With the Sigma Fp it is definitely worth shooting 12bit RAW to a USB C SSD drive to make full use of the dynamic range.
If you don’t need to boost the shadows by 3-4 stops, or under expose by 3-4 stops to prioritise a particularly bright part of the frame, the 8bit RAW to SD card offers beautiful results.
Read moreSigma Fp first shots – how does internal 8bit RAW compare to external 12bit RAW?
There were two highlights of IBC 2019 for me. The Sigma Fp, and the Z-CAM range. From the ground-up the Sigma Fp seems to be aimed at us, at artists. A small and incredibly light camera that hits the big full frame notes, some of the niche features like the digital director’s viewfinder are unheard of in consumer full frame cameras from major manufacturers.
This is clever and will get the camera a lot of use by top-flight talent. Most exciting for me is the focus on the video recording features – which are big step for Sigma and indeed push the boundaries of what we expect from a “prosumer” camera.
Read moreSigma Fp Review (Part 1) – Cinema DNG RAW internal recording!
It’s common knowledge in the camera industry that RED owns an important patent for a cinema cameras featuring compressed RAW.
Now British third party accessory manufacturer Jinni Tech alleges RED “deceived the US patent office” and filed the critical patent late.
Read moreJinni Tech claims RED Compressed RAW patent filing is invalid
Sigma has surprised us all and announced a hybrid Cine/Stills full frame L-mount camera. Rather than the Foveon sensor Sigma traditionally uses, this one has a 24 megapixel full frame BSI CMOS sensor (likely the same as the Panasonic S1 and Nikon Z6).
Read moreSigma FP announced, palm sized FULL FRAME camera with 4K 12bit Cinema DNG RAW!!
Something for Blackmagic to look into here on the EOSHD Forum thread for the Pocket 4K. Anecdotal evidence say the camera is suffering from macro-blocking and banding in blue skies which you don’t expect to see with a 10bit codec let alone a RAW codec. Since the BRAW codec update, various users have been claiming it’s a backward step for the film-look of lossless Cinema DNG raw.
Read moreBlackmagic Pocket 4K – why I am staying with the Cinema DNG firmware
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/91493490[/vimeo]
These images (download the original 4K file at Vimeo to get even a clue of the full performance of the camera) are rather lovely. I’m also very impressed with the 2K slow-mo at 96fps. It is an improvement on the KineRaw MINI from last year which only shot 96fps at 720p, though there is still some moire and aliasing at the higher frame rate.
Read moreFirst sample video from the new KineMINI 4K – image quality looks impressive
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/79536594[/vimeo]
Aside from Blackmagic there’s only one other company endeavouring to give us affordable cinema cameras at the moment and that’s Kinefinity. The MINI is a smaller cut down version of their S35, shooting 2K uncompressed raw to SSD from a Super 35mm sensor. It has an option for 4K to an external record (Q1 2014) and it’s a powerful piece of kit, though I have some reservations about usability.
Is the KineRAW MINI the early stages of a new Arri? A Chinese cinema camera industry?
For your Photoshop grading pleasure here are some original Cinema DNG frames hot off the newly updated Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera.
“A raw video monster in your pocket”.
Read more8 Cinema DNG shots from Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera raw
