Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

[Anaconda_]

Took a while, but the new camera update has arrived. Color 5 and Q3 for all.

Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, 6K and 6K Pro

Upgrades the luminance histogram to RGB histogram.

Adds color channel clipping indicators.

Adds false color guide display.

Adds LCD screen calibration settings.

Improves auto focus and active lens control.

Improves focus peaking visibility.

Fixes an issue with importing LUT’s and Presets.

Pocket Cinema Camera 4K and 6K

Adds support for Generation 5 color science.

Adds support for LCD screen dimming for power conservation.

Adds Q1 and Q3 Blackmagic RAW recording options.

 

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/readme/52c27548429f4c11b85d99fbebec9c38

[nathlas]

 

[leslie]

HELLO....      HElloo....          hellooo...

Its pretty quiet down here. Who's still got one, ?  who has betrayed the trust, turned to the dark side and bought something else  ? 

I have actually been using mine a bit lately. No feature films yet, but i'm optimistic 😉. I think i may have turned a corner. Life  outside with a variable nd is more convenient Not sure why its taken this long.  I'll be honest there is a cast, I'll lean towards calling it a browish colour. However i reserve the right to change my mind after more testing. 

In the interests of generating some traffic and learning something new perhaps, whats your nd and is there a cast of which colour ?

 

[billdoubleu]

I've always wanted a Blackmagic camera, but the lack of IBIS is the main gotcha for me and my use case. I also wish they put the tilt screen on the 4k from the jump. Better yet, in my opinion, Blackmagic are in the best spot to pioneer a detachable screen you could mount anywhere. You're already providing a large, high quality screen. Just give me a cable and let me mount it wherever the fuck I want! I don't know that the big boy companies could pull that off, but BM has right clientele for it.

I think for the price they're going for on ebay I would rather buy a Sigma fp. The two are neck-and-neck on the used market. I don't know if the fp gets the love it deserves. It was a bold move on Sigma's part. But, hell, by the end of the year Blackmagic may be the only company left selling affordable cameras with a high quality image. Might as well get on board now.

[leslie]

Yer the lack of an articulating screen is a real bummer, my canon 60d from 10 years or more  ago has one.... 

Times are tough no doubt about that, i'd hate to be a business owner or company right now regardless of the type of work.

Smart phones are wonders of technology, in comparison i feel cameras / video cameras are lagging or dragging the chain perhaps. No one company wants to put a camera together  with all the bells and whistles. Not saying i want a calculator on my bmp4k but you know what i mean.  

Magic lantern did amazing things for my canon, you'd expect canon and magic lantern to jump into bed with each other and sell zillions of cameras, yet its the opposite, touch our cameras and we'll sue your pants off. After the timer incident on canons later cameras, and the way they segment the camera market, well i don't have much love for canon anymore. 

I do like my p4k, i cant imagine how they could make a cinema camera much easier to use ( apart from a flippy screen )  All i can suggest is you do your research, if camera b has a few extra points in your favour buy that. Your the one using it. 

[PPNS]

don't really know if it's really worth posting this, but i dp'd a little short by a friend with this camera. it's a coming of age film about an immigrant high schooler kind of finding his place in punk music culture. to be quite honest i'm not quite happy with most of the shots we've gotten, but i've decided to post stills of ones i like the most. maybe some of you will like the images. all done with the meike mft set if that's of any interest. i still think this camera rocks, even if it has quite a few shortcomings. 

[webrunner5]

Looks really good to me, hard to beat a BM camera for a filmic look. Well done.

[PannySVHS]

Looking great! Let us know, when your shortfilm is available. I like the framing, lensing and colours, also what´s in the frame. Great job! Did you shoot F2.8 on the Meikes? Did you compare them to the normal Walimexes / Samyangs, which are plasticy and the very entry into video lenses? How does the built from the Meikes feel? cheers

[kye]

Footage looks good to me.  What is it about the shots that you don't like @PPNS?

[PPNS]

On 6/14/2022 at 9:27 PM, webrunner5 said:

Looks really good to me, hard to beat a BM camera for a filmic look. Well done.

thank you very much! although i've expressed my skepticism before about inherent looks about cameras and sensors, it does help that the p4k lets you record raw/or if you're a bit anal about definitions, the equivalent of prores444 with metadata that lets you perfectly reconstruct the wb value. it also helps that it doesn't seem like it does any noise reduction which does make the images feel very natural compared some other cameras. 

for what it's worth i've used this filter for the film and added some of the stock davinci grain while color grading. but that's maybe more related to the behavior of the lenses...

 

22 hours ago, PannySVHS said:

Looking great! Let us know, when your shortfilm is available. I like the framing, lensing and colours, also what´s in the frame. Great job! Did you shoot F2.8 on the Meikes? Did you compare them to the normal Walimexes / Samyangs, which are plasticy and the very entry into video lenses? How does the built from the Meikes feel? cheers

thank you as well, i will certainly post a link here once i'm allowed to! the t-stop kind of varied on a shot-per-shot basis, i tend to start at t/4 or t/2.8 and see whether i want more or less dof. some shots were done wide open at t/2.2, while sometimes i had to pull focus a alone on a shoulder rig, where i was more likely to be at t/4 or t/5.6. those shot-reverse shot frames at the school entrance were done at around t/3.5-4 i think on the 25mm for example, because i liked the background at that aperture.

i haven't used samyangs since around 2017, but i kind of remember them leaving a sour taste in my mind. from what i can tell their mirrorless lenses and newer options tend to be a bit better, but i'm skeptical about them as well. the meikes are super clean and sharp, which i can't really remember the samyangs being, and that also means that theyre super versatile. the 25 has the most chromatic abberation wide open, but it's completely ignorable by t/2.8. it's very trendy rn to have glass that's very quirky, which is cool too of course, but i think at this point i'd rather have a very compact, matching lightweight set thats made out of aluminium and that basically doesn't breathe at all. since i've stopped using focal reducers i've noticed that my image quality got quite a bit better without weird optical errors, so i can't go back to that either. that supermist filter can give me a similar to vintage low contrast look i tend to like, but without the weird flares and halos coming from light sources, while looking more intentful at the same time. its worth mentioning that i got them my set second hand, so 40% less than the price new (in which case they are still actually an incredible deal). if you're like me, and interested in (attempting) actual fiction filmmaking, i think this lens set and the camera are quite frankly some of the more interesting gear to get, especially for the money.

 

19 hours ago, kye said:

Footage looks good to me.  What is it about the shots that you don't like @PPNS?

probably a combination of quite a lot of factors, partially being very excited during pre-production, having a bit too much self confidence and expecting it look incredible, and not getting at that level with the finished result. there's also the fact that the acting isn't quite there (although that's not my responsability as a dp), and me only seeing that when watching the end result. most of the dialogue was in spanish, which i cant speak, and i only got to see the end result with subtitles quite a lot later. i tend to be pretty insecure about my skills as a dp too tbh, and i feel like i've done better looking stuff than this as well. there's also the fact that i was a bit selective with the stills. if you're interested, here's some stills of the stuff i'm less happy with for example: 

[webrunner5]

Other than the last one oof I think even the others are fine. I think you have done a good job. But I have not seen the whole thing. Thanks for your replies.

[kye]

4 hours ago, PPNS said:

thank you very much! although i've expressed my skepticism before about inherent looks about cameras and sensors, it does help that the p4k lets you record raw/or if you're a bit anal about definitions, the equivalent of prores444 with metadata that lets you perfectly reconstruct the wb value. it also helps that it doesn't seem like it does any noise reduction which does make the images feel very natural compared some other cameras. 

for what it's worth i've used this filter for the film and added some of the stock davinci grain while color grading. but that's maybe more related to the behavior of the lenses...

 

thank you as well, i will certainly post a link here once i'm allowed to! the t-stop kind of varied on a shot-per-shot basis, i tend to start at t/4 or t/2.8 and see whether i want more or less dof. some shots were done wide open at t/2.2, while sometimes i had to pull focus a alone on a shoulder rig, where i was more likely to be at t/4 or t/5.6. those shot-reverse shot frames at the school entrance were done at around t/3.5-4 i think on the 25mm for example, because i liked the background at that aperture.

i haven't used samyangs since around 2017, but i kind of remember them leaving a sour taste in my mind. from what i can tell their mirrorless lenses and newer options tend to be a bit better, but i'm skeptical about them as well. the meikes are super clean and sharp, which i can't really remember the samyangs being, and that also means that theyre super versatile. the 25 has the most chromatic abberation wide open, but it's completely ignorable by t/2.8. it's very trendy rn to have glass that's very quirky, which is cool too of course, but i think at this point i'd rather have a very compact, matching lightweight set thats made out of aluminium and that basically doesn't breathe at all. since i've stopped using focal reducers i've noticed that my image quality got quite a bit better without weird optical errors, so i can't go back to that either. that supermist filter can give me a similar to vintage low contrast look i tend to like, but without the weird flares and halos coming from light sources, while looking more intentful at the same time. its worth mentioning that i got them my set second hand, so 40% less than the price new (in which case they are still actually an incredible deal). if you're like me, and interested in (attempting) actual fiction filmmaking, i think this lens set and the camera are quite frankly some of the more interesting gear to get, especially for the money.

 

probably a combination of quite a lot of factors, partially being very excited during pre-production, having a bit too much self confidence and expecting it look incredible, and not getting at that level with the finished result. there's also the fact that the acting isn't quite there (although that's not my responsability as a dp), and me only seeing that when watching the end result. most of the dialogue was in spanish, which i cant speak, and i only got to see the end result with subtitles quite a lot later. i tend to be pretty insecure about my skills as a dp too tbh, and i feel like i've done better looking stuff than this as well. there's also the fact that i was a bit selective with the stills. if you're interested, here's some stills of the stuff i'm less happy with for example: 

It's hard to tell from stills - so much of film-making is in the context of the story that you really have to see it to understand.  There are still a bunch of quite tangible things I see in film-making all the time that I have no idea what causes them or how to manipulate those aesthetic aspects.

I find it's best not to get too polarised about anything - either too positive or negative - as reality is always much more towards the middle with both sides represented.  Just concentrate on the things that are within your power 🙂 

[PannySVHS]

Great write up. Us camera folk need to keep filming and only editing our very own projects. Other than that it is not good to worry about the films which at not at our hands, once filming is done. I had a talented director almost mess up a whole film with an editor from one of the most acclaimed and famous filmschools in Germany. My Co DP and I rescued the film. A talented director can still screw up good editors, if they think they are the better editors themselves. So don´t worry about these things. Instead look forward to new projects. Happy filming. Your stills look splendid. Of the "lesser ones" you posted I only find the wide shot not as good as the rest.

[webrunner5]

Well, I think film makers at times take too much credit. As been said on here, I know I push it, is that it is about the story, the plot, whatever you want to call it. The people in the audience have ZERO clue what an Arri camera is, or DoF or what, they want a story that moves them, one they want their friends to see, or them see it again. You can have the best gear in the world and the best actors, etc., if the story sucks you are out of business.

Sure, if it is all great than you have a Blockbuster, but how often does that happen and that takes Lots of money to happen. What I am getting at every frame, every scene does not have to be perfect. The actors and the story are actually more important. If they suck well your Arri and your perfection count for nothing.  Work together or perish. Help prop each other up. How many people walk out of a movie and say ahh the videography was terrible even if it was.

[kye]

32 minutes ago, webrunner5 said:

Well, I think film makers at times take too much credit. As been said on here, I know I push it, is that it is about the story, the plot, whatever you want to call it. The people in the audience have ZERO clue what an Arri camera is, or DoF or what, they want a story that moves them, one they want their friends to see, or them see it again. You can have the best gear in the world and the best actors, etc., if the story sucks you are out of business.

Sure, if it is all great than you have a Blockbuster, but how often does that happen and that takes Lots of money to happen. What I am getting at every frame, every scene does not have to be perfect. The actors and the story are actually more important. If they suck well your Arri and your perfection count for nothing.  Work together or perish. Help prop each other up. How many people walk out of a movie and say ahh the videography was terrible even if it was.

Absolutely agree.

I shoot travel style content of my personal travels and started studying Parts Unknown and especially the parts they film outside (as opposed to the sit-down interviews which are controlled lighting and often closed set).  The first thing that stood out to me was that their cinematography wasn't radically better than mine, but the editing and storytelling absolutely blew anything I did away.  

If you looked at the stills from an edit of mine and stills from an edit of theirs then there were lots of similarities, but that was where the similarities ended.  After analysing many episodes I've come to realise that it's actually the sound design that drives their edits, and I would say that in that situation the sound is significantly more important than the image, and the purely visual aspects of the image (composition, exposure, colour, movement) is of dramatically less importance.  I think if you gave their team some rather uninspired and drab footage, by the time they'd edited the interviews, edited up the b-roll and travelling segments, applied copious amounts of music, sound design, and audio effects, and then put in the voice-over, you'd potentially not really be able to tell that the visuals that went in were lacklustre at all.
Of course, the visuals that did go in were of high-quality, no doubt, but that's not what makes or breaks a project.

I think that camera YT paints a completely false impression that the camera and image is what carries a production.  The elephant in the room is that it absolutely doesn't, and cannot.  Cinematography is probably not even top 5 in terms of what makes or breaks a project.

[TomTheDP]

@PPNS

Making a film is really difficult and your frames are looking great. I am sure you didn't have a big crew possibly none at all and you probably weren't being paid much if anything. Don't be hard on yourself. Skill isn't the only factor in a film looking good trust me on that one.

[Kisaha]

As you most know, using a normal mft lens(most Olympus/Panasonic)doesn't offer any software correction of the Len's limitations.

Is the only solution to fix it in post?

I am using the Oly 12-100 f4, but all the widest lengths are unusable, especially when most usable (for architectural establishing shots, big groups of people, and the such).

Is there any good (and really cheap) mft wide I can use? Even something like a 24mm (35equiv.) which is usually my favourite length.

[PannySVHS]

Oly 17mm f1.8 (24mm in S35, 35 in FF), Panasonic 14mm f2.5 (supposely one of the sharpest mft lenses, 20 mm in S35, 28 in FF). First one has a clutch for mechanical feel of MF if I remember correctly, the 14mm is fly by wire without stops. For mechanical pleasure I would go with a Meike 12mm Cine lens, which can be had for around 300 USD. I did not like the 12mm SLR Magic but I (still) have the one with the focussing ring close to the mount. Optically it´s nothing to write home about nor has it the awesome characteristics or colour of my C-mount Fujinon 12.5mm which does not cover full image circle btw. @Kisaha

[PPNS]

19 hours ago, Kisaha said:

As you most know, using a normal mft lens(most Olympus/Panasonic)doesn't offer any software correction of the Len's limitations.

Is the only solution to fix it in post?

I am using the Oly 12-100 f4, but all the widest lengths are unusable, especially when most usable (for architectural establishing shots, big groups of people, and the such).

Is there any good (and really cheap) mft wide I can use? Even something like a 24mm (35equiv.) which is usually my favourite length.

i dont think theres anything wrong with fixing wide angle distortion in post in the first place. did you not like the results from trying that out?

as for lens recommendations, i happen to have some similar opinions as @PannySVHS. the meike cine 12mm performs great imo. the first, third and fourth frames i posted from the short were shot on that lens. i think they are coming out now with a stills housed version of the same lens too, if thats interesting for you. if you want something less wide, their 16mm is my most used lens. ive had that same slrmagic 12mm too and i wasnt a big fan due to its rotating front element, which made it unusable with matteboxes. wasn't a true t/1.6 either, and was too soft for me under under t/2.8 as well. it might also be worth mentioning that i have no experience yet with any stills lenses on mft, so i cant recommend any of those myself. 

[kye]

On 6/25/2022 at 6:17 AM, Kisaha said:

As you most know, using a normal mft lens(most Olympus/Panasonic)doesn't offer any software correction of the Len's limitations.

Is the only solution to fix it in post?

I am using the Oly 12-100 f4, but all the widest lengths are unusable, especially when most usable (for architectural establishing shots, big groups of people, and the such).

Is there any good (and really cheap) mft wide I can use? Even something like a 24mm (35equiv.) which is usually my favourite length.

Fixing things in post is a real mixed-bag.  Lenses with simple (ie, not complex) distortions can be fixed in post to make the lines relatively straight, but that's not going to cut it for things like large groups of people.

The fundamental problem on wider lenses is that the world is angled and sensors are not, so objects on the edges of the frame will appear larger than ones in the middle of the frame.  You can adjust the image to straighten lines (as you would do for architecture) but this makes the relative sizes between the edges and middle even worse.  Or you can choose to adjust it so that the sizes are relatively similar but lines will not be straight.  There's no way to get both in the same image unfortunately, and lenses that are rectilinear (have straight edges) will have the worst corner stretching.

Here's what is happening:

Notice how the corners get stretched?

Things look even stranger when you move the camera.

On 6/25/2022 at 8:14 AM, PannySVHS said:

Oly 17mm f1.8 (24mm in S35, 35 in FF), Panasonic 14mm f2.5 (supposely one of the sharpest mft lenses, 20 mm in S35, 28 in FF). First one has a clutch for mechanical feel of MF if I remember correctly, the 14mm is fly by wire without stops. For mechanical pleasure I would go with a Meike 12mm Cine lens, which can be had for around 300 USD. I did not like the 12mm SLR Magic but I (still) have the one with the focussing ring close to the mount. Optically it´s nothing to write home about nor has it the awesome characteristics or colour of my C-mount Fujinon 12.5mm which does not cover full image circle btw. @Kisaha

The 14mm f2.5 isn't too bad, but is still quite curved.  IIRC it can be corrected pretty easily.

I have it and can do a quick test..