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BlackMagic: Official $2,995 raw cinema camera topic
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  • Man this is the present and future of the Indie market. I don't see much negative about it, provided there are no technical issues with the device. It's pretty much 95% of what most of us want, except for high frame rates. We don't even have to wait long to see what the real deal is since they will be shipping this summer. Fun times ahead.

  • @ttancredi i love s16 look (new s35 stok become too clean and digital like) i just watch the hurt locker on blue ray ... and BMD camera has a feel (latitude ,soft organic look )of s16 mm but with better resolution .... they choose great sensor ....

  • @jfro 120Mb/s prores will suffice just fine when you don't need to push the grade a lot / don't need absolute maximum of latitude from the camera.. Remember, AVCintra100 is 100Mb/s. Good codec for fast jobs / fast workflow. Storage takes a hit in comparison to moderate gh2 hacks, but then you can always make priority for things as they are necessary / overkill.

  • How much does the hard drives cost?

  • since there is no viewfinder but a (big)screen, wonder how long the battery life would be...imagine not that long...

  • @jfro : Assuming you always have a fully loaded battery at hand, why not also keep a bunch of 2GB SD cards (at 5$ each) labeled with the settings they hold and flash in situ? This way if they ask you to shoot video, you can say "Sure! Let's just make a pee break, we'll be shooting in 3 minutes!!!"

  • @Fulgencio As I have the Hyperdeck Studio and Shuttle, I already have 3 x 120GB SSD, I get about 5hours and 40 minutes total in DNX codec .. the drives are down to about $200 each in AU. Uncompressed I get about 36 minutes total on the 3 drives, I assume RAW is same size as the uncompressed

  • @Fulgencio The hard drives are 2.5" SSD so you can buy them from computer electronic stores.

    @luxis They said the fixed battery gets 90 minutes of life. There's also a 12V-30V power adapter to use your own battery pack or hook into the wall.

    @kavadni The RAW uncompressed 2.5k footage at 24p fills up a 256 GB SSD in 30 minutes. The 1080p Prores and DNxHD at 24p fills up the same hard drive in 150+ minutes.

  • I´m mostly a Post-production guy doing 2D/3D animation and video composting, i been using the Nex 5n for small projects and i love it, but this is for me a dream camera, i don´t care too much how is looks (personally i kind of like it), but in studio production for green screen the 12bit Raw at 2.5k is invaluable, is in no way a run & gun camera, is like the old days of filming, every scene must be planned. By the footage i see no moire or heavy aliasing, this is a very good thing. Using the nex 5n in semi professional works, so, i feel very confident in the use of touch screen for video work.

    Negative: -The Battery, is totally dumb

    -Is nice to have a beautiful touch screen but the grassy monitor does not help too much for focus.

    -I´m a Mac user, but Thunderbolt only... ummmm, i don´t know.

    What could be added:

    -Some type of Viewfinder (HDMI for external monitoring could help here)

    -at least 3 user configurable buttons for faster access, as iso, shutter, aperture, etc.. (ex. nex 7)

    -Replaceable battery (please this too basic) or a battery grip.

    -Higher fps, at least 60p

    -Touch magnification as Nex 5n for focus.

    My two cents.

  • @johnbrawley Can you tell us what codec did you use for the videos you took with the BMD camera? My question is: The 13 stop DR is available for any codec or can be reached only through RAW files?

  • @xenogears battery grip is a great idea,

  • I wonder about the Thunderbolt port and it's capabilities. Can I hook up an Apple Thunderbolt display for a monitor? Can I hook up a Thunderbolt/Display port to HDMI/DVI/VGA adapters for other monitor solutions?

  • @duartix I have plenty of old cards, so I could. I test everything before shooting and once started, I'm not a big fan of change during a shoot. If I had assistant, it would be different, but when I'm doing lighting, wireless audio, and 1-2 camera's, I don't make any changes once rolling. Sometimes I go in field with 1 cam set to high bit rates and 1 cam set to low.

    I will admit to be overwhelmed some days with all the improvements being made. Doesn't give a guy much chance to fully test. In a perfect world, (which I gather isn't going to happen on GH2 without card swap) I'd have a 60ish Mb/s low mode and a 140mb/s high mode at 24p.

    If the new BM CineCam is all it appears, I will probably be very happy with my 2 gh2's as 2nd/3rd cam and leave 5d mkII to stills only. I am more wanting dynamic range than fps or 4k at this point.

  • Current demo videos for BM Cine Cam are not impressive at all - no resolution - GH2 runs circles around it.

    Not sure how they can call it the perfect cinema camera, with the footage like this.

    I want to be excited about this camera, which is almost* perfect on paper - but does it deliver the knockout video? Haven't see any.


      • sensor too small. Must be at least M43 size. Also, where's the M43 lens mount, which makes most sense for this sensor size??
  • I think it'll live up to the hype and will shoot shallow enuf focus (w/fast lensing) to make people happy. I'm just skeptical of the REAL ship date. I think they'll be swamped with orders. Also heard a rumor the RED army is massing at the BMD border.

  • @ttancredi , Good point. Agree with you.

    @mo7ies , Agree with you as well.

  • I heard 50+ orders in Australia since announced

  • Does anyone else find it bizarre that they apparently decided to put 1/4" phono (TS) jacks for mics instead of XLRs? I can't imagine how they could decide that was the way to go.... Other than that, great specs and disappointing video - so far. I hope we see some great looking video out of this camera soon!

  • Probably cost cutting measure? And perhaps the assumption of separate audio. I also noticed it's a bit Mac Centric, which is weird since it looks like FCP isn't really a player any more.

  • @brianluce

    For this particular market, FCP (X) is still a player, because this is the lower end of the market. I think FCP X was exactly made for cameras like these.

  • I'm guessing they are counting on people using a preamp or similar and line-in to the camera. (I doubt there is a good built-in preamp) In such circumstances jacks are more or less OK, imo. I would personally record sound separately and line-in for reference / easy sync. That said, I'm pretty sure there will be a syncable sound module sooner or later..

  • FCP is hardly the only available editor for Mac.. Workflow should be near perfect in Adobe Creative Suite.

  • @RRRR yep, it's a great option, but that same option is also available on a PC plus a lot of other NLE's, so I would've thought they'd go that direction.

  • @brianluce - given the choice of Canikon mounts, I think this model makes a lot of sense as it is. It seems like they intend to drive a wedge into high end video dslr sales, out of which many are more than likely to use Mac computers.. Maybe in time they will release something more similar to Vitaliy's requested features. Perhaps with m43 mount?

  • The Mac Centric thing is no doubt based on their personal experience. They must have some idea of the user base of their customers and potential market. Kind of similar reasoning of going with Canon mount. With the dominance of Canon DSLR it only makes sense. On the indie and lower end that they cater to they made the right decisions.

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