Why I Sold My Canon C300III - What Did I Buy Instead?

What would you miss making the switch?

I have a C70 with the Canon speed booster. I use the Schneider Xenon prime lenses, but I was thinking of getting a 24-105mm f/4 zoom to use once in a while. The EF version would be plug-and-play, so to speak, but the RF version is reported to have better image quality. Unfortunately, to use it, I would have to remove the speed booster, which is a little bit of a hassle, and there is also the crop factor of using a full frame lens with a Super 35 sensor.
Do you have any suggestions about this dilemma?

I wonder how the C200 mk ii will compare?

I am considering the c70 for a first cinema camera for my directing work. Do you find it to be pretty versatile?

Man the colors these cameras push out are just 🤌🏾

I have the C200 and love it, I am tempted to upgrade it for the C70, just wonder if the clients would be turned down by the more DLSR-like form factor. Any rumors about the C300IV?

noooo fx6 is better

C3000iii also has „whole area“-AF with tracking. Only reachable through function button. 😛

Since you asked, No I wouldn't sell my C300 Mark lll for a C70. I don't live in a big city. Out of town companies call us and always ask "what camera do you have?" If I did strictly local work I might consider it, also I use both the monitor and SDI out. I might add a C70 though for a 2nd camera. I do like your videos though.

Love your videos - great points. I own a C300 mkiii and often match it up to a friends Arri Alexa Mini LF with minor grading they match up beautifully.

Like someone else mentions when you’re landing larger budget projects like we do - $50,000 + the clients really so appreciate seeing the larger camera and they feel like they are getting value.

When you rip out a smaller camera the question marks start flying why they just paid so much money. Perception equals reality


Content creators the C70 is an amazing option. But for higher end corporate work and more advanced Filmmaking - I feel the C300 mkiii is the better camera. And the non crop super 35 4k 120 with the new firmware update is a great feature that makes the C300 mkiii an excellent value camera in my opinion. :) greeting from Sydney Australia

For the C70mkII (whenever it happens) they need to make several improvements and it would be a perfect camera. After nearly two years of being an owner/ operator these are my thoughts: 1) This is a camera that should be full frame PERIOD. The New RF lenses are designed for FF cameras, so why not take full advantage of that. 2) It needs to have SDI over HDMI. As mentioned in this video, it's just a better port. You can have long SDI cable runs, where you wouldn't want to have long HDMI runs. 3) The flip screen is just terrible and everyone knows it. With the amount of people that had to send in the camera for repair within the first year means that it honestly should have been recalled, just like the R5C was recalled (for other issues) in early 2022. 4) The right-hand buttons and controls. The joystick is terrible! It's very hard to use and I rarely use it. The small horizontal scroll dial needs to be disabled, or you will accident change settings mid-shoot. This dial is completely useless. The large "set" dial is also useless outside of the menu. They NEED to allow us to use it for white balance, or some other custom function. 5) The DGO sensor tech is great, but I personally think it's being wasted on a super35-style camera. -- As a side note, if they do a mkII version, I hope they keep the bottom screw hole config. It makes it so cage accessories don't twist while installed, like on every other camera. -- The c70 platform has potential, I really do think if all of these changes are met, it would be a near perfect platform for hybrid shooters looking for something more professional who don't want / need a full-sized cinema camera.

Did you already break the flip out monitor at c70?

But Canon did give a firmware update for the C300 mkiii to add face detection and tracking for S&F shooting up to 120 FPS. That was added back in Late October.

Thanks for the great video. I’m only semi-pro, but I’m amazed that the C70 allows shooting RAW internally when it only has an SD card slot. Doesn’t that take up huge storage space and cause overheating? I only have an R5 and have to use an external recorder to record RAW, at least as far as I’m aware. Even using a CFexpress card I can’t record RAW internally.

The best caméra was the Canon C200 but Canon don't release a new firmware. They don't respect us, Sony and Panasonic are more serious with their customer

I love watching your videos, and your honesty about your short pause in making videos. Now, as far as my production shooting goes, I spent the last two and a half decades of my career shooting for CNN. I retired and enjoyed doing production shoots, but also traveled more than I cared for. Anyways, now I only want to shoot productions, mainly nicely lit sitdown interviews. I also do Liveshots occasionally from Capital Hill as well as large events. CNN used to use the C300mkii a while back for most of their docs and high profile interviews. They later had made a deal with sony so we ended up switching from the C300mkii to the Sony FS7, the FX9 for interiviews. I personally liked the look of the Canon cameras WAY better, so at first was going to buy a C300mkii. After seeing the improvements to the C300mkiii, I changed my mind and spent the extra money on it. I love it and its been worth every penny. I've used other cameras as a bcam to roll along side it for Wide shots, and gimbal/slider work such as the ZCam E2-M4, the Canon R5, even the Canon XF605. But recently, I decided to sell the zcam and the R5 and buy the Canon C70 which is due the end of this week. I already bought adapters from the mini xlr to xlr for my audio. I also have some HDMI to SDI converters that I used for my R5 if I ever wanted it to roll as a live wide shot at an event. I will see if the C70 works well this way, and if it does... it's very possible that I will follow the same path as you. I have the Canon CN-E 18-80mm Cine lense with the variable zoom attachment on my C300 most of the time. Ive used it for news pressers and shooting, live events as well as interviews. If this lens would work with the Canon EF adapter/speed booster on the C70, it would really be awesome because it would give me an extra stop on the 18-80's T4.4 lens and a wider view. The along with the C70 I bought a new RF 70-200 f/2.8 lens to give me the longer throw when needed and thought it would be a beneficial lens to have for my first RF lens. Anyway, IF I keep the C300mkii, it would mostly be to keep the 3 SDI ports and I do like having full size XLR's, though I understand they take up too much room on the smaller body of a C70. For my use, I wish they could allow you to switch between Timecode and SDI on the C70 the same as they switch from Timecode in to timecode out. That way if you want to use it to jam sync 2 cameras timecodes you can do that and then switch the port to SDI to go live while recording if needed. I'm not an engineer, so I'm not even sure if that is possible. If I personally had a choice, for me, I would rather they make the Timecode BNC port an SDI port. Todays editing software make it so easy to sync, I've only needed to sync timecodes at one event. Keep the videos coming! I know its time consuming to make them, but you do a great job and I really enjoy watching them.

Sony is just much superior at this point.

I love my C300mkiii. I have 2 of them. About to head to Bangladesh to film a doc. :)

Yes... have to agree with you - I was a C300 mkii shooter and hired the mkiii. Great cameras for my work but the last few years it more run and gun and I needed a more lightweight kit - the EF mount also is on its way out and the RF is the new tech. I have 2 x C70's and an R5c. The C70 is now my workhorse

so are you going to rebuy the rf70-200? will Belle still use the ef for sports?

Do you find that you need to do post sharping with the footage of the C70?

You did forget the cards at the end :)

In addition to the C70, did you also consider the Red Komodo?

Canon is a dumpster fire.

and I just got a c100 mk ii lol☺

While I'm a Sony guy, I literally made a similar move from the FX9 to the FX3. Not quite apples to apples, but the FX3 just works a lot better and is easier to work with than the FX9, so to answer your question, if I'd had the C300 M3, I'd definitely have traded it out for the C70.

I use C300 mark3 and c70. Certainly the C70 has eye AF and is better than the c300. But the reason I use the C300 is because it can shoot 120P in RAW. I am a fan of Japan. I always look forward to your great videos. Thank you.

Would definitely make that switch. Still using my C100 MKII and R6 as a pair. This year will definitely moving to at least one c70. Mobility and compact are big these days when everything needs to be done yesterday.

Great Video, thanks a lot! if you compare nowadays the c70 af with the r5c autofocus..would you still say the r5c has still a better af?

C300 shooter here- Love the vid, agree with everything. Minor feature things aside, There's only one unfortunate reason I can personally justify staying off the C70. There's a certain tier of client that is more likely to book you with a more expensive camera package. Corporate clients don't necessarily understand the intricacies of visual quality, but when they see a $ XX,XXX camera package they will bite. And certain doc companies always make you rent out FS7s or canon C series no matter what. I realize this affects probably a tiny fraction of people that watch this channel. But to land the big fish sometimes it helps to have a big package 😉- But you will know when you're at this level. If you have to ask, listen to Damien and buy the C70. I would say in general, folks purchase cameras beyond their needs and abilities.

True story. I've used everything out there and the C70 is my favorite workhorse camera I've ever owned. I told a rep from Canon that if the C70 had an SDI output they'd never sell another C300III ever again, and he actually agreed completely.

I'm a C500 Mark II owner but I would have kept the C300 and bought 1 C70 for my B cam....you named a whole bunch of advantages of the C300 then went and bought not one but 2 of the inferior camera LOL

Viewfinder ist ja für mich ein Totschlagargument.

The C70 is such an amazing camera! Great video dude!

Thanks for the great video. Nice work

Is that Bucharest footage?

I agree but what about timecode - I think the C300II has a full implementation which would be great for multi-cam shooting. It seems to me that Canon are holding off upgrades to the C300II, maybe because the EF mount is almost a legacy interface to them.