Bruno

https://vimeo.com/74887302

 

Equally, people shot with Super 8 cameras in a similar way. Pistol grip and nothing else. It's a style. If one does not like it, get a tripod or a shoulder rig with EVF. The beauty of the Pocket is that it's small whilst the BMCC is rather chunky and heavy. You can't run & gun with the BMCC as easily as you can with the Pocket.

That's all true on paper, but really, is it that portable of a camera when you can't even format a card or delete a large bad take without bringing a computer along?
It's bad enough that a raw shooting camera doesn't shoot raw, it baffles me how BMD hasn't added these features yet!

That's my point.  When you start playing in the sub $1,000 market it's not just about "cinema" or "indie cinema."  It's also about people like me.  Prosumers that aren't trying to make "out masterpiece."  If the quality of the equipment and the price point aren't there we aren't going to shoot.

 

I still don't get you... so these cameras are good enough for indie filmmakers that can use them to shoot serious narrative films, but they're not good enough for amateurs who only shoot "stuff" casually?

You lost me, you're going on about subjects that I wasn't really talking about. :)

 

My point was, if you have something ready to shoot that you think is worth shooting and that's what you really want to do, do it with whichever camera you can get, within reason obviously. When it comes to indie cinema, if you can't shoot a decent film with a GH2 or even a 550D, it's not an expensive pro camera that will solve your problem.

That's all very nice to say, but if you really wanted to make a film you would have. Make a list of everything you want Canon to include on a $500 camera and tell me honestly, would that camera make the difference and prompt you to get out and shoot your masterpiece? I seriously doubt it, because filmmaking has very little to do with that in the first place.

 

So you have a 50D and a 600D, I don't think buying yet more Canon cameras is the best way to show them how much you disagree with them... the people who sold you those used cameras probably went and got new Canon ones, you're still buying their cameras and carrying their logo everywhere you take them you know? :)

16mm film (especially Kodak Vision negative stock), combined with a professional-grade camera like an Arriflex, Aaton or Ikonoskop, is infinitely superior to the digital video cameras you mention in your post. It's arguably still superior to the digital Super 16 image produced by the Blackmagic Pocket. I doubt that, for example, "The Hurt Locker" would have looked better if it had been shot on a Pocket.

 

That's not the point here... I didn't even compare those. I said "before digital", and compared 16mm to 35mm.

Many films, including The Hurtlocker, were shot on 16mm because the budget didn't allow for 35mm. Now tell me, would they be better off not shooting the film at all so they wouldn't compromise the image quality and their vision?

Don't know about you but I'd be pretty pissed off if my masterpiece looked like crap.

 

Skill or no skill it doesn't make sense to use something that doesn't perform. Indeed, the more skilful and ambitious you are the more you don't want your effort sullied by a sub-par image.

 

This is mostly a camera and tech blog, and it's normal for people to obsess over the tech side of things.

Of course story is the most important thing, but this is not the appropriate blog to discuss it, so for those who critique the ones obsessing over technical details, what did you expect? Would you complain because they only sell fruit at the fruit stand?

 

However... stating there's no point shooting your "masterpiece" using the tools you have at your disposal is not great advice either. For example, should Shane Carruth have kept his day job and just bitch online instead of shooting his masterpiece Upstream Color using a GH2?

Should Garreth Edwards still be working as a precarious VFX artist instead of shooting "Monsters" on a Sony PMW-EX3? Not sure he'd still be directing Godzilla now...

 

Those are just a couple examples, and before digital many people shot amazing films on 16mm because they couldn't afford 35mm, it wasn't the best format, but that didn't stop many of those from becoming masterpieces too. Should those still be waiting on the RED Dragon or whatever comes next?

 

The three most important things on any narrative film are story, story and story. And if you get those three aspects right, people will be far too involved to even think of pixel peeping. Pixel peeping happens when movies are so dull and boring that you got nothing better to do (like most you get in the cinemas these days), so you should only let camera tech details keep you from shooting your movie if you intend to shoot a very dull and boring one. Geek out all you want over camera gear, but obsessing about such details will get you nowhere near a finished quality narrative film.

 

And remember, discussing the importance of story in film on a blog like this, like I just did, is silly.

Here's an alternative battery solution/hack:

http://cheesycam.com/blackmagic-pocket-cinema-camera-diy-12v-external-battery-pack/

can you answer just this question number 9 please? thx

 

Some Micro 4/3 lens between 25-30mm would be the ideal replacement.

a reliable EN-EL20 with more staying power would be welcome, but I don't trust the cheaper, third party batteries that claim to be much more powerful.

 

At less than $10 each, I'd say it's worth a try, they probably come from the same place as the one in your camera! :)

Anyway, you can get Nikon EN-EL20 batteries at 1800mAh which should in theory at least double the battery life, instead of the factory 800mAh, right?

 

And if this camera sells well, as it should, I'm sure we'll have third party battery grips pretty soon...

In this case, one of the camera's biggest advantage, its size, is also its worst enemy when it comes to battery duration, but the point is you have options, you can choose portability and use several batteries, but if I was to shoot for a whole day, I'd have no problem carrying a larger battery in my backpack that could last all day, and I don't see that as compromising the camera size, portability or stealth factor in any way. It would still be a completely different beast when compared to the BMCC.

Can it use external larger batteries? Using loads of those tiny batteries in a professional shoot doesn't seem too practical.

Even for outdoor guerrilla style, I think I'd rather have a larger battery pack in my backpack than a bunch of tiny batteries.

who needs digital bolex now.....?

 

They're different cameras. The Digital Bolex has a different sensor with a different look. Also, global shutter is even more important in a sensor this size, most Pocket Camera handheld footage is filled with the nasty jello effect, it's almost impossible to use the Pocket Camera handheld unless you have an extreme wide angle lens, a massive rig (compared to the camera size) or an IS lens.

 

I see the Pocket Camera as a perfect B cam for the Digital Bolex though, since you can use the same lenses.

They're fixing the pocket cameras with this issue, maybe you'll have to send in your camera as well.

One of the slides makes out the + key to be a dedicated shutter button, different in appearance to the existing + key. That isn't actually the case, and have corrected it in the article bullet points.

You can use any of the volume keys as a shutter button on any iPhone, many people don't know that! :)

Where's the dedicated camera button? Do you mean the new quick access buttons in iOS7?

If they ran into that card speed problem nothing would stop them from increasing the compression ratio, they don't have to be limited to the constrains of the Internet rumors.

In a "cinema camera" I'd say raw is the main shooting format...

An external solution would still not be what was advertised, a "raw shooting $995 pocket camera".

Even in the unlikely event RAW never came along this is a major bargain.

 

I also said that, but that's not the point of my post.

 

It was announced as a raw shooting camera, prores was a secondary shooting mode.

Sony have released cameras saying they would be adding raw support later on, but that's a different thing.

The box of the Blackmagic Pocket Camera says it shoots raw, I'm sure they could get in a lot of legal trouble for that, but the point is it's just plain wrong and deceitful business practice.

 

I'd even be supportive and understanding if they had been clear about why it doesn't come with raw and when we can expect it, and explained that they released the camera without it to avoid longer delays, but the fact that they're remaining silent and selling a product that's not what was advertised is just not acceptable.

...with a promise to get raw some day...

 

A "promise of raw some day" is far from acceptable for any camera at however pricetag  that says "raw recording" in the website specs and in the box. Yes the camera would still be a great deal as it is, but that's not the point, and they should get their shit together asap.

I wonder how much difference these cards will make, even on existing cameras:

http://***URL removed***/news/2013/07/16/Toshiba-Exceria-Pro-fastest-SD-cards-UHS-II-up-to-240MBs-write

 

It's true the controller has a limit, but the real writing speed is usually well below the controller limits, could these cards improve the speed?

You can also try a Drobo, it's foolproof and simple to use, and you're supposed to keep replacing the smallest hard drives with bigger ones, and it takes care of everything for you. It never looked very professional to me, but it does look nice and simple.

What I heard is that you should plug them in every year for a day or so, not sure how accurate that is, but anyway hard drives keep getting bigger and better, and it's very likely that in a few years time you'll be able to copy a bunch of old hard drives to a single one.
I've had loads of backed up projects on Zip drives, CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays that I recently copied to a single hard drive. It's very likely that in 10 years I'll be storing all those hard drives into either a new format or an extremely fast and cheap cloud solution.

Another video from DSLR News Shooter:

https://vimeo.com/73379801

 

Besides the nasty blooming artifacts, rolling shutter artifacts look quite strong as well, every handheld footage so far has noticeable jello, hopefully stabilized lenses will make it look better.

It kind of loses the advantage of the SI-2k, which is its size.

I'd rather have it plugged into some external raw/prores recorder and battery pack (both can be placed in your backpack) than a mac mini!