Canon today announced the long-awaited successor to its popular C300 camera, the C300 Mark II.

Canon EOS C300 Mark II

After a long wait for a successor to the immensely popular C300 – which has been my main cameras for many years – telling from the specs it truly seems like Canon won’t disappoint with the C300 Mark II.

Canon uses a new high-bitrate codec called XF-AVC (which sounds remarkably similar to XAVC, which is what Sony is using in all their new cameras), with up to 410 Mbps (Sony’s XAVC I codec records up to 600Mbps).

They have switched recording from CF cards to CFast 2.0, which is also used by Arri in the new Alexa Mini. While still not exactly cheap, we have seen these cards come in price recently a lot (e.g. this Lexar 128GB CFast 2.0 card), and they compare favorably to Sony’s own XQD standard which is used in the FS7.

High-speed recording, which is something where Canon was clearly lacking behind the competition in the past, has been significantly improved as well: The C300 Mark II records up to 120 fps in 2K / 1080p (and 30p in 4K). That’s not as impressive as Sony FS7’s up to 180 fps, however a huge step up from the C300’s original 60p in 720p only.

Here is a rundown of the significant tech specs:

10-bit 4:2:2 in 4K recording (UHD 3840 x 2160 & DCI cinematic (4096 x 2160 pixels)

up to 410Mbps (in 4K)

10/12-bit 4:4:4 in 2K & Full HD

up to 30p in 4K, 120p in 2K/Full HD

4K RAW files to external recorder

dual DIGIC DV5 processors

dual CFast 2.0 slots

15 stops of dynamic range with new Canon Log2

Dual Pixel CMOS AF

New XF-AVC Intra, Long GOP and Proxy H.265 codecs in 4K, UHD, 2K and 1080p

4-channel audio in 16 or 24 bit and 48 kHz

sensor-read out 2x faster than C300, less rolling shutter

The new C300 Mark II will be priced at $15,999, which is the original price bracket of the C300.

It’s expected to be available in September, but B&H has started to take preorders today.

Full press release: