Canon C70 - Testing ISO & Noise

I finally have the C70 in my hands. It’s the first time I’ve preordered a camera. I did it because as good as the results as I’m getting from the C200, the workflow with Canon Raw Lite is tying up my workstation for longer than I would like. In theory, the DGO sensor in the C70 offers a faster path to a clean 10-bit 4:2:2 output for my clients.

Before I bring any camera on a job, I need to have an understanding of what it can and can’t do. There is already plenty written about the handling and physical controls of the camera. What will follow will be a few tests and observations of the All-I 10-Bit footage from the C70, using Canon Raw Lite on the C200 as a familiar baseline. Other people may approach this differently and these are mostly for my own reference, but I am posting them here in case others find them useful.

First things first. Let’s start off with a simple body cap test to get a sense of noise structure within the cameras.

Based on this test, I'd rate the C70 as usable and clean for professional work at ISO 1600, which is the same as XF-AVC on the C200 (from memory, not tested here). For Canon Raw Lite on the C200, I'd say ISO 400 is about as high as you'd want to go unless you aren’t shooting any shadows under 20 IRE or are budgeting in time to run a noise reduction pass.

However, the amount of noise in the blacks is only part of the story. Things look a little different in a controlled scene with a LUT involved and some cameras fall apart at different points in the waveform. Here are both cameras, same settings, same lens, same LUT, and I’ve reframed the shots slightly to match:

Viewing this scene on a waveform side by side at ISO 800, the C200 exhibits some striations that the C70 does not:

C200 - Note the horizontal lines in the waveform.

C200 - Note the horizontal lines in the waveform.

C70 - No lines.

C70 - No lines.

I’m no colorist and I don’t know what’s causing this, but it reminds me of what the banding that appears in blue skies looks like on a waveform. Sometimes you can see an image breaking apart in the scopes before you can in the image and I wonder if that’s what is happening here. In any case, I think the C70’s signal looks like a healthier starting point for an aggressive grade.

A few other takeaways:

  • Without counting on time for noise reduction, I’d use the C200 at ISO 400 and the C70 at ISO 800 (or potentially 1600 in a pinch).

  • The C70 is just barely sharper.

  • The C200 is a little warmer and less magenta. I prefer the look of the C200 but I can easily achieve this with the C70 in post, or I may dial in the colors in-camera.

  • The C70 has a lot less chroma noise than the C200.

  • It took me 49 seconds to export the C70 clips from Premiere on 2017 iMac Pro, and 2:10 to export the C200 clips. On longer projects, that will result in a significant time savings.

Next I’ll be testing dynamic range and highlight rolloff.