Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 11, 2011. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
3D Shooting Assistant
The 3D shooting assistant simplifies the setup of two XF305 or XF300 professional camcorders used together for 3D recording in HD. The new firmware includes the ability to use the optical image stabiliser’s lens-shift function to shift the axes for appropriate alignment of the two camcorders. The new firmware also enables a focal-length display for synchronising the camcorders and calibrating the zoom settings. The settings can be made through the menu while the camcorders are mounted on a camera rig or tripod. After zoom adjustment, the image-angle-change value is displayed to prevent misalignment and simplify synchronisation of the two camcorders. This is comparable to the 3D shooting assistant in Canon’s XF105 and XF100 professional camcorders.
Scan Reverse for 3D Rig Use
The new firmware updates the XF300 series’ Scan Reverse function; recordings can then be mirrored on the horizontal axis, vertical axis, or both axes simultaneously to facilitate recording with 3D mirror rigs.
Double Slot Recording
Using both card slots, this new function enables synchronous storage on two memory cards, for example for an immediate backup of important files and image material. This is ideal for use in production environments, as it ensures that multiple copies are created for every recording.
Switching the Relay Recording Function On and Off
Relay Recording is an innovative and practical function for continuing recording without interruption on a second CompactFlash card (CF) if the first becomes full. This function can now also be switched off: in this case, the second card is write-protected and released for recording only when expressly requested by the user, for example to copy or back up specific recordings.
Information on the XF305 and XF300
The XF300-series camcorders use the XF codec with the MPEG-2 standard, 4:2:2 colour sampling and a data rate of up to 50 Mbps for HD video recording at native resolution (1,920 x 1,080) on inexpensive, standard CF cards. Canon XF305 and XF300 combine video, audio and metadata in a single file and use the open MXF (Material eXchange Format) container format for the greatest possible compatibility with current film-industry infrastructures and nonlinear video-editing systems.
Strong performance is provided by the original Canon L-series HD lens with 18x optical zoom, the use of three CMOS image sensors developed and manufactured by Canon with native resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, and the Canon XF codec, which enables extremely high colour accuracy that is essential for chroma keying, colour correction and colour mixing in digital film productions. The XF305 additionally has an HD-SDI output, Genlock input and SMPTE timecode input/output for studio use and video productions with multiple camcorders.
The new firmware for the XF305 and XF300 camcorders is expected to be available from the third quarter of 2011 in the support area at http://www.canon.de.