What’s the Diff? So, what separates this camera from its little brother, the XC10? The Canon XC15 adds professional-grade audio capabilities, expanded gamma settings, true 24p recording, and expanded exposure assists to the XC10’s already-strong feature set.

Same Sensor and 10x Zoom Lens. The use of a 1-inch CMOSsensor helps lend this camera its diminutive physical size, yet offers great low-light performance with an ISO range of 160-20,000. Its 27.3-273mm f/2.8-5.6 equivalent lens covers just about everything you’d need. There’s both optical and digital image stabilization to help prevent camera shake when extended, and dedicated zoom and focus rings akin to a typical DSLR lens. However, please note it is a manual zoom with no servo option.

Capture Professional Audio. The XC15 uses the MA400 shoe-mounted XLR adapter, which adds two phantom-powered XLRs, line/mic level switching, and physical gain controls. This configuration is similar to that of the higher-end Cinema EOS cameras.

Expanded Gamma Settings. Refined gamma settings put the image from the XC15 even closer to Cinema EOSstandards, making it an excellent B-Camera choice to the C300 Mark II and C100 Mark II. Choose between Cannon Log, a production camera setting, and even EOS standard to match with Canon DSLRs.

True 24p. It’s now possible to record at true 24p—rather than the XC10’s 23.98 standard—in both 1080 and 4K. This can prove helpful for effects and graphics-driven work. The XC15 has the same the bit rate and frame rate as the C300 Mark II, making standardization even easier.

Waveform. A built-in waveform monitor makes exposure much easier, even in difficult viewing conditions.

Q & A

• For 4K and high-speed Full HD, the XC15 requires a CFast 2.0 memory cards, such as the SanDisk 256GB Extreme PRO 525MB/s CFast 2.0. For still images and normal-speed HD video, an SD memory card works fine.