The Canon C500 Mark II Camera Primer is a brand new course by MZed, which offers a comprehensive overview of the C500 Mark II major functions, from unboxing to post-production. Explore our review below.

An inside look at Canon’s flagship

The Canon C500 MkII Camera Primer is a new course by MZed educational platform for creators, that is dedicated to the Canon’s EOS full-frame cinema camera. The course breaks down the two-hundreds-plus camera’s manual into video modules that simplify to understand the logic behind the camera’s functions and setup. That really facilitates things, since it’s a short, condensed yet comprehensive course. Just to be clear, this course is not about how to shoot with the Canon C500 Mark II, but how to operate it. These are two deferent things. In case you’d like to explore C500 Mark II capabilities, head over our article: Canon C500 Mark II: Sample Footage and Real-World Execution which demonstrates the camera capabilities regarding footage quality of Canon’s best cinema EOS so far. The Canon C500 MkII Camera Primer is a pure technical course that concentrates on many topics from outboxing to introduction to post-production with Cinema RAW Light. Scroll down below for further info.

To whom is it for?

In our opinion, anyone should benefit from this course. You don’t have to be a camera operator, cinematographer nor C500 mark II owner, to earn some advantages from this course. This short and effective piece of education can be a huge plus, regardless of cameras being used on set. The majority of the course circulates around the idea of modulation which is implemented on many cinema cameras in the market. Understanding how things work mainly in the C500 Mark II will help you assimilating other cameras’ functionality and design as well, especially in professional productions.

Course structure and content

As explained, the course is short but condensed and contains the nuts and bolts needed to assemble and operate the C500 Mark II. The duration is a bit more than three hours. The course is constructed from 16 modules. The educator is Jem Schofield which is a producer, DP, and the founder of theC47, a full-service production company that focuses on video production, filmmaking, consulting & education.

Here are the topics:

1. Unboxing: The introductory lesson which shows us what’s included in the C500 MkII box and how to assemble the components.
2. Camera Body: Physical buttons, components, and customizations on the C500 MkII camera body.
3. Expansion Units: Modulation: EVF-V50 electronic viewfinder, EU-V1, and EU-V2 expansion units, third party V-mount batteries, and more.
4. Interchangeable Lens Mounts: How to change the lens mounts.
5. Rigs & Cages: Utilizing the compact form factor of the C500 Mark II to meet different types of productions and shooting environments.
6. Camera Setup: Menus and configuration of Exposure, iris, ISO, ND filters, color temperatures, shutter speed, lens correction, and advanced autofocus settings.
7. Custom Picture: 709, Canon Log2, HLG, and in-camera LUTs.
8. Recording Media Setup: Recording formats, resolution, codec, frame rate, metadata, proxies, and card relay.
9. Audio: The audio inputs and monitoring options.
10. Monitoring Setup: Monitoring scenarios and best options based on production output, lens choices, and the type of display.
11. Assistance Functions: Focus Guide, Zebras, Peaking, False Color, Waveforms, Vector Scope, and Aspect Ratio Markers.
12. Assignable Buttons: Possible customization of the C500 Mark II assignable buttons.
13. System Setup: HDMI, SDI, internal card recording, time code run and sync, and lights on the camera body.
14. “My Menu”: Creating a customized menu for specific demands and productions.
15. Slow & Fast Motion: The FPS options.
16. Post-Production with Cinema RAW Light: Workflow and NLE-ing with Cinema RAW Light on FCPX, Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve.

Price

The Canon C500 MkII Camera Primer course is free for MZed Pro members. Those who are not members can purchase the course for $129, or subscribe for a Pro membership ($299) to stream this course along with the entire MZed PRO Library.

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Streaming on Vimeo

There is one thing that needs improvement. We’ve watched the whole course and found Vimeo as (unfortunately) very poor streaming service for this high-quality educational content. The Videos were stuck dozens of times with numerous playback and buffering issues (even at lower resolutions) which overshadowed the whole experience. In our opinion, MZed should ditch Vimeo and find more efficient and smoother streaming options. For those who can’t stand Vimeo service, there is an option to watch MZed courses via mobile devices (iPad for instance) which is great.

Should you take the course?

If you are going to rent or buy the C500 Mark II, this course is a must. Although you can always meticulously read the hundreds of pages of the manual, it’s a much more efficient (and smart) approach to watch this course. However, if you are considering to watch the Canon C500 MkII Camera Primer just for your general knowledge and pleasure, we recommend subscribing to MZed Pro membership to get full streaming access to its library that includes tons of educational content.

Final thoughts

The MZed’s Canon C500 MkII Camera Primer is an in-depth primer course that will help you understand the camera’s core features to maximize its results and improve your position on set. We highly recommend taking this course especially before shooting on the C500 Mark II.