Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

[jonpais]

1 minute ago, Rinad Amir said:

@jonpais whats your thoughts on the image quality compared to GH5?

 

I think it looks awesome, especially skin tones and how clean it is at ISO 3200. Very natural looking. 

[jonpais]

I’d return it and wait in the queue for another year. ? But yeah, if it’s got scratches, it’s been used.

[Andrew Reid]

Same sensor, same dynamic range - I think it's to be expected it looks very similar to the GH5. I remember the BMCC also shipped with debris in the mount and over the sensor, so 6 years later still no clean room apparently!

[sanveer]

16 hours ago, jonpais said:

The camera says made in Singapore in Jun Areia’s video.

Where else are they made?

The Blackmagic gentleman gave out the names of a few places (PRC wasn't on the list). I think Vietnam was another place. I don't remember. Maybe even Australia was one of the places.

But I think he said it will start with Singapore because work already started and they're doing pretty well in terms of size and quality control. 

[Papiskokuji]

36 minutes ago, Jn- said:

Papiskokuji .. “The peaking is red and I haven't found a way to customize it.”

If red is not the default peaking colour, maybe its not even on by default,  then its a preused product.

I sincerely hope it is new, best of luck with it.

It is just the body cap that has very very slight scratches on the inside (nothing outrageous). And I confirm, it is made in Singapur, I have the same label Jonpais posted. About the peaking, I also found where you can change the color and the intensity. Excitement made me miss all that !

[Coiii]

Daaamn I'm so tempted to buy this, but I'm also tempted to buy a Mavic Pro 2 hahaha. I don't even have lenses for this camera!

[Emanuel]

1 hour ago, Coiii said:

Daaamn I'm so tempted to buy this, but I'm also tempted to buy a Mavic Pro 2 hahaha. I don't even have lenses for this camera!

What kind of glass are you looking for?

1) 18-35mm f/1.8 (with focal reducer) + native 42.5mm f/1.7 MFT format lens;

or only native glass such as:

2) 14mm f/2.5 + Pancake 20mm f/1.7 + 25mm f/1.7 or then the upcoming Leica 10-25mm f/1.7 + the customary 42.5mm f/1.7 as fine affordable alternative to the Leica f/1.2 counterpart;

or yet:

3) Oly 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 + Lumix PZ 45-175mm f/4-5.6 (for smooth motorized zoom option);

all that bargain stuff.

[petrspetla]

I made review of Blackmagic Pocket 4k. It's good camera with nice image, but i had some problems with it. 1. It didnt want to boot up sometimes. I had four original batteries. 2. It refused to show me and replay old footage. Switching from raw to prores wasnt helpful (as it was with ursa mini) 3. Its too wide for some gimbals... 

Link is here with eng subtitles:

https://youtu.be/6wai4J8RUlI

I shoot it at natural environment with natural light and compared it to GH5. I didnt heavily grade footage...just a little. There are many nice reviews and videos from cinematographers so i thought it would be better to make review as videographer. I didnt use gimbal, steadycam etc. Just my hands with Sigma 18-35mm f1.8.

[Coiii]

8 minutes ago, Emanuel said:

What kind of glass are you looking for?

1) 18-35mm f/1.8 (with focal reducer) + native 42.5mm f/1.7 MFT format lens;

or only native glass such as:

2) 14mm f/2.5 + Pancake 20mm f/1.7 + 25mm f/1.7 or then the upcoming Leica 10-25mm f/1.7 + native 42.5mm f/1.7 MFT format lens;

or yet:

3) Oly 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 + Lumix PZ 45-175mm f/4-5.6 (for smooth motorized zoom option);

all that bargain stuff.

I'm not looking right now. At this moment I have Sony native lenses for weight and AF. But now I want to start buying more "universal" lenses in EF mount to adapt on my A7III and use them on a future BMP4K/EOS Cinema. I still can't decide between the Sigma Art series or the Zeiss Milvus series on 24mm, 50mm and 100/135mm ?

[Emanuel]

54 minutes ago, Coiii said:

I'm not looking right now. At this moment I have Sony native lenses for weight and AF. But now I want to start buying more "universal" lenses in EF mount to adapt on my A7III and use them on a future BMP4K/EOS Cinema. I still can't decide between the Sigma Art series or the Zeiss Milvus series on 24mm, 50mm and 100/135mm ?

 

Impossible to say no to that 18-35mm f/1.8 to begin with... ; ) Even though that 6K *cough cough* promised capability from those workmanship Zeiss are much hard to ignore : -)

 

In any case, people tend to overestimate their more expensive glass love or the usual FF mantra... Take a look on these menu-priced pizza samples and tell me those 35mm f/1.7 and 50mm f/1.4 cans are plain garbage that I'll pretend I must believe or I cannot be a professional posting in these pages... LOL : -)

 

 

 

Not only on MFT side obviously, even though, the claims for larger formats as much as sharp end or 8K alike and other yadda yadda can only rely to become pure BS to serve as excuse for laziness ; -)

 

[Turboguard]

F*cking love the look of this. The did a good job with the T5 holder. Haven’t seen any other cages/setups that compares to this yet so this will do for starter!

[JordanWright]

Smallrig are sending me a sample of p4k cage + the accessories. it looks quite good, similar design to the 8sinn but cheaper. I am sightly worried that it'll be uncomfortable to hold but I will let you know when it arrives.

https://www.smallrig.com/smallrig-cage-for-blackmagic-design-pocket-cinema-camera-4k-2203.html

[IronFilm]

On 9/28/2018 at 1:37 PM, webrunner5 said:

Hell by the time you put a battery grip, a SSD, a mike, a cage, ND filters, oh and you Need a Gimbal because it has no IBIS, a wireless focus controller because it has no continuous AF, you might as well carry around a Arri Alexa!

Have you ever used an Arri Alexa? Heck, you could have half a dozen BMPCC4K bodies and they still won't match the weight of one big boy Alexa!

On 9/28/2018 at 11:55 PM, Snowfun said:

In a 8Sinn cage it’s certainly quite large - just searched my wardrobe and definitely don’t have a suitably sized pocket.

 

Would this help?
 

On 9/29/2018 at 11:46 PM, kye said:

Cameras are a funny thing - it's one of the only things I know of where having more money wouldn't help me that much.  If you want an ILC cinema camera with good 4K smaller than a C100 there are simply no options.  That is, unless you're a billionaire, in which case you can probably ask one of the manufacturers to design you one!

 

As well as the BMPCC4K, the Kinefinity Terra 4K is also smaller than a C100.

 

On 9/30/2018 at 12:40 AM, mercer said:

With all cameras, from every manufacturer, escalating in quality, I’m surprised Red and Arri hasn’t released a sub $3000 cinema camera. I remember Arri talked about a S16 B&W camera they were going to make for young filmmakers but that never materialized. If Arri came out with a digital BL, even in B&W only, I would be all over it.

I thought it was going to be a color S16 camera? Basically a S16 cut of their existing Arri EV sensor, and I think the resolution was going to be only 720 or so? And only sold to Universities/schools/techs/etc

 

 

On 9/30/2018 at 11:59 PM, Shirozina said:

If you are concerned about size does this also extend to lenses? The 18-35 1.8 + speed booster is a bit of a beast....

 

Stick with the Olympus 9mm f/8 Fisheye Body Cap lens! 

 

On 10/1/2018 at 12:06 AM, JordanWright said:

what's everyones battery plans so far?

At the moment I think I'm going to get a few LPe6 batteries and reply on the AC power for longer stuff. 

Get rails and a V mount on the back?

 

[webrunner5]

36 minutes ago, IronFilm said:

Have you ever used an Arri Alexa? Heck, you could have half a dozen BMPCC4K bodies and they still won't match the weight of one big boy Alexa!

 

Yeah it weighs 7.7 Kg/16.9 lbs. But that is about the same weight the old ENG cameras I used weighed. And I hand held them for hours at times. I had some rigs that were 23 pounds with double batteries, video light, not counting the light battery on my waist. Oh then you had to carry the tripod and the Portabrace case!

Lovely job in the dead of summer,  and walking backward at a good clip on an Icy sidewalk with a 100 Thousand Dollar camera on your shoulder.. Oh what fun. But I loved it at the time. Just didn't pay enough.

So sure the Arri is big, but man the output is worth the burden. Heck of a kit here for 9 grand. Your talking a Big Boy Toy.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ARRI-Alexa-Classic-EV-High-Speed-Camera-Bundle-w-AKS-and-Innerspace-Case/173566743036?hash=item28696251fc%3Ag%3AtE8AAOSwHWtbsoZg&LH_BIN=1

 

[kye]

2 hours ago, IronFilm said:

As well as the BMPCC4K, the Kinefinity Terra 4K is also smaller than a C100.

Even in a full rig with monitor and power?  That would be interesting to see, but still no IBIS I think!

2 hours ago, IronFilm said:

Stick with the Olympus 9mm f/8 Fisheye Body Cap lens! 

That lens is famous in street photography circles.

It is really wide, which is desirable.  There's a saying "if your photos aren't good enough then you're not close enough" so wide and close was the combo to have.

It is MF and has a mechanical control that your muscle memory can learn and then rely on.

It is F8 which is about right for the genre, anything shallower and you don't have time to take the shot, and anything deeper is probably too slow and doesn't have enough separation.  I don't know about eye-focus or anything with the latest cameras, but people with all types of camera would "zone focus" because acquiring focus took too long, not too long on certain cameras/lenses, but too long in any case.  This gives you MF that can be adjusted, which is kind of the best of both worlds.

It is soft, which is desirable because in combination with a bit of ISO noise, makes everything look like film, which is the right aesthetic.

It is cheap cheap cheap!!

I have been half tempted to get a Pocket2 with a fixed lens as a 'special projects' camera, in addition to the setup that I've been pursuing with a flexible zoom lens.  My thoughts were that the fixed lens would have to be a walk-around lens and would have to be special in some way, otherwise a zoom would be better because of the flexibility.  A Pocket2 with one of these on it might be a fascinating thing to see the output of.

[IronFilm]

20 minutes ago, kye said:

Even in a full rig with monitor and power?  That would be interesting to see, but still no IBIS I think!

Yes, the KineMON monitor (and power for it, uses an integrated cable like say RED/Sony/Canon do) is just a small 5" one you can clip onto the top of the camera. 
The battery is just a small Sony BP-U30 that slots into the KineGrip side handle. 
The whole thing is not too dissimilar in total size to what a large-ish DSLR might by like a 5D or perhaps D5 might be. 

20 minutes ago, kye said:

That lens is famous in street photography circles.

 

And with 9mm f8 it is easy to get your subject in focus even with manual focus!

I've owned one myself for years. 

 

[jonpais]

I’d pass on the KineMon if it’s only 500 nits.

[IronFilm]

2 hours ago, webrunner5 said:

Yeah it weighs 7.7 Kg/16.9 lbs. But that is about the same weight the old ENG cameras I used weighed. And I hand held them for hours at a time. I had some rigs that were 23 pounds with double batteries, video light, not counting the light battery on my waist. Oh then you had to carry the tripod!

Lovely job in the dead of summer,  and walking backward at a good clip on an Icy sidewalk with a 100 Thousand Dollar camera on your shoulder.. Oh what fun. But I loved it at the time. Just didn't pay enough.

So sure the Arri is big, but man the output is worth the burden.

I shot with 2x RED ONEs earlier this week (a mix of steadicam / shoulder rig / monopod / tripod), and yeah you can do that. Doesn't mean you should! As even though it is a little lighter than an ARRI ALEXA Classic, those RED ONEs are still heavy. 

 

 

[webrunner5]

Just now, IronFilm said:

I shot with 2x RED ONEs earlier this week (a mix of steadicam / shoulder rig / monopod / tripod), and yeah you can do that. Doesn't mean you should! As even though it is a little lighter than an ARRI ALEXA Classic, those RED ONEs are still heavy.

 

Yeah they are an awkward shape also. But built like a tank. They have become a bit long in the tooth no doubt. But the Mysterium X does still produce a nice output, even today.

[IronFilm]

4 minutes ago, webrunner5 said:

Yeah they are an awkward shape also. But built like a tank. They have become a bit long in the tooth no doubt. But the Mysterium X does still produce a nice output, even today.

Eh, my Sony PMW-F3 is roughly speaking more practical more general purpose usage.