LAS VEGAS — Canon USA Inc. (www.usa.canon.com) recently announced four new additions to its XA Series of professional camcorders. The XA55, XA50, XA45 and XA40 are the first in the series to feature 4K 30p recording. They also include a detachable XLR handle, while the XA55 and XA45 each feature an HD-SDI terminal. In addition, the company has introduced the Canon VIXIA HF G60 4K UHD camcorder, a budget-friendly, compact-and-lightweight camcorder.
“Often spending their days and nights working in fast-paced environments, videographers need a camcorder that is affordable, reliable, and delivers great images,” explains Kazuto Ogawa, president and COO, Canon USA, Inc. “These new camcorders meet the needs of a variety of users, including those capturing news, shooting influential documentaries, educating young filmmakers or developing content for their companies.”
All of the camcorders feature Canon’s five-axis Intelligent Optical Image Stabilization system, providing users with powerful image stabilization via a Dynamic mode, which helps reduce image distortion, even when shooting while moving. The ergonomically designed and highly portable camcorders have a three-inch LCD touch panel screen and user-friendly, tilting, high-resolution Electronic View Finder (EVF).
The XA55 and XA45 are well suited for news reporting and documentary shooting, while the XA50 and XA40 are geared more towards broadcasting schools, government agencies and corporate video production companies. The VIXIA HF G60 caters to advanced amateur videographers who need a 4K UHD camcorder to shoot a wedding or a student film project.
The XA55 and XA50 camcorders both feature a 1.0-inch sensor, nine-bladed circular aperture and Dual-Pixel CMOS AF with a 15x (25.5-382.5mm) genuine wide-angle Canon optical zoom lens. For natural and realistic life-like imagery the XA55 and XA50 camcorders feature a Wide Dynamic Range (DR) Gamma mode. This lowers the barrier for focusing, especially when shooting in 4K, which requires strict focus accuracy. By suppressing overexposure in high- brightness areas of the composition, this mode helps achieve a wide dynamic range of 800 percent to help produce seamless tone gradations, resulting in smooth detail, accurate color and virtually no blown-out highlights. The camera's Dual Pixel Focus Guide takes advantage of Dual Pixel CMOS AF data to display focus-assist information on the screen. The camcorders also record 4K UHD/30p (4:2:0 8 bit) and 1080p Full HD (4:2:2 10 bit) via SDI/HDMI Output in XF-AVC and MP4 format to dual-card SD card slots with dual and relay recording.
The XA45 and XA40 camcorders both feature a 1.0-inch sensor, eight-bladed circular aperture with the ability to record 4K UHD/30p (4:2:0 8 bit) and 1080p Full HD (4:2:2 10 bit) via SDI/HDMI Output) in MP4 or XF-AVC format to dual-card SD card slots with dual and relay recording. To help provide enhanced image quality over its predecessor, over sample HD processing can be used with information obtained from the 4K 1/2.3-inch sensor and the DIGIC DV 6 image processor. Both camcorders boast a 20x (29.3-601mm) genuine wide-angle Canon optical zoom lens.
The VIXIA HF G60 4K UHD camcorder is packed with many of the same features found in the XA55 and XA50, like a nine-bladed circular aperture, Dual Pixel Focus Guide and Wide DR, but with the budget-conscious user in mind. The affordable camcorder is geared toward young videographers and offers a compact-and-lightweight form factor in addition to ease of use.
The Canon XA55, XA50 and VIXIA HF G60 are scheduled to be available in June for estimated retail prices of $2699, $2199 and $1699 respectively. The XA45 and XA40 4K UHD video camcorders are all scheduled to be available in April for estimated retails prices of $2199 and $1699 respectively.