10x zoom Canon XC10 camcorder shoots 4K video, 12-megapixel stills, and it’s light enough for drones
posted Wednesday, April 8, 2015 at 9:00 AM EDT
If you want to future-proof your video, the time has come for a 4K upgrade -- and the just-launched Canon XC10 camcorder looks to offer an attractive and relatively affordable option. Priced at around US$2,500, the Canon XC10 sports a 10x optical zoom lens and a 1"-type CMOS image sensor that allows it to shoot not just video, but also 12-megapixel stills at sensitivities as high as ISO 20,000 equivalent.
The Canon XC10 has a rather unusual body that has both an articulated LCD monitor and a rotating hand grip that allows the lens to be swiveled upwards or downwards while keeping the main controls level. Yet despite this doubly articulated design -- not to mention the presence of onboard Wi-Fi wireless networking -- Canon has managed to keep the size (4.9 x 4.0 x 4.8 inches) and weight (2.3 pounds ready to shoot) down to the point where it suggests the XC10 would make for an attractive aerial photography platform, hung beneath a multicopter.
As well as still shooting capability, the Canon XC10 will also capture 30 frames-per-second 4K video at up to 305Mbps bitrates, and in order to support the bandwidth requirements of the latter, it opts for not just a Secure Digital card slot, but also the much faster CFast 2.0 slot -- with a 64GB card and reader in the product bundle, since most likely you don't already have one. Available from June 2015, the Canon XC10 camcorder carries a US$2,500 pricetag, and will support many of the same accessories as Canon's EOS-series DSLRs, as well as some model-specific accessories such as a prism-based viewfinder that projects the LCD monitor to a comfortable eyecup.
Want to know more about this interesting camcorder? Much more information awaits you in our Canon XC10 preview!
