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Blackmagic Micro Cinema Super Guide and Why It Still Matters


crevice
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1 hour ago, thephoenix said:

only the 4.6k or the 4k has it too ?

the ursa mini is only 300€ more expensive than the pocket 6k at the moment

I think somebody needs to keep me honest, but it's possible that the Ursa mini 4K, 4.6k, and 4.6k pro gen 1 all have Fairchild sensors. I honestly forgot all about the URSA Mini 4k, but I am assuming that is Fairchild as well. I did not think that the 4.6k Pro Gen 1 had a Fairchild sensor, but I could be wrong and it seems it might. 

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5 hours ago, JordanWright said:

I think all the 4.6K cameras have different iterations of the same Fairchild sensor.

Its a shame the OG 4.6K hasn't had the BRAW update. The prices on them are getting very low, I've seen them go for as low as £2100 here in the UK

Unfortunately, the 4.6k (non pro) also lacks an SD card, so braw would have been cfast only. 

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8 hours ago, crevice said:

I think somebody needs to keep me honest, but it's possible that the Ursa mini 4K, 4.6k, and 4.6k pro gen 1 all have Fairchild sensors. I honestly forgot all about the URSA Mini 4k, but I am assuming that is Fairchild as well. I did not think that the 4.6k Pro Gen 1 had a Fairchild sensor, but I could be wrong and it seems it might. 

worth cjecking i guess when you see the prices. could be a great alternative to be the bmpcc6K

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I use the Ursa 4.6k (not pro) quite regularly and always prefer using my Pocket. The Ursa is of course bigger, but doesn't really offer much more with the space. For example, you only have two user function buttons, but they're on the back of the LCD, so hard to use without lots of practice or some tape over one of them... There's also no internal ND, and the VF is half the price of the camera nowadays.

In fact, in terms of UI the only thing I can really think of that it has over the Pocket is 2 proper XLRs instead of 1 mini XLR - oh and more streamlined battery/VF options. - but if you build around the Pocket in a good way, it can be on par. That said there is SDI, but no HDMI - so it depends what you want here with regards to outputs... Shame they didn't put both on the Ursa.

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On 8/24/2019 at 6:49 AM, crevice said:

Also for anyone reading this that has slightly deeper pockets and is ok with a larger camera and still wants the same "magic" in the footage - I forgot to mention that the URSA Mini 4.6k (not the pro!) also uses a Fairchild sensor and the footage is simply gorgeous. Just throwing out options for folks who prefer the Fairchild look. I have not used that specific camera, just have seen the footage - so I am not aware of its quirks. 


HUH??? They changed the sensor between the UM 4.6K and the UMP?? I thought they had the "same" sensor?

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5 hours ago, IronFilm said:


HUH??? They changed the sensor between the UM 4.6K and the UMP?? I thought they had the "same" sensor?

Read the post right above the one you just wrote. There is no way for me to edit posts after a certain period, so I have to make new ones. 

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I know this thread is about the Micro but since that pocket has also been mentioned, I figure it would be a good idea to link these  videos made by Roman Alaivi on the OG pocket. I feel these are some of the best pocket footage because it shows a very natural looking color palette. Most pocket and micro footage you find has really stylized looks or bad grades.

 

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After today’s Panasonic announcement, I found solace in this thread...

Although, I am certain the S1H will be an amazing camera, I am so glad that Blackmagic recognized the desire for good old fashioned 1080p raw and ProRes over 5 years ago.

But times change and sadly spec wars have become the norm for the foreseeable future.

Oddly enough, I kinda smiled when I learned there wasn’t internal Raw in the S1H because even at $4000, these large manufacturers cannot offer what BM offered 5 years ago at a quarter of the price or what the Magic Lantern team figured out 6 years ago in a full frame camera.

I will admit that the first company that can offer internal raw and IBIS or DPAF, for less than $2500 will get my money.

And here’s to hoping that Sigma will sell the FP for less than $2000, even though I suspect it will be closer to $3000.

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34 minutes ago, mercer said:

After today’s Panasonic announcement, I found solace in this thread...

Although, I am certain the S1H will be an amazing camera, I am so glad that Blackmagic recognized the desire for good old fashioned 1080p raw and ProRes over 5 years ago.

But times change and sadly spec wars have become the norm for the foreseeable future.

Oddly enough, I kinda smiled when I learned there wasn’t internal Raw in the S1H because even at $4000, these large manufacturers cannot offer what BM offered 5 years ago at a quarter of the price or what the Magic Lantern team figured out 6 years ago in a full frame camera.

I will admit that the first company that can offer internal raw and IBIS or DPAF, for less than $2500 will get my money.

And here’s to hoping that Sigma will sell the FP for less than $2000, even though I suspect it will be closer to $3000.

I think its a bit like the Pocket6K launch which made the "enoughness" of the Pocket4K and £1200 to spend on lenses look like a better bet in many respects.

As much as the S1H does, I gulped a bit at the price and considered whether the now heavily discounted S1 and the big chunk of change would be the better play.

I can't help thinking that it would probably be possible to hustle a deal and get an S1 and a Pocket 6K for not far off the same price. 

Keep the faith, the FP will save us all !

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16 minutes ago, BTM_Pix said:

I think its a bit like the Pocket6K launch which made the "enoughness" of the Pocket4K and £1200 to spend on lenses look like a better bet in many respects.

As much as the S1H does, I gulped a bit at the price and considered whether the now heavily discounted S1 and the big chunk of change would be the better play.

I can't help thinking that it would probably be possible to hustle a deal and get an S1 and a Pocket 6K for not far off the same price. 

Keep the faith, the FP will save us all !

Well, right before I saw the announcement, I was listening to a Film Riot interview with David Sandberg (Lights Out) and he mentioned that while on break filming the feature version of Lights Out, he snuck off with a couple actors and his Pocket cam to shoot some B-Unit stuff for the flashback sequences. And once in the editing suite, the editor couldn’t tell the difference between the Alexa footage and the Pocket footage and only the Pocket footage ended up in the final cut.

Real stories like that, of affordable equipment used to their utmost abilities is what excites me... a FF GH5 with fans and vents for $4000... ehh... not so much.

But it may have external HDMI ProRes Raw as soon as Atomos figures out how to do it... sounds promising.

When do we find out more about the FP?

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12 minutes ago, mercer said:

Well, right before I saw the announcement, I was listening to a Film Riot interview with David Sandberg (Lights Out) and he mentioned that while on break filming the feature version of Lights Out, he snuck off with a couple actors and his Pocket cam to shoot some B-Unit stuff for the flashback sequences. And once in the editing suite, the editor couldn’t tell the difference between the Alexa footage and the Pocket footage and only the Pocket footage ended up in the final cut.

Real stories like that, of affordable equipment used to their utmost abilities is what excites me... a FF GH5 with fans and vents for $4000... ehh... not so much.

But it may have external HDMI ProRes Raw as soon as Atomos figures out how to do it... sounds promising.

When do we find out more about the FP?

The ongoing Z6 nonsense over ProResRAW means that the used price of a Z6 will not be far off £1000 by the time it actually happens which might well finally persuade me to get one as it has a lot going for it.

The FP is still "Autumn" so it can't be far off.

I was surprised the S1H has such a short gap between official spec announement and delivery so hopefully the FP will be the same.

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29 minutes ago, mercer said:

Well, right before I saw the announcement, I was listening to a Film Riot interview with David Sandberg (Lights Out) and he mentioned that while on break filming the feature version of Lights Out, he snuck off with a couple actors and his Pocket cam to shoot some B-Unit stuff for the flashback sequences. And once in the editing suite, the editor couldn’t tell the difference between the Alexa footage and the Pocket footage and only the Pocket footage ended up in the final cut.

Real stories like that, of affordable equipment used to their utmost abilities is what excites me... a FF GH5 with fans and vents for $4000... ehh... not so much.

But it may have external HDMI ProRes Raw as soon as Atomos figures out how to do it... sounds promising.

When do we find out more about the FP?

It all comes down to the footage and like you said, Blackmagic nailed it many years ago and I have yet to see anyone match it at this price point. Today, all anybody is talking about are the specs of the camera. But there are very little discussions, minus the ones like this, where people actually talk about the look and feel of the footage. It's a spec war and at the end of the day people argue specs and don't seem to care about the footage. Another reason why I love this little camera so much, because it doesn't matter about specs - it will always output something special that these other cameras don't have in this price point. 

With that said - I will say the the S1H footage that I saw today looked really good and its the footage below that actually does excite me for the camera and not the specs:

 

 

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4 minutes ago, BTM_Pix said:

The ongoing Z6 nonsense over ProResRAW means that the used price of a Z6 will not be far off £1000 by the time it actually happens which might well finally persuade me to get one as it has a lot going for it.

The FP is still "Autumn" so it can't be far off.

I was surprised the S1H has such a short gap between official spec announement and delivery so hopefully the FP will be the same.

Yeah the Z6 is getting stupidly low in price. I’ve always liked Nikon but with this ProRes Raw fumble, I think they may be better off bringing internal Raw to the camera to try and save the entire Z lineup. 

The Panasonic S lineup isn’t knocking it out of the park, either. I think they really need to release so close after announcement before BlackMagic figures out how to bring IBIS to their next camera in October... hahaha.

Honestly, if the 90D ends up with 24p, it’s as exciting to me as any of these other cameras. Lol. And although, I am one of the few that thought Canon had some decent innovation with the EOS-R, if they don’t up their game soon... then they may as well become a 3rd Party lens manufacturer... a $20,000 cinema camera that doesn’t have Alexa or Red in the name, seems a little pointless when compared to what the other manufacturers are doing for a few thousand dollars or less.

As of now, the FP is the only interesting camera for me. Hopefully, it lives up to the hype I’ve built it up to be. 

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22 minutes ago, crevice said:

It all comes down to the footage...

Well said.

40 minutes ago, crevice said:

With that said - I will say the the S1H footage that I saw today looked really good and its the footage below that actually does excite me for the camera and not the specs:

Yeah, that video looks nice but if I’m being honest, that same image seems possible with a GH5s and Matteo Bertoli’s Buttery LUT. The IBIS is nice and was used very effectively during the space shuttle sequences but the controlled shots were definitely the polish of that film. The detail was nice in the lowlight interior shots but I think a little light would have been more effective to help the near blown out windows.

With that being said, it’s hard to really judge it on a technical level without knowing more about the details of that shoot and that may shed more light on some of the specs that I am making light of. 

I do like that Varicam color, though. 

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49 minutes ago, thephoenix said:

guys you're going a bit off topic ;)

and talking about the fp, the more i read about it the more i think you will be disappointed, but it is another subject...

To be honest, I don't think the FP is actually that far off topic in this instance really.

For people looking for an X-T3/A7iii/Z6/RP/S1 type of camera it might not be all that but what is it about the ultra compact, full frame, shallow mount, RAW to SSD camera that you think is going to be such a disappointment to people that are looking for a new generation version of the original Pocket Cinema Camera?

Unless they try and sell it for $4000 at which point, yeah, I'll be sat outside the camera shop like this fella.

large.jpg.83e7daabcb25f60095c0e754ccda5337.jpg

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oh, i thought this thred was about the Blackmagic Micro Cinema ;)

personnaly i don't call it ultra compact when you have to add a monitor and accesories to shoot. but maybe the fp will have it's place here but so far no real footage so nothing to compare with.

 

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