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Not content to deliver a clear and simple message at today’s launch, Canon also revealed an “EOS Movies” “concept camera” today. I’m just going to let Engadget handle this one:

Promised to be “ideally suited for cinematographic and other digital high-resolution production applications” this camera packs a 35mm full frame image sensor capable of shooting Motion-JPEG encoded 4K video at 24fps.

Scarlet X

The Canon lens makes me think of those “Who wore it better?” celebrity fashion pieces.

As promised, Jim and Red revealed a new incarnation of Scarlet tonight, Scarlet X. Gone (for good it seems) is the fixed-lens, 2/3” sensor configuration. Instead, Scarlet X is basically an Epic, but with innards that didn’t quite pass muster for Epic’s heavy data throughput. The result? A camera that looks like an Epic, feels like an Epic, and shoots like an Epic—but with reduced resolution and frame rate capabilities. Specifically:

• 1–25 fps at 4K
• 30 fps at 4K “quad HD” (presumably 3840x2160?)
• 48 fps at 3K
• 60 fps at 2K
• 120 fps at 1K

Those are windowed resolutions, so they change your lens’s Angle of View as well as your pixel count.

Here’s how it’s priced. (Al means an aluminum Canon mount, as Epic X was slated to use; Ti means a titanium mount, which Epic M shipped with and now Epic X as well.) And you can order it now—if you can get through over at red.com.

There’s an FAQ post here with many details.

By all indications, Scarlet X does more than Canon’s C300, for less money. But things are rarely that simple.

Update on Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 9:24PM by Stu

Engadget, who have been inexplicably covering all this very well (as if these cameras were “gadgets”), has a nice clear shot of the frame-rate/data-rate/resolution matrix.

Update on Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 11:39PM by Stu

Even better.

Canon C300 And Mobius

Canon has announced the EOS C300, a Super-35 digital cinema camera—along with a slew of new cinema lenses. Coverage here.

• Two models: One with a Canon EF mount, the other PL
• 8.3 megapixel 2160–3840 Super-35 CMOS sensor (4K resolution) with Digic DV III processor—enough pixels for 4:4:4 RGB
• Canon XF codec (50Mbps 4:2:2 1080p30 MPEG2 MXF), records to two Compact Flash card slots
• Canon “C-Log” gamma
• SDI out
• Presets and menus similar to Canon XF series
• Exposure and focus control are completely manual—no AE or AF
• Sold as a system, including LCD monitor/XLR audio unit, side grip, top handle, battery & charger
• Availability: Jan. 2012
• Street price: approximately $16,000 USD (Canon mount version)

Vincent Laforet shot a film with it called Mobius, and his first blog post about it is up now.

Here’s the film, and the behind the scenes.

I contributed a few key VFX shots to the film and therefore got to live with the footage up close for days. I’ll have more to say later about this camera and Red’s 10-minutes-nigh announcement, but for now just know that the C300’s footage looks terrific. Great dynamic range, low noise, and a nice, clean image.

New Super 35 Camera

Wow, today is a big day! A new Super 35mm camera has been announced.

Litterally.

Update on Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 2:47PM by Stu

I love the low frame rate on the product tour video.