Canon has been the center of attention in the growing HDSLR market, so we were curious to see how it was going to top all the HDSLR buzz when it released a camcorder that met the needs of traditional videographers, without loading them down with accessories and lenses. Enter the Canon XF300, packing, from the ground up, an all new MPEG-2 4:2:2 50Mbps XF codec that records full 1920x1080 HD video, directly to inexpensive CompactFlash cards, all wrapped up in a widely supported MXF File Wrapper.

Versatile Design

The XF300 is a decently sized camcorder weighing in at 6.5 lbs with a solid body that gives this camera a professional look and feel. The camcorder's body has well-thought out controls that are intuitive and easy to use. We liked the fact that the XF300 has a versatile form factor for all types of productions, from handheld run-and-gun shooting to shots that require shoulder-mount shooting. It was helpful to find several record buttons on the body of the XF300 to suit one's desired shooting needs and style. The XF300 has all the bells and whistles you would come to expect from a professional camcorder with very few concerns. Our only complaint on the design was the power switch, we often found it difficult to turn off the camera without going into media mode first, as the off mode lies in between camera mode and media mode, ('media mode' is what we traditionally know of as 'play' mode).

Vivid Display

The Canon XF300 has a brilliant 4-inch widescreen LCD display with 1,230,000 dots that freely rotates from side to side, depending on your shooting style, and a .52-inch viewfinder. Both proved extremely valuable for pulling focus, especially the LCD when using the Edge Monitor Focus Assist. We found the XF300's image assistance scopes to be quite useful for setting exposure; saturation and focus with the Waveform Monitor, Vectorscope and Edge Monitor. These paired with the 4-inch widescreen, complements the Canon XF300 very nicely, and left us confident of our shots. The scopes are easily viewable via the 'WFM' button located conveniently on the left side, and are only available when using the LCD.

Resolutions and Recording Modes

The XF300 packs a powerful punch in the resolution and recording modes arena, with the ability to record in an array of different bitrates and formats from 50Mbps at 1920x1080 or 720x1080, 35Mbps at 1920x1080 or 720x1080, and even 25Mbps at 1440x1080, as well the ability to shoot in 24p, 30p, 60p and 60i.

One feature we admired is the ability to switch frame rates, resolutions and bitrates without the hassle of rebooting while shooting all on the same card. This feature will prove useful with the videographer who shoots in a variety of formats and with all these different shooting options the XF300 will work in just about any situation. Did we mention the new XF codec's 4:2:2 color sampling which is twice the color resolution of HDV? The 4:2:2 color sampling makes the Canon XF300 an excellent choice if you find yourself shooting in green screen environments where pulling a good key is necessary.

Tapeless Operation

One of the main attractions of the XF300 is the solid-state tapeless workflow with two slots for hot-swappable CompactFlash cards and the ability to copy data from one to the other. The XF300 can record 80 minutes of footage at 50Mbps to 32GB CompactFlash cards with the ability to "relay" between cards allowing videographers to record non-stop until they literally run out of CompactFlash cards. Another advantage of the tapeless system is cache recording, or Pre Recording. The XF300 is constantly recording a 3-second buffer so you don't miss the beginning of someone's dialogue or any of the action when you hit record. The XF300 starts when you press the button and inserts the previous 3-second buffer.

Optics

The 18x HD L-Series Lens is a force to be reckoned with: it has a 29.3 wide-angle at F1.6 with three independent rings for focus, zoom and iris control. The XF300 has three built-in ND filters ranging from 1/4, 1/16, and 1/64 for shooting outdoors or in bright conditions. On the lens, there's an array of buttons for image control, including the ability to switch into auto and manual modes as well switch between zoom rings and rockers.