So it’s time to look at some footage from the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera.
This footage was shot over about an hour at my local market on Sunday morning. So yeah, it’s just home movies. I was literally grabbing shots where I could whilst I was shopping ! But, you do get to see what one man can do with a pocket cinema camera and a 12-35 Panasonic m4/3 zoom. I guess for those that like to shoot discretely, guerrilla or documentary style, this will give you a good sense of what you’re going to get. The same great DR and look has been inherited from the BMCC.
All this footage was shot using the FILM look. I set my exposure by ETTR and using the 100% zebra to indicate clipping. I had IS on all the time. I had a Hoya ND16 on as well to keep me at a slightly nicer stop. I set the rear monitor to VIDEO and then used focus peaking all the time.
There are plans afoot to create something that’s more *finished* in the way of demo footage in a more formal and drama / narrative style, but for now this should whet your appetite.
Its rough and ready, and really it was just something I threw together very quickly. Interestingly, I had one guy actually recognise that it was a BMCC pocket and several others stopped me to ask what the camera was !
I cut the footage using FCPx and used my colleague Captain Hook for the grade. He’s made some fantastic LUT’s for Resolve as donation-ware to make grading BMCC footage even easier. I encourage those of you who work with BMCC footage to check out these great LUT’s. There’s some great before and after examples there as well.
Enjoy !
johnbrawley 
What an awesome awesome time for indpendent films.
looking really good John. Hope to catch up soon! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, You coming out for SMPTE ?
jb
It’s the beginning of a Golden Age. I am waiting impatiently to buy a BMCC. In 1996 I blew all the money I had for a Panasonic WV-555 (used) & a Sony SP U-Matic PortaPak. $6K & I never could even come close to owning the Editing bay. Fortunately the County Schools had one & a program. Before that (1982) an old Moviola & BH DR70 with Som Berthiot Dogleg zoom & a Nagra III. Even working in the LA movilabs & getting short ends I could barely afford to do some documentary work. I know what I’m talking about & it’s going to be a Golden Age.
Very well put, and I know what you speak off Braduh!
Used to shoot anamorphic Super 8 with a Kowa Prominar H16 on the front of a Nikon R8 way back in the ’70s, occasionally rolling my own B/W 16mm and tank developing in the bathroom! Ahhh, the good old days!!!, who would want to go back to them?
Now my students shoot HD on their smart phones and wonder what all the fuss is about having an NLE right in their OS.
So now I’m finishing shooting a music video this weekend with my A camera being a $400 “bridge” camera, cause it’s got a 50x optical zoom and full HD at 24fps, bring on the good times!
Wow. Very nice.
Glad I ordered again on day one, it looks great. Addison Rd, John?
I’m all in.
can’t wait to get mine! thanks john for posting this little sample! anxious to see the difference when use can shoot something in raw.
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Looks great! Thanks for posting!
Very impressive indeed. What I would give to be able to watch as you go about ‘grabbing shots’ for an hour! 😉
Any word on the data rate for the raw option?
Hi Paul.
No not yet I’m afraid.
jb
Mighty. Indeed, Addison Rd
Lumix 12-35/F2.8 a match made in heaven.
Thank you John, could you please post some photo of the camera with mounted lenses that you used. How it’s fit in your hends with seach lenses?
is the video blocked in some countries? the video isn’t showing up for me. I’m currently in the Netherlands.
No just a small hiccup. Should be a couple of mins.
jb
Thanks! It works now… and the footage is fantastic. Thanks for posting it.
Thanks for sharing John, very impressive!
Looks good, I wonder how the rolling shutter will be on the 12mm SLR Magic.
Hey John,
The images look great. Made me miss Oz too! BMD have a winner with this one, even more so than the original BMCC. Can I have one right now please? Look forward to more footage in the future. Thanks again.
The 14mm and 25mm would be great for this IF they had stabilization. It’s a shame Panasonic tends to only make their zooms stabilized. I love the image it’s capable of producing but the lack of fast stabilized lenses will probably keep me from getting it. I don’t want to buy a stabilizer to use it. But damn, the image is just so much more impressive than a DSLR. I’m paralyzed- after seeing the image BM is capable of I can’t get another DSLR. But I want something like the small 14mm to use on it. Or the fast 25mm. But no stabilization for either of them. And I suspect this tiny sensor will really benefit from stabilization.
Just get yourself a little monopod. 😉
I don’t know… something is missing… Maybe the image is a little bit to bright… But thanks anyway John for sharing this video with us 😉 Looking for some more footage from you 😉
Yeah I’m just uploading a new version now. Check back in about 30 mins. The one that’s there now is too lifted.
Thanks John. Much appreciated.
Uuuuu yeah. The image looks more BM now 😉 It’s just fabulous. I can’t wait to get this little ROCKET in to my pocket. Thanks a lot 😉
Awesome! Thanks John! That was a fun video and made me happy that I pre ordered. 🙂 Keep up the great work!
cheers
Thanks John. It’s great to see some footage from this camera. Quick question…. Do you think it would hold up and do a decent job shooting an entire feature film on it (CinemaDNG)?
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This has removed most of my fears about this camera! Really good, did you need to correct any barrel distortion or did the crop fix that?
There was no post lens correction applied at all.
jb
Thanks man, Looks Good!
The new upload looks a lot better. I was wondering, was any of the footage at the widest 12mm end?
Yeah quite a bit was actually….
jb
THE ORIGINAL MATERIAL some MB to download….. please AND THANK YOU!!!!!
deleted video? 😦
Hello, thanks for sharing, so for now, no RAW, but they announced, the pocket camera will do it, so any date for that? At the official launch ?
thanks.
Thanks for uploading that footage! What are your thoughts about sharpness? The footage looks pretty soft compared to that: http://vimeo.com/55887965 (Here I don’t know if sharpness was added in post) oder that: http://vimeo.com/63510310 (without any post). Might be also the pretty low contrast grading but It feels a lot less “present” than any Blackmagic Cinema Camera footage I’ve seen. How do you feel the Pocket compares in sharpness from a personal point of view?
I agree, it doesn’t look as detailed as the original BMCC. I guess that is to be expected as it is not downscaled from an original image with several hundred more lines of resolution, but still. The footage looks amazing, and the dynamic range is more important to me than detail and sharpness, but it would be nice to have the punchiness of the original. I guess we will have to wait for more footage…
Well the resolution is never going to match. There is a reason the original 2.5K bmcc is still very relevant.
jb
What a great little camera this is going to be for personal use and web stuff. I’m going to wait till release to order mine.
Beautiful images, reminds me of my local market on sunny sunday mornings 🙂
This will definitely become my next camera and it will a big step up from the Canon T3i I am currently using. Thanks for posting the footage!
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@JohnBrawley Great to finally see it in action. Thanks. 🙂
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Hi John
lovely footage thanks for posting. I was thinking of getting Panasonic Lumix G 14-45mm and 45-150mm lenses or maybe just the 14-140mm on its own. In theory would you be able to advise which would perform better on the pocket camera?
Also, are you able to explain why the mount can read exposure information but not auto focus?
Thanks again
1,000 thank-yous for this! Watching this video made me hungry — need to go find some warm flatbread now.
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I downloaded your video from
http://fil.io/FL5kh/Footage%20from%20Blackmagic%20Pocket%20Cinema%20Camera
But it’s only 90MB file. Can you make original file pu blic? thx
Great stuff John. Nice choice as well to shoot in the market- tons of lighting changes, textures, camera sweeps. This thing looks to be as awesome as all the hype- no surprise, I think.
Thanks.
HI
I’m not impressed. Looks like any other DSLR footage, nothing special. I actually got the same quality out of my cheap Canon with careful post. I better spend my money on lenses than this hyped cameras….
Haha, keep on dreaming. Clean your glasses or get a new prescription – this doesn’t look like “any other DSLR” footage. The closest approximation would be a hacked GH2/GH3, and this still trumps that.
What the hell are you smoking? This looks nothing like “any other DSLR footage.” So much information is retained in the shadows and highlights (13 stops of DR) thanks to the high bitrate ProRes 422 codec. It’s a hell of a lot sharper than any DSLR footage I’ve ever seen (and this video has no post production sharpening added). Dream on, man..
Dude you gotta be blind if you think you can get footage that sharp and crisp out of any cheap canon dslr.
Footage looks great!! which SD card were you using, and all in all how much footage was captured for this in GB. Thanks for your post.
Good times. Thanks for the post and shot samples JB.
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Yes, really good! Some original footage (sharp, without much motion blur) would make me even more happy. I like BM-stuff! Order the pocket camera, 4 k maybe soon.
John thanks for posting this. Footage looks awesome and can’t wait for the camera to come out. A quick question. Because of small sensor size most of the footage looks sharp front to back. Do you think the ND was necessary ?
Low Light? I’m really interested in getting some Black Magic gear, but i need to how it produces in low light. Thanks.
I ordered day 1. Glad I did!
same here
Great work! Love the Turkish ladies making gozleme on the flat top grill. Camera looks good and certainly an option to look at as a discreet street camera for all that Broll footage. Wondering how the audio is when maybe adding a juice linked box etc.
Yeah I love to photograph them too. It’s so hard to get them to smile !
jb
Sorry follow up question. How affective was the IS on the lens? Would the footage fall apart without it ? I am used to shooting only primes and putting on a zoom with IS on it makes the camera no longer small enough to fit in a pocket. Thanks again.
IS is important and it helps a lot. You can also see it *grabbing* when I’m trying o pan. ic an really see the IS fighting my deliberate camera movement (which is why I don’t like IS sometimes) but with this camera you need the necessary evil of IS. Certainly if you want to shoot above 25mm.
jb
Hi John,
When you say that IS is necessary when you want to shoot above 25mm, do you mean 25mm in FF ? Would a SLR Magic Hyperprime12mm be a good lens to shot handheld ?
Yeah I’ve shot some nice stuff already with the SLR magic 12mm and the 25mm, though as I say, at 25mm you do start to feel the RS a bit.
jb
Thanks a lot John, I’ve been dying to see some footage. Any chance we can get some RAW samples? I work on Windows/Premiere and cutting the BMCC footage is painful without transcoding. I’d like to see how the pocket footage handles in Premiere before I put down my $$$ on the preorder. There are only a handful on preorder here in Austin, and I’d like to get one, but have to make sure my hardware/software can handle it.
Will be a little while before I can release RAW and ungraded shots.
jb
We’ll hang tight and happily. Thanks a bunch for doing what you do. I just shot some stuff on the Sony F3 a few months ago, and I’m more excited about this camera (which I can actually own – $$$). Of course, the 4K is the one I really, really want, but have no hardware for it, and I know the software won’t take it if it can’t even take BMCC 2.5K.
Cheers
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Thank you for posting this.
What would guesstimate the lens enhancement to be? 2x? 2.4? more? Just trying to get a feel for focal lengths available for this camera. Thanks again!
Well compared to 135, it’s close to 3. Compared to the 2.5K BMCC t’s 1.3X and to super 16 it’s 1.0
jb – I fing hate crop factors
I do as well but just to clarify I read correctly you are saying that the wide end of your Lumix zoom (12mm) is more like a 35mm-ish on the pocket cam?
I had one of these on pre-order but I canceled for the time being because I want to figure where I would stand optics wise among other questions. For some reason this little camera has really piqued my interest, and I want to know as much as I can about it.
If you’re used to the 135 format then yes that’s the comparison. I guess there’s 90 years of filmaking history (super 16 was introduced in 1923) where peolpe have made do with this horrendous crop factor.
Lenses are always going to cost. There are plenty of m4/3 adaptable options and other mounts like C mount lenses. Plus of course Super 16. There’s a nice Century 6mm T1.9 that even has a 4.5mm Adaptor.
http://www.abelcine.com/store/Century-6mm-T-1.9/
But these are CINEMA lenses and they aren’t a price that goes with the camera. 135 lenses are most certainly NOT cinema lenses but then they are cheap.
jb
[John Brawley] “If you’re used to the 135 format then yes that’s the comparison. I guess there’s 90 years of filmaking history (super 16 was introduced in 1923) where peolpe have made do with this horrendous crop factor.
Lenses are always going to cost. There are plenty of m4/3 adaptable options and other mounts like C mount lenses. Plus of course Super 16. There’s a nice Century 6mm T1.9 that even has a 4.5mm Adaptor.
http://www.abelcine.com/store/Century-6mm-T-1.9/
But these are CINEMA lenses and they aren’t a price that goes with the camera. 135 lenses are most certainly NOT cinema lenses but then they are cheap.
”
This ^
I’d also love to see a comparison like the one in http://vimeo.com/49875510 – see if the detail is retained like on the BMCC.
Ha, Black Magic’s site is down (for me anyway) wonder if this has anything to do with it 😉
Yes.. it is down
Glad I preordered weeks ago lol
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Hope to see some low light footage from this camera soon 🙂
thats the first thing i did when i went to the blackmagic booth at NAB was jack the ISO all the way up. Didn’t see any noticeable difference in grain that the original blackmagic has. it looks great!
You just don’t know the ripple effect of that one video posted John.. in my estimation another 10K BMPCC Pre-Ordered.. Thanks for posting footage images looks organic as expected BMCC style appreciate it..
Thank you very much for the footage 🙂
Like the rest, I’m really keen to check out the raw footage from this camera.
I was just about to order a 5D Mk3 when I saw BMPCC from NAB, it opens another option for me.
I’m from Singapore and the Body alone for the 5D Mk3 would be 3-4k SGD, compare to BMPCC it’s 1.3k SGD, I could use that remaining budget to get some lens for this little camera. As the DR the camera can provide would certainly up my production quality.
Looking forward to your next posting.
Cheers! 🙂
Well it’s a different camera of course. The 5Dmk3 will also do some very nice stills and has a larger 135 sensor size.
jb
Another fellow SGrean here as well, can’t wait for this camera to be released 😛
John do you think 16mm camera lens will work not Super 16 found a couple 16mm camera lens?
I think you might get lucky, but probably you should assume that regular standard 16 lenses WON’T cover.
jb
I see so only stick to S16 lens than, thanks for replying.
Hi, It’s filmic 100%. ISO 800? seems high for Daylight? Looks a little soft as well and I’m watching it in 1080… or is that just me? I would love to see real close up skin tone & texture as well as low light shooting? That would be great and get me off the fence John. Would a Zeiss Len’s give a sharper Picture? Thanks.
ISO 800 is the native ISO of this sensor and this is the best ISO to shoot, even in daylight to get the most DR from the sensor.
The sensor isn’t as sharp as the BMCC so you shouldn’t expect it to be as sharp and detailed as the 2.5K bmcc. Also, this is all handheld. Perhaps look again once we get more locked off shots.
jb
I’m very interested in the pocket cam, seems impressive, I have been considering the GH3 until this came along. Can anyone give their opinion or thoughts between buying the BMPCC vs the GH3?
Thanks
Me also on this one no WiFi.love that gadget for hidden shots.
Though I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival of my BMPC, I’m still holding on to my GH3. The DR isn’t as high but the IQ is still excellent, plus you get stills and slow mo capabilities. They’ll even share the same m43 lenses! I’d recommend both but if your budget is tight it might come down to what you need them for. If you’re not looking to color grade your footage then you’d probably be opting for the ‘Video’ setting on the BMPC, at which point you may be better off with a GH3. If you want the absolute best image quality at a ridiculously reasonable price and are willing to put in the post work, and you don’t want/need to take stills then the BMPC is good choice.
Scott thanks for the feedback I thought this might be the case. Hopefully at some point I can own both, there are things I like about both and dislike as well. But for the price each seem like great cameras.
you say you used zebras? did you let highlights clip ever or did you just loose dynamic range with the LUT. the 13stops of dynamic range claimed seems to not show through fully to me. I mean its all close and hard to judge but from experience with other high end cameras the clipped highlights in this footage in comparison seem a bit harsh. would you consider posting before/after grading samples
In some shots there is clipping, usually in backlit situations. This is a very high contrast scenario with deep shadows and direct sunlight. As good as the DR range is, it still doesn’t capture everything, so you have to make a choice about exposure. When using the ETTR rule, I use the 100% zebra to *indicate* clipping, but I will still let things clip if they are in the background, specular highlights or just less important than what I CHOOSE to expose for.
jb
Wow 😀 I love the footage and I really really want one now 🙂 I’ll probably couple it with a Panasonic Lumix X 14-45 to keep it nice and compact. The 12-35 is a bit too pricey to start with for me…
Maybe a stupid question, but can this little beastie do full time auto focus? Or is it finally time for me to learn how to do manual focus? I mean, I’m coming from Canon camcorders (latest one I used is a XH-A1s) and I’m very bad at manual focussing… I believe there is a single AF button on the back of the camera, right? How does that work?
Let me ask a really stupid question to end this, does this camera have some kind of full auto/semi auto mode just to get started and get a feel for it?
No the camera is manual focus only. It will have an auto iris mode, but only while you hold the IRIS button in, not full time. The focus button is for activating focus peaking. BMD have said they *might* look at AF since the very first BMCC, but they haven’t implemented it yet.
jb
Too bad. Really time to start learning manual focus then 🙂 Thanks for your answer!
(Same person as above, but I remembered my WordPress account this time)
This looks very nice indeed. Compact, sharp, tight, and at a very sweet cost. Thanks for showing us this.
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Thanks so much for this. Did you ever see any of the problems with that Panny lens, regarding it having artificial movements while it was locked down? Several people on Amazon.com say they have seen it for trying to do things like locked down close ups. The claim is that the IS doesn’t properly turn off?
You know I haven’t tried it turned off yet ! I’ll give it a go.
jb
I’ve shot with this lens+GH3 locked down and haven’t noticed any weird movements, though I was unaware of that potential issue. I’ll have to take a closer look but if I haven’t noticed anything yet then it’s not something I’m terribly worried about.
Thanks, Scott.
Thanks John
John, would it be possible to get the downloadable version again (the one you put up without the music), because the previous one had the gamma bug so the highlights were off.
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evil John didn’t publish any DNG )))))
Well, Blackmagic has said that this camera won’t support DNG when it first comes out, it will be a feature thats added as a firmware update at a later time. All the floor models at NAB could only shoot ProRes, and I’m sure the prototype John has is the same.
Don’t order this camera expecting anything beyond ProRes outta the box.
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Hi John.
Would you say that shooting it without IS (all Olympus and cheaper Panasonic lenses) would be a really bad idea?
Thank you.
I think IS helps a lot when hand held, especially past 25mm.
jb
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Wow, this new upload is so much better. It had liked the quality of the first. But thought if I had the camera myself I would have adjusted some things for a different picture. Then I read you had a hitch in the first upload. This picture looks great. And being just under $1000.00 it should find a big market—if people hear about it. I venture to say that even the average person, who isn’t a indie movie maker, may even want one. People pay $900.00 for camcorders from Sony, JVC, Samsung, etc., as it is now. This picture is better.
My question is what memory cards did you use, need to know if standard class 10 is fine or we need expensive 95mb cards. Thanks
Yeah you need the expensive ones 😉
jb
What would the normal focal lens for this camera format be?
Nice video John, a big thumbs up, and good grading too. Where is this place that you’ve shot?
Just wondering if I could find the ungraded footage to download?
Thanks.
Best/w
Bravo John. Very nice work. I was very surprised that it was all handheld the IS is clearly very good.
Excellent work, this one’s a winner!
The few negative comments I’ve heard about the footage are really a critique of the glass and the shooting environment it seems. That lens is sharp and people have the idea probably due to the DSLR and DOF adapter culture that soft and shallow means cinematic. I think this lens with the right lighting could be better than some credit it with. Daytime overheard light is never going to be that appealing.
Going the other way I don’t understand why everyone is saying the RS is better than they thought and now aren’t worried. I’m pretty sure the IS on this lens could steady the worst case of RS.
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Thank you for the second upload. (Can you explain what you technically did differently.) The dynamic range and the recording to ProRes 422 is all I need. For those of us who want an HD VIDEO look — this is a great sampler. BUT, the lack of a VF worries me for bright sun shooting. How did the LCD work for you?
Because I believe a “cine” look is mainly lighting — I have no doubt you’ll show us different look when you get time.
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Hi John,
My friends and I are trying to figure out the lens conversion. Is it 1.3x the focal length? I read in your other article “There’s a crop factor of about 1.3X to the 2.5K BMCC.”
so a 14mm m4/3 becomes roughly an 18mm?
have you tried any regular 16mm lenses?
Compared to a BMCC it’s 1.3X, but compares to a 135 camera, it’s closer to 3.
jb
BMPC BMCC S35 135
4mm 5.2mm 8.4mm
5mm 6.5mm 10.5mm 14.5mm
6mm 7.8mm 12.6mm 17.4mm
7mm 9.1mm 14.7mm 20.3mm
8mm 10.4mm 16.8mm 23.2mm
9mm 11.7mm 18.9mm 26.1mm
10mm 13mm 21mm 29mm
11mm 14.3mm 23.1mm 31.9mm
12mm 15.6mm 25.2mm 34.8mm
14mm 18.2mm 29.4mm 40.6mm
24mm 31.2mm 50.4mm 69.6mm
28mm 36.4mm 58.8mm 81.2mm
35mm 45.5mm 73.5mm 101.5mm
50mm 65mm 105mm 145mm
85mm 110.5mm 178.5mm 246.5mm
100mm 130mm 210mm 290mm
135mm 175.5mm 283.5mm 391.5mm
200mm 260mm 420mm 580mm
300mm 390mm 630mm 870mm
Sooo… 10mm on a BMPC = 13mm on a BMCC, or a 21mm on a S35 Camera, or 29mm on a 135 (Full Frame) camera.
I’m sorry, but I’m pretty sure that list is in backwards order (unless we are talking aboiut some other than focal length and crop factor). Lens focal length in today’s DSLR world is (usually) based on legacy 35mm camera lenses which are designed to cover a 35mm film frame. The equivalent sensor to that is (approximately) the Canon 5D mkII with its full frame sensor.
“Crop factor” is calculated by comparing the size of the imaging sensor relative to a standard 35mm photographic film frame. What happens in cameras with smaller sensors, is that they “see” a smaller percentage of the image than the lens is capable of delivering to the imaging area. This results in an image that has (basically) the same appearance as an image captured by a full frame camera such as the 5d mkII, but cropped top and bottom, left and right. This is independent of the pixel resolution – it is purely a factor of the physical *size* of the sensor relative to a 35mm frame.
There are of course other factors that come into play such as lens sharpness, aberration and lens “resolution” – but in motion picture storytelling, one could argue that those factors aren’t quite as damaging as they would be in shooting stills for magazine covers, for instance.
In the case of the BMPC, the crop factor is approx 3.0. This means that the image will appear as thought it was shot using a lens that is equivalent to the focal length of the lens multiplied by the crop factor of the sensro. So on the BMPC, a 50mm EF mount lens will capture an image with framing which is (basically) equivalent to the same image captured on a 5dMkII using a 150mm lens (50mm focal length * 3.0 crop factor = 150mm).
This clearly demonstrates the contention about sensor size on the Blackmagic and other small sensor cameras, as it necessitates much wider lenses in interior lenses – and wider lenses come with their own issues. The small sensor also serves to diminish the Bokeh effect, as discussed elsewhere in this thread.
Sorry if I misread the intention of what you are trying to illustrate here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_factor
In reading back over this, I think I understand what your chart is saying now – I was just confused because I ALWAYS start by choosing which 35mm lens I want to approximate, and work my way backwards from there to find the appropriate lens for whichever camera I am using. (e.g. I want the framing of a Canon EF 85mm lens, so I would have to use a Canon EF 28mm lens to get the equivalent framing.
I am unsure if Micro 4/3 lenses are labeled according to the *equivalent* 35mm lenses, or if they are actual 35mm focal lengths. Important to know!
Yeah, sometimes I get confused too. There are different ways to illustrate this. So I’m saying that if you put a 10mm lens on a Blackmagic Pocket Camera it will have the same field of view as a 29mm on a full frame camera. So if you read the chart, pay attention to the numbers on the left column under BMPC. Those numbers are the mm of the lens that you would put on your BMPC, and the following numbers are what those lens on the BMPC give you in terms of FOV on BMCC, S35, & 135.
Line 4 states: A 7mm lens on the BMPC = the FOV of 9.1mm on BMCC, the FOV of 14.7mm in S35, & the FOV of 20.3mm in 135. So in order to get the the focal length of roughly a 20mm lens on a 5DMk2, you’d need to put a 7mm lens on your BMPC.
Hope that helps. Probable just more confusing.
The focal length of you Full Frame camera will be multiplied by 2.9
The focal length of your S35 camera will be multiplied by 2.1
The focal length of your BMCC will be multiplied by 1.3
Jake, I started with the desired lens selection of the blackmagic Pocket Camera, and then followed with the lens FOV they are equal to on different cameras. So might might call this backwards. haha 🙂
I love to shoot wide, so for me this camera will require the acquisition of some fast + wide lenses… I’m talking about 5.5mm to 9.5mm lenses will get you ultra wide which in 135 terns is the equivalent of 16mm to 28mm. The only problem is, lenses which are both super fast and super wide aren’t widely available in formats other than S16 lenses, and S16 lenses that are both fast and wide aren’t cheap. This however does not dissuade me. This is a beyond acceptable format choice, in use since the 1920’s, and has some of the best optical glass available (though expensive by indie standards), with a M4/3 mount you’re not limited to the S16 lenses, you can put nearly any glass ever made on this thing, barring 8mm, of course.
If you’re looking for wide, a sigma 8-16mm 4.5-5.6 would be the Full Frame equivalent to roughly a 23-46mm lens. Or as I I like to think of it (being a S35mm Shooter) roughly a 17-34mm lens. Or if you need a constant aperture the ubiquitous Tokina 11-16mm 2.8 is the Full Frame equivalent of roughly 32-46mm (S35 23-34mm). How wide does somebody need. Full frame is max ultra wide at 14mm, S35 is max wide a 8mm, S16 mm is max wide at about 3.5mm… Place your camera further back! haha ;P
What we should be talking about is how exciting it is that this camera enables the use of what 135 users would consider standard to medium lens (1.2, 1.4, 1.8,)(35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 100mm), which become fast telephoto lenses! Yay!
For wide zoom – M4/3 Panny 7-14 or 4/3 Oly 7-14 f4…
Nah – perfectly clear now. I was just coming at it from the opposite direction. And for sure on the telephoto end of things, for birds and nature, it really is pretty cool. Harder / more expensive, as you said, to acquire wide and fast glass. 🙂
John can you please enlighten me on what ETTR is and how one uses it? Thanks.
It’s a very involved and lengthy discussion but simply put. Expose To The Right or ETTR means you are pushing the exposure UP, right up towards the *right* of the histogram (which is where the phrase comes from.)
So I use the 100% zebra to indicate sensor clipping, and then I lift the exposure until it’s starting to clip in the highlights. Then I decide, what I want to have clipping and what I will bring back by slightly bringing back the exposure. This means I’m taking the overall exposure much higher than most that shoot video would traditionally do. In fact in most cases in shooting digital, many tend to go the OTHER way. They expose to the LEFT to protect the highlights. The idea being that you *trade* your shadows for some extra highlight detail. The BMCC doesn’t work very well suing ETTL at all, and I’ve found that ETTR works best.
You can google ETTR and ETTL to read some more on the idea. The point is, that just about every other digital motion camera likes TTL. The BMCC likes ETTR
jb
Its great to see the discussion and many thanks for sharing. How do you thing its capabilities to shoot raw would go if it was employed in the green screen environment?
sorry that was meant to read, ‘think’, not ‘thing’.
Im sure you could just compare the the BMCC for the answer to that.
jb
John,
Any chance of the 4K test footages?
Yes soon.
jb
Looking forward to it.
Hi John, Great work.. Would the Olympus 14-35mm f/2.0 ED SWD Zuiko Zoom Lens and the 35 – 100 lens work on this camera.
Yes. They should work. But the adaptor isn’t working yet. I own both of those lenses 🙂
jb
I have both of those lenses as well. Would a firmware update make the adaptor workable?
No e -mount ??? SAD
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I’m looking at zooms, some are super8 as in Angenieux 6-90. Looks good, but how do you think it would do–if at all–on the Pocket? If I’m reading the mm numbers right, the Pocket sensor is about 1/2 size of APS-C. That doesn’t bother me; I’m more interested in lens field of view on the sensor, whether Super8 or regular 16mm C-mount zoom lens would do well on the Pocket body/firmware–sensor coverage. Physical size of a wide range zoom doesn’t necessarily bother me; small set of rails or chassis works for me. Your sample images looks good–impressive all ’round–how it handled the light, detail, exposure didn’t wander around.
But I’d sure like super8 Angenieux 6-90 to work. I’d be in heaven! General to specific opinion appreciated. tks; camera looks like a winner. I’m a dinosaur, hate auto focus.
It needs to cover super 16 to work.
Super 8 will be too small.
jb
I own a sigma 30mm 1.4 on my GH2 which is a great cinematic lens, your thoughts on this on the BMPC?…to big\heavy\bulky for the small form factor of the BMPC with adapter aswell? would it the Native Lumix 20mm 1.7 be more suited for this camera?
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When do we get to see your test footage from the 4k BMCC?
Beautiful video! Where is this market?!!!
Sweet. I wanted to ask the guy about his knife-making profession. I also might have to break my rule of never pre-ordering for this camera! Thanks, John.
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Hi JB: By “m4/3–>PV mount adaptor”, do you mean one of these?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Panavision-PV-lens-mount-to-MFT-micro-4-3-BMC-Blackmagic-GH2-GH3-AF100-adapter-/261134135156?pt=US_Lens_Adapters_Mounts_Tubes&hash=item3cccceaf74
… or the other way ’round?
Yep. That’s the one. Cheers.
jb
Pics are nice but what about audio? How would you fix an external mic (for instance Rode) on top of the camera? Can´t see any possibility ti fix it there.
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Hello John ! You’ve just made me fall in love with your local market, would like to visit it when I come to Australia. can you tell where is it?
I really appreciated seeing this footage, having never worked with any editing programs other than FCP7 or PP I am not too concerned about learning Resolve in the way ahead, but I’m curious about your shooting technique, does hand held mean no grip or handle, just camera in hand? I ask as I am continually trying to improve my own skills being basically an advanced student, in continuing development. I did pre-order one BTW, with the same lens you used here, which this video was very helpfull in that it removed any reservations I had about it, and an Olympus 45MM 1.8.
Hi John. Thanks for posting the great footage. Any chance autofocus will work now or in the future as it is an ‘active’ m4/3 mount?
wonderful natural looks.
a DSLR overexposed like that would just look horrible…
I’d really like to get a closer look on some original ProRes Files!
Any possibilities??
‘Wide dynamic range’
I’m trying to understand this better.
I was looking up at the BM website>
http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicpocketcinemacamera/technology
Here it shows 2 still shots –
1. Common DSLRs and
2. Raw wide dynamic range
I notice in the case of (1) There is brighter light on the cupboard, floor, wall next to cupboard and all the windows above.
In (2) the highlights become controlled in the windows. But the reflection in floor and cupboard are missing, and the blowout on the wall next to the cupboard gets controlled?
My basic understanding (and I’m no pro) this cannot happen in a real situation, right?
If the highlights and blowouts are most in the windows and if one is controlling this I don’t believe the rest gets controlled by wide dynamic range in the way those 2 photos are showing? Or am I missing something here?
It would be nice to see 2 real situations side by side done at the same time to demonstrate this better.
Also from my limited understanding of raw I believe still raw images are heavier (in file size, and detail) compared to its jpg counterparts. All video shot in raw requires fast SSD’s to capture data in real time ( and data that’s raw/ uncompressed and with complete detail). How is the Cinema DNG raw recording on simple SD’s with this wide dynamic range?
Only my 2c, would like to hear from the pros about this.
Thanks
B/w
Would this would be a good camera for a novice filmmaker? Also, what would be the best all-around lens ($500.00>) for this camera? Got $1,500 to spend. Thanks in advance for any and all advice given.
Olympus OMs are easily adaptable on m43 mounts, have a rich texture, good build quality, can be quite fast and are not too expensive.
Michael,
I believe this camera “could be” a great camera for a novice filmmaker, if you understand it’s limitations, and had a heftier budget. This camera will cost you $995 + tax ($90ish), multiple smoking fast SD cards ($140 ea. for 64GB (40min of ProRes)). Assuming you don’t already have it, some piece of motion equipment (Tripod, Monopod, Slider, Jib, Dolly, Steadicam), unless you plan to go fully handheld…. And of course no cinematography is complete without lighting!!! I won’t go into that right now.
There is no single lens that will give you everything, so you’ll have to decide what’s most important to you. Typically a “Zoom Lens” ideally with a “constant aperture” would be the most versatile option, however a Zoom (variable focal length) lens with a constant aperture (same aperture throughout the focal range) will exceed $500. It’s important for you to know the type of footage you’ll be shooting. If you plan on being very close to your subjects, you may not be so concerned about get a wide angle of view. Conversely, if your plan is to film spacious areas in their totality, or have limited space to work in, then shooting wide may be a consideration for you.
(Side note: A “Fast” Lens is a lens which allows a larger amount of light through your lens and to your camera’s sensor, thus allowing for greater control, and less artificially lighting required.)
Know that this camera favors a narrow field of view based on the lenses available for 35mm DSLR’s (Digital Single Lens Reflex Cameras). Super 16mm film lenses however are perfect for this camera, but also very costly. A PL adapter alone is $300-$1,000 and that’s just to mount a lens…. Micro Four Thirds lenses (MFT, or M4/3 as there are known) can give you some better options for wide compared to 35mm lenses, due to the fact that they are specifically designed for the newer (M4/3) format which has a 2 times crop factor compared to 135 (35mm Full frame). This means more variety and availability of wider and faster lenses (“Fast” lenses are lenses which allows a larger amount of light through your lens and to your camera’s sensor. This allows for greater control, and can decrease the amount of light required to properly expose a shot).
M4/3 lenses are available through Panasonic, Olympus, SLR magic, & Voigtlander.
For the $500 price you’ve established for yourself, that rules out all but Panasonic.
Below are some links to Panasonics Lumix Line of M/43 Lenses. Note: They are all close to $1,000 in price.
http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/systemcamera/gms/lens/
http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/systemcamera/gms/lens/g_vario_7_14.html
http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/systemcamera/gms/lens/g_x_vario_12_35.html
My recommendation is, if you have committed yourself to this camera:
Buy as you go, save up, and buy a lens, then repeat. Also I would recommend looking on eBay, in thrift shops, and on craigslist for old inexpensive SLR 35mm lens. They will work, they won’t get you wide, but they’ll get you standard to telephoto. A Canon 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 (not a constant aperture & not fast) will cost you about $100 used, and will give you a Super 35mm equivalent focal range of 38mm – 115mm.
If you’re not committed, and haven’t got the infrastructure (storage capacity) to record and store these large files, maybe go for a used GH2, Canon 7D, or T3i for less money and better accessible lens options.
One last thing to consider! The Super 16mm sensor used in the BMPC isn’t the most ubiquitous in digital cameras, so any lenses you buy now that are M4/3 or S16 will not work on S35 or Full Frame cameras (which are the standard), because they are to small to cover the entire sensor area.
Good Luck! ☺
Michael,
Additionally it’s worth a look at the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X 116 Pro DX seems to be the favorite go to lens for BMCC users. (You’d want to get the Nikon version so you can buy G mount to M/43 adapter and have manual aperture control)
Retails for $599.00 (not far off from your budget)
= 23-34mm in S35 terms!
🙂
Wow! Thank you for the in-depth reply to my questions… much more than I expected! BTW, I am an actor who wants to produce his own projects. So, the smaller the learning curve, the better.
I just wish the footage had less movement and more stable footage to get a good look at the quality. It almost seems you were in a hurry to get it out of the way. Sorry….
Hi John, thank you very much for your work!
One question: Does focus control works over LANC?
I think it should but I haven’t tested it.On the EF camera lanc focus was very slow though,
jb
John, I believe that the perfect glass for this beauty is the SLR Magic 12mm f/1.6. Gives you about 35mm focal length, and has great optics. Thoughts? Perhaps you could try it out on your next tests with the camera. Thanks, and keep up the amazing work.
I have the 12mm t1.6.
It’s a great lens, though wide open it flares easily and in non uniform ways that some wont like.
I’ve been using it a lot with the pocket. It’s great.
JB
Can Voigtlander cosina m mount lenses be used on this camera with an adapter for a MFT? That’s what I use on my Panasonic GF1.
Yes in theory.
I havent tested it yet….
JB.
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Can we have more footage with other lenses ?
i pre ordered the camera , and planning to buy the 12-35 F2.8 with a wide angle converter ( i don’t know wich one yet)
But i would love to see what this camera can give with a T1.3 aperture, to see how much shallow DoF we can get.
Thanks a lot
(and sorry for the bad english…)
Voigtländer Nokton 18, 25, 85 and t 0,95 must be the perfect choice for this camera.
Thanks for your great work, I went from want to need on this camera 🙂
Im using Premiere, and it seems Adobe has gone ahead and removed their CinemaDNG converter. Is there a substitute out there?
I was the bass player/singer you filmed; I remember seeing you but I had no idea you were shooting video; I thought you were just taking snaps. Great footage and amazing quality!
Hey John, just say your new footage and it really shows the capabilities in your hands. Since your a Anamorphic fan as well will the 16 sensor be able to handle the panasonic or soligar anamorphic adapters?
is this the market addison road? marrickville?
yes.
jb
Geez … how good is this for the money … amazing where all this is heading eh … in our short lifetime ???
Great to see you up there still aiming good stuff … love to cross paths with you again sometime … Regards
Hello John,
Great video footage. I just got my camera recently after a long wait and am new to “film” photography.
I just have a few, possibly silly, questions.
Can assume this was recorded in the ProRes422 format ? If so does the “film” setting widen the dynamic range from 10 to 12 bit or is the RAW mode required to get to a 12bit depth ?
What memory card did you use ? I purchased a sandisk extreme 128GB which is probably not quick enough for RAW.
Potential buyers should be warned about lenses that support stabilization without an external switch. I purchased a Lumix G X Vario 14-42/3.5-5.6 with “mega OIS” built in but the camera cannot switch this feature on via software. The lens you used has an external switch and although it is expensive, from your footage it seems to be worth the extra cost.
Thanks again for the great footage.
Sanjay
HI.
Yes it was 422HQ ProRes which is 10 bit. The camera is greater than 16 bit internally recording to 16 bit linear before being converted to 12bit LOG for the DNG files. These then unpack again as 16 bit files in Resolve (or PS/AE)
You need to record in RAW to get greater than 10 bit depth.
The sandisk expreme pro 95 mb/s cards should work fine for RAW.
jb
Thought you might be interested in this 48 hour film shot on the BMPCC. I took advantage of the small size for shooting low profile and made use of every stop. Thanks for watching! http://youtu.be/YlDj3amMbqs
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