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Blackmagic Micro Cinema Super Guide and Why It Still Matters


crevice
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EOSHD Pro Color 5 for Sony cameras EOSHD Z LOG for Nikon CamerasEOSHD C-LOG and Film Profiles for All Canon DSLRs

@crevice thanks for posting this. I recently bought my second Micro. I still prefer ML Raw but it’s great to have a camera to use all of these SD cards with again. 

That French short film with the boy in car blows my mind every time I see it. The DR is great and the color grading is spot on. If someone told me that was shot on an Alexa, I would have believed them.

If I could get my Micro footage to look that good, I may keep the Micro. As of now, I’m not so sure...

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1 minute ago, Patrick B. said:

Just got my Micro rig and powering via SmallHD Focus works perfectly with the DC coupler dummy battery.

Cool, let us know how long the charge lasts powering the camera and monitor. I have the Ikan VL35 monitor for mine because I wanted to keep the set up as small as possible but if you’re getting good run times with the Focus, it may be worth the bigger monitor. How is the Micro HDMI Port on the Focus? Is it a flimsy connection?

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2 hours ago, mercer said:

That French short film with the boy in car blows my mind every time I see it. The DR is great and the color grading is spot on. If someone told me that was shot on an Alexa, I would have believed them.

that was my point. it's like every camera is good with this kind of grading, i guess he could have shot it with a gopro or an osmo pocket it still would be good

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9 minutes ago, thephoenix said:

that was my point. it's like every camera is good with this kind of grading, i guess he could have shot it with a gopro or an osmo pocket it still would be good

I don’t know about that, but I get your point. The dynamic range is pretty great in that short. 

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2 hours ago, mercer said:

Cool, let us know how long the charge lasts powering the camera and monitor. I have the Ikan VL35 monitor for mine because I wanted to keep the set up as small as possible but if you’re getting good run times with the Focus, it may be worth the bigger monitor. How is the Micro HDMI Port on the Focus? Is it a flimsy connection?

Will do! The seller told me he got a couple hours on the larger batteries. 

They actually designed the micro HDMI port in a clever way. It’s recessed at a diagonal angle in the bottom corner with support walls on either side of the inlet that seem to be custom fit to the cable connector so that the plug is secured and is prevented from getting stressed at the actual connection. Pretty cool. 

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awesome thread. always lovely, this tasty little threads for the small cameras and underdog lenses with the big screen image. thank you for posting, great reads you linked here! i think bmmcc shooters are like olympus xa photogs, admirerers of the tech, craft and art. their images express that thrill with exiting results.

6 hours ago, mercer said:

How is the Micro HDMI Port on the Focus? Is it a flimsy connection?

Wow, I always believed it had full HDMI. So I second that question.

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10 hours ago, thephoenix said:

that was my point. it's like every camera is good with this kind of grading, i guess he could have shot it with a gopro or an osmo pocket it still would be good

Not quite. If that was the case, we would all have gopros as our main rigs. I think you are underestimating the colors, dr, and sensor on these cameras. I get your point to a certain degree - good color correcting definitely helps any footage. But this camera has a special quality to it as do most with this fairchild sensor.

 

3 hours ago, Trek of Joy said:

Great thread, may want to clean up the OP as its a little confusing with some confusion between BM cameras. The Micro is more appealing to me because of 60p, and the OG pocket LCD is junk anyway.

Searching ebay for a Micro.....

Chris

i unfortunately can't edit, it won't let me - not sure why that's the case

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10 hours ago, thephoenix said:

that was my point. it's like every camera is good with this kind of grading, i guess he could have shot it with a gopro or an osmo pocket it still would be good

As someone who has shot with a range of budget cameras (including GoPro/iPhone/point-and-shoots/etc) and put many many hours and money into learning to colour grade, I fundamentally disagree with this.

The really expensive cameras with great colour give an image that you can just apply some contrast to and they look fantastic, but the worse the colour from the camera the harder it is to get a good grade out of them.  Of course, it's not impossible to do so, but you have to be highly skilled, lucky, or both to get that great result.

The fantastic grade on that short from the Micro has much to do with the camera, even if it was just that the camera wasn't creating an almost impossible task for the film-maker.

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6 minutes ago, kye said:

As someone who has shot with a range of budget cameras (including GoPro/iPhone/point-and-shoots/etc) and put many many hours and money into learning to colour grade, I fundamentally disagree with this.

The really expensive cameras with great colour give an image that you can just apply some contrast to and they look fantastic, but the worse the colour from the camera the harder it is to get a good grade out of them.  Of course, it's not impossible to do so, but you have to be highly skilled, lucky, or both to get that great result.

The fantastic grade on that short from the Micro has much to do with the camera, even if it was just that the camera wasn't creating an almost impossible task for the film-maker.

Well said. I have personally shot footage with the micro and simply converted with the official Blackmagic LUT and that was enough to make it look spectacular. Even better color correcting just takes it to another level.

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I just finished a short piece that was all Super 8 and the bmpcc. We had a few GH5 inserts and the colorist said they looked “glossy” compared to the pocket camera.

The small size was perfect for what I was doing and I have always loved the look. I think the S8 and bmpcc is a good combo. 

2 hours ago, kye said:

The really expensive cameras with great colour give an image that you can just apply some contrast to and they look fantastic, but the worse the colour from the camera the harder it is to get a good grade out of them.  Of course, it's not impossible to do so, but you have to be highly skilled, lucky, or both to get that great result.

I completely agree as well. Flat film scans are the same way. A beautiful look can be had with a simple three way color balance. 

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1 hour ago, BenEricson said:

I just finished a short piece that was all Super 8 and the bmpcc. We had a few GH5 inserts and the colorist said they looked “glossy” compared to the pocket camera.

This is particularly interesting to me considering that I'd love to know more about how to grade GH5 footage to look more like film.  Is there any other information you can share about what the colourist said or did to the GH5 footage?

Edit: I must say that the 4K RAW cameras have a smooth and maybe "glossy" look to them that previous cameras haven't had.

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39 minutes ago, Lambo said:

Do you think we'll ever get a true successor to this with the 4k fairchild sensor?

The new Fairchild sensor does 4k at 120fps according to their spec sheet. There are some rumors that the 4k Fairchild sensor was meant for the pocket 4k, but they didn’t have it ready in time so blackmagic went with Sony (guessing). 

I am honestly not sure who would use that new Fairchild sensor, as micro four thirds seems to be on life support. Panasonic seem focused on their full frame and blackmagic just released the larger sensor 6k. Maybe there will be a pocket 4k v2 with higher frame rates and it will still retain micro four thirds - if so, I can see that camera using this sensor, possibly. 

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