizes, though consumers shouldn't expect to pick one up (in 128GB or 256GB sizes) until Q1 of next year. Best start saving, bud. %Gallery-79352%
Lenovo IdeaCentre C300 unboxing and hands-on
Large screen nettops are somewhat of a mystery to us. Lenovo's latest, the all-in-one IdeaCentre C300, is certainly a looker on the outside, but the beauty of that screen real estate is hampered by a 1.6GHz Atom processor / integrated graphics unable to handle our internet streaming needs -- Hulu, Pandora, and Netflix were all but a wash. Still, it's pretty light and sturdy, and when powered on absolutely quiet and cool -- we watched four hours of a DVD with a minimum of stutter and little to no heat or machine noise. We're still putting it through the paces, but in the meantime, feel free to live vicariously through our unboxing in the gallery below!
Logitech introduces seven new webcams, makes decisions ever harder
You know, in the vast majority of situations, we'd prefer choice over no choice. But in this particular kettle of fish, we're not so sure we're eager to parse through build sheets associated with no less than seven new Logitech webcams. In a presumed effort to get every PC owner on planet Earth equipped with a Logitech Vid-enabled device, the outfit is today introducing the Webcam Pro 9000, Portable Webcam C905, Webcam C600, Webcam C500, Webcam C300, Webcam C250 and Webcam C200. For those of you still with us, you'll (possibly) be elated to know that the higher-end Pro 9000 ($99.99; shown above) packs a 2 megapixel sensor for capturing 720p video, while the lowest-end C200 ($29.99) handles the basics with a 1.3 megapixel sensor that serves up VGA footage. The whole lot is expected to ship to the US and Europe next month, and you can catch the nitty-gritty details there in the read link.
Lenovo gets budget-friendly with IdeaPad U350, G550 and IdeaCentre C300
The IdeaPad S12 isn't the only new kit flowing from RTP today, as Lenovo is also choosing to celebrate Memorial Day with two new lappies and an all-in-one desktop. Starting things off is the IdeaPad U350 (shown above), a thin-and-light machine that packs a 13.3-inch LED-backlit display (1,366 x 768), an HDMI output, an ambient light sensor and your choice of Intel's 1.4GHz Core 2 Solo SU3500, the 1.3GHz SU2700 or 1.2GHz Celeron 723. There's also room for a 500GB hard drive, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, a GMA 4500M / 4500 MHD graphics set, 1.3 megapixel camera, multi-touch trackpad, twin 1.5-watt speakers, Vista Home Basic / Premium and an optional 8-cell battery good for up to 10 hours of use. Next up is the business-like G550, which sports a 15.6-inch display, a non-nonsense enclosure, WiFi, Bluetooth, DVD burner and a numeric keypad for crunching those end of quarter numbers. You'll also get upwards of 4GB of DDR3 RAM, up to 320GB of hard drive space, a Core 2 Duo processor, GMA X4500 or GeForce G105M graphics, HDMI output and up to five hours of battery life with the included 6-cell Li-ion. Wrapping things up is the IdeaCentre C300 all-in-one, which aims squarely at the low-end with a lackluster Atom 230 processor, integrated Intel graphics and a preposterously low price tag. The machine features a 20-inch LCD, up to 2GB of DDR2 memory, a 160GB to 640GB HDD, Ethernet, WiFi, 1.3 megapixel camera, FireWire, six USB 2.0 sockets, a 6-in-1 multicard reader and a starting price tag of just $449. Not a terrible choice for the devout web surfer in your family, we must say. The full release and specifications list awaits you just past the break.
FCC approves Haier C300 in Virgin Mobile clothes, puts lab engineers to sleep
As far as we can tell, this totally nondescript candybar that just "rocked" the FCC as the C300 from Haier doesn't appear under the official Virgin lineup by any catchy name yet, which would put it solidly in the unreleased, unannounced category. Our normal instinct when that happens is to get excited -- maybe break out the bubbly and celebrate our fascinating find with a night of sinful debauchery -- but in this case, this thing is so positively uninspiring that we're having trouble getting fired up about the ordeal. The phone's ugly (at best) and ultra low-end -- you won't even find a camera on this one -- so we're guessing you'll find this in your local CVS for $20 or so within a few weeks, quite possibly without the fanfare of an official press release. One thing we can say for certain: this won't be a Helio-branded device, if you catch our drift.Update: Rich over at Phone Scoop points out that the C300 is CDMA800 only, which would seem to preclude it for action on Virgin Mobile USA; makes you wonder why they bothered with an FCC approval then, but who are we to question Haier's wisdom?
Lenovo and Acer rumored to be prepping new all-in-one PCs
In recent months, we've seen both Lenovo and Acer push out rather stylish all-in-one PCs. Clearly, both firms are hot to trot for the form factor, with DigiTimes reporting that the duo has big plans for future expansion in the area. Specifically, Lenovo is rumored to launch an entry-level 20-inch unit (C300) next month, a C100 and quad-core B500 in August and an ultrathin A300 variant in October. Meanwhile, Acer is said to be preparing an 18.5-inch model produced by Wistron, though there's no indication if it's actually different from that eMachines EZ1600 we heard about earlier this month. Look out, tower -- the end is nigh. (Just kidding, we only wanted to see your reaction.)
