Canon XF705 hands-on: Sébastien Devaud on filming action with the pro handheld video camera

Focusing on a fast-moving subject

Even where Sébastien sticks to manual focus, he loves the Dual Pixel Focus Guide that shows you whether your focus is in front of, or behind, the subject. "Once you try this," he says, "you'll never want to go back to any other system."

Image stabilisation and slow motion

The shoot with the sprint champion was an eye-opener for Sébastien, who found the advanced five-axis image stabilisation gave him new freedom to break away from cumbersome rigs and shoot handheld.

"I have always loved to work with sliders, cranes or a rig. But since the stabilisation is so good, I don't need it," he says. "There are different stabilisation modes that work in different situations, too."

Shooting the runner was also an ideal opportunity to use the XF705's slow-motion capability, up to 120fps in NTSC or 100fps in PAL in Full HD. "That gives four or five times slow motion, and is so useful for shooting action as it adds a really different look to your films," says Sébastien. "But it's not just for obvious things like sport. For instance, in an interview you can slow down a smile and create emotion."

A versatile lens

Of course, capturing beautiful footage at any speed can only be improved by the addition of a top quality lens. Sébastien admits that he's obsessed with the look of high-quality lenses. "I started at 13 years old as a photographer, then I studied Super 35 and Super 16 and fell in love with the look of cinema lenses," he recalls. "I love storytelling with different lenses. It's the reason I love Canon – it's an optical company and I trust it. I do my best to capture the emotion of the project by managing depth of field – that's my real expertise.

"The professional L-series lens on the XF705 helps me achieve that as it's so sharp and can also produce a beautiful cinematic look with shallow depth of field. You have ND filters built into the camera to help you use the aperture you want for the right depth of field."

The XF705's lens is a 15x in 4K or 30x in HD. That's the equivalent of a 25.5-382mm lens, which can be made as wide as 20.4mm or as long as 1147.5mm using converters.

"The optical quality is excellent, and the optical converters are also made by Canon, so there is no degradation of image quality I could see," says Sébastien. "You can shoot everything with one lens! And for ENG use in a conflict zone, for example, a journalist can stay hidden. There is even infrared so you can see in the dark!"

Wide DR, PQ, HLG and Canon Log 3

The two-cameras-in-one benefit of the XF705 is really highlighted in the choice of gamma profiles, including Wide DR, Canon Log 3 or the camera's HDR settings of PQ and HLG.

For premium live broadcast and streaming, HLG is ideal for HDR requirements. As HDR TV sets become more widespread, HLG is being used for fast-turnaround news use, too, while Wide DR is perfect for standard Rec.709 footage. "Wide DR is so useful for ENG and documentary use because you can avoid over-exposure on faces. And there is no grading needed – it's ideal for use straight out of the camera," says Sébastien.

For more creative workflows, where there is time for editing and post processing, the camera offers PQ for HDR footage and Canon Log 3, which is Sébastien's favourite – especially in low light. He says, "I prefer Log 3 to get rid of noise and because the detail of the image is so good.

"I also love to mix footage from Cinema EOS cameras with X-series professional camcorders such as the XF705 as I can run the same custom profile across them all for a consistent look. Canon has the right idea to use the same menus and same profiles – it makes editing so much easier and consistent."

Talking about audio

Interviews are an important part of every filmmaker's key shots, and of course audio quality is critical. The Canon XF705 uses broadcast-standard four-channel audio, which Sébastien made full use of on his sprinter shoot and has done on other productions since.

"I use a shotgun mic connected via the XLR or wireless lavalier mics, and my omnidirectional mic in the mini jack socket, while on channels three and four I use the built-in microphones for background atmosphere," he explains. "You choose the right mic for your production and the camera lets you use precisely what you want."

Sébastien sums up: "Canon really listens to its users, and the XF705 has lots of nice touches such as a pro-quality tripod mount and audio status on the screen. The distance between the three different rings on the lens – zoom, focus and aperture – is perfect for your hands and natural to use. Small things [like this] make a big difference when you're shooting a lot."