Canon EOS C400 is Canon’s first FF cine camera with stacked BSI CMOS sensor

Canon has announced its new Canon EOS C400 full-frame RF mount cinema camera. It’s a first for Canon, as it’s the company’s first cinema camera with a stacked backside-illuminated (BSI) CMOS sensor.

The newly developed 6K full-frame BSI sensor provides triple base ISO (800, 3200, 12,800) for maximum dynamic range. It also supports Canon’s next-generation Dual Pixel AF II.

Canon EOS C400 – 6K BSI sensor with Dual Pixel AF II

The new Canon EOS C400 shoots 6K up to 60fps in 12-Bit Cinema RAW Light. It’s also able to shoot 4K raw at up to 120fps and 2K raw at up to 180fps. The camera uses Canon’s latest Cinema RAW Light iteration, with three different recording modes for different file size and workflow needs.

It also records in the standard XF-AVC coded with 10-bit 4:2:2 and 6K oversampling when shooting 4K. This mode also shoots up to 120fps without the need for cropping. The camera also introduces two new recording modes, XF-AVC S and XF-HEVC S. These are essentially h.264 and h.265, respectively. These allow you to record easy-to-manage files.

You might wonder why it offers h.264 and h.265, but the dual CFexpress and SD card slots allow for dual recording. All formats can be recorded to the CFexpress slot, but you can also shoot RAW to the CFexpress and XF-AVC S or XF-HEVC S to the SD card simultaneously for proxies.

Designed for live production, too

As well as recording footage, the Canon EOS C400 also offers features for live production, too. It features a dedicated 12-pin lens terminal for broadcast and cine-servo lenses. So you can use it with lenses like the RF mount CINE-SERVO 17-120mm Cinema Lens, also announced today.

It also has a number of other input and output sockets for various devices. Canon hasn’t released the complete list yet, and they do say that things are still subject to change, but here’s what they’ve said so far.

For audio, you’ve got mini-XLR. Timecode, genlock and return video are also supported through DIN connectors. There are both 3G-SDI and 12G-SDI outputs for monitoring as well as a full-size HDMI output.

Naturally, it has WiFi connectivity, as well as ethernet for remote control. It’s the first Canon to take advantage of the SRT protocol for IP streaming of both video and audio.

And timelapse…

Another new feature added to the Canon EOS C400, which Canon says users have been asking for, is timelapse. The EOS C400 supports interval timer shooting straight to RAW video, allowing for easy and high-quality timelapses at up to 6K resolution.

That’s not the only new feature, though. This one’s particularly interesting. We’ve all seen “flicker reduction” features in other cameras. These essentially set your framerate to something compatible with 50Hz or 60Hz electrical systems.

That worked great when the world ran on incandescent. But now the world’s switching to LEDs with no real frequency standard, the EOS C400 is addressing the problem with an “Auto Clear Scan” setting. This looks at your scene and intelligently determines the frequency of the lights and then sets a shutter speed/angle to match.

Price and Availability

The Canon EOS C400 Full-Frame RF Mount cinema camera has an “estimated retail price” (Canon’s words) of $7,999. It’s expected to be available from September 2024. Canon notes that specs, pricing and availability are all subject to change between now and then.