BM Pocket Cinema or Canon 5d mkii ?

[Henry Gentles]

For Indie Filmmaking and Music Videos which is the best way to go? Has anyone been down this road? I've seen a few 5d MKii's go for $1300-$1500 2nd hand or is it better to go 4K for $1000. 

[syrcular]

I've been down that road as well.  I currently own a Canon 5D Mark II and my friend just lent me a Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera to evaluate for the month, so I have both in hand.  Their both quite different cameras.  The Canon 5DmkII is very popular and theirs loads of information, accessories, lenses, you name it...to support filmmaking on this camera.  It's also a very good run and gun camera, easy to pull out of a bag, shoot nice video and call it a day.  The image is nice overall.  I tend to feel the Canon might sometimes look a little more video like comparative to high end cinema cameras, but I have found you can supersede this with post tools to make it look softer and more filmic.  Lenses are also a key factor in your look with this camera.  If you stick with some fast primes, this camera looks stunning through and through.

On to the BMPCC.  First off this camera produces some of the best images I've seen on any camera of this price range.  The only thing I've ever seen close to this image quality is at the $10,000 and above price range.  So the sensor is really amazing.  The dynamic range is really good, and the image has a very filmic quality even at high ISO.  If your into color grading, the footage is really nice to work with, as it comes in at a flat image, similar to high end cameras with Log image.  So it's quite easy to jump in if you know what your doing, with color.  

The downside of this camera is the outside of it.  Although it feels really nice in the hands and is really nice size, I found the three most fursterating things about this camera.

 

1.  Battery life sucks.  I was able to get somewhere around 40-50 minutes per battery.  When doing a full day shoot, this can be an issue, unless you stock yourself with a ton of batteries.  The alternative is getting this accessory that allows you to use Canon's batteries, and supposedly gives you up to 5 hours of battery life, but I have not tried to use it yet.  And this accessory adds weight and height to the camera body making it less of a pocket camera.

 

2.LCD monitor.  It's misleading and hard to use during the day.  Hopefully their will be accessories to help cover it like a LCD Loup View Finder or something.  But it's not easy to judge exposure and focus unless you attach an external monitor, which again adds more gack onto your camera.  Unlike DSLR's there is no internal histogram or light meter to set exposure so you'll need to have an exernal light meter or use the built in zebras in the menu options.

 

3.  Lens choices in the wide angle department.  Although the MFT mount is a very fliexible and adaptable mount system, the BMPCC has a very small sensor with a crop factor of 3x comparative to Full Frame, so to get, lets say a 24mm Full Frame focal length you would have to get an 8mm lens.  A lot of wide angle lenses are quite expensive at the faster speeds, so your options get to be much slimmer.  Finding and rigging lenses was one of the biggest challenges with this camera as I like to shoot wide.

Also...BM suggests you shoot the camera at it's native ISO of 800ASA, so what that means is when your shooting during the day or even in normal light situations you'll need to use an ND filter.

 

So...the BM camera produces amazing images, but rigging the camera, shopping for glass, and shooting the camera, can get a little fursterating with it's quirks and very limited menu options.

While a 5DmkII might not produce quite the image quality and dynamic range that the BMPCC produces, again it's an all in camera.  You have pretty much everything you need, and a wide array of available lenses in all price flavors.

 

Me personally - I've decided to wait till BM comes out with a version 2 of the camera which will give the industry much more time to adjust to the need for accessories, glass, and also for BM to address some software issues.

 

So since I'm in the market for a camera I want to shoot indie shorts and music videos as well, I'm looking at either the Canon 70D or the Panasonic GH3.  I'm leaning towards the GH3 as it has a much sharper image than the Canon, and I've seen several people mention that it makes a good B camera for the BM camera, and I may shoot some work down the line on the regular sized BM Cinema Camera, and may need a B camera that supports 60fps, and the GH3 does it a full 1080p, which has me thinking.

 

Hope this helps.  I also have some Canon and BM test footage up on Vimeo.  Check it out on my Vimeo page, if your interested....

 

BMPCC Test footage

https://vimeo.com/78239174

 

https://vimeo.com/77352388

 

Canon 5DmkII

 

https://vimeo.com/77252765

[Henry Gentles]

Thanks for the great reply! Wow the BMPC really has it over the 5D for IQ, its not even close really imo. Does the BMPC have hdmi out for hard disk recorder?

[enny]

January comes i am getting black magic 2.5k camera was thinking about 5dm3 but being a hack and bmc being actual camera that shoots 2.5k and pro res 422 flat and the image quality is super awesome you cont go wrong with the price. what is it 3k plus tax here in Canada for canon and bmc is 1899 last time i checked

[austinmcconnell]

or is it better to go 4K for $1000. 

The Blackmagic Pocket is not 4K.

[Henry Gentles]

The Blackmagic Pocket is not 4K.

Yeah, i worked that out, what is the sensor?

[OzNimbus]

Shot Canon for years, including 50d raw. The Pocket blows Canon away, imo. Got a nice Oly 12mm for wide, no issues. Mainly doing music video.

[Henry Gentles]

Shot Canon for years, including 50d raw. The Pocket blows Canon away, imo. Got a nice Oly 12mm for wide, no issues. Mainly doing music video.

Sweet! It's looking like a no brainer!