The new Canon Cinema EOS System C300 camera, designed and built from the ground-up for people who shoot movies and TV shows, will be presented at a Jan. 26 open house the Gene Siskel Film Center, to mark the release of the camera later this month.
At the 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. open house, “Guests will have an ample opportunity to check out the hardware, talk to our techs and see short films that were made for us using the C300, projected with the Siskel Center’s new 4K projector,” says Edward Meyers, Canon Pro Market Specialist, who will lead the event.
Delivery of the new C300, called “a definitive HD motion picture system,” will be taken by an exclusive list of just 17 U.S. dealers to date, including AbelCine’s Chicago/Midwest office, which has been on top of the system since the beginning.
“Due to the high anticipation for the C300, we have some 30 preorders through our office,” says Kari Hess, AbelCine Midwest office manager/Production Sales. “Once we get through delivery to clients, we can take the C300 to demo.”
Video-based C300, “somewhere between a Red and Sony’s F3, evolved from hundreds of interviews with people in the business to learn what they wanted in cinema cameras,” Meyers says.
“But it’s more than the sum of its parts – camera body, lenses, service and support. “It’s designed for what filmmakers are doing right now.”
Hess calls the C300 “a better step up to a real video workflow. It’s a natural progression camera for those comfortable in the 5D and 7D world, and who already have an inventory of lenses.”
The four 10-minute shorts were especially made with Cinema EOS to highlight its various capabilities, such as demonstrating dynamic range on a sunlit and shadows desert, set-up versatility on locations, working with green screen, and how the camera shoots at night at extraordinary low light.
The low light capture, notes Hess, “is ideal for people who are moving and shooting on locations or documentaries where they can’t be conspicuous.”
The short films will be screened twice during the open house, at 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. RSVPs are requested.
Zacuto USA has been invited to participate in the event with a rig support set-up for C300 accessories.
Kerry Reid is a freelance theater critic and arts journalist. Her work appears regularly in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Reader. Please send news items to kerryreid@comcast.net.
