RED Epic versus Blackmagic Cinema Camera - Part 2 - Resolution and conclusion

[Alex Mand]

Thanks for the test Andrew, this is a fantastic camera in it own right, it may not be on par chart wise as a RED but it sure as hell looks far superior then most dslr footage. Any chance you got some time to shoot with it? I've herd RED has a history of buggy and sometimes hardlock during use.

 

Tabac, You good sir, are amazing! Thanks as well for the quick tests.

 

Never had a problem with my R1MX... Guess I'm lucky. lol

 

But seriously after a day of shooting I'm happy with the BMCC. I've seen folks talking highly about this cam and it deserves it! For me, it's not a red, but c'mon, it's really cheap for what it delivers.

 

My only complain is actually the cinemaDNG format. it's so damn heavy! They really should invest in some codec like redcode or cineform. It'll be hard to keep the storage ok. We backup all our raw footage and right now, for us cinemaDNG is not an option. We're teanscoding everything to cineform but not ideal.

[Sean Cunningham]

While in "the library" I was thumbing through an old issue of American Cinematographer and came to an issue talking about Soderberg shooting Full Frontal on a handful of Canon XL-1S...I think this was a 2001-2002 issue.  The price of that camera was somewhere on the order of $4800 with that soft kit zoom.  I forget what the VX2000 cost but it was somewhere close to $4K if I remember right.  The camera I wanted at the time, one of JVC's slick, professional DV jobbers, that cost about $7500 if I remember right, minus the lens.  

 

Anyway, it made me appreciate just how amazing the Scarlet-X and, especially, the BMCC are for their respective prices, given what far, far lesser cameras have cost in the not-too-distant past.  Not to mention, 135Mbit 3:1:1 HDCAM cost you a cool $100K around this time.  We're shooting better than that on $800 cameras now, thanks to the GH2 hacks.

[Xiong]

Never had a problem with my R1MX... Guess I'm lucky. lol

 

But seriously after a day of shooting I'm happy with the BMCC. I've seen folks talking highly about this cam and it deserves it! For me, it's not a red, but c'mon, it's really cheap for what it delivers.

 

My only complain is actually the cinemaDNG format. it's so damn heavy! They really should invest in some codec like redcode or cineform. It'll be hard to keep the storage ok. We backup all our raw footage and right now, for us cinemaDNG is not an option. We're teanscoding everything to cineform but not ideal.

 

Well that good to hear, guess it a rare occurrence. I wouldnt mind if it also had a "leaner" format, but if I remember what Andrew said, since it didnt have to compress the codec as much, it made it easier for the bmc. Dont hold me to that but thats what I recall, so it might not be possible... yet?

[Alex Mand]

Well that good to hear, guess it a rare occurrence. I wouldnt mind if it also had a "leaner" format, but if I remember what Andrew said, since it didnt have to compress the codec as much, it made it easier for the bmc. Dont hold me to that but thats what I recall, so it might not be possible... yet?

 

ummm... I don't know but it's heavy... At least a lot heavier than Redraw from REDMX on 42 compression mode. And I'm not using any rocket card.

I guess this can be a lack of proper codec support on adobe side... But man, this is a fine cam! if they did such a good job on this one, I imagine what will come on a V2 of BMCC. Bright days ahead for indie film makers!

[Xiong]

ummm... I don't know but it's heavy... At least a lot heavier than Redraw from REDMX on 42 compression mode. And I'm not using any rocket card.

I guess this can be a lack of proper codec support on adobe side... But man, this is a fine cam! if they did such a good job on this one, I imagine what will come on a V2 of BMCC. Bright days ahead for indie film makers!

 

Exactly, really excited to hear about the BMC MK.2 in the future.

[Zach Fine]

For what it's worth, I've seen the "black spot in the sun" problem in footage from Red One MX, Arri Alexa, and Canon 5D. I think it's an artifact common to CMOS sensors, and is not at all unique to the Blackmagic.