mercer

Wait, @lucabutera I never attacked you. Not once. If anything I agreed that the kid should have shown his cards. And I never defended the kid either. I was as skeptical as the next guy. But I also didn’t care because I never thought it was likely to begin with, nor would it ever affect me because I have no interest putting good money into a dead camera system. However I do love Raw video. But just because I was interested in watching this play fully out doesn’t mean I thought you were wrong.

Yeah I’ve seen them but they’re not really streamlined. A company named Kino... something makes a wooden handle version which looks cool but they’re almost as much as the camera. Well, either way, I’m not buying one today, so please keep us posted on your progress with the monitor. Sorry, yes that’s what I meant.

As soon as that Small HD Focus came out, I thought it would be perfect for the BMPCC, until I saw that it has a Micro hdmi cable on the one end... I guess an adapter wouldn’t be the end of the world but on of the benefits of the Micro is the full sized HDMI. Once you set the shutter angle you don’t really need to touch it again. So the only reason to go into the menus is for WB... and yes it’s a pain... I ended up setting it at 4400 or 5000 and treating that median number like it was AWB. It requires some correction in post but it was fairly simple... especially in Raw.

@BTM_Pix how long would a charge on that credit card sized power bank last? And how long do they take to charge? Because yeah, if it has a full hdmi port (or hardwired cables, plus one of those cases with a tripod thread that little guy could be perfect for the BMMCC. If you get it working and want to make a little cash, I may be interested in buying one from you. If you could come up with a side handle that would work the camera menus and the record button... I’d also be interested... asking too much? I honestly loved that camera. I finally knew what it was like to film with a real camera, but it was just too cumbersome for my style of shooting. For budgetary and time constraints, I need to drive down the road, get out of the car and get the shot, then move onto the next location as quick as possible... rigging that camera up for shooting and unrigging for safe transport became too much of a chore for my needs. I did get it down pretty good using small Slik quick release plates but it was still way too long and too big.

I had the Micro and used a 5” monitor with it. The camera is basically the size of a Rubix Cube, so a 5” monitor is ridiculously big for such a tiny camera. They should have either included, or sold, a small monitor that could be powered by the camera or had WiFi so your phone could be used as a monitor. The batteries for the Micro would last about 45min total... recording or not. A separate monitor’s battery lasts about an hour, so you were constantly changing batteries on either the camera or the monitor. I suppose if you want to rig up a tiny ass camera to be the size of a traditional cinema camera (I didn’t) you could have tapped the monitor and camera to a single large capacity Sony battery as you suggested. But if I am supposed to use the BMVA, then they really should have made it possible to control the camera’s menus through the BMVA. As is, working the simple menu interface became a guessing game due to the locations of the button. Eventually you could feel your way around the camera and figure it out but inevitably you would eff up and have to go back into the menu. The BMMCC has a beautiful image but just a piss poor design. Now there are some newer modifications and configurations that with the use of a cage, a break out box and a Ursa handle, you could have a tight little set up and if I were to buy one again, that is definitely the route I would go... native Micro 4/3 lens, small rig cage, Ursa handle, small rig top handle with the Ikan VL35 monitor attached to the top on some type of hinge so the monitor could be easily folded down for transport/storage. Here’s a picture of the smallest I got the rig. This was before there were any cages available for the camera, so improvised as much as I could for a cheap and inconspicuous run and gun solution. Now as you can see, I had a fairly large Minolta lens and adapter. If I were ever going to purchase another one, I would only use small Micro 4/3 lenses... either the Panny 14mm, or Panny 20mm or the Olympus 17mm. With one of those small lenses, the monitor would have dwarfed that rig.

Yup, if BM would just put the guts of the Micro in a Pocket body with a better screen and a little better battery life and I would preorder it... no question.

Good find, I’ve never seen this one before but it may just be the best example of what the Pocket and Micro are capable of. If I saw that in a theatre and someone told me it was shot on an Alexa, I would find absolutely no reason to doubt them. The way the contrast was handled, is just gorgeous. Damn. I’ve been searching for a slow motion camera for a while... hmm... I wonder how hard it would be to match it with 5D3 ML Raw footage for slow motion insert shots?

Again I don’t think Andrew was asking for votes. This is his site and he needs to protect it the way he sees fit. He seemed very excited for the possibilities of this Raw Hack, so he obviously has decided that the evidence isn’t there. Or it isn’t strong enough to risk sullying the reputation of his site. Of course, like a lot of you, I would like to know if there is any validity to this kid’s claim, but the fact that he won’t be available to answer any questions right when the most questions will be asked... is pretty suspicious, to say the least, and just another oddity in this long and dragged out story.

Not that this is a democracy or anything but I think we should let this drama play out... it’s only a day. With that being said, now the kid won’t be available for 3 days to answer any questions... a little too convenient. And with that being said... I don’t think the kid is lying. I think he found something but it’s a fudge more than it is true Raw recording.

@anonim nice... is that your video? Yeah BM cameras are very frustrating. But that “Baby Alexa” image is just undeniable. And I am a believer in simplifying the process as much as possible, so I would never rig those cameras as much as a normal user might. I’ve used IBIS, and 4K and all the bells and whistles. And I wasn’t happy until I took a step back and looked for pure IQ... which the BM cameras and the 5D3 have in spades. As you know, I chose the 5D3 for some of the same reasons you are choosing the GH5. But when I was deciding between the 5D3 and GH5, I looked at as much footage as I could, as well as my own personal tests over the past couple of years, and decided that I would get a more “cinematic” image from a 5D3 a lot easier than I would from a GH5. Not one day since have I regretted that decision. But we all have different needs and skill sets, and a camera is a personal choice. I just happened to find that my emotional, artistic connection fits more with Raw video, than it does with the pedestrian look I would have achieve with the GH5... obviously your mileage may vary.

@anonim yeah that looks fantastic... even at 720p... even on my phone. I’ve been saying for the past year that as soon as used prices for the BMCC hit the $600 mark or less, I will most likely buy one in the EF mount. It’s a shame more people aren’t happy with what’s already out there. Even serious BMPCC owners on the BMCuser forum are abandoning their Pocket cams for the GH5/s. If BM doesn’t make a Pocket II soon, they’re going to lose their core customer base and I’m afraid the Ursa variants will not keep them in the camera business. From recent interviews, we’ve learned that they’re chasing that 4K Pocket, which I think is a huge mistake for them. They could have developed a 2.5K/3K, up to 60p/72p, Pocket camera and it would have been a huge nod to their loyal customer base. Btw, I’ve always been fond of this BMCC test, shot with a Tokina 11-16mm...

Creating a new FF mirrorless mount.

And it’s ProRes. The Pocket and Micro are amazing cameras. And still 4-5 years later, there is not as cinematic of an image from any camera at this price point. Who cares about 10bit, when you can have 12?

Yeah they really are special cameras. Every time I read too much discussion about 4K this or 4K that, I go back to my Vimeo favorites and watch some videos from the Pocket, the Micro or some ML Raw. This was shot handheld with a 14mm f/2.5 on the Pocket... no rig... no Speedbooster... just the Pocket and a native lens... I don’t even think he used an IR filter...

Sounds great. I sometimes miss shooting with camcorders and you got to use a pretty cool one. I look forward to seeing your short. Love B&W! I could see that... quirky characters amidst an almost ridiculous scenario. Are you going to do the cheesy sfx associated with those 50s films? Also interested to see how you handle the prevalent post nuclear theme of those films... or should I say how you make it relevant to modern times.

What a colossal fuck up of self-fulfilling prophecies. And the blame should be shared by every one. This never should have been preannounced. He never should have named a surrogate to speak for him, especially since the surrogate admittedly knew only a little more than we did and is fairly new to the forum. If anything, he should have taken this to Andrew Reid before bringing it to anyone else. And we all probably should have given the kid the benefit of the doubt... at least for a coupl of days. But grand claims require grand proof and instead of providing adequate proof, he got angry and defensive. But at the end of the day... who gives a shit what some nerds on a forum think or say?

Great shots Jon. Really nice work. Do you have any in actual lowlight, where your $9 reflector saved the day... or night for that matter?

Jon you know what dude... screw you. You are single handedly ruining this site because you can’t have a civilized discussion with people. You do what you want. But don’t act like other people are wrong for bumping up ISO because your Leeming LUT rules tell you otherwise. There are a lot of impressionable beginners or people that don’t have your disposable income and need to raise their ISO because they don’t have access to whatever lighting kit you’ll spend thousands of dollars on. I could give two shits what you set your zebras at... real filmmakers use light meters anyway. Good point on sLog2. But there does seem to be a pattern with Log profiles and higher ISOs. Traditionally DSLR’s and DSLM’s base ISOs were at the lowest setting but once Log profiles were introduced, those base ISOs were bumped up. I assume it has something to do with each individual Log curve and how the information is stretched on the curve? So some curves need the additional brightness of the higher ISO to get a cleaner image?

Tell that to Michael Mann. You literally said ETTR means adjusting aperture. And I am saying that it means exposing to the right. All of this talk about sensor exposure, gain, blah blah blah means absolutely nothing if you’re trying to get a shot underneath a street light without any, major additional light... so you open up your lens and push your ISO to an acceptable level and you get the shot. When you increase ISO, does it change the in camera meter reading?

ETTR means Expose To The Right. We have 3 in camera tools to do that... aperture, shutter speed and ISO. Since most filmmakers follow the 180 Degree rule, we have two ways... aperture and ISO. Sure in a perfect world, you would keep the ISO as low as possible... or as close to the base ISO as possible and you would use lights or bounce boards to aid in your exposure... But we aren’t professional filmmakers shooting Hollywood films, so to completely abandon ISO as an exposure tool, seems ridiculous to me. ISO is the digital equivalent of ASA. High speed film was invented for lowlight shooting and always had more grain. Sometimes you need to make sacrifices to get the shot. Obviously, your specific camera will dictate how far you can push your ISO from its base, and the further away from the base ISO, the less dynamic range you will have, but if you need to shoot in lowlight, you usually won’t need as much dynamic range anyway.

I’ll have to try it. I knew FilmConvert has a ML Raw profile, but I never really tested. When I started this thread, I was toying around with an RX10ii... thinking I could avoid some common color banding issues of sLog2 by having the 4 Luma values of monochrome. It actually worked exactly as I hoped and loved the 120p video but every time I went out to shoot something, I picked up my 5D Mark III, so I sold the RX10ii since it wasn’t getting used. But there is something very cool about the RX10ii and if I have some disposable income in the future I can see myself buying it again and treating it like a S16mm B&W camera for run and gun projects. Nice frames, please post the short when it’s competed. What camera did you use? Looks cool as always, Matt. Excited to hear you’re working on another feature. Any details? To expand upon your points, I believe that B&W easily adds a level of suspension of disbelief that can really strengthen some films. Eraserhead being a perfect example of this. It’s like anything can happen in a B&W world. I’ve had an idea for a film for years that needs to be shot in B&W... if only I can find the time to pre-produce it. The blended, Super imposed frames at the end is such pure cinema. It felt as if I was watching a film from the 40s or 50s. Great work.

Not really. Canon already outsells Sony with mirrorless cameras and it seems like most Sony users shoot with Canon glass, so as long as they don’t do something stupid like Nikon is doing with their mount, I predict a lot of users will switch over.

Field of Broken Dreams... Or Field of Rejected Dreams

Cool idea, but there is a lot of planning and money needed for a one night event. Even if you’re using a free room at a local library it will take 6 months and a few thousand dollars to pull off because you have to prepare for the worst. For instance, my friend is a director of a small film festival. Everything was going well at the venue they were using until the morning of the fest and the projector broke. They had to scrape together a bunch of money to go and rent a new projector. Luckily the place they used had a concession stand but that is something to consider as well... you need refreshments, parking, accessible bathrooms. It sounds fun to get 20-30 films together and have an all inclusive, free event, but nothing is that simple. Then you also have to consider the schedule of the shorts or films. Requests from filmmakers to go in a certain place in the schedule because they have something else to do. Sometimes free creates a perception that it isn’t “real” so people become more pushy and expecting. However, I think it’s a cool idea and could be fun. To start small, I would try and keep it local. Perhaps start a film club in your area and do some type of 48 hour filmmaking fest. Or a 7 day to make a 7 minute film that culminates with a showing of the films. This will limit your attendance for the first year while you go through the growing pains of putting together a small event. Good luck, it sounds fun. Or if you want to be really hip and are willing to take the time and raise the money, you could market the festival as an underground fest that only accepts films that were rejected from major/minor festivals. You could probably get some press and could appeal to a lot of filmmakers. Just come up with a hip name for the fest... Midwest Film Rejects or just Film Rejects Fest. Idk, just spitballing.

Yeah, you had us at Raw video.