Canon USA has announced the Canon Robotic Camera System CR-S700R, which will enable one photographer to remotely control an array of cameras at the same time.
We first reported on this last September and frankly weren’t expecting a live product so soon, with updated cameras these days being pre-announced about 12 months from launch. While Canon is not famous for its puns, the press release says the system ‘revolves around a remote pan head that can be used to remotely control and shoot still images using a compatible EOS camera and lens’. Suggested uses are sports and news photography.
The system includes a camera controller and (sold separately) software to enable photographers to control multiple cameras from a PC, display live-view images, and remotely trigger a camera or simultaneously shoot with multiple cameras.
The press release states: ‘By using a center-type mechanism that rotates around a central axis perpendicular to the optical axis of the lens (say what?), the remote pan head can perform operations such as zooming, panning, tilting, and rolling of the attached camera in a small footprint with minimal shifting of weight and balance.’
Canon says it will be ideal for following high-speed subjects and has a turning radius of up to 260mm.
Compatible cameras are the 1D X Mark II and 1DX Mark III, teamed with six Canon L-series lenses ranging from the EF 11–24mm F4L USM through to the EF 100–400mm F4.5–5.6L IS II USM.
According to the pundits at DPReview, it will enable one photographer to be running ‘over a dozen’ cameras at a time, with pretty well full control of all settings and pre-set buttons for pre-composed images.
And this ain’t vapourware – the system will be available from mid-February. Yikes!
For more detail, go to here.
With all major sports and Games already so protective of their image rights this is hardly a surprise as it will enable the organisers to further limit the number of individuals capturing their events and give them even greater control. Next we will see this system adopt face-tracking to follow specific athletes.
Sadly, also more evidence that Canon do not value any future of professional photography that isn’t 100% controlled by them.