Canon Joins the Cloud Revolution and Offers C2C for C300 Mk III and C500 Mk II

Today, Canon announced a firmware update for the Canon EOS C300 Mark III and EOS C500 Mark II digital cinema cameras, connecting these workhorses straight to the cloud. 

The new firmware will enable both the C300 Mk III and C500 Mk II to be Frame.io Camera to Cloud (C2C) compatible devices. In this day and age, this is not only super cool, but also necessary. Just check out what Atomos and Teradek are putting out.

Cloud-based workflows are cutting-edge and can save valuable time, and this new update from Canon allows for collaborative cloud-based workflows in a variety of production environments from scripted motion picture and television productions to reality TV, documentary, commercials, and more.

Nut and Bolts

So, how does it work?

Transferring footage from the camera (from a soundstage or on location) into post-production workflows traditionally requires backing up files to a hard drive and carrying or shipping the drives to another location to be ingested for post.

C2C workflows, or camera-to-cloud, send secure high-quality, low-bandwidth H.264 proxies, 4K 10bit 4:2:2 H.265 (HEVC) files, and uncompressed audio files with matching timecode and filenames to the Frame.io cloud platform.

Using a third-party Wi-Fi, 5G, or LTE streaming encoder connected to the camera output, Frame.io C2C workflow can automatically distribute clips to editors (or anyone else who needs them) the very moment the director calls "Cut!" This enables immediate review of footage on an authorized user’s device on or off set, anywhere in the world.

Those are instant dailies. A far cry from the film days for sure.

But the editor can also start working on the cut as soon as the footage gets uploaded. This is blazing fast and will save time and money for your production. That means more money for crafty. Or maybe you can get another take on that car stunt.

Availability

The firmware update for the Canon EOS C300 Mark III and Canon EOS C500 Mark II is scheduled to drop at the end of May 2022. So keep your eyes peeled. 

It's so cool to see Canon continuing to support its cameras with future updates. We saw this recently with the Canon C70 getting internal RAW. Now those with C300s and C500 are getting the cloud.

Who knows what the future holds for Canon? One thing is clear, it's a great time to be an EOS shooter.