@fix

Do you guys really believe that he is trying to promote the c300 by intentional screw up the picture on the BMC? Please get serious, this I comedy :)

Well, I cannot obviously be certain about it... but look at what we know:

• His first BMC video was great and exposed properly, looked real good

• Second video was very obviously miss-exposed... plus, had weird unpleasant framing that he claims was intentional (yet we never see on anything else)

• Keeps on mentioning how this was a job better suited to a C300 non-stop

• Canon affiliate

This video regardless of camera, was NOT on par with his other stuff. There was nothing in this shoot that a 1600iso camera with a good f1.4 couldn't have exposed for properly... and I do allot of work in shitty conditions like that. Like I said, I'm not calling him out on it... just looking at what's on the table.

That being said, even if this was just a bit of an honest mess-up, and I really hope it is, things like these DO happen ALL THE TIME in the corporate/marketing world. Stop being so naive. If you really believe everyone in a position of marginal-fame or interest, in a industry, truly has your best interests at heart... and isn't just trying to sell you crap... you're in for one hell of a bad time. Look at sports for craps sake, you do good work, get to a position of recognition, then a company pays you to use and talk about their crap. You think Tiger Woods really loves Nike and Gatorade that much? Oldest marketing tactic in the book.

My rule of thumb is... that once a company gives someone a camera for a "first review"... stop watching their stuff. They've 90% of the time partnered with this person by now.

So please another tme you want to dish the camera find another subject. Blackmagic is a very smart company or perhaps I should say, a company that just does not want to screw its customers. Perhaps because I come from photography, I really cannot comprehend the dinosaur level of thinking of the video camera industry and its ussers.

haha yes, +1. It's absurd that some flavor of 2k RAW isn't a standard available on EVERY professionally-targeted video device today in the $2000-$5000 price bracket. The fact that 8-bit mpeg-2 files can appear in a $15,000 camera... and not get laughed of the market... is just crazy. It's easy to see that allot of people don't want the BMCC to be successful. It disrupts allot of people's business models and sets a new standard in price/feature marketplace. Great for new guys, very bad for the established.

BTW... does anyone remember when DSLRs were first getting really popular... and every "professional" said that they were unusable because they could not shoot to RAW? Now, all the sudden (because you can get it in a $3,000 camera), RAW is for amateurs who don't understand storage costs? :)

@sicovdplas

Most of this was shot with Leica R primes. Also some EF-S.

http://johnbrawley.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/handheld-with-a-bmcc-behind-the-scenes-with-puberty-blues/

Super 16 lenses won't cover the BMCC sensor. Cropping to 2.35 wont help.

jb

Gunleik Groven (one of the best RED specialists from Scandinavia) made a test through the whole chain including grading, where one version went from RED via DPX (massive space) and the other one via ProRes 4444 (decent requirements). You couldn't spot the difference.

It's more about habits than common sense…

please don't drag the Alexa into this.. That's a very expensive equipment that only a handful of people can afford. Believe me, people who buy/rent an Alexa do not concern about disk space. It's a totally other ball game. In that matter it's not ridicules to discus hard-drives when it comes to the BM camera. The reason is a big user group which will consist of many amatures and hobbyist. I don't believe for a second that most users in here are using an all I (150mbit) patch for theyr gh2 as an all rounder.. And there are many pros in this forum I believe. File size do matter considering who's going to use this camera. That's why danyyel tell me to mention prores.. Most guys in here know that BM raw is not going to work in the length, for that we need something clever like red-raw like with the scarlet.

People who use their cameras to film cats or dogs in their back yard (or other stuff in their spare time) won´t have any use for the bmd cam. Nor the c300. But for small production companies the BMD replaces the need to rent an Alexa / other high end camera in a lot of cases.. and can function as a b-cam in the cases where you actually spend on Alexa / other high end camera rent. So while you think it´s far fetched to drag "the Alexa into this.." it really isn´t. Mind, with a RED you get worse storage issues, even if it´s more compressed (we´re talking about 4k/5k footage).

So you see, it´s not very far fetched. For people who do this for a living (even low end stuff) it´s absolutely ridiculous to talk about disk storage as a reason to shun the bmd cam.

Mind, it was you who forgot to mention the possibility to record prores, dnxhd and was up in the air about how limited use the bmd cam would have.

It´s not a cam that I would use on any assignment, but that is the case with all other videocameras as well. For cinematic, corporate work or similar it´s a lot of bang for buck.

@RRRR I have talked with many that believe BMC is the do it all camera. So they want to self of their other cameras. I for one believe that is a mistake for most users. Even if you are pro or not. It's a good thing to lay down a couple of honest advises to those who get blinded by the numbers. IMHO the c300 is a much more robust camera for most types of work. Same with the GH2 for that manner. 12bit, prores, dnxhd and raw means option. But not better for everything.

I agree that you can most likely can use a BMC side by side with a alexa, IQ wise. But that's another subject. I'm talking about user groups for a 3k camera that is basically a raw camera with a prores and dnxhd option...many of those will not be pros. The revolution is that the layman can now own a digital cinema camera. Alexa was never or will not be that.

You don't get worse storage issue with RED, that's not true. You get worse storage issue with BMC raw even though it's only 2,5k (25/24p). If you don't know the numbers, than you are going in for a big surprise. prores and dnxhd is the only option you get to be close to RED's numbers. I love the BMC for what it is. Its a revolution. But the raw format it throws out is sadly a dinosaur. It's visually almost no difference between a 1:1 signal and a 3:1-5:1 quality compression like the redcodec. Speaking of cats and dogs. It's like trying to listen to those super high/low frequencies in uncompressed sound that even dogs and cats struggle to hear. Why waste storage on that?. the guys behind Prometheus chose 5:1 compression to save storage. I believe those guys are pros. But again , I love that we get an option, I will most likely fill up several of terabytes with this camera and e enjoy the footage. Its great that they put in Prores and dnxhd for longer takes. Hopefully IQwise it will not be far from raw.

@sicovdplas I respect your point of view on the c300. Many tend to think of it as a pure ENG camera, which I understand. Higher bitrate is almost a must if you gonna screen something at the cinema IMO. C300 fall short on that one. But straight to Blu ray or DVD is more or less ok.

I also agree that raw is raw... Term wise. But in the industry it's not. Red-raw and BMC-raw is totaly different.

@itimjim

I think you got some valid points. Im not concerned about storage costs btw. What I'm saying is that storage will be a hassle in your pipeline with raw footage from this camera. That's a bitter truth many will face. I don't nesesarly believe cineform will be a saving on this on, but it might.

It would most likely be more expensive to add some sort of onbord raw compresion, thats a given. But to what cost? Thousands or a couple of hundreds extra per camera? One thing is the cineform transcoding time you need to put into the workflow, but what about storage space needed in the meantime, before doing anything with your raw footage? I for one belive that can turn out pretty ugly, fast. But, I see your point on this one, you will probably do something similar with the R3D files in the end of the day. Difference is, they don't need to concern about filling up theyr drives with 1200mbits footage before transcoding, more like 200-300mbits. Red rocket or not, you dont need it. And honestly i dont belive most scarlet users (which is the closest RED users we can compare to) own red rocket. 200-300mbit is much like prores or dnxhd, but than your out of the raw business right. Time will tell how good prores or dnxhd will compare to raw. Maybe its good enough, or maybe you figure out that you just can't live without raw when you actually have that option in your grasp. In my mind you will eventually go for the best of what you have. I sure dident shot whit LP mode back in the tape days.. Even though it meant I could save my self from a hectic and stressful tape switching.

IMHO the c300 is a much more robust camera for most types of work.

You have to consider the cost of it. FS700 is even more robust, versatile and quite a lot cheaper than what canon has to offer.. it´s comparable to the c500 which is a lot more expensive.

So the BMC is 3k, the C300 16k, and you are putting cost of media in between them !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yea, +1. I don't even know why people bring up the C300 for anything. It's so overpriced and out-speced in every area, that it's mind boggling when people bring it up as a potential investment. You could literally get TWO Blackmagic Cinema cams AND A FS700 for the price of ONE of those 50mb/s 8-bit dinosaurs. Mpeg-2 codec really? For $15,000? Who in their right minds are even purchasing these inane cameras? Pound-for-pound in 2013... the C300 is worth about $750. Not even joking here.

I just got a quote the other day for LTO storage (which is what allot production houses use anyways) for around $3500. Tape is $30 for a TB and FALLING FAST. It's just not an issue.

Like I've been saying for the last two years... it's all about competition and markets. Allot of people just don't like the availability of RAW cinema-grade cameras for so cheap. It's upsetting technology. They'll use any excuse possible to discredit it...

another great video from OneRiverMedia! Thanks!! Great video, again!

Thanks a lot J.B. There's a lot of fine S16 lenses out there not being used so I'm trying to find out whether some focal distances or image cropping would work, since BMC shooting resolution is 2432 x 1366..

Re: s16 lenses.. the rule of thumb for c-mounts (s16´s mainly) and the gh1 sensor was that you could get full coverage on most s-16 25mm focal length primes. Obviously there would be a little more of the field curvature / light falloff than the lens designers intended but it´s a possibility, no doubt.

Wide angles are no-go, unless the ultra´s (@johnbrawley) happen to have a larger imaging area..

I have a canon 50mm c-mount (tv-16) lens from the 70´s which I´m sure will look great on the bmd cam and the new gh3.. there´s also a 25mm from the same lineup of tv-16 lenses, which could be worth a shot.