Canon adds new Cinema RAW Light recording formats to EOS C500 Mark II

’Tis the season for firmware updates obviously, as Canon has a new firmware update for the EOS C500 Mark II that adds 12-bit Cinema RAW Light formats to the four year old camera.

It’s not so long ago, the end of January in fact, that Canon updated the EOS C500 Mark II firmware to v1.1.0.1. Time waits for no camera in the modern market though, and so it’s back with a new firmware update that should hit its servers by the end of the month.

The new firmware will add 12-bit Cinema RAW Light formats: LT (Light), ST (Standard) and HQ (High Quality), which should go a long way to improving workflow flexibility and providing more options in post. 

Previously made available for the EOS R5 C and EOS C70, this feature allows users to select a scalable range of internal RAW recording data rates that either further enhance the fidelity of the sensor output or reduce file sizes – all while maintaining that pleasingly high-quality 12-bit colour information.

Aron Randhawa, Senior Product Specialist at Canon Europe, said: “Cinema RAW Light is continually evolving and has a clear advantage over heavily compressed formats, especially for colour grading and VFX pipelines. All three scalable new formats are 12-bit, even at higher frame rates, with no chroma subsampling, enabling cinematographers to unleash the full capability of their production camera.”

The new firmware will be available for download at the Canon EOS C500 Mark II support page.