Beautiful 4K Blackmagic Production Camera footage from James Miller

[Andrew Reid]

Be sure to check out the GH4's new trick - internally recorded '1080p' 4:4:4 with 10bit luma, at EOSHD here

One of the first to receive a Blackmagic Production Camera in the UK (hoping to get mine next week for a review, shipments allowing) is James Miller, Philip Bloom's friend and frequent shooting partner. As this impressive footage shows even though the camera is designed for general production rather than cinema, I am not missing that BMCC dynamic range here. The footage looks wonderfully cinematic and the camera appears to be a powerhouse of image quality, given the right handling, good light and material.

Read the full article here

[matt2491]

Good god I want to see ungraded footage already.

[JHines]

Really didn't think this looked all that great, especially compared to his work here -

[Andrew Reid]

Very different light and grading for Genesis. I like both. Just a different feel. One summer, one winter.

 

I hardly think you can say Genesis blows this out of the water for detail. Sorry dude you didn't think that through, because what kind of rational person makes a claim like that knowing that one is 4K and one is 1080p and not even bothering to look beyond the streamed version at 7Mbit on Vimeo!?

[JHines]

[Andrew Reid]

Right and what is that proving exactly? That in summer you have a nice orange glow in the sky from the sun and in winter it's icy cold?

 

That Vimeo streaming at 720p in 7Mbit is softer than 1080p raw?!

 

Oh man.

[JHines]

I'm comparing both streamed and downloaded ORIGINAL FILE versions and Genesis blows it away. PERCEIVED RESOLUTION Andrew. Thanks for the update that it was shot in different light. Obviously the 4K will have more resolution on paper and with the original file(4K) but the 5D3 at 1920 x 720 looks more appealing to me than the BMC piece at 1920 x 1080(which is being streamed as of right now). Just my opinion. 

[Andrew Reid]

Stop polluting the forum with crap.

 

My only request.

[JHines]

Stop polluting the forum with crap.

 

My only request.

Very mature comment. Glad you encourage people to share their opinions on this public forum. 

[Andrew Reid]

It's not a public forum, it's my forum and my responsibility to keep it useful. Move on.

[Ernesto Mantaras]

(...) but the 5D3 at 1920 x 720 looks more appealing to me than the BMC piece at 1920 x 1080(which is being streamed as of right now). Just my opinion. 

 

 

The streamed video for the BMPC is at 720p, not at 1080p.

[Germy1979]

Maybe I'm not alone here being an owner of the Bmcc, but does it seem that nearly everything these (black magic) cams crank out is tinted blue?

[Sean Cunningham]

Maybe I'm not alone here being an owner of the Bmcc, but does it seem that nearly everything these (black magic) cams crank out is tinted blue?

 

Folks are all likely using the same LUTs being passed around so that likely contributes to seeing the same bias and error in a lot of footage.  I would be curious to see these cameras graded through an ACES color pipeline rather than subjective stabs at just trying to achieve a decent, baseline log-to-lin.

[Ernesto Mantaras]

Maybe I'm not alone here being an owner of the Bmcc, but does it seem that nearly everything these (black magic) cams crank out is tinted blue?

 

 

Folks are all likely using the same LUTs being passed around so that likely contributes to seeing the same bias and error in a lot of footage.  I would be curious to see these cameras graded through an ACES color pipeline rather than subjective stabs at just trying to achieve a decent, baseline log-to-lin.

At least in this case, doesn't it look more like a grading decision? Sort of like a cross-processing, with the blue channel lifted in the lows and lowered in the highs.

[theSUBVERSIVE]

Maybe it's just the grading but maybe that extra stop of DR could have delivered more details, even more in the shadows, it looks cinematic but it ended up a bit too contrasty for me.

[galenb]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned or tested is the global shutter. I think this is where 4K Production camera will blow the GH4 out of the water with it's rolling shutter. Really, this is the main reason I would go with it over the GH4 in my opinion. A good example being: shoot hand held with a very long lens. It will be a mess of jello-vision on the GH4 but look normal on the Production camera. The 4K production camera will also look a lot better when stabilized too. I don't know, I kind of feel like the GH4 and the Black Magic Production camera 4K are going to be used in entierly different situation. Even though they are both going to be very nice and inexpensive 4K cameras, one of for DSLR shooting/run-n-gun while the other might be better suited for film work. We'll just have to wait and see.

[tttulio]

Using the Zeiss Otus might explain some of the look it has.

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

It's a matter of personal preferences but, I am not really impressed by this at all. Especially colors, they're.... well, dead. I think we can get much better footage out of the 4K BMC, even compressed to 1080p on vimeo. 

[UltimateMale]

 

Not tryin to be a troll here but my first reaction was the same as JHines, I felt that the BMPC 4k wasn't as sharp and detailed as a 4K footage is suppose to look like.
And am not talking about the grading or time of day it was shot. The "Genesis" video from the 5D3 ML RAW does look sharper and more detailed than this BMPC 4K.
 

[richg101]

Not tryin to be a troll here but my first reaction was the same as JHines, I felt that the BMPC 4k wasn't as sharp and detailed as a 4K footage is suppose to look like.
And am not talking about the grading or time of day it was shot. The "Genesis" video from the 5D3 ML RAW does look sharper and more detailed than this BMPC 4K.
 

 

come on guys.  the image below is shot with what looks like a lens that is twice the focal length.  obviously the framework on that derelict pier is going to ping more on the image below - it fills twice the amount of imaging area!.  and the image on the bottom appears to me to have seen less subtle sharpening in post.  

 

Finally, depending on the lens and the light source the edges of the framework are going to bleed differently due to the contrast differences between sky and framework.  

 

Those grabs are less than worthless in the debate