User Manual

2.0 HDR Origination – New Super 35mm CMOS Image Sensor
It has been almost four years since the original C300 was introduced to the worldwide
marketplace. The novel CMOS image sensor specifically developed for that camera has served
unusually well over those years – and continues to do so. But, Canon R&D never stops and a
totally new generation CMOS Super 35mm image sensor is the heart of the stunning imagery of
the C300 Mark II. Further innovations within the second generation proprietary photodiode
design in combination with on-chip noise cancellation technology have simultaneously lowered
the noise floor and elevated the saturation level of the charge well. In addition, a totally new
microlens design heightens the efficiency of light direction onto the individual photodiodes – a
combination that achieves a more than two-fold increase in effective sensor dynamic range.
This provides a definitive 15-Stop dynamic range capability in this new cinematography camera.
The more controlled noise floor allows the ISO range to be extended up to ISO 102,400. The
Luma signal to noise ratio is a superb 67dB over a range of ISO settings.
In the original C300 image sensor there were two fast readout modes – one, at 1/60 sec
progressive and another at 1/120 sec interlace. The new image sensor in the C300 Mark II has
a single readout capability of up to 1/120 sec progressive – further reducing rolling shutter skew
effects.
3.0 Totally New Video Processing
Every core element within the overall C300 Mark II system entails entirely new advanced video
processing that elevates the overall performance of the 2K / HD video component sets very
significantly above the single HD component set of the C300. The image sensor is new. The
main video processing is new – accomplished by deploying two powerful Digic DV5 processors
compared to the single Digic DV3 processor of the C300. And finally, the codec that powers the
on-board recording is also new – in the form of the formidable new XF-AVC [6] that replaces the
more modest MPEG-2 codec of the C300.
Figure 1
Showing the core integrated circuits that constitute the core of the original C300 and the
new C300 Mark II
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