New Battery Plate Brings Added Functionality to C500 Mark II and C300 Mark III Cameras

As any videographer will tell you, with the rate of technological advancement a new camera can become outdated within a year or two of its initial release, but good glass is a lifetime investment. One other long-term investment that gets its due much less frequently are batteries. 

A career’s worth of batteries can represent thousands of dollars. Thousands of dollars that can become valueless if you decide to switch to a different camera system. Because of this, many shooters turn to V-mount or Gold Mount batteries for a truly brand agnostic power solution. However powering off these batteries can sometimes entail kludge-y rigs with wires hanging every which way and nothing but Velcro and hope holding 3lbs battery bricks in place. 

Enter the Full Frame Camera Co V-mount Plate for C500 Mark II and C300 Mark III. A high quality way to bring your old collection of batteries to your brand new Cinema EOS camera. 

Our story begins with the founder of UK based Full Frame Camera Corporation: Alex Stone. Upon receiving his Canon C500 Mark II and realizing that the OEM solution to power the camera from V-Mounts, the EU-V2 Expansion Unit, was on back order he simply decided to make his own instead of waiting around.  

The V-mount plate is manufactured in small batches and is compatible with Canon C500 Mark II and C300 Mark III cameras. A Gold-mount option has been introduced as well, if that’s more your flavor. 

The Compact V-Mount plate is machined from aluminium (Ah-loo-mini-um if wish to pronounce it in the manufacture’s native tongue), attaches to the camera via two captive M4 bolts and powers the camera via a low profile right angle xlr connector. 

The plate features one D-tap port for supplying 10A to any other accessories on your rig. The port is located on the side of the plate at an angle so that all the rear buttons and SDI outputs are still accessible. 

An additional feature of the plate is that in its default mounting position the Canon A60 battery slot is unobstructed, which allows you to hot swap batteries. 

The plate is compatible with any V-mount battery and can be mounted in a lower position for a more streamlined setup (if you are using taller V-mount batteries). One drawback of this though is that in this position, the plate blocks the A60 slot making the aforementioned hot swapping impossible. 

If you are looking for robust and relatively inexpensive way to take all your old V-Mount batteries to your brand new Cinema EOS camera the Full Frame Camera Co. Compact V-Mount plate is the solution for you!

The plate has dimensions of 60 x 95.3 x 29.3mm (2.36″ x 3.75″ x  1.15″) and weighs 256g

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Compact V-Mount Plate

Canon C500 Mark II Camera

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The New Canon C500 Mark II Camera

Its no secret that 2019 has been the year of the camera. It feels like a new camera has been either announced or released almost every month this year, and Canon looks like it is going to cap it all off this December by releasing the new C500 Mark II.

With the bevy of new DSLM cameras that have blurred the line between pro-sumer stills camera and professional video camera Canon’s Cinema EOS line has been given an increasingly intense run for its money.  Canon looks to be re-asserting it’s status as King of the Heap by releasing the C500 Mark II. The new camera offers some truly impressive specs and a high degree of modularity at a very competitive price point (compared to other similarly capable and similarly modular camera systems).

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Here is a list of official features that Canon has announced for the camera:

  • 5.9K Full Frame CMOS Sensor, with support for Super 35mm and Super 16mm crop modes
  • User Changeable Lens Mounts which gives users freedom to use the lenses they desire
  • Newly developed DIGIC DV 7 Image Processor, which powerfully processes high-resolution image data
  • Canon RAW Light and XF-AVC Recording
  • Proxy Recording
  • Compatibility with EF and PL* Lenses
  • Anamorphic Lens Support
  • Electronic Image Stabilization
  • Modular Design with three available Expansion Units allows a high level of connectivity and interoperability
  • 3” LCD Touch screen Monitor LM-V2
  • Dual Pixel CMOS AF with support for Touch AF and Face Detection AF
  • Canon Log 2 and 3 Support
  • 4 Channel Audio Recording
  • Support for Custom User LUTs
  • 15 stops dynamic range
  • Cinema RAW light internal
  • Drone and gimbal size and weight

Let’s break down what some of these features mean.

  • 5.9K Full Frame CMOS Sensor, with support for Super 35mm and Super 16mm crop modes
  • User Changeable Lens Mounts which gives users freedom to use the lenses they desire
  • Compatibility with EF and PL* Lenses
  • Anamorphic Lens Support
 
These features taken together point to Canon’s effort to make this camera just as comfortable shooting high budget narrative films as it is shooting run and gun docs and commercial work. The drone/gimbal sizing means that you with the right drone you can send this 100ft in the air while still maintaining all the advantages of the full frame sensor and advanced video codecs. The crop modes, user swap-able lens mounts, anamorphic lens support and EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) make this camera truly lens agnostic.  As Canon’s own literature states, this camera can take anything from old servo zoom B4 lenses to vintage stills glass to PL cinema glass (especially their own Sumire Prime Cinema lenses, because y’know, synergy).
 
With Canon’s excellent Dual Pixel AF, EIS system, and support for custom user LUTs the C500 Mark II is a big boy cinema camera that still provides exceptional user assistance. The camera supports Continuous, Face Detect, and One-shot AF modes when using appropriate lenses. The EIS system is basically just Canon’s way of saying this camera has 5 axis IBIS, so you can use any non-OIS lens with impunity. 
  • Newly developed DIGIC DV 7 Image Processor, which powerfully processes high-resolution image data
  • Canon RAW Light and XF-AVC Recording
  • Proxy Recording
  • Canon Log 2 and 3 Support
  • 15 stops dynamic range
  • Cinema RAW light internal
 
The C500 Mark II is a lean, mean, media recording machine. The new DIGIC DV 7 Image processor allows you to record in a variety of frame rates, resolutions, bitrates, and codecs depending how much color flexibility you need in post or how much space you have on your hard drive. The ability to record 2K 8bit proxies to standard SD cards lets you streamline your transition into post-production and make your editor’s life just a little bit easier. With 15 stops of dynamic range and Cinema RAW light internal this camera is capable of producing footage that will make the hardest part of color grading be deciding what ‘film look’ best fits your quirky indie dramady about deconstructing the manic pixie dream-girl trope.
  • Modular Design with three available Expansion Units allows a high level of connectivity and interoperability
  • 3” LCD Touch screen Monitor LM-V2
  • 4 Channel Audio Recording
 
This one goes out to all you multi-cam users out there. The C500 Mark II system features a variety of expansion units that enable features to make the C500 Mark II a capable broadcast camera. The stand-outs in this section are the EU-V1 expansion unit and the EU-V2 expander. The studio-centric EU-V1 adds Ethernet ports for live-streaming, RS244 remote camera control, and genlock/sync-out. If the EU-V1 is the nerdy indoor kid little brother, the EU-V2 is the beefy, out on the football field big brother expansion unit. The EU-V2 adds a V-Mount battery plate, two additional XLR audio inputs for 4-channel recording, a lens control port, 24V and D-tap power outputs, Genlock, an additional RS422 port and an Ethernet port. 

Oh! and also this camera supports IP streaming. You can pair the camera with a separately available transmitter or stream to your computer via Wi-Fi or Ethernet to allow an off-set producer or a nosy client to view your capture at rates of up to 1080p XF-AVC at 9 or 4 Mb/s.

Getting down to the nitty gritty, the Canon Cinema C500 Mark II is scheduled to be available in December 2019 for an estimated retail price of $15,999.00. 

If you are are in the market for a camera system that can do everything from low budget docs to real cinema work and have a spare $16k burning a hole in your pocket the new Canon Cinema C500 Mark II is a pretty solid value proposition. 

 For more information, including accessory prices and availability, call or email us today!