Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

[Shirozina]

The colour and grade on that video looks terrible but maybe that's the 'organic/filmic' look that people want?

I've got the original BMPCC and I liked it a lot but the P4k is better in every way apart from size. The codec ( esp RAW) is so malleable that you can get any look out of it you want as long as you have the grading skills. If these are just limited to slapping on a 'film LUT' then I can see why it may be a disappointment to some people. 

[Kisaha]

I think there is something wrong with me. All the videos I see the last couple of years are in a slower motion than I experience in life. I am not sure if reality is slow, and I too fast, or I am just.. well.. slow!

[webrunner5]

Yeah and I F ing hate Slo Mo Stuff. It is so stupid how often it is used. And what is crazy the footage still looks like shit in slo mo. I can't imagine how it would look in a normal speed all jerky, shaky wise. This Run n Gun crap is just that, crap footage. Buy a damn tripod. Sure for vacations and home use yeah, but for something half serious, no way.

[mercer]

To be fair, the filmmaker didn’t ask for his work to be posted here and torn apart.

[Kisaha]

it is in the public domain. It can be criticized, but personally I am referring simply to the slo mo situation.

I am editing a few small pieces right now (rendering brake) for a client, and one of the videos is 98% slo mo (and the rest 2% fast forward pseudo-time lapses)! I have to do what I have to do!

[anonim]

I suppose to may guess answer, but still have to check: does anybody know if somewhere in UK Pocket4K is in stock for immediately buying?

[leslie]

2 hours ago, mercer said:

To be fair, the filmmaker didn’t ask for his work to be posted here and torn apart.

your right of course, however once something is posted to the internet, be it here or another forum or youtube it does tend to get critiqued regardless of original intentions.   the internet with its anonymity does tend to bring the best out in those people who engage their mouth before putting their brain into action.  sad but true . personally i think the internet word for 2019 should be " RESTRAINT "  that and a bit less red cordial would make for a much nicer internet experience , but i'm not holding my breath

i think the slomo stuff is a bit of a fad, people are a bit enamoured with it at the moment and i don't mind it, if its not overdone. but i'm thinking it may take awhile to die down to a more normal level

4 minutes ago, anonim said:

I suppose to may guess answer, but still have to check: does anybody know if somewhere in UK Pocket4K is in stock for immediately buy?

if it is they should immediately ship it out here to fill my back order ?

[anonim]

5 minutes ago, leslie said:

if it is they should immediately ship it out here to fill my back order ?

I see... so community of disappointed P4K buyers and fond lovers of previous BM color science looks pretty small or timid!

[leslie]

14 minutes ago, anonim said:

I see... so community of disappointed P4K buyers and fond lovers of previous BM color science looks pretty small or timid!

not sure what you mean ?  but i do believe those that have paid for their cameras should receive them before their available to go and buy of a retail shelf . otherwise how is what you want to do any different from some obnoxious person running to the front of a line at a supermarket ? although its safe to say bm logistics are a little screwed up anyway

[anonim]

@leslie I'm referring to clip above and its creator who entitled his work "Why I sold my P4K"... I mean, I asked not (just) for new camera from the store, but more if someone by chance saw it on some hot auction in UK. One friend of mine is there at the moment, so...

[leslie]

4 minutes ago, anonim said:

@leslie I'm referring to clip above and its creator who entitled his work "Why I sold my P4K"... I mean, I asked not (just) for new camera from the store, but more if someone by chance saw it on some hot auction in UK. One friend of mine is there at the moment, so...

ah sorry,  somehow i didn't join the dots correctly. now that you clarified your situation  i can see where your coming from ?

[kye]

On 1/4/2019 at 9:30 PM, anonim said:

 

 

On 1/4/2019 at 11:15 PM, anonim said:

Interesting different (reverse) acquisition approach

 

 

So many good cameras out there..  When I watched the GH5s vs P4K video I was more impacted by the slight changes in focus between the two cameras instead of the cameras themselves, which is in the skill department not the equipment department.  

I remember someone (@kidzrevil perhaps?) speaking about the Resolve Super Scale feature and how great it is, so that's something that might breathe new life into lower-resolution footage.  More info: https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/resolve-15-super-scale-feature/

In terms of using slow-motion, I would suggest it's a new genre of film-making.  Like all genres it will have fans and critics.  Personally, I agree with @mercer around testing a camera by actually making a short film.  That way, not only do you test the equipment by using it how you would on a real project, but you also get a real short film at the end of it, which is what all this fussing with cameras is ultimately for, right? ?

[anonim]

6 hours ago, kye said:

...which is what all this fussing with cameras is ultimately for, right? ?

Unfortunately, I'm not (ultimately) in that camp... As far as I can recognize it, for me all this fussing with cameras has, at the end, two - strangely  and maybe interestingly - two complete opposite but convergent goals: escape from loneliness and escape to loneliness - or, better to say, creative solitude.

So, cameras with their specifics for me are ultimately  tools that help me to find a peace in that creative shelter with least amount of distraction. Saying that, with due respect for any camera's combination of virtues and isolated advantages, besides appropriate aesthetic image BM cameras were greatest for me because of providing me the best opportunity to forget to annoying WB set up... As much as GH5 (with help of GHa lut) is greatest for me because of, besides enough appropriate image, provides me the best possibility to forget to annoying antishaking set up. And when I said "aesthetic appropriate image", I mean, of course, to opportunity to dive as much as possible into wonderful solitude world of grading...

... and to wait for someone noble to join me in that world and break my solitude of an filming/dreaming/sleeping beauty (or, well, the pretty ugly beast).

[Jim Giberti]

Regarding the person who produced the video about returning his P4K in favor of his Micro - from a straight shooting experience, he needs to have his head examined

We've got a lot of cameras, mostly BM, and a couple of Micros, whose images I love. In fact I wrote at one tome that if BM would take the Micro cinema sensor and put into a real camera body I would buy them for three times their cost.

The Micro is the most disfunctional camera you can shoot. A simple menu change takes forever in any environment. Tiny unrecognizable buttons on tiny stripped down senor box - but what a sensor and color science. And it's that way by design. It's supposed to be a drone or special use crash cam for TV/cinema production - not an actual shooters cam.

The P4K is the exact reverse of that - perhaps the easiest small camera to use on set or in the field - a brilliant camera as far as shooting goes.

And the idea that upressing the Micro footage in Resolve is better than shooting 4K/UHD on the P4K is a real head scratcher. Just spend some time learning how to optimize the image at aquisition and then how to work with the amazingly maleable image to get the look you want.

It took very little time shooting and working in post to get the image to look like the original Pocket or Micro etc.

You can't make any of the previous BM cameras (except the UMP) look like the P4K but you can easily do the reverse if you want to learn how.

[Emanuel]

The most funny is people who don't have clue what they're talking about speak like an authority. This doesn't happen with expensive gear, obviously. Here's the whole difference : -)

[webrunner5]

Bullshit. I have never seen any footage out of the PK4 that looks like a BMPCC or a BMCC. And apparently everyone that has bought one on here must be broken camera because I haven't seen really Any footage from them on here either. Talk is cheap on both sides.

But sure as goofy as the PK4 is, it is better in a few respects than the old ones. But that was a not a hard task to accomplish. I am not buying one, that's a fact. I'll buy a GH5s.  Same look, better camera..

[Jim Giberti]

I have no idea what you're talking about or why...goofy? This is an amazing camera in the opinion of the pros using it - even with some initial issues that i've spoken to with BM and on the official porum.

We have all of those cameras and others. We've already produced several projects with the P4ks, TV and films - a couple with them only.

I'm offering my experience - what are you offering other than angry, foul language about things you've read on a general forum?

You'll note I even put a little smiley face on my criticism of the vid. 

Go smoke a bowl of something and chill out a little.

Life is too short to be this angry about stuff you're not involved with.

Seriously.

 

 

 

[Emanuel]

On your GH5s remark Don, it is not a better camera at all.

Funny the fact just a couple of hours ago I was talking with a GH5/GH5s owner complaining about the fact he needs to wait for March at his best estimated date to own a much superior camera like P4K effectively is, despite so many similarities both camera models share. This Panasonic owner has tested my unit BTW.

I find some advantages with Panasonic anyway, amongst them, a solid manufacturer like this major player is. Don't ignore the excellence of a professional service from these Aussies to begin with. I don't compare them with those found with the BMD output. Let alone their superior color science. To my book, much beyond that, actually. We can call it further cinematography and camera design sciences as well.

 

There's life out there : ) People who don't live to show off footage from forum posts. Such activity doesn't pay our bills : ))

You're just stuck to some other production values you've found in a few stuff shot over there.

BMD have their own marketing footage and shooters in their payroll. You or anyone else here can only complain but to them.

I stand every Jim's single comma up here. It is simply unreal and inaccurate any different : -)

[Ehetyz]

Yeah I'm gonna chalk this up as some serious rose-tinted glasses towards those old BMD:s. I'm not saying they're bad but I know I won't touch one with a ten foot pole today - and I used a BMCC almost exclusively for two years. Anything BMCC did the new BMD:s can do - and a lot more. In fact the original color science on the BMCC was kind of a pain in the ass in hindsight.

Also consider the fact that you're comparing a camera that's been out for what, five years, with thousands of hours of footage available online, to a brand-new one people are slowly adopting and coming to terms with.

Anyways, I'm having fun with my P4K and have already used it on ten or so commercial shoots. On gimbal, as a B-cam for stealing quick shots, and even as a broadcast cam on a christmas cooking show live stream  - was able to match it perfectly to the URSA with my own custom LUT and it ran flawlessly through the show.

[Shirozina]

1 hour ago, webrunner5 said:

Bullshit. I have never seen any footage out of the PK4 that looks like a BMPCC or a BMCC. And apparently everyone that has bought one on here must be broken camera because I haven't seen really Any footage from them on here either. Talk is cheap on both sides.

But sure as goofy as the PK4 is, it is better in a few respects than the old ones. But that was a not a hard task to accomplish. I am not buying one, that's a fact. I'll buy a GH5s.  Same look, better camera..

I'm glad the P4k doesn't look like the BMPCC as I didn't want a 'pseudo film look' to have to wrangle back into something that is mixable with other cameras. I didn't buy the GH5s as it was not as good as the P4k for what I wanted for an addition to my GH5 i.e -  RAW,  internal 60p 4k and ProRes and it's also a hell of a lot more expensive esp when you fit it out with a set of V90 cards.