Personal View site logo
2K BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera, active m43, $995
  • 4493 Replies sorted by
  • @cantsin
    When you open your DMG sequence in Resolve, you need to go to the Camera Raw settings on the Color tab (You can get there by clicking on the little Camera button below your timeline and above the controls), then select "Clip" under "Decode Using", and "BMD Film" under "Color space".
    Hope that helps!

  • I wonder whether Resolve 10 has bugs processing the BMPC's DNG footage. Even if "film" log has been activated for the raw footage, the video by default is way oversatured in Resolve, with no LUT applied. No such problems exist when opening the DNG sequences with Adobe Camera Raw in After Effects.

    Anyone knowing a good workaround for Resolve?

  • @alfaerik, if you don't need the bracket and can fashion some other attachment, I can recommend these super-cheap 12V Lion batteries from Ebay Hong Kong/China: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?221553-GH1-Stereoscopic-Rig-Collaboration&p=2243171&highlight=batteries#post2243171

    I've been shooting with 2 of the top ones with dual GH2's for over 2 years (only occasionally though) and they're still going strong (YMMV). One typically runs both bodies most of the day (you can get even higher mAh ratings too).

    I've had cheap Chinese camcorder batteries that died just from not being used, no issue with these. They even have their own on switch and internal charger.

    EDIT: looking more closely, that Ebay one is v. similar to my plastic cased ones. Probably a newer model from the same factory.

  • @jumo yes it really does help! thanks so much, I've regraded some clips and it looks a lot better. I'll shoot something more interesting in the coming days and post back here :)

  • @Brian202020 Definitely something fixed there, I can now use the Zeiss Cinemizer at 25 or 30 fps too, which didn't work before. I hope my Seetec will work as well, it's currently with a friend who was considering for his Canon while it didn't work with my BMPCC.

  • you gotta love this camera, I just took it out for a spin shot 5 mins of RAW from a moving car, brought it back home, dumped it into a Resolve 10 Lite timeline ZERO CORRECTION and rendered to Quicktime DNxHD 1080p 444 and got the most spot on footage I have achieved in age with almost zero work. Nice one Blackmagic.

  • @guosh Just keep at it, every time you load up Resolve you're one step ahead of the last time you closed it.

    LUTs will always affect the color, some more than others. LUT stands for Look Up Table, which is like a reference chart for color. Imagine, if you will, a color printer. Let's say you print an image of a red square, it will print with the red ink that is in the red cartridge, but if you take that red cartridge out of the printer and replace it with a different tone of red ink, and you print the exact same image of the red square again, the new print will look different from the first print as it is using the new red ink that you swapped in. This is basically what a LUT does, it doesn't change the original image, it just changes the references for how the colors appear. If that makes any sense.

    If you don't apply the LUT before doing your balancing, you won't have a clear view of what your image will actually look like, and it will make grading much more time consuming and difficult as you'll have to go back to basic corrections after applying the LUT, so get the LUT loaded into the LUT node right away!

    Usually, when I load a new clip, if I'm not using a basic setup from a grab made earlier, I hit alt S a few times until I have a few serial nodes, then I add my LUT to the node second from the end, THEN start my grading on the first node.

    If you apply corrections in a LUT ordered after the LUT node, you will be, in a sense, modifying the LUT, which in some cases is wanted, in others, not so much. The reason I leave a node after the LUT node is to apply sharpening (which is necessary on the BMPCC in ProRes), and perhaps a little final image tweaking. There is really no right or wrong here, just do whatever you need to get you to the image you want!

    This suggest workflow is for ProRes in film mode, in video mode LUTs can be a little strong, you can try keying the opacity of the LUT node down to taste. And RAW is a different animal entirely! I hope some of that helps!

  • @jumo thanks! i've got Ripple Training's tutorials actually but haven't quite had the time to go through them all. I'll go watch and practice a little more before posting again. Just curious though, with regard to the LUTs would the balancing of the shot in the node before applying the LUT affect the color considerably?

  • @guosh Try looking into some different LUTs - you could try using the Arri LUT in Resolve instead of the Blackmagic LUT, but you should download and try out Hooks LUT or the Kodak and Fuji LUTs. Don't just rely on them for the whole grade, but use them as a jumping off point for your grades. Also, don't dismiss the auto correct button (little A in a circle at the bottom left of the color wheels), again, don't rely on it, but it has surprised me a few times and saved me the lions share of work in balancing (just tweak from there). Oh, and watch Resolve tutorials. As many as you can.

  • @MaulKentor: I have a range of old Pentax lens both S and K mount they all work well. I have also been using Nikon AIS mount, Canon FD mount and believe it, or not, a couple of old Hasselblad lens. I prefer them to the modern Auto everything lens by along shot - they even feel better in the hand than those poorly finished plastic ones. I do have to admit though, my favourite is an old Zeiss 9.5mm T1.4 SuperSpeed - you can almost smell the quality of that little sucker.

  • @markr041 no worries mate, i'll readily admit i'm a film noob. always looking for opportunities to get better with the camera so i appreciate the comments. any suggestions on how i could grade the footage better? i'm just starting out with the camera and davinci resolve so it's definitely a considerable learning curve. nevertheless, i'm not about to give up :)

  • Kowa just demo'ed some nice m43 prime prototypes, including an 8.5mm F2.8 that would be handy for the Pocket:

    8.5mm T/3.0

    12mm T/1.9

    16mm T/1.6

    25mm T/1.9

    50mm T/2.1

    ETA next year.

  • Astraban says "I just don't comment when I don't like something." LOL. You didn't like my comment, and you did say something, didn't you!

    I actually do not want to see more space wasted here by obviously poorly-done videos (does anyone?). We are here to learn (and hopefully the guy posting that "free" video will examine the color and stabilization issues and what makes for a good video).

    Besides, the point is that too many people think, as said just above, that the cute BMPC should be handled just like a P&S or cellphone. And what we are all seeing is that is not correct, over and over again.

    And, yes, I am going to get the camera and see what I can do with it. I'll post a video if I think it's good; feel free to criticize it.

  • I can confirm that something changed with the HDMI output with this latest firmware (1.5). I have the Aputure V-Converter A810 and with the BMPCC firmware version 1.42 it only worked in 29.98p and 30p when hooked up to my consumer TV. Now with the firmware 1.5 it works at 23.97p and 24p as well. The Aputure V-Converer A810 does a resolution conversion from 1080 going in to 720 coming out, so it now converts 23.97p and 24p correctly where as with FW 1.42 it did not. Something has changed. I recommend trying some TVs, monitors, and EVFs that didn't work before, maybe they do now. Also it might be a good idea to double check your stuff that has worked in the past just to be sure it still works now.

  • Has anyone had any experience with adapting SLR lenses to the BMPCC? Specifically I have a SMC Pentax-M 28mm 2.8 that's all manual and there are a couple of cheap K-Mount adapters on amazon.

  • Hey guys, just thought I'd share my recent customer service experience with BMD:

    My BMPCC that I've had for about a month (huge thanks to @vicharris for helping to hook me up) had an extraordinary amount of stuck and dead pixels. I'm talking hundreds of them. Even visible in properly exposed daylight shooting at 800 ASA. I submitted a ticket on the BMD website, had a couple back and forth emails, sent them some demo footage showing the issue and Julian at BMD called me directly. We spoke on the phone briefly and he agreed that there was something wrong with the sensor and he expedited the RMA procedure for me. Now, about a week or so after submitting my RMA I have a new camera in hand that works perfectly (it actually arrived 2 days earlier than I expected).

    As an early adopter of this camera, I was ready for a couple of bumps. If you want smooth and easy, wait for Generation 3 of a product. If you want to be on the leading edge, adopt early but remember that you are a essentially a tester!

    I knew what I was getting into, so I am extremely impressed with BMD and how they handled this customer service issue. I'm a very happy customer now and I'm pretty sure I'll be sticking with BMD for a while to come.

    Now it's time to play with RAW!

  • Well no prob with that. Shooting anything with any cam need some (more or less) work and skills. But bashing a poor fellow who shoot something for free is little harsh in my world. I just don't comment when I don't like something... free. No prob VK I'm always calm. ;)

  • It's been talked about to death but the main problem is everyone coming over from a point and shoot camera mentality to this camera. (I pretty much consider DSLRs this now after all the post with BM cameras) It's not that. Period. I keep hearing people ask how they can get better footage right out of the camera. Hate to break it to you guys....you bought the wrong camera. I've already seen a few people get angry at BM, sell off their pocket stuff and go back to a DSLR. Nothing wrong with that but what it boiled down to, even though they made up other excuses, was they couldn't handle the workflow or any real post work. These cameras need stabilization and patients....lots of patients!!! I'm sure we'll continue to see Micheal J Fox cam footage for a long time to come and shitty Film Convert grades but if we all just take a step back and figure this little fucker out, it'll be alright :)

    But yeah, at least put it on a monopod!! ;)

  • "The truth is : if you want to see what a cam can do, buy/rent it and don't waste your time watching/bashing others attempts... seriously, what a joke."

    Thanks for the "truth" - don't watch any videos. I'll keep that in mind. I guess that also means don't post any videos, so people don't waste their time watching them. That is a joke...

  • I am a little tired of nobody using a tripod with this camera. I'll say that or at least some sort of stabilization. That's why I'm not posting any of my "test" footage. Anything I've shot with this camera so far that's stabilized correctly can't be posted yet. Hopefully some of it will be released this year :) I am going out to the Mojave Desert today and bringing a rig and real tripod. I'll have some great footage then.

  • The truth is : if you want to see what a cam can do, buy/rent it and don't waste your time watching/bashing others attempts... seriously, what a joke.

  • I am glad the author of the above video had fun. That's great. But it is yet another video that scare off many experienced videographers - the colors are downright terrible: tinted bluish or greenish and very dull. Maybe that is the author's taste in video (that's fine), but so many BMPC videos look like this one wonders if any good-looking video can be made from the camera by other than Hollywood editing pros. If a standard consumer camcorder yielded these videos, people would complain. High dynamic range (hurrah) is actually less visible than poor color to all but dr fetishists.