phone call from my dealer 10mins ago: camera arrived, we will ship today. (bpm Hamburg) YEAH! I ordered immediately still during NAB.

no, it does not suck ;-) Be generous to achieve some karma benefit.

@gameb @peaceonearth

I am number 13 on BPM's list (ordered and paid: April 29).... seems to be the unlucky number.... patience needed to achieve good Karma...... however there seem to be quite some people in line behind me....

Hans

@Nieuw ordered on 9th of April

Anyone who's got their pocket cam really happy with it? I had one on order but got shaken by some of the footage and the crop factor so now bought a BMCC, but not cancelled the pocket cam yet! Want to see if can convincingly use my remaining GH2 as B cam to the BMCC and if not will sell and keep pocket cam as B cam. Exciting times! confusing times!

@belfryman

I used to obsess over the sensor size of these but lensing and exposure control make a huge difference. ND + larger aperture lets you regain a more cinematic feeling DOF with a MFT or BMD's sensor sizes. When in doubt, forget about the test footage and punditry you see here and other DSLR sites and look to what DPs like Harris Savides can do with an even smaller sensor camera:

...that's from a 2/3" sensor, in the Thomson Viper. It's smaller than the BMPCC's sensor. Nobody here is shooting on that level. Savides could have talked Fincher out of shooting on that format if the result was going to be so un-cinematic as to be a mistake (and who wouldn't think so, given how bad Michael Mann's films shot on the same camera look?). But it doesn't scream video camera or un-cinematic at all. It sits rather comfortably alongside his other digitally-acquired films shot on RED.

Which amount to seconds in a feature length motion picture. Wow.

Anyone still determined to obsess over sensor size, despite a host of far more constraining production limitations (e.g., amateur writing? bad performances? less than stellar production values?), just repair here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_shot_in_Super_16

There's also the not small number of low budget FF features which are out of focus. When shooting cheap and fast, DOF is usually welcome.

@BurnetRhoades
Actually Harris Savides "could" because he died early this year ;o)

Zodiac is a great example, as "Benjamin Button", that was shot with the very same camera and it pushes it ahead since he "mimics"/emulates several film stocks through the movie. I´ve watched in a theater and it blew me away! Can´t get more "cinematic" than that! Cheers

Yes, he "was" my favorite living DP. I was very sad to read of his passing. It didn't matter what format he shot on, the result was fantastic.

In addition to his work on the Viper folks should also look at other DP's work with the SI2K, a small format camera who's imagery is featured in films like Slumdog Millionaire.

The Super 16 stuff is a great reference too. In addition to films you have fairly cinematic programs like The Walking Dead still shot on the format. I don't like how it looks broadcast but it's quite nice looking on BD.

hey hey. Some of the best looking films over the last few years were shot on s16..

I can see why sensor size would be a concern for those who have limited means to get quality optics (are heavily invested in optics for larger sensors).

For cinematography, though, sensor size is not a major factor. If you compare film and digital, there is actually a bigger difference in-between s16 and s35 (given the very clear texture differences) though it can be hard to spot with certain stocks. In between a s16 and s35 sized digital sensor, the differences are much smaller. Obviously there might be differences in texture but they might be nearly identical.. detail (the amount or lack thereof) won´t necessarily give away the sensor size. Images can be made to look one way or another.

Optically, the differences need not be noticable at all, and you have the possibility of shooting with a normal DOF at lower light levels (or lower sensitivity) with the smaller sensor.. which is much more useful for moving images than having the possibility to shoot extremely shallow DOF on full frame..

In my opinion micro four thirds (or thereabouts) is a perfect all round size for a digital sensor for moving images as it strikes a fine balance between the possible looks that can be had and the amount of light needed to obtain good results.

If you need a sword you need a sword, if you need a knife you need a knife and if you need an axe you need an axe.

The pocket cam will be a tremendous knife.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme