Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera first impressions

[Andrew Reid]

Camera supplied by CVP who came through and fulfilled my pre-order from NAB in early April. Personal note: I was saddened to learn of the death of CEO Phil Baxter earlier this month and in Phil's memory a fund has been set up which will donate a pot of cash to the Make A Wish Foundation UK charity. This charity helps fund memorable experiences for young people fighting life threatening illnesses. Donate here even just a small amount helps those kids.

The Blackmagic Pocket Camera is finally at EOSHD HQ, and comes from one of the first new batches to ship since the white orb sensor calibration issue was resolved. Have they fixed it? Let's not get too caught up in things like that for the moment. For me this camera is all about the lenses.

I've been a Micro Four Thirds shooter since day one with the G1 back in 2008. This was the first camera to tempt me away from Canon and over the last 5 years I've been building a rather ridiculously obsessive collection of Micro Four Thirds glass for my GH1, GH2 and lately the GH3, as well as c-mount glass.

The best c-mount glass is mainly vintage Super 16mm from the 60's and 70's. Classics like the Kern Switar 26mm F1.1 for instance, which an ex-BBC cinematographer once described to me as being "made by spacemen" such was the performance before the technological era of computer assisted optics design.

 

[url=http://www.eoshd.com/content/11233/blackmagic-pocket-cinema-camera-first-impressions]Read the full article here[/url]

[Andrew Reid]

Caption competition...

 

[Þórður Karl Einarsson]

My first post here  :)

First I want to thank you Andrew, for great review's.

 

One correction about your article,

 

It is rated for just 800mHa while the battery in the Fuji X100S is about the same size physically (actually slightly slimmer) but is rated for more than double the capacity at 1800mHa.

 

 

The Fuji batt is only 3.6 volt, while the BM batt is 7.4 volt.

 

It is the watt/hour that counts. Fuji is 6.2wh and BM is slightly smaller 5.92wh.

[gepinniw]

Yes! I've been waiting for this for a long time now. I am very eager to hear your opinions about this camera.

 

My caption: "The BPCC ihas arrived?!"

[Andrew Reid]

My point about batteries is that they might be able to run it off a 3.6v cell. But yeah, it's speculation until they give us an answer.

 

Nikon V1 has a larger 1800mAh 7.2v cell, same as D800, which is practically the same size as the BMPCC's grip.

 

They'd have to move the USB socket and SD card slot out of the way though.

 

So maybe not a simple change to address the battery life after all.

 

I really like the camera so far. OIS works superbly on the 14-140mm Mark II even at 140mm. Nice shallow DOF at longer focal lengths, reasonably wide at 14mm. Dream Pocket lens?

[Andrew Reid]

My caption: "Who bumped that bastard up the queue at CVP!? Woof!!"

 

(This by the way is a joke... For the humourless ones)

[albuswulfricbrian]

Caption: Another one of these things?  When are we going to get a rawhide with decent specs?

[Andrew Reid]

Caption: I was expecting raw meat but I got crappy a ProRes sausage instead!

[Ben Prater]

 

I really like the camera so far. OIS works superbly on the 14-140mm Mark II even at 140mm. Nice shallow DOF at longer focal lengths, reasonably wide at 14mm. Dream Pocket lens?

 

Sweet. I'd love to see some footage on the long end. I'm curious how the bokeh turns out.

[Oliver Daniel]

I went in the deep end and shot an entire paid music video with this camera. Then for the first time yesterday, I shot an entire paid music video on the original BMCC.

Incredibly different experience using each. I'm a handheld, jump into the action kinda guy. I found operating the BMCC was like holding a ton of bricks (with the VLock on my shoulder). I quickly adapted my method, although I thought back to the BMPCC and its small form factor. It's capabilities and size are a massive attraction, despite my early reservations. Blackmagic are onto something with this. I think this model is the one to watch from their 3 piece camera line.

I think Andrew pointed out once he'd love to see a camera that is designed between the ergonomics of the BMCC and the BMPCC, with a better screen. Totally agree.

[Rob Bannister]

I bought 3 of the 1800mah batteries off ebay but have yet to try them. Im almost half expecting them to blowup in the camera. Has anyone else tried these batteries. I totally agree that the 800mah battery life is horrid.

[chrisso]

Had my pocket camera for about a week.
I'm coming from a hacked GH1 and not an experienced videographer.
My experience so far has been much more positive than negative.
The main issue for me is the screen. I live in Australia and the ambient light is almost always very bright.
I can see the image on my pocket screen, but focussing is tough.
I'm going to need an eyepiece evf, more cost, and I will need at least a monopod. Both of which take it away from the 'pocket' sales pitch.
Sound at the moment is unusable, but I didn't expect much more from in camera sound.
On the plus side, I love the design and feel of the camera. Simple to set up and use.
It works better with c-mount than my GH did. It's a couple of hundred dollars cheaper than the GH3 here.
Despite never having used zebras before, or Resolve, I'm already very happy with my early footage.

[maxotics]

Caption: Great, he gets RAW and I'm stuck with Alpo.

 

I think you should also do some tests with say the cheap Panny 14mm, or something like that.  Most people, definitely H.264 only shooters, are still not clear on what the benefits of these cameras are.  When you put on a state of the art lens they won't understand what's the lens and what's the camera RAW codec. So keep in mind the poor bloke who has some MFT glass from their GH1 and has finally scrapped a thousand bucks together for this camera.  Or keep in mind the guy who has a GH2, is thinking of the BMPCC and is wondering what the footage will look like using lenses he is familiar with.  

 

Looking forward to the in-depth review!

[Dr. John R. Brinkley]

Andrew, any initial thoughts on how well the Panasonic 14mm works with the Pocket?

[tpr]

The battery is compatible with the Nikon EN-EL20, and Nikon's version and most other third party versions of this battery are rated at 1020mAh, which is at least a little better than the 800mAh battery supplied with the BMPCC.

[markm]

I don't know much about batteries ratings etc. I think the pocket camera battery has a 12 volt input Would I be able to use the Swit S-8U62 Li-Ion 63Wh which is rated at 14 volts with the pocket camera?

http://www.videogear.co.uk/Batteries.../prod_906.html
 

[Andrew Reid]

I don't know much about batteries ratings etc. I think the pocket camera battery has a 12 volt input Would I be able to use the Swit S-8U62 Li-Ion 63Wh which is rated at 14 volts with the pocket camera?

http://www.videogear.co.uk/Batteries.../prod_906.html
 

 

On the Sony EX3 that battery is held in the battery compartment. How would you rig it to the Pocket camera?

 

If the EX3 d-tap power socket matches the spec of the BMPCC 12v socket physically I don't see any reason why the battery wouldn't work.

 

But we really need something more bespoke for the camera.

[Yuri Martins Galliett]

Maybe a Tekkeon battery like the MP3450 could work.

[Lee Mullen]

You MUST come and join us Andrew! :)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/cmountm43/

[Andrew Reid]

Nice group Lee.

 

BTW I'd be wary of the 1800mAh batteries.

 

People have opened the higher than normal rated batteries up for other systems like OM-D E-M5 only to find bog standard cells inside rated for lower capacities.

 

Seems like some producers in China can put whatever figure they like on the casing to gain higher sales, and even if it is 1800, it's unlikely the quality of the cell will give you much more power than the standard Nikon 1020mAh genuine battery.