Canon C300 at Evergreen Lake in Colorado

We are excited to announce the addition of the new Canon C300 Super 35mm Cinema Camera to the Big Pictures equipment offerings here in Colorado.

The new Canon C300 is a Super 35mm video camera that delivers gorgeous HD images with the look and latitude of film. Featuring a unique Super 35mm Canon CMOS sensor, revolutionary Canon DIGIC DV III Image Processor and 50 Mbps 4:2:2 codec, the EOS C300 provides outstanding cinema quality movie capture. It shoots in 1920×1080, or 1280×720 in a variety of frame rates including 60, 30, and 24p.

The C300 is more modular and portable than any other in its class, making it perfect for high-end documentary, commercial, and corporate production.

The shallow depth of field inherent to the larger sensors help make interviews and on-camera talent really pop from their backgrounds. And the ability to control the camera’s ASA enables shooting in very low light conditions, and allows for incredible creative flexibility.

Our Canon C300 package comes fully equipped with a variety of Canon lenses (including a 17mm-35mm, 24mm-70mm, 70mm-200mm and several primes), a 3-stage carbon fiber Sachtler tripod with a Sachtler fluid head, a 17″ Panasonic HD monitor, plenty of A/C and D/C power, Arri Lighting, Chimera soft boxes with honeycomb grids, a Leko projection lens kit and multiple gobo patterns, miscellaneous grip and electric equipment, and a Magliner production cart. It also includes 4-32GB SanDisk Extreme Pro Ultra Fast CF Cards, and a Mac laptop for transferring footage.

C300 at Schwan’s Foods in Denver

We have already christened the C300 on a two-day shoot with Schwan’s Foods. Working with Whizzbang Studios out of Boulder, we captured several interviews and b-roll footage of select drivers for the company.

I am very impressed with this camera’s performance on our first shoot with it.

We’ve been shooting so much with the Canon 5D Mark 2 over the last year, which is gorgeous but can sometimes be challenging to work with as a video camera.

The C300 takes it up a five notches in terms of both look and versatility.

This camera is completely modular and portable, and has an amazing sensitivity and latitude. And of course the large sensor allows for that beautiful shallow depth of field we have all come to love! With HD-SDI out we are able to connect directly to our large client monitors, and could also output to a NanoFlash or KiPro if needed.

We were able to make a pretty ordinary conference room look dynamic for the interviews, and then go grab some great documentary style footage of drivers loading up their trucks in a dimly lit florescent warehouse – I just cranked up the ISO and balanced through the light.

We already have several other shoot lined up with this C300 – and am looking forward to every minute of working with it!

Click here for more information about our new C300 and the other camera packages we offer our clients.

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Written by Tom Miller, Copyright 2012 Big Pictures Media, Inc.

For more information, contact Big Pictures at (303) 670-0625 or visit Big Pictures Media

Shooting with HDX900 and Phantom Cameras

A slow-moving bullet pierces a pane of glass, sending tiny shards in a million directions. A fist breaks through a piece of wood, and then turns into a car. A bird flies in slow motion, revealing every detail of its wings in action.

This is the domain of high speed digital photography.

Shooting moving objects at a high frame rate, and then playing it back at normal speed, reveals amazing slow-motion details not visible in real time.

This old school technique is nothing new in the world of motion picture film, but it’s now more manageable and more dramatic with cameras that capture these images digitally, at extremely high resolutions.

You can see high speed digital photography in action everywhere. It’s in the title sequence to the latest James Bond Film Quantum of Solace. It’s in the cool new ad campaign for the Acura TL. It’s used in effect shots for USA Network’s Burn Notice. And Discovery Channel has a whole show centered around it called Time Warp.

And now you can see it featured in Under Armour’s new workout training website called The New Prototype.

Tom & Zumi Shooting Fitness Sequence

During a two-day, three-camera shoot at the end of October, we featured Denver Nuggets Strength Coach Steve Hess demonstrating various high intensity workout techniques. We used two of our Panasonic HDX900 HD Cameras shooting at 24 frames per second as the primary cameras, and the Phantom HD High-Speed Camera shooting at 300 frames per second for specialty shots – like extreme details of shoes hitting the court, or an athlete flying through the air dunking a basket.

When Phantom Camera Tech Kevin Zanit first revealed the high-speed camera, we all gathered around – many seeing it for the first time. It’s essentially a cool looking box with a lens on one end and a cable wrap on the other end leading to a computer. The 8 gigabyte version captures twelve or so seconds of footage at 300 frames per second into its internal high-speed dynamic ram. It then takes twelve minutes or so to download the footage from the camera into the computer’s hard drive, thus freeing the camera up for another take.

The camera’s flexible triggering system means that the operator can see what he likes, and then record it retroactively. Essentially the camera is always recording, much like your DVR at home, but only captures what you tell it.

Shooting at 300 frames per second requires more light than is typically needed for an HD shoot. Gaffer Garth Gunberg, Key Grip Richard Usrey, and their team brought in several flicker-free HMIs for the job – lighting zones for Steve and the actors to work in. Zumi Hidalgo and I needed to roll in plenty of ND behind the lenses of HDX900s to compensate for this extra light, and still get a desirable f-stop.

Producer Ross Jones stepped in to operate the Phantom camera, with the help of AC Rob Sackett, and Tech Kevin Zanit. It was always there for the cool angles on motion that looked more dramatic slowed down. Watching the replays of what they captured was always a treat.

Director David Hudson and the folks from Producers Video out of Baltimore, along with their client Under Armour, were pleased with their Colorado team, and the footage that we captured. You can see our work on the Under Armour TNP Training website in a couple of weeks once editing is complete. We’ll keep you posted!

Check out other cool Slow Motion footage shot with the Phantom Camera: Vision Research Movie Gallery

Photos Courtesy: Steve Roseboom

Production Crew: Producer: Ross Jones, Director: David Hudson, Production Coordinator: Maria Sandhei, Director of Photography and A Camera Operator: Tom Miller, HDX900 B Camera: Zumi Hidalgo, Phantom Camera Operator: Ross Jones, Phantom Camera Tech: Kevin Zanit, Sound Mixer: Steve Roseboom, A/C Rob Sackett, Gaffer: Garth Gunberg, BB Electric: Steve VanNess, Key Grip: Richard Usrey, Best Boy Grip: Terry Moses, Hair and Makeup: Beth Ryan, Craft Service: Reg Kruger, Production Assistant: Will Beckingham.

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This Article first appeared in the November 2008 issue of Big Pictures News.

Written By Tom Miller, Photos by Steve Roseboom

Copyright 2008, Big Pictures Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved