dbp

Right now, I would be criminally stupid *not* to take #2.

I think there's a lot of subjectivity on which of those make a better image. They are all capable of great images. If it's me, I'm going with the Ursa Mini with no hesitation unless low light is a big concern. But I've always been fond of the look of blackmagic cameras.

Enjoy! It's a fun camera, for sure. Amazing image. It's definitely got some usability issues. It took me buying an external battery, ND filter, IR Cut filter, and gimbal before I finally felt like it was a complete camera.

Probably a C200 or EVA. Something that can serve as a jack of all trades and at least do a competent job at every type of job I might have. I love blackmagic but the URSA mini would be a deal breaker in terms of low light. Alexa and Mini and Red Helium would be great but too large and probably not good enough in low light. Particularly the RED. C200, I think. RAW for anything really important and built in codec for events etc.

CMOS vs CCD as well? For all of their flaws, I remember the HVX200, HMC150 Panasonic cameras having nice motion cadence.

Just want to say I love when you do these blind tests, always interesting!

Probably B, maybe C. A stood out as the clear worst because I hate when cameras turn green into some sickly yellow.

Having watched so many camera releases now, it seems like such a thankless job, haha. No matter what, people will complain and you certainly can't please everyone. Not a job I would want. That said, footage looks really good to me. It'd be neat if more tests included a wide range of camera brackets shooting the exact same scene. Like, I'd love to see how this very scene looks on a GH5 compared to the EVA. And of course it'll be interesting to hear reports on the ergonomics and what it's like to work with. That'll help determine whether it's worth 7K or not.

blackmagic pocket and GH4. Which one I take tends to depend on whether I want to shoot any stills or not.

It's very confusing to me that some people think low light performance = no need for lights. As if the only thing lights do is provide exposure levels? Honestly, light is pretty much everything. Way more important than any camera.

I feel like I need a drink just from reading this thread!

Goddamit, I JUST ordered V2.... hopefully it's nothing major, haha

Exactly. I think it'll be competent but I have doubts it'll rock people's world. Might be an AF100 all over again. We shall see, I'd love to be wrong.

Pretty much. I respect that it's a really tough balance, especially nowadays where even lower end cameras are getting really good. I mean, how do you make something genuinely 4x better than a GH5 at this point?

Definitely curious to see the footage. Those who've used it on dvxuser seem to hinting to not expect it to look like the varicam footage. Not sure what to make of that. Maybe I'm too cynical but I have a feeling the footage will underwhelm for the price.

Great review! I went from being very indifferent about this camera initially, to ohmygod gimmie gimmie gimmie

Charlie, you are in a great position of leverage. Your work is good and you have a steady source of income, so you don't need this gig. That's an excellent place to start from. Another bit of advice I read that didn't occur to me at first....but makes sense.... is that it's normal for people to balk at your prices a bit. If every single person happily accepts your rate without question, then it's a definite sign that you are undercharging and leaving money on the table. Took me a while to get this. Ray Roman has talked about this. He's a really high end wedding video guy, and he says he books maybe 15% of inquiring clients. Not everyone can afford you, and that's okay. I would always worry the second a client got cold feet about pricing, but now I want that a little bit. It's part of the process, and ensures you're actually getting what your worth. Nothing will kill morale faster than grinding out high volumes of work for cheap. I've been there, and it made me question whether I even liked doing video. You are in a perfect position to avoid that trap.

A bit off topic, but man I feel like wedding videos are becoming more about the videographer than the couple. Pretty stock footage and staged shots. Where's the friendships, memories, connections with people?

I've been hearing this on forums since 2007. A decade!

Haha yes, this topic might be more done to death than any on the camera forums. It down samples to 1080p nicely, and it does allow for some post reframing. It is nice, but I'm still quite happy with good (keyword) 1080p. I do get a bit annoyed when it's implied that anything less than 4K is junk, and I think there are increasing diminished returns in viewer experience past 1080p. But it is better, so what the heck.

Damn....is it just me or are the colors absolutely stunning in this? I really dig the look.

For all the time I spend wasting on forums, I never could get into No Film School. The few times I've been on it, something just seemed... I don't know, childish? Perhaps that's being too judgmental. This place has the perfect blend of a small and active community. It's kinda rare to have both. Too many people is often not a good thing, as the signal to noise ratio gets really bad. I used to go on dvinfo and creativecow a lot but both seem dead. Even bmcuser has slowed down like crazy. I do enjoy a lot of the film based subreddits. r/editors, r/videography, r/filmmakers and r/cinematography. This is still my favorite video related website.

If the footage ends up having a similar look to the Varicam, I think they're going to have a massive success on their hands.

I did one unpaid project helping a friend. Like you, I was curious, so I did a few shots with the GH4 and a few with the blackmagic pocket (pro res) Both keyed well but the GH4 did better I think. Resolution definitely seems to be a factor. Used the GH4 again on a paid greenscreen gig with a much better lighting setup. Owner of the production company even commented on how good the keying was, and I didn't really have to work for it in post. Was pleasantly surprised with how well the GH4 does with greenscreening. I imagine the GH5 will be even better. I kind of wish I tried raw on the pocket, though. A co worker at that same company showed me some tests with his BMCC on a greenscreen, and the raw seemed to do much better than the pro res, especially with tricky spots like long, messy blond hair. Still, I'd lean towards GH5.

Sanity X and Flowmotion were both great, a solid balance between quality, file sizes and reliability.