Canon CRN700 PTZ Auto Tracking Demo

[@noahthecubeguy]

Hey, thanks for the video. We just got four of these cameras for our church with only one of them having the tracking software and we are almost dialed in... just need to do a little more testing but I was wondering if you had a chance to make another video before you had to send it back on deep diving into the tracking software to figure out all the parameters within the settings of the tracking capabilities?

[@zephanmoses]

I wish but unfortunately I didn’t have it long enough. I might pay for the tracking eventually but was hoping it might go down in price. Going to talk to Canon at NAB to see what’s in the pipeline.

[@noahthecubeguy]

Yeah I hear ya. Good luck @@zephanmoses

[@Volleykanalen]

I've got two CR-N300's and I'm looking forward to trying the tracking feature on them. I'm using them for volleyball and beach volleyball, and it will be interesting to see how it handles different people crossing paths and moving fast, and with an audience sometimes in the background. Probably not as good as a real person would, with a joystick and an ability to distinguish between different individuals, but hopefully good enough to motivate the additional cost.

[@zephanmoses]

I’m not sure it would function the best in a scenario like that. I think it’s more for live event and someone walking a stage.

[@romix8340]

You are tracking automatically volley match ?

[@Volleykanalen]

@@romix8340 Nah, I'm thinking more in terms of tracking certain players.

[@romix8340]

@@Volleykanalen that would be nice

[@VickersDoorter]

I'd not realised they're charging $1200 whilst other apply no charge. I have two CR-N500s but will pass on coughing up $2400.

[@GeraldLFordCMC]

Great video, I love my CR-N300, but I cannot wrap my head around another $1200 for software that should be pre installed.

[@zephanmoses]

I can honestly say having the 500 now I wish I had all 500s but same when it comes to tracking.

[@jimkegley]

Very exciting. I use two N300s and one N500 for musicians on stage. If each camera could track musicians accurately, it would be worth the licensing fees for each of my three cameras. Otherwise I’ll wait and see how the tech develops. I have the controller too and it would be great if you could run multiple “traces”. One for each camera simultaneously. At present, you can only run one “trace” per camera. Great job explaining and demoing the license. Thanks. v/r Jim

[@zephanmoses]

Thanks for watching. I'm working on developing some lens caps to fit both the N300 and N500 if you're ever looking for a better way to protect your PTZs!

[@jimkegley]

@@zephanmoses Zephan… yes to lens caps…and perhaps a plastic piece to stabilize the lens for transport? Jim

[@zephanmoses]

@@jimkegley We've got a 3D print design coming along for the lens. Depending on how much demand there is we might consider a stabilizing piece for transport but have to make sure that the need is there. I'll be sure to release a video on the KZbin channel once we have it going!

[@jimkegley]

@@zephanmoses excellent…looking forward to seeing it. Thanks.

[@danbrockettDOP]

Good video Zephan. Not sure if Canon will be able to compete much with the Sony FR7 with this technology. For about the same money, the FR7 offers a FF sensor, on board recording, changeable lenses, although I don't think Sony has shipped an auto tracking mode yet. Based upon what I've seen of both, Canon is doing the usual incremental upgrades with their PTZ cameras and the 300/500/700 are very nice PTZ cameras. But Sony seems to be redefining what a PTZ camera can be with the FR7, which is frankly more exciting to most of us. I own and have owned the C100 MKI, C200, C300 MKII and have shot the C300 MKIII many times and have made several films with Canon cameras so I'm not bagging on Canon, but Sony, with their FX lineup has been killing it and adding the FR7 as a "Cinema PTZ" is pretty innovative. Besides adding a simple tracking and looping algorithm, Canon really will need to implement AI quickly into their PTZ lineup or they'll get left in the dust. Sony is already marketing their SRG-A40 PTZ as containing, "Built-In AI Framing & Tracking Analytics", while Canon is charging $1,200 additional to buy the CR-700 with their non-AI Tracking Function already built in or to you have to pay a hefty fee to add it to your existing 300/500/700. Thanks for posting this. Interesting times we live in. I predict as clients continually try to cut budgets/cost for live events and live streaming as well as regular production, PTZ cameras are going to evolve from a somewhat of a novelty type of not that great quality camera to becoming the primary camera for many, many projects. One PTZ op with the assistance of AI, will take the place of four or five camera ops in many live production in the near future. The Sony FR7 is basically an FX6 turned into a PTZ camera so it is very high quality and while the Sony lens choices for powered servo zooms is limited at the moment, I have feeling we're going to see a lot more interesting servo zooms from Sony soon. I'm not trying to make my comment into a Sony story, but it appears that Canon, because of their conservative, cautious corporate nature, is not responding to market demand as quickly as Sony and I predict that Blackmagic will soon introduce something to compete with the FR7 too.

[@zephanmoses]

Got to use the FR7 and had a great experience. But I don’t think their auto tracking has shipped yet.

[@danbrockettDOP]

@@zephanmoses Most of the DPs and companies I've talked to are using the FR7 as a production tool, I've yet to see any high profile live streams using two or three of them although that's probably happening somewhere. The FR7 definitely is category redefining as it's a PTZ camera but it's also good enough looking for high end production. I don't think the same can be said of the Canons with a 1" or smaller sensor. Not that they look bad, they look extraordinary for a PTZ camera, but the Sony takes that to the next level. It would be interesting to know what FR7 sales are compared to CRN 700 sales, wouldn't it?

[@zephanmoses]

@@danbrockettDOP we used four FR7 on a livestream. They’re definitely a worthy investment. I just typically use canon cinema cameras so I like having matching color science.

[@danbrockettDOP]

@@zephanmoses It would be cool if you made a video talking about your experience on that shoot!

[@zephanmoses]

@@danbrockettDOP I wish I could. It was working for another video company so out of respect to them I can’t show their work as my own. I was running 4 of the cameras for the day for two days and it’s a good experience. But not much else I can share I’m afraid.

[@davidjoshuaford]

Thanks for demoing the back end of the tracking software! Do you know if you can create different shot size profiles that can be paired to a recall preset #? For instance, to be able to press Recall 1 for a centered mid-shot of a presenter, and then Recall 2 for a full-length-shot that is off-centered to frame up a presentation screen on the side?

[@zephanmoses]

Sadly I had only one day with the camera because I was leaving the country for a trip. Admittedly their web browser functions for presets was not very user friendly so I didn’t dive into it. If I have time before I send the camera back I’ll play around some more but they only gave me a two week loan and it arrived one day before I left town 😅

[@thecommsguy.]

Hi Zephan, if you had one of these cameras in a remote location how would you bring the output back into your ATEM?

[@zephanmoses]

The camera and atem ideally need to be in one spot but the camera does have built in streaming so if you had an rtmp decoder you could do it.

[@christopherdismuke723]

What is the monitor/case in this video?

[@zephanmoses]

This monitor from Seetec: amzn.to/3T6Tuty

[@AmazeStudios]

Panasonic just released a free Autotracking update. Canon Charges $1,200: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d3a0lqGbhLd5ibs

[@zephanmoses]

Everyone will approach it differently. I’m sure in a few years it will just be standard.

[@AxelXx]

except those PTZs are not a 1 inch sensor and have worse specs. In addition, Panasonic still charges 1,500 for their autotracking in the UE100, UE150 which are similar cameras (but worse picture than the N700)