Personal View site logo
2K BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera, active m43, $995
  • 4493 Replies sorted by
  • RE: lens behavior on "crop sensors". The amount of light that hits the sensor is the same, regardless of sensor size. The total amount of light from a s16 size lens and a full frame one is different (smaller / bigger image circle). DOF is different (enlarged on "crop sensors").

    When comparing lenses that are made for different image circles (s16 c-mounts / full frame lenses for instance), a s16 lens looks pretty much like a (slower) full frame lens on their respective sensors. You get a crop from the full frame lens image circle, which is the center part (generally the sharpest) but you also get an enlargement of CA, distortion (it may look more corrected) and less light falloff towards the edges - > in other words, the full frame lens will feel pretty different on a smaller sensor compared to the sensor it was designed for. (it´s noticable already between aps-c and m43).

  • @Sangye "you can get native MFT glass that is equally wide" Like what they oly 9-18? Even that distorts.

    Id assume the best youll get is the 12mm 2.0 and yeah like Shian said...800 bucks...erghh sorry too pricey.

  • I really want to buy this camera but its extra crop factor might stop me. Don't really see any way to get wide angle coverage without spending big bucks. Finally pulled the trigger on the SLR Magic 12mm 1.6 and it seems that wouldn't be wide on the pocket camera. Might be cheaper getting the 2.5K Bmcc instead when you factor buying new wider lenses.

    If I find a cheap stash of Super 16 lenses at a thrift shop or yard sales, things might change.

  • The strategy of launching the new BMPCC with active MFT months (if not longer) before the appearance of the passive MFT 2.5K BMCC is curious and may be sending signals. This will undoubtedly drive purchase decisions, too. Does anyone know if the passive BMCC 2.5K is still in the product lineup or is it being supplanted by the BMPCC as far as MFT is concerned?

  • Lumix 7-14 seems great, but really pricey..

  • Its gonna be one of those wait and see moments for me on this lill' babe. Everything looks good (we can deal with the crop) and its nifty - but Im definitely putting in an order for the 4K cam.

  • We all forgetting about our GH2 14mm kit lens that could be an asset for the BMPCC. I know it's not the best optic wise but you can get some nice footage from it, I've shot some real nice footages with it..

  • no doubt is the 14mm GH2 kit lens going to be my first go-to lens with the bmpcc for wide. I got it and its nice. :) but 7mm would be a whole other story :)

  • I am sure if they give us a proof that they really start to ship quantities in summer it will be very interesting for samyang, slr magic and even bigger companies like tokin and tamron to build some new m43 /s16 lenses.

  • @No_SuRReNDeR or 7-14mm lenses from Panasonic and Olympus... Those are optically quite good.

    And there's no shortage of good 5.5mm through 12mm glass for Super-16 and 1" C-Mount cameras. I'll be picking up a Kowa 8mm f/1.4 for my wide-angle needs.

    edit - If $800 for a high quality lens is too pricey for you, I'd stick to camcorders TBH. No offense intended, it's just that that is not an expensive lens by any realistic measure, for cinema camera uses. Zeiss Ultras and Superspeeds are expensive. Good Angenieux glass is expensive. $800 is not expensive.

  • Lumix 14mm 2.5 on BMPCC would be in normal angle like 20mm 1.7 on GH2. So are M.Zuiko 12mm 2.0 and SLRMagic 12mm 1.6.

    Lumix 7-14 or M.Zuiko 9-18mm @9mm or wider would give wide angle on BMPCC. But they are not fast, and BMPCC is expected to have not-so-great high iso performance. Loading up the $$$ fast C-mount lens... nah.

  • If BlackMagic refreshes products every year, I'm hoping a subsequent BMPCC has a real m43 sized sensor on the m43 mount body cuz that wouldn't alter the overall compact body size and we don't need to spend $$$$ for the wide angle.

  • Just for clarification - the only function the active mount allows is manual control of the iris on micro 4/3 lenses. You use the up and down arrow keys to change the aperture. There is a readout in the information bar below the picture that tells you what f stop you're at.

    That's it. No auto iris, no auto focus, no lens correction, no power zoom.

    Oh, and I guess it provides power to the lens so you can turn the manual focus ring.

  • How about an Olympus M.Zuiko 17mm f1.8 as a standard 50mm lens?

  • This baby killed Panasonic's gh2 gh3 market share boooooooom!

  • @sangye

    It's not that the Super 16 is lenses are too expensive it's the fact I already dumped a bunch of money on Voigtländer and SLR Magic glass, but now all if it is too telephoto for the pocket camera. Don't want to re-buy all new lenses just to get wider. I might skip this one and wait for one with a MFT sized sensor.

    ( I'm still pretty happy with my Gh2 anyway)

  • @Chaos123x I wonder, is there any manufacturer that makes a MFT 2k-2.5k sensor? Just curious.

  • @Chaos123x, I wouldn't be overly concerned about the Wide Angle limitations of the BMPC. It's quite possible that a solution will present itself at some point. There are already Lens makers who are pretty invested in the m4/3 format. In the meantime there are some m4/3 lenses that will get you moderately wide and you can use a GH for wide angle shots and I believe it would cut well with the BMPC. You could also consider using a GoPro Hero3 for Ultra wide shots, since that's it's specialty.

  • @John_Farragut - You mean other than the BMCC with MFT mount?

  • Super 16 - 3x crop which means a SLR Magic 12mm f1.6 will give 36mm. Hmm what are the lenses we can choose for this camera? Above 50mm on this camera will do 150mm rite?? Should we choose 10mm 15mm 20mm 25mm at the max??

  • @Sangye Well, strictly speaking, the BMCC has no FourThirds sized sensor; it is slightly smaller. Is there a manufacturer that makes true FourThirds sized 2K sensor?

  • @Chaos123x

    HEre's a video of SLRs on BV1 MFT composed and cropped to BPC (Pocket camera) aspect.

    http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/121849#Comment_121849

    I don't think they're too telephoto at all, and was quite comfortable walking around with the 12/1.6 + BPC Matte composing that way.

    IT would be nice to see an 8mm or 9.5mm from someone, that was also a great focal length for the proposed dimensions.

    As car as crops go... I side with John Brawley and have always thought for the most part... knowing can be useful if you need to match something else, but what a lens looks like on a camera is what it looks like on a camera. The numbers and all of those things don't really tell the complete story.

    But, that is my opinion and people are free to disagree, not saying the information is useless.

  • Thanks @kholi for the cropped video.. The 12mm 1.6 looks very usable for starters : )

  • Wouldn't the Lumix 12-35mm f/2.8 offer an image-stabilized full-frame equivalent of 36-105mm f/2.8? If the active mount on this camera is fully-functional, then I think that this one lens might be all I'd ever need.

  • @matthere

    I feel like the 12/1.6 will be a very standard selection on the camera. I'm on the preorder list, likely that'll be the lens I use for the most part OR...

    @QuickHitRecord

    Yes, the 12-35/2.8 . IN the video you can see DOF is nice at 2.8, I like the idea of IS as well, so I imagine I'll be picking one of these up very soon to pair with BPC.

    And when there's a need for wider, I'll have to rent the 8mm S16 and 9.5mm S16 out, but likely will not be doing that often.