Canon XC-10

[mjperini]

Interestingly, Canon bills the New XC-10 as a true Hybrid Video and STILLS Camera
It almost seems as though Canon is answering the 'mirrorless' question from a completely different angle than anyone else.
It seems as though it would be very well suited for many 'workhorse' professional tasks. 12mp stills are certainly good enough for many news , reportage, sports, event etc with the ability to shoot very high quality video in a small package at a reported reasonable price.
Clearly not aimed at the highest end of any of it's functions, but aimed to be more than good enough for an awful lot, I think it's interesting.
Clearly, it remains to be seen if it is fast enough and sharp enough and tough enough to stand up to 'Professional requirements', but IF that proves to be true, Canon may have done a really smart thing.

On the other side, it doesn't seem to be a camera anyone was asking for, it's got a fixed lens, it's Only got a1" sensor, with Only 12mp. It's got an EVF.
These are all things which could cause it to be less than successful,-----All things that traditional DSLR shooters have not embraced.  I'm one of those. But even though I don't personally want one, I can't help but wonder 'Have we seen the future'  or another EOS M.   It feels like more than an M to me.
Could it be one of those "I didn't know I needed it until I saw it" things , or is it far enough off the mark to be a flop??

So what do You think ??
Michael

[Bob Atkins]

Well, at $2400 it's a VERY expensive 1" sensor fixed lens still camera. To me it looks like something designed primarily as a 4K HD video but that can also shoot decent stills.

A few years ago Canon showed a mock-up of their "camera of the future". It was a still/video camera with such high resolution and so many pixels that the image could be cropped to mimic the effect of a telephoto lens without quality loss. It was their "vision of the future" but they had no date attached. Probably around 2030 or so.

In 2010 they showed a concept camera which they described as a"Multi-purpose camera - a compact and lightweight camera which supports both video and still image capture with ultra-high definition 4K resolution.  Suitable for both work and professional use it features a newly developed CMOS sensor that enables video shooting at high frame rates in excess of 60 frames per second". That sounds a lot like the XC-10.

I strongly suspect that we will be seeing 4K video on the next generation of what we think of as still DSLRs too (5D MkIV maybe?). I wouldn't be surprised to also see it on digital rebels at some point. It's just a matter of software and processing speed. APS-C sensor have more than enough pixels for 4K video.

The EOS 1D C is the real 4K video plus stills camera, but it's $8000.

Note that there are other similar cameras around. For example the  Sony FDR-AX100/B (http://www.adorama.com/Refby.tpl?refby=rflAID012417&sku=SOFDRAX100B) is $1700, has a 1" Sony Exmor sensor and shoots 4K video and 20MP stills.