Back to the brown stuff.. are you guys finding the FilmConvert BMCC color pack not working well? I tried it with some of the ProRes files available for download and thought it looked great.

RE Filmconvert:

Try the GH2 and Standard Profile in FC, that was an interesting way to start things out when I tested with the 2.5K. I have not tested with the Pocket Camera at all, though.

I'm going to try to shoot straight Video mode soon, it seems to be more appealing than the Video mode on the 2.5K.

Can anyone who's received their Pocket Camera from CVP help me? I asked CVP about my position on the list of pre orders but they are being really shady and not telling me anything. The last email I got was stating that they made deliveries for orders from April 8, 2013 at 18:00 / 6:00 PM UK time im guessing.

Has anyone received theirs yet from ordering after 4pm UK time on the 8th? if so, are they re calibrated already?

@kholi Thank you kindly for taking the time to post a detailed explanation; your effort is much appreciated. What I'm trying to understand is when the footage is acquired with a logarithmic curve, as it is when choosing film mode, do the changes one subsequently tries to make to said footage in Resolve also follow a Log workflow? Or is using a LUT converting the footage to a linear curve and therefore making changes in Resolve more representative? Apologies in advance, I know fuck-all about this RAW/Log footage business, though some things would appear to be self-evident.

On a separate note I took a few shots with some of Olympus's high grade lenses (7-14, 14-35 & 35 -100mm) and the images are fantastic. Those lenses seem like having a full set of primes as they keep their sharpness and low-distortion characteristics thoughout the entire zoom range. Also, I will be posting some info regarding the line input on the blackmagic forum in the next few days. So far it appears mic > preamp > camera is a perfectly valid workflow, eliminating the need for an external recorder if one wishes to travel light, so-to-speak.

Cheers

@Spacewig

You are not alone. I'm still new to the operating side, way new... so, grain of salt here.

If I understand your question, then either way is actually right. If you decide to just work with the LOG as the base, without pre-applying a curve before your first node in Resolve, then that's right. You even have a LOG panel in Resolve.

Deciding that you want to work within broadcast spec is also technically representative of where you're going with the footage, as in the final delivery. But, it definitely reduces the amount of data you have to work with before your first node.

You'll notice some people drop a LUT on the last node, some start in the project panels, and some do not use LUTs at all. Someone explained to me that if it gets you to the look you want and your scopes read properly, it kind of doesn't matter how you got there (Unless someone's paying for the work xD)

RE: Brown Cast

I posted this still a day or so ago: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/144439#Comment_144439

If anything, it's a slightly green cast to my eyes, and when probed, but does it have the same cast to others that are spotting it?

I'm curious, I do see it but I'm not sure if it's an inherent trait or if it's uncorrected footage, film convert, old glass, etc. that people are seeing.

None of it's the wrong shutter speed, the camera has a weird shutter angle bug @ 180.00, it's well known.

"It just seems people think they can pick this camera up.. Point and then shoot and expect it to produce faultless images out of the box like the gh3 and/or the mk3." The Irony. No camera is pick up and shoot "faultless" images. Most people around here seem to know what is or will be involved in shooting high end video with this camera or any other Prosumer grade camera for that matter. Regardless of camera... it is and will be for the foreseeable future a TASK to achieve quality results.

Can you give me an example of this "really bad" footage.

Sorry I am not going to point out individual videos as really bad footage as I am not here to point fingers at individuals and their work.

if you do a search for "blackmagic pocket" or "bmpcc" on vimeo and look through the videos I am confident you will find the majority of the footage is out of focus, jittery, soft, at the wrong shutter speed etc etc etc.

If people disagree with me basically they are lying to themselves. We know what this camera is capable of, both from the specs on the box to the half dozen excellent videos online. These two things alone also drive home my point at the rest of the "really bad footage"

I am not here talking about the videos not conveying good stories or interesting subject matter....I am looking at this purely from a pixel peeing technical exercise. If I didnt know what this cam was capable of and based my purchase purely on the footage I had seen I would not be buying this cam.

I wish the auto exposure feature had an option like the ETTR implementation in Magic Lantern to allow a certain percentage of the highlight range to blowout. It works pretty well there to allow speculars to still clip without forcing your whole image into total underexposure. Or they could put a -/+ EV setting in the menu, I guess.

Manual focusing with the LCD isn't as bad as I expected. Although at this point I've been pulling focus long enough that a lot of it is by feel, not strictly by what the monitor is giving me, but as a way to stay in check, it seems workable.

The camera sure heats up quickly... and the battery life is blink-and-you'll-miss-it!

It would be awesome if we could get the option of loading different LUTs into the camera, or at least tweaking the preview monitor video curve somehow. In other words I'd like to record LOG and use a different gamma curve on the video preview that has a little more punch to it (a B&W mode would be cool too).

In case anyone's wondering, you can just barely get away with shooting a 35mm with the Kowa 8z. At a 105mm equivalent, that's not much of a surprise given the GH2 can eke by with a 50mm on the same lens (i.e. 100mm equiv).

And now for something really trivial... I cannot for the life of me figure out how I'm supposed to loop the string for the camera strap through the loop on the camera. I always suck at these things though.

@Oedipax You can record in Film mode while viewing Rec. 709 at the same time. Just go to playback in the menu and select Video instead of Film.

So I'm assuming you're using the auto IRIS feature to set proper exposure? I don't really want to do this so would rather control my own iris setting, hence the variable ND. You guys sticking with 800 ASA base as well? I keep reading conflicting info on this as I'd like to lower it all the way to 200 but been reading that it is bad practice.