Canon is looking to challenge Sony and others for a greater piece of the compact cine-cam market with its latest EOS C50 camera, claimed as its most compact and versatile yet.
“The creator market seems to be where everything's going. This is a video-first market opening up the Pro end of the photo camera market to more video options,” says Philip Harpley, technical product specialist at Canon Europe, talking about the new EOS C50.
The C50 sports a new 7K full-frame CMOS sensor, 7K60P of internal RAW recording and 32 megapixel still photo capture. Weighing approx. one and a half pounds (680 g), the C50 targets handheld and vérité shooting. Importantly, it’s the first camera in the Cinema EOS line to feature the full frame 3:2 open gate recording.
“Social media creators want to output a vertical shot as well as their horizontal field. So the C50 can shoot both frames at the same time. Because it uses the whole sensor you get a wider vertical shot so you can frame more easily (there are grid lines on the monitor view) and it outputs to two memory cards (for CFexpress and SD cards) for two different types of shot.”
This option is already added to the C400 but the C50 is a smaller, portable and less expensive shooter. It takes Canon’s own RF-mount lenses such as the new RF85mm F1.4 L VCM Hybrid Lens. An adapter can be used for older glass.
“We're showing the C50 here with anamorphic lenses,” said Harpley. “It's got four different options for anamorphic desqueeze so it opens a whole range of possibilities.”
The C50 comes with a detachable top handle, a hot shoe, two XLR audio inputs, a start-stop button, and a zoom rocker. On the stand it was shown rigged with a monitor from Portkeys and a Canon servo zoom.
“It's a very light camera we think that it's going to be a B-roll for higher end users. It’s a remarkably flexible camera and it is proving very very popular here at IBC.”
The Canon EOS C50 camera is currently scheduled to ship towards the end of Q4 of 2025. We wonder if its retail price of $3,899 is perhaps too steep for the consumer base of indie filmmakers who might be expecting something in the range of $2000- $2500, although Canon does have the R50V video-first camera which costs around $650.