Canon C300 C-Log and Sony F3 S-Log comparison

By December 15, 2011 Tutorials

I’ve just got the Canon C300 for one week and I want to share my thoughts with you. Lots of people asked me if I can do a comparison between Canon C300 C-Log Picture Profile and Sony F3 S-Log.

First of all, the Canon C300 is an impressive camera, I really like the form factor. My first thoughts: Wow! Feels like a DSLR, small, compact, you can still use all your gear you’ve bought for your DSLR. That’s cool.

There is a cool frame grab for you, which shows you the difference between S-Log and C-Log. I’ve uploaded a Tiff-Version (I recommend downloading this one, because it has no compression) and a JPEG-Version. Would love hearing your thoughts on my blog, Twitter and Facebook! I used my KiPro Mini for uncompressed external recording. The Sony F3 was set to 0db, ProRes HQ 10-bit, 5600K, S-Log, the C300 0db, ProRes HQ 8-bit, 5600K, C-Log. I mounted Zeiss glass on both cameras. On the C300 the Zeiss ZF.2 85mm 1.4, on the F3 the Zeiss CP.1 85mm 1.5. Both lenses have the same optics!!

There is a difference between Sony F3 S-Log and Canon C300 C-Log. S-Log has much more picture information compared the the C300 frame. Of course S-Log is an add-on and is quite expensive! You don’t need an external recorder using S-Log, but then you only have only 4:2:0. I’m always using an external recorder for my jobs, because it saves me so much time in post production, so I don’t care. No more transcoding, I can start editing directly. And: Uncompressed files, which is on the one side cool, on the other side uncompressed also means, that you have to buy more hard drives etc…!

I can’t recommend any of these cameras for you, it’s your decision! It depends what you personally need. I like the form factor of the C300, wow, just perfect. But I also like the superb image out of my Sony F3 with S-Log and the ability shooting 4:4:4 1080p with 60 frames per seconds. You can get a Sony F3 with S-Log for € 13,900 in Europe (without external recorder – full set incl. KiPro recorder costs you € 14,400), of course more expensive than the C300, but you can upgrade later if you need 4:4:4 or S-Log for a project. Personally I want to own both of these great cameras! 🙂

I’ll update this blog post the following days with frame grabs and a short comparison video (Canon 7D Technicolor CineStyle, Canon C300 C-Log, Sony F3 S-Log).

Update:
Low light test Sony F3 AbelCine Range, S-Log; Canon C300 C-Log; Canon 7D Technicolor Cinestyle.

Please, don’t judge the picture quality, it’s absolutely compressed (H264). C300 and Sony F3 has a nice grain in the blacks. Can’t upload the raw files, because I don’t have the permission.

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