Canon has unveiled the first two camcorders to use Canon XF, its newly developed MPEG-2 4:2:2 50Mbps codec.

Canon_XF305.jpg

The Canon XF305 (pictured) and XF300 professional shooters capture and record native 1920 x 1080 video onto affordable Compact Flash cards.

Designed for broadcast news, documentary and independent filmmaking, both cameras use MXF, allowing simple workflows with many commonly used non-linear editing systems

They include a Canon 18x HD L-series lens and three Canon developed and designed native 1920 x 1080 CMOS image sensors.

The new Canon XF Codec has been developed to provide extreme color detail for accurate chroma-keying, color-grading and compositing for digital filmmaking.

Yuichi Ishizuka, executive vice president and general manager, Consumer Imaging Group, Canon said: “These camcorders provide the convenience, production cost and quality that the HD video market has been asking for.”

Both cameras use the DIGIC DV III Image Processor, a proprietary technology that ensures natural, lifelike colors and captures tonal gradations and shadow detail with remarkable accuracy and powers the cameras’ Face Detection Technology.

The latter is an autofocus option that can help lone operators, such as those involved in newsgathering.

The XF305 will cost around $7,999. The XF300 will be $6,799.

Both cameras are being shown for the first time at NAB 2010 and are due to be available from June.