Chrad

Reminder, 40 minute live Q&A with BMD on the new cameras coming up in 38 minutes (at 12 PM Pacific) here:

http://www.newsshooter.com/2013/04/08/watch-our-newsshooterteradek-live-coverage-of-nab-2013-from-1200pm-pacific-time-tomorrow-live-guests-include-blackmagic-design/

It's impressive and I've worked in 16mm for 30 years and it'll be great to be able to use 16mm cine zoom lenses.  But honestly, can't someone take them aside and show them what a camera looks like?  Absolutely terrible form factor.  No viewfinder for shooting in daylight and maintaining focus.  No XLR connectors or a small auxiliary connector for input from a mixer.

Just attach an LCD loupe and there's your viewfinder. Cheap solution.

They couldn't fit an XLR connector on that thing if they tried. Best option is still an external recorder + shotgun mic, sadly.

Is the GH3 still relevant?

1. Shoots slow mo

2. Bigger sensor

3. Takes photos

If you want to take photos with the M43 lenses you use with your BMPCC, and get the bonus of a decent B cam that can be used for slow motion work, then yes. 

But it needs a price drop yesterday.

Although, let's not forget that if you're so inclined, you can go to a store and take home a GH3 today. BMD have a lot to prove.

I don't know what to do - preorder Pocket Camera or buy GH3?
Hope they will release some test shots soon.

 

If you like photography, the choice is easy: both.

The Pocket camera is goddamn beautiful. I mean, wow, wow. Wow.

What an amazing machine.

This is soooo sexy.

Add a pistol grip, add a lcd loupe, and done! (and I will add my tine petit cinevision anamorphic.. :))

Yep! A true 3 points of contact handheld rig.

Wondering if the Pocket Cam shoots uncompressed to an external recorder.

But if the lossless compression is good enough, it shouldn't matter.

"The removable rechargeable battery can be swapped quickly, so is perfect when you're on the run!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GwjfUFyY6M

This is a CF card, not a SD :)

Damn, you're right. So the question stands: how the hell do you record uncompressed RAW to SD? It's a bummer if an external recorder is required.

The BMC Pocket Camera does compressed raw too, which is about 3:1 compression ratio. So, for 1080p 24 fps you should see data rates at around 27-30 MB/s. Would be great if it can do 1080p50/1080p60 as well, which would roughly be the double bitrate - but I don't have my hopes set too high on that.

You sure about that? I know it does ProRes, but they don't advertised compressed RAW anywhere for the pocket cam.

EDIT: Never mind, just read it on the official page.

so, its 3x crop factor for the small one ?

Are you sure… mft is only 2x.

This one is super 16mm. Smaller than MFT.

The crop factor (vs full frame stills cameras) should be close to 3x.

The upside of this is that you can use old C-Mount 16mm lenses.

If you're interested in the new cameras (who isn't?), you might want to head to DSLR News Shooter in about 8 1/2 hours.

At 12:00 PM PST they're streaming a live Q&A with Blackmagic, here:

http://www.newsshooter.com/2013/04/08/watch-our-newsshooterteradek-live-coverage-of-nab-2013-from-1200pm-pacific-time-tomorrow-live-guests-include-blackmagic-design/

No, I have a Tascam on my GH2 rig, headphones, no problem.

I was just saying that a BMPCC + HDMI EVF + pistol grip is a great low profile rig, but you'd need a sound recordist. If you build a cage around it then sure, you can have a reccorder + shotgun mic, no problem.

On behalf of the whole forum...

 

Indeed.

But shit just got even more real for the big players in this industry...IF Blackmagic have sorted out their production problems.

I'm hoping the situation is that they simply made a decision last year to not bother to ramp up production on the original cinema camera, because they knew they had two cameras in the making that made the original irrelevant. If they're still experiencing the same difficulties in getting cameras out there, this is all just a big tease.

The Pocket Cinema Camera has really captured my imagination. Just think...if you attach a pistol grip to the bottom and an EVF to the back, and keep your other hand on the manual focus ring, you have a very practical run and gun handheld set-up with three points of contact.

Of course, you'd need another person with you to record sound.

The Pocket Cam looks shockingly, shockingly tiny. Like it might actually fit in pockets.

Let's hope they have cooling under control.

Good point on 1080p RAW. But still...damn.

They're not kidding when they say 'Production Camera', as the hardware and storage requirements for dealing with 4K CinemaDNG RAW must be frightening, even with the compression. On that note, surely uncompressed is an option as well...right?

This is a very smart move, as the BMC was sort of awkwardly positioned as a camera that was a bit too expensive for no budget enthusiasts, and (at least perceived as) a bit too limiting for big production houses. With the two new products they've plugged the gaps very well. The only problem is the lack of Resolve on the Pocket BMCC. If you are going to shoot RAW, you'll need DaVinci Resolve, or an equivalent program. Otherwise, what's the point?

I'm wondering about the noise and of the stepper motors or the shake and noise of the servo motors.

Is recording sound on the rig still possible?

The raw footage from the 1DC doesn't have audible engine noise at all. This thing is very quiet.

I wonder if they have higher frame rates now.

Probably not.

Who says it's shrunk or cropped? Could it not just be a regular MFT sensor?

They're marketing it as a 1080p super 16 sensor. Super 16 is smaller than a MFT sensor. 

BMCC was a 2432 x 1366 2.5K camera.

They're calling it 13 stops, which matches with the BMCC sensor. I'm guessing they've cropped it to the super 16 size, leaving them with 1920x1080 or so. Makes more sense to reuse the BMC sensor than develop a new one.

It looks small and lightweight enough to put on a lot of basic rigs, or a Glidecam, which is pretty amazing too.

One problem with the BMCC mini: how the hell do you record uncompressed RAW to SD cards?

EDIT: Looking around, seems you'd want a bunch of these:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/841569-REG/Lexar_LCF128CTBNA1000_128GB_CompactFlash_Memory_Card.html

You'd need at least a 125 MB/s write speed. 128GB gets you 15 minutes of footage, so still better than the film days. And of course, you can reuse the cards.

Pro-Res is of course the saner option.

So maybe they haven't bothered to fix the problems with the BMC and mass produce it because they realized there was no point in pushing a camera with that many flaws when they could produce something that much better just around the corner?

While the Production Camera is amazing for $4000 (global shutter WHAT) the Pocket BMC may be the one no budget filmmakers everywhere have been waiting for. A shrunk (cropped?) original BMCC sensor with an active MFT lens mount for $995. If you're a GH1/2/3 user, you can use all your Lumix lenses, and if you have a standard HDMI EVF, it supports that now too, no need for an SDI-HDMI convertor. 

GH3 will need a price drop, and fast.

Guess the 4/3 Rumors post that no-one believed from last year was true!

Thinking about this, they haven't just killed the Red and Canon offerings, but also the Digital Bolex, if that thing was ever going to be brought to market. If you want a Super 16 sized sensor, here it is for $1000. If you want no rolling shutter, here it is for just a bit more than the Bolex S16 would cost, thanks to a global shutter/CMOS combination.

Makes me feel bad for those guys, to be honest.

Looks good, but need to ship in volume.

Pretty shocking how BM haven't been able to do this as of [b]NAB 2013[/b]. And that's a company with experience manufacturing hardware.

Hopes rest with GoPro for a mass market RAW-shooting cinema camera.

worse of all, there's nothing here in terms of camera movement that I haven't seen before.

The shot looking down the narrow spiral staircase as the camera descends is probably the only thing that couldn't be done with a traditional Steadicam set-up (or a Steadicam + crane, in the case of the taxi shot, which is admittedly impressive in its complexity).

Laforet's imagination seems pretty limited. If you're going to make a short where every shot is meant to demo a stabiliser, you may as well let the thing really fly. Up, down, left, right, go nuts in 3D space.

Well...I guess there's your S35 BMC.

Let's hope they're more successful at bringing it to market than Blackmagic have been.

Too many people judging this on one video, a video that is clearly made to show off this kit in every shot....

 

Think about what YOU can do with something like this.

Exactly. If you use this selectively, for the occasional Martin Scorsese track-in or that one virtuoso scene that bridges together 5 groups of people in one tracking shot, it could be a terrific tool. If you use it all the time, it will be as annoying as constant razor-thin focus. In that respect, the 5D Mk II comparison could be spot on.

The video was in some ways bad, but that doesn't mean the technology is bad. It's not the device's fault that heads were getting cropped out of frame, but the operator's. The footage looked terrifically steady, and when the shots worked, they worked really damn well. 

It was stupid to shoot the whole thing at T1.3. No real SteadiCam operator would do that, but like a lot of hardcore HDSLR acolytes, that's LaForet's thing. You shouldn't judge this device based on his decision to throw everything out of focus in a tracking shot.