Davide Roveri

Hello everybody! So, I've attended the Blackmagic Raw seminar held at CVP here in London yesterday and I thought I'd share some impressions: Let's start with the bad news first: unfortunately there is no official release date for BRAW on the PCC4K yet.. They confirmed it is coming to the camera 100% but they want to make absolutely sure that the update is safe and won't brick the camera (which sounds like a sensible plan indeed!) ? That been said I can't wait to have the option to use BRAW, it's such a clever and well implemented solution and i reckon it will be the best choice on the PCC4K for 90% of the occasions. What really impressed me is how good the performance is in Resolve compared to CNDG, it is entirely possile to edit BRAW on a laptop without creating optimised media and/or dropping the resolution. To drive the point home even more they worked on a grading project that was hosted on a USB 3.0 spinning drive and it worked flawlessly, i was quite shocked when I saw a clip with a speed ramp set in optical flow playing at 24fps at full quality on an entry level MBP! Another super clever feature of BRAW is the ability to shoot with any dynamic range preset and being able to revert back to film mode afterwards, that is pretty awesome for dailies or things like that. I also very appreciated the fact that they were totally sincere in showing us the difference in visual quality between BRAW and CDNG and, although there is a slight difference in quality with CDNG being a bit sharper, said difference is only visible in extreme magnification (pixel peeping basically) so in real life BRAW is perfectly adequate especially considering the many advantages it offers in terms of workflow. The Blackmagic guys reckoned that CDNG would be the best choice only in very specific situations where having the best quality possible is paramount (like VFX for istance). Overall it's been a very interesting demonstration and i think BRAW will make the PCC4K even better value for money, exciting times ahead!

A very interesting video about how to optimise exposure on the BMPCC4K from one of the best channels about filmmaking and cameras on YT (IMHO), hope you guys will find it useful! ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8hHFt3ChZ8

hmm.. unfortunately it doesn't look like that's case right now. Was it like that on the original pocket as well? I don't remember but it would be good to have the WB change dynamically indeed or at least have an option for it.. I shot almost exclusively raw so far so i wasn't too bothered about wb as long as it was in the right ballpark but it would definitely be important when shooting ProRes.. Shall we compile a list of suggestion to send Blackmagic for the next software versions? Here's mine: - Playback mode to reflect clip metadata (both on the display and on the menu bar) - Thumbnail page in playback mode to quickly move between files - Better power management so the camera won't die on you suddenly - Possibility of using the iris and focus button as extra function keys when using manual lenses

So glad you finally have the BMPCC4K in your hand, looking forward to hear your impressions! :-) Quick tip re the WB, if you hold the WB button for a couple of seconds it will automatically adjust the white balance using the center portion of the frame, a wonderful timesaver (and just one of the many amazing features of the software in the camera!) To be fair the only thing that really puzzles me so far software-wise is the playback function.. I just don't understand why the clips are displayed according to how the camera is set in that particular moment rather than how the camera was set when you captured the clip, it makes very little sense to me but hopefully it will be changed on a software update soon. Have fun with the little beast mate!

Hello everyone! I received my BMPCC4K almost a week ago and unfortunately I haven’t had much time to play with it so far but I wanted to give you my first impression and observation in the hope these might be helpful! BUILD QUALITY / ERGONOMICS: The camera is pretty big (and wide especially) but it’s surprisingly light. I’m not a huge fan of the exterior plastic material as it feels a bit cheap and quite prone to scratches but at the end of the day this a professional tool so as long as it’s able to withstand normal use I’m not too bothered about it. I haven’t found any spots that are cause for concern, yes the battery cover it’s a bit flimsy like other people reported but it never came open on me (and even if it did the battery is safely hold in place with a spring loaded clip so it won’t fall over anyway). The lens mount seems pretty robust, I tried mounting some heavy lens and haven’t experienced any flex so it seems all good. The mounting points looks very sturdy as they’re surrounded my a metal plate so if you plan to mount something heavy without a cage it looks like is not gonna be a problem. The camera feels quite good in the hand the only reservation I have is that is fairly easy to obstruct the bottom exhaust while shooting handheld as it’s the natural resting point for the hand that operate the lens. The screen is pretty awesome I should say, it’s detailed, responsive has good colours and it’s surprisingly bright when needed. Is it usable under direct sunlight without a hood? In my experience barely but so is the vast majority of built-in screens out there, for that you need something very bright like a smallHD 1500nits or something similar. USABILITY/OPERATION: Like many other people said before this camera is an absolute joy to operate, the menu system is one of the best in the industry, it’s logically laid out and super intuitive. Overall the experience is much more akin to a RED or an Alexa rather than a hybrid camera and this is good given the this is a cinema camera after all ? I like how everything can be controlled so easily via the touchscreen but I like even more the fact that you don’t have to rely on it if you prefer not to or you’re in a shooting situation in which is not practical. All the main functions have dedicated buttons (and a dial in the front just under the record button) plus the three functions buttons are completely programmable either as toggles for specific functions or you can assign a precise value to a parameter that you wish to quickly recall (say you want to go to iso 3200 with a touch of a button you can do that) The Preset menu is another gem of the OS, you can save camera configurations with totally different settings and recall them in a moment, it’s a massive timesaver! The screen, other than being of great quality, offers an impressive range of tools for a built-in screen the highlight of which (for me) is definitely the inclusion of false colours which is such a great tool to expose and is something that is never present in hybrid cameras. Battery life is not amazing but again it’s quite normal for a cinema camera with an actively cooled sensor I think. I would say you can expect 35-40 minutes recording time quite consistently. Like other users reported already original Canon batteries seems to give the best and most consistent results and are the only one providing a percentage to the camera so I might swallow the hefty price and buy a couple extra of them. I haven’t had any problems with stuck batteries so far and I hope it stays this way! I’ve recorded mainly on SD cards and I’m glad to report that my Sony G ones can reliably record 4K RAW 60fps 4:1 with no issues (although they’re not in the official list provided by BM but I suppose they’re very similar to the new “Tough” series just released which are approved instead). I also used SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-I and although they’re not fast enough for 60fps they can record 4K 25 RAW 4:1 with no issues. I’ve also made a test with a random SSD mounted in a usb-c caddy and it worked perfectly so I’m probably gonna purchase a couple of Samsung T5 as soon as I find a nice holder that I can use without a cage. IMAGE QUALITY: This is where the camera really shines (and it’s kind of important I reckon, right?) ? The images are detailed and rich, the colour science is very very good out of the box and coupled with the ease of use and the big screen is easy and fast to acquire great footage. The dynamic range is not greater than other cameras like the GH5s or the A7III but the numbers on papers often don’t tell the full story.. The camera produces files that have not been processed in any way (if you shoot raw of course) so it’s actually easier to squeeze every bit of information from them compared to a heavily compressed codec. As other users already noted I found the highlights rolloff to be a bit on the harsh side so I’d say it’s a good idea to protect the highlights with this camera as a priority. The dual native ISO values of 400 and 3200 are a very good choice in my opinion, particularly in daylight when you don’t have to use a ton of ND filtration to get the correct exposure. Noise levels are pretty good although I have to say there is more chroma noise that I would like (particularly compared to the kind of monochrome noise Sony has accustomed us to with their sensors) but again, with files this good it’s quite trivial to use your denoiser of choice and get rid of it without murdering the image. I also noticed in a couple of shots some moire/aliasing and unfortunately this is quite inevitable since this is not an oversampled sensor readout and there is no OLPF… This is it for now, hope I haven’t bored you to death and that you’ve found useful information and I promise to follow soon with more details and some hopefully nice images too! Have a great weekend everybody!

Ahah, the hotshoe umbrella it's quite a cool idea! ? Kidding aside you should be fine covering the camera as the two top exhausts are only passive and doesn't seem to give out a lot of heat, the active is the one at the bottom (and that one gets quite warm!)

Awesome stuff! Looking forward to hear your impressions mate, unfortunately i haven't had enough time to play with mine but I love it so far! (just make sure you have enough batteries with you!) ? ps. FilmConvert also just released the camera pack for the BBMPCC4K, result!

This! I got a license when I purchased my BMCC a few years ago and got every single update absolutely free. Not only this but the amount and the quality of work the programmers have put into the software is absolutely phenomenal, they're constantly adding features AND making sure your hardware is always utilised to the max (which sadly can't be said for a lot of software around today). So not only the feature set for the price point is incredible in my opinion, you also get a wonderfully written piece of software that is constantly updated and free of charge, what's not to like? :-)

I know it's probably not very relevant as price might change again many times before the actual shipping date but CVP lowered the price from 1029£ to 975£ (1235£ and 1170£ respectively inclusive of VAT). Is not much but is a slightly better exchange rate from $1295 :-) In other news we are above 500 preorders at the moment and this is just from one retailer in one country, I really hope they expected this kind of interests and will be able to ramp up production accordingly!

No, they clearly did not as per spec sheet and this Grant Petty interview (around the 5:50 mark) Only the 120HFR is windowed ?

Not sure about that.. as far as I can tell 1080 still use the full width of the sensor and it’s downsampled in camera. The camera records windowed when you shoot HFR @ 120fps though, not sure if there is an option to do that at normal speed also...

Ok, now the pre-order link is live on CVP's front page.. apparently there are 300+ people looking at it and they sold more than 20 cameras already! :-P https://cvp.com/product/blackmagic_pocket_camera_4k

Awesome, thanks mate!! I was refreshing the main page like an idiot! :-P There was a pop-up saying that 9 people put the item in the basket in the past 24 hours so it shouldn't be too bad at the moment!

Where have you preordered mate? Can't find a UK link yet! :-(

Robert I don't think that is the case, as per Sony specs the HDMI output of the camera is uncompressed therefore the final bitrate is dictated by the encoding you use (the maximum you can get on the Atomos is Pro Res HQ which at 30p in QFHD has a data rate of 882Mbit/s plus you get the benefit of the 4:2:2 colour sampling) This is very interesting, thanks Emanuel! :-)

I couldn't agree more!! An a7SIII with 24MP would be a phenomenal hybrid shooter and as you said with the new tech I think they would be able to maintain pretty much all of the high ISO goodness of the first two models (which, if I'm not mistaken, still use "old" pre-BSI tech sensors). NAB is not far away, let's see what Sony has in store... :-)

Very interesting comparison, thanks Andrew!! :-) The GH5s looks pretty good and the wider field of view is definitely welcome but what I think is really spectacular is the a7rIII! I wasn't expecting it to be so much better than my beloved rII and the fact that the full frame mode is as clean as the Super35 one is mind blowing! Couple that with an Atomos so you can record at 880Mbit/s 4:2:2 and it should be spectacular! The only thing missing is still 10bit and that's a pity but I want to make some proper test sometime to see exactly how much is an issue on a regular production... What I'm thinking now is that Sony needs to make the a7SIII very spectacular spec-wise to be relevant otherwise I don't see why one would choose that over the rIII which is also a phenomenal still camera (unless you're going for the stupidly high iso scenario as you rightly said). Hopefully this will be the year in which we have an a7 camera with 10bit 4:2:2 internal recording (and IBIS), fingers crossed!! :-)

Hello everybody! As requested by some of you I’ve shot two other image quality tests: 1) The first one is a test of the ClearImage Zoom function (on both FF and S35 crop) 2) The second one is a test of the different detail settings (-7,0,+7) again both in FF and S35 crop All the test have been shot in 4K with S-Log2/S-Gamut PP at base ISO800 Once again i think there is a lot to be impressed with the performance of the camera: the image is remarkably clean and almost entirely free of artefacts even with the ClearImage Zoom turned on so it could definitely be an very useful tool to add extra flexibility to a prime lens, for instance. Like all previous test already shown, the S35 is the better quality mode of the two but FF is absolutely not bad and entirely usable (with the sole exception of low light situations as we’ve seen). I’m also happy to see that the detail setting pushed at the maximum level of +7 don’t produce nasty artefacts or hard edges so it could be used if a quick turn around with minimal postproduction is required (although is always better to sharpen in post whenever possible) As always i uploaded a better quality of the video if you prefer here: http://we.tl/oCrvpYSM06 Thanks for watching!!

Hello! Tonight I made a test of the ISO performance of the camera in still mode and I shot with both the mechanical and the electronic shutter to finally asses whether there's a reduction in quality like in other cameras or not.. I have to check the files more extensively and take a little bit more time to analyse them but I feel pretty confident to say that the electronic shutter on the α7R II looks pretty much indistinguishable from its mechanical counterpart and this is just insanely amazing! (especially for a time-lapse photographer, eheh!) I've attached some quick screen grabs from Lightroom where you can see with your own eyes. I also shot the whole set with the α7S again for comparison: the results are the same I remembered from past tests I did, the α7S shows a clear degradation of the image especially in darker areas where some nasty vertical banding can show up if the shadows are pushed limiting the usable dynamic range of the camera. Nothing like this happens on the α7R II and, once again, i think it's just another technological achievement from this very innovative and capable sensor.. I'm very impressed!

Ahah, thanks mate! I'm not sure i have particularly steady hands so that probably means the stabilisation is pretty good indeed! :-) I'm not sure if SteadyShot works in conjunction with the IS in the Canon lens or not but the results are pretty good indeed! I wouldn't worry too much about the colours being muted, that is my choice of grading really! Some shots are a bit noisy indeed but keep in mind that I was on a f4 lens so the ISO i've used at night ranged from 6400 all the way up to 25600 in three shots, that's quite impressive if you ask me! Also i haven't denoised the footage, i got very nice results using the temporal noise reduction in Resolve on the a7s so i have no reason to believe it won't work as good on the a7rII. Last but not least youtube compression is quite severe so i wouldn't use that as a judgement of quality.. I've inspected the source footage quite carefully and it looked very clean and free of muddiness and/or macro blocking.

@ajay I think you misread my statement! :-) AF performance in video mode with native glass is very good and it's much improved compared to the a7S both in terms of speed and functionality (now you can choose the tracking sensitivity and speed for instance) My issue was with the adapted canon lens which is not quite as fast in video mode and struggled at longer focal length, hope this clarifies your concern! :-) @Emanuel I read about the overheating issues Dan encountered, I haven't had any issues so far but i generally never record for more than 5-10 mins continuously so i can't say is not happening.. I will do a test and get back to you on this! :-)

hello everybody! Yesterday I’ve been to the Southbank in London to shoot some footage and do a quick grade to see how the camera perform in a real world situation. I’ve also wanted to check how an adapted EF lens worked on the camera so i used a Canon 24-105 with a Metabones Mark IV. Apart from a couple of very wide shots everything have been shot handheld in S35 mode. (therefore apologies for the odd shaky clip!) I’m gonna due a proper write up in due course but for now some random thoughts: - Overall the camera have been an absolute pleasure to use: the ergonomic of the body is much better compared to the previous generation cameras, the slightly chunkier body provides a much better grip and the EVF is big and bright, the best I’ve ever used together with the Fuji X-T1 - Having an extra custom button and, most importantly, being able to assign the record to a button of your choice makes a big difference!! - Unfortunately some software limitations that i always found annoying in the a7s are still present, namely: the inability to set a custom white balance from the movie mode, the focus magnification which is way inferior to the one in still mode (only 4x magnification, sometimes in not enough to achieve a proper focus!), the inability to assign the S35/APS-C crop mode to a custom button and the bloody NTSC warning message! I really hope some (or better all) of these things will be fixed with a future firmware update! - Unfortunately the experience with the Metabones have been quite frustrating as usual… Like other users reported the focus performance in still mode is indeed impressive, almost on par with the one on a canon body but in movie mode things are very different: definitely much better than the a7s but not as fast as still mode, moreover i couldn’t get the camera to focus at all past 70mm, i don’t know if it’s a lens problem, an adapter problem or something with the camera but in the end i went back to manual focusing because it was super annoying! - I’ve tried to shot a variety of material to test the camera strengths and weaknesses and i have to say I’m even more impressed now after I quickly graded the footage with film convert (using the a7s profile since they haven’t released one for the a7r II yet). I once again had the impression that the camera is as good as the a7s in terms of dynamic range and the files are generally cleaner to start with because of the lower native ISO. This is completely unscientific and untested so take this with a grain of salt but there is something that i really like in the colours that I never experienced with the a7s before (at least not with so little grading work required) so i’m starting to wonder whether Sony improved the colour science on this camera.. again, totally unscientific and unsubstantiated, just a gut feeling really but I’ll definitely do some more comparisons to find out! - Real life usage confirmed the very positive impressions about the low light performance of the S35 mode.. the camera is remarkably clean all the way to the top ISO setting (and yes, there are at some shots in the clip that have been shot at ISO 25600!) Before last week if somebody told me that I could have shot usable material at ISO 25600 on a 42 megapixels still camera i would have laughed in their face! -I’m pretty sure that part of the great performance of the camera is down to the extremely efficient codec and there’s a shot in the video that i think show this very well: at 04:59 there’s a blue flag on an almost completely flat blue sky shot at ISO6400… while i was shooting i thought “right, this is the recipe for disaster: an uniform colour in the whole frame at high ISO with a compressed 8bit 4:2:0 codec, it’s gonna be the festival of banding!”… boy i was wrong! there’s not a hint of it, the file is clean as a whistle! Thanks for watching!

@labirdman the informations i had regarding the electronic shutter were from an Q&A with Kimio Maki (Senior General Manager, Digital Imaging Business Group, Sony Corporation) published on Imaging Resource here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2015/06/16/sony-qa-the-must-have-sensor-tech-of-the-future below is the bit in which he said that the only tradeoff with using the electronic sensor in the A7RII is the distortion caused by the rolling shutter: They could have changed things before the release of the production model though, that i don't know! I guess the only way is to make some tests and that is what i'm gonna do anyway! :-)

Hello! I haven't slept much last night but here it is, the α7R II low light test! (i also posted my initial thoughts at the beginning but feel free to skip to the test if you get bored!) The results are very surprising, whereas during the day i couldn't really spot a difference in quality between the FF and S35 modes things are completely different when the lights go down: the S35 mode is vastly superior to the Full Frame, they are not even in the same league! I don't know if that is only the result of the better readout from the sensor in S35 or there is some noise reduction wizardry happening in real time but the output from the S35 mode is way cleaner. And not only the S35 mode is cleaner, we're actually talking about α7S levels of performance! (at least up to ISO 25,600 which is the maximum for the α7R II) don't believe that? I included a low light shootout with the Queen of the night itself! In the end i decided not to include the 1080 samples because they're quite bad, way worse then the both the 4K modes so it's definitely better to downscale when a 1080 output is required. What else to say.. i'm very impressed.. this camera keeps getting better and better by the minute!! Today i'm gonna shoot some real word run and gun footage to see how the Steady Shot performs and how is the footage when graded, needless to say i have very high expectations now! Thanks for watching! ps. i just noticed how badly YouTube compression affects the video so I uploaded a better version here if you want to have a better look! http://we.tl/XBCZm1NsgK

interesting, thanks for sharing mate! I'll try to do a low light comparison with the a7S tonight, let's see what happens! :-)