RickToxik

[quote author=biginvegas link=topic=596.msg4149#msg4149 date=1334673184] It shoots RAW.  In my mind the only application for RAW is to grade for ... a cinema screen or a higher end commercial.[/quote] yes it's a cinema camera or so they say! [quote author=biginvegas link=topic=596.msg4149#msg4149 date=1334673184] That means this camera is for indie filmmakers wanting to make a narrative low budget feature. How many  films does the average independent filmmaker make a year?  Even if you make one a year, that's a 3 week shoot. [/quote] The RED cameras, the next best (RAW) thing, rent starting at 600-700$ a day I think. [quote author=biginvegas link=topic=596.msg4149#msg4149 date=1334673184] For the doc feature filmmaker, in my opinion the biggest growing market for camera manufactures this camera seems to be unsuitable for even 1080 capture. It's internal battery system is baffling. [/quote] The battery lasts 1.5h., and you can power up the camera with other (than original) 12-30V units.  Yeah well I believe RED's batteries are quite expensive too, and they don't last that long neither - I might be mistaken. [quote author=biginvegas link=topic=596.msg4149#msg4149 date=1334673184] This camera is for a production company with several DSLR's, an AF100 who need cheap fast 2K for grading in studio and green screen and occasionally rent lenses. [/quote] Exactly.  This camera imo is meant to be mounted on a rail, a crane or a solid tripod during a very well planned shooting day.  For the only reason that it does not pretend to eclipse the dslr, but rather to offer some competition to RED, SonyF3 and friends FOR the price of a DSLR!  It is definitly not an interview/vacation/timelapse camera I think.  It is aimed at filmmaking almost exclusively.

I guess you can buy it from the online sellers, or at least reserve one.  Or you can certainly call your local authorized dealer. http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/blackmagiccinemacamera/howtobuy/ [size=18pt]Anyone can spare a three[/size][size=8pt]gran[/size] [size=18pt]for me?[/size] :P

[quote author=hmcindie link=topic=596.msg4135#msg4135 date=1334665283] What is this "extensive" post-production work you guys are doing? Everyone is always moaning about h264 breaking up, but are you actually doing anything or just moaning? [/quote] ..we're still far from Hollywood here, but I made this short in a three-weeks marathon last year with the 7D. (fiction short) vimeo.com/21606426 I don't want to monopolize this thread, I am just so excited too. I work with my 7D for corporate work and I really see the h.264 compression all the time and find it very annoying. Apart from the weird square noise patterns in the forest (1:00) that get exagerated in final compression, you can see the color banding in the skies (0:05, 1.35) (circle color gradients) in the sky in this video I shot two weeks ago. (bird watching) youtube.com/watch?v=1hWbx1IpAC8 This is canon EOS h.264.  The video could have been shot better and the grading honnestly sucks (HEY I was trying something!!  I have Resolve Lite since last week!!  hahah), but you can see those artifacts when you try to grade EOS h264. Why does your (...my) dvd looks worse than a Hollywood dvd when they share the same properties?  Because your EOS just does not support transformations, and most of all, the final recompression makes the flaws of the codec 50X more apparent.  Heavy post work in my case just means.....  Color grading!! You can't grade EOS footage shot with standard picture styles (standard, portrait, etc).  They already are stylized, you need to undo what the camera does and then grade, and it introduces artifacts and makes the codec more visible.  That's why they introduced custom picture profiles Technicolor, Marvels, etc.  But me, it gives me really so so results everytime, and it's definitly not what I am after.  The h264 artifacts always show up somewhere for me, and even if I don't have the 5D, I do have some very decent len$e$.  So when I need to have good footage for my client, I must limit the "heavy" post production and never get too creative.  Forget Michael Bay's school of unique way of tinting hahaha If I don't play too much with my footage I get decent results (corporate movie) youtube.com/watch?v=xJcZosVaV4U&feature=context&context=C446daa7ADvjVQa1PpcFNy7AE77rAm48SDb6EkmrnQJuYjw4Z9maY=

The BM camera outputs in 3 formats RAW DNG (hmmmmore Adobe), DNxHD (Avid) and Prores (FCP). The automatic modes to correct your footage depends on your software, but I guess someone (maybe Blackmagic) will make a LUT for this camera.  LUTs are files containing a curve that softwares read to balance footage automatically.  I am sure though you will want to try those adjustments yourself, you still have several months to train!

If I may.. BlackMagic is well known for Davinci Resolve, a color-grading software used in BlockBuster movies.  The new camera is specifically made for heavy post-production and contain features offered by 10K$ and up camera (for the Bit depth at least): footage that can be graded (creative color treatments), keyed (people over green screen) and mixed with CG elements (Higher bit depths). That being said, the footage that comes out of the BlackMagic Cinema Camera looks very dull and can be hard to treat in post-production! Look at what BlackMagic Cinema Camera looks like: http://johnbrawley.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/untitled_1-2-2.jpg versus 5D Mark II standard color profile: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/attachments/canon-eos-5d-mk-ii-mk-iii-hd/26308d1332879669-canon-5d-mk-iii-shipping-uk-pictures-screen-shot-2012-03-27-21.18.45.png There is no guarantee you have the ability to make your BlackMagic Camera look as good as the 5D if you don't have grading skills - I struggle with color grading flat footage. But if you try to make a serious post production with 5D footage (creative grading, visual effects), you will run into a wall, because the footage is in H.264, it is VERY compressed and you will have all sorts of distortion in your image.  If you plan to play with it extensively. Finally, it is hard to grade footage to make it look as "good" as the default DSLR (GH2, 5D, 7D) out-of-the-box clips, but it is certainly possible :-* and the Blackmagic cinema camera is designed to look like... cinema.  If we can see more samples ; )

I think BlackMagic Design created a camera that is really oriented towards post-production rather than a one button solution.  A sharpened image at capture may contaminate the whole post-production chain and may introduce artifacts (or let's say coloration) at the beginning of the process.  Also, CG animations are rendered soft too and sharpened after, thus reducing moire and aliasing. The ungraded RED and ARRI sequences I have seen were totally unappealing too. Because they are meant to be treated in post.  I don't know if they are more sharpened than the Blackmagic cinema camera though when captured, I never shot with those cameras myself.

Is the 12 bit RAW 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 or something else? I am almost sure to grab mine too, I know the guy from our local dealer teeeheeee.  I am really worried about the rolling shutter jello effect, I would like to see some tests about that and I am not alone.  It's very difficult to think in terms of "action footage" with a heavy rolling shutter constraint.  I mean, what kind of action movie does not have a fast pan??

Wow this looks awesome.  My opinions: h.264 from Canon DSLR (well from my 7D) can't be graded, because of the banding & compression artifacts. So if you fight hard to produce a movie with little means, 12 bit RAW is more important than a larger sensor captured compressed.  As stated before, Black Swan and Slumdog Millionaire were shot on 16mm and both won oscars! For any post work, comping with CG or some people also said green screen keying, the 12 bit higher dynamic range will be a blessing.  And the 2,[u]5K[/u] resolution opens a lot of flexibility in post.  Like the guy with the drones said, you can stabilize, then crop and still keep your 1080p screen full res!  And if you just resize your 2,5K frame to HD, I think you will get some extra crisp.  Some people complain on the softness of the test shots, but I reallllly prefer to sharpen in post, Resolve produce breathtaking results on sharpening I think. I like a lot the philosophy of BMD about this camera.  As stated in one of the NAB videos, they see it as an [i]acquiring device[/i] rather than a digital camera.  This means that you can bring this to post to the "big screen" I'm starting to think.  Many movie theaters project at 1080p, and film projections have been comparable to that "resolution" for a long time I believe. My biggest fears and disapointments: 1. please.  No big jello effect from the rolling shutter!!  I'm still young, I wanna run with my camera!!  ;D  This can kinda ruin a shooting day. 2. what is the crop factor on this camera?  Like the 7D is 1,6X (so a 35mm lens on a 7D equals a 59.6mm lens on a full-frame sensor). 3. Oh!!  Almost forgot!!  How do you get your focus right on that screen??  Is there a way to zzzoom&focus! like on the canons?  I hope so because the lack of focus tools could be a serious obstacle to picture quality. I definitly think this camera will kick some serious asian butts!  It's now that we see that maybe the DSLR big brands have been slowing down the market for indie film-making.  Alllright!!!  -sorry for the long post