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2K BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera, active m43, $995
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  • @mpgxsvcd: from the BMC site: "The active MFT mount is powered so is capable of providing electronic control of focus and iris." http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicpocketcinemacamera/technology/

  • PLEASE help me understand this. I am a run and gun doc filmmaker and will be shooting a fair amount of shots indoors. I was thinking about buying this, and paring it with rokinon cine lenses and a speed booster by meta.

    I have 2 questions for you.

    1. would this setup do well for indoor shots.

    2. would the DOF be shallow if shot at something like 1.4 t with the speed-booster? would it look like an APS-C sensor (7d) at 1.8 or 2?

    Thanks greatly.

    -NP

  • @Sangye : C mount was just that, a mount... A C mount lens will only cover this sensor if it has been designed to cover S16, but most C mount lenses were designed for low budget 16mm cameras and video cameras with a 2/3" tube or sensor, so they will vignette on this sensor, particularly the wider ones... You definitely want to look for S16 (and wider formats) lenses.

  • I might be wrong, but i think that "Focus" button is for focus peaking assistant.

    And I've sold a TV Zoom 11.5-90 f2 for 40 bucks a couple of months ago because it was useless with my GH2 :S

  • Question: will ALL c-mount lenses work with this camera? For example, will this 16-64mm f/1.4 work? Equivalent FOV to 48-192mm on FF, which is a nice telephoto range, at a constant f/1.4 aperture.

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/FUJI-FUJINON-TV-Z-1-4-16-64mm-C4x16-RARE-LENS-C-mount-Filter-67mm-/200912130125?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item2ec74bd04d

  • -I noticed on a video that it seems to have a built in intervalometer of some kind that a nice add on.

  • It has "Focus" button. I will be surprised if it supports AFC flawlessly.

  • Has anyone found a definition of "Active m4/3s mount"? Does that mean Aperture control and focusing or just aperture control?

  • With a 3x crop the fastest f-stop will be a f2.8 compared to a full frame sensor even with the fastest lenses. Not very attractive but liveable. Less than the focal length tripling I'm more concerned about this f-stop increase.

  • Interesting image comparison between DSLR and POCKET cam in Black Magic Design website. In the dslr image there is sun light in the flor and in the mobile/movable and much more sun coming from the window. In the pocket cam image there is not the same amount of sunlight. Wouldn't be better to use the same light in the image to compare?.

    @apefos, they are demonstrating how blown out the image would look in comparison to the ability to capture all the DR with a RAW image. It's a bit exaggerated but basically that's what would happen if you recorded a window with full sun shining thru. 8-10 stops of DR won't be able to capture it. You could expose for the scene but then the interior would be too dark.

  • This thing is 3.02x crop factor comparing to a dslr film camera 36x24mm negative. (considering the diagonal measurement)

    I understand pixel density and pixel size in microns, and I think low light will not be that bad (1600 iso), but cannot be compared with a fs100 or c100 or 5d3, or even with the D5200 wich has clean 3200 iso after denoise.

    I think this camera will be a Prores camera until the "super fast" SDXC large storage cards come to market (super fast 2TB cards or inexpensive super fast 256GB cards)...

    Speed Booster will be a must for decent shallow dof, but not everybody is worried about shallow dof.

    To be honest... for my low budget indie route, the amount of storage (cards and computer HDD), low light and dof performance, post production workflow, keep me in the GH2 (hacked) / T3i (with VAF and ML) way...

  • erase double post.

  • Ok let me rephrase....Since I shoot Cinema light isnt REALLY an issue...need light = find a way to add it....however I am worried about 2 things....#1.Having literally no shallow depth of field and just this razor sharp hyperfocal distance due to sensor size and #2 Is the crop factor... wont this be like a 3x crop?

    All those worries aside for that price >>>>>screw it I am getting one regardless.

  • @No_SuRReNDeR and others - Low-light performance is going to be pretty much the same as the BMCC. The active pixel density is the same, it's the same generation sensor, so it'll have virtually the same low-light performance. It obviously won't be on par with a 1D, but with fast lenses it'll be quite good.

    Sensor size really doesn't matter as much for low-light performance as everyone seems to think. What matters is active pixel density.

  • I think its fair in BMD defense to say that this is just to help better explain how dynamic range and raw shooting is better is than the usual DSLR compression. Obviously these shots arent litteral...its like when the laundry soap commercial shows the batcteria they kill with their better soap. My only gripe with this cam is the sensor size...but I suppose with a speed booster attached maybe that would make up for the crop factor being so bad. Super 16 is too small, IMO and I worry about low light performance as well...

  • @QuickHitRecord @Vitaliy_Kiselev , wouldn't the strange position (so low), be due to the aspect ratio of the sensor (seems near square), and wanting to start the scan from the actual top of the sensor. if they centered it in the middle it would have to crop the top and the bottom, making for either a more complicated crop/calculation, but also possibly leading to a delayed first line of actual imaging scan. To me it seems like a simpler solution offset the sensor vertically, then to start scan from top of sensor, and not wasting time on initial scan lines that aren't even used in the final image, just to be cropped. Ideally the scan could stop at the end after 1080 lines, so the next scan can start (less rolling shutter), but less ideally, it would be a more simple crop to drop lines after 1080.

  • _gl are you serious?

    @luxis, very. I shoot 3D with two GH2 bodies, so I need to carry two of everything on foot. I usually like to take stills of the same same scene I've just filmed, in case I need it for high-res artwork later. So being able to do both at the same time from the same setup is hugely convenient.

    Some people might also just want to throw one in a bag with a pancake, so if you can extract decent stills from it, all the better. The pixel quality and colours should be very good, but is 1080p a dealbreaker? Something I'm thinking about ...

    In the dslr image there is sun light in the flor and in the mobile/movable and much more sun coming from the window. In the pocket cam image there is not the same amount of sunlight. Wouldn't be better to use the same light in the image to compare?

    @apefos, that's exactly what I thought when I saw those shots. A lousy comparison that looks like slight of hand, I doubt they need to do that so it's just sloppy.

  • Interesting image comparison between DSLR and POCKET cam in Black Magic Design website.

    In the dslr image there is sun light in the flor and in the mobile/movable and much more sun coming from the window. In the pocket cam image there is not the same amount of sunlight. Wouldn't be better to use the same light in the image to compare?

    http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicpocketcinemacamera/technology/

    In the test below, the Prores does not have the same dynamic range as Raw. Will be possible to work with raw with SDXC cards? Or will Prores with film log deliver same 13 fstops DR as Raw?

    http://cinescopophilia.com/blackmagic-cinema-camera-raw-vs-prores-in-a-minute/

  • @_gl are you serious? if they put what they promise as far as video for under a grant and you are still worried about a photo snapping? just get a used tiny gf(2-100euro,3, whatever) and snap all the photos you need in raw,it is decent. There ain't such a thing that is going to do all for nothing(corporate shark laws and simply technology issues) same goes for the rolling shutter btw. at least they are trying to bring this change about. If they succeed in this(mass production, fast shiping and keeping the price tag) we might be seeing lots of improvements for still a decent price soonafter. Would just require a little patience, in the mean time you can always buy or rent a red, alexa or whatever you needs are calling for.

  • I made a reservation for mine at a local reseller. I can opt out at any time for free.

  • The more I look at this camera, the more and more it makes sense.. can take nearly any lens you can throw at it.. due to smaller sensor and MFT mount.. that was one of the bigest advantage of the GH2 besides the hack, and this camera is evn more lens agile.. If it is what BM says it is, 13 DR and as good of image as the BMDCC for image quality in 1080HD.. this thing will be the king of low budget productions.

    Still waiting to see some real footage from this thing before I order one... but that is all that is holding me back. BMD if you reading this , release some native footage of this thing.. I'm sure I'm not the only one holding my breath to see some real footage.

  • OK, so for those of us who also shoot a few stills, is 2mp enough? RAW with very large DR is a plus, does it make up for being stuck with 1080p resolution for grabbing stills from video?

    EDIT: ... and of course having rolling shutter artifacts on those stills.

  • @ixvi my favorite supplier bpm Hamburg

  • Yup I didn't think about the possibility to buy cheap chargers on Ebay since it's a Nikon battery... Time to go back to bed !! Sorry for the unconvenience !! :D