Blackmagic Update - 14th September 2023 19:00 CET

[Emanuel]

3 hours ago, Happy Daze said:

BMCC6K arrived a couple of days ago. My first day test.

 

Skin tones? Landscapes? DR?

[Happy Daze]

On 10/26/2023 at 5:07 PM, Emanuel said:

Skin tones? Landscapes? DR?

There's skin in this one, just for you.

 

[Emanuel]

Forget the model just for a while : P and tell me if this is not the best bang for the buck nowadays?

- EAG

[PannySVHS]

1 hour ago, Emanuel said:

nd tell me if this is not the best bang for the buck nowadays?

The zeiss 35 f2 on full frame is.:), making bokeh too strong imo. The camera movements and motion look organic to me.. Best bangforbuck? No.. 

[Emanuel]

26 minutes ago, PannySVHS said:

The zeiss 35 f2 on full frame is.:), making bokeh too strong imo. The camera movements and motion look organic to me.. Best bangforbuck? No.. 

I find it irresistible and that would be the camera to buy if I could only have one beyond the weird idea to have a full frame device to be called a cinema camera! LOL :- )

- EAG

[kye]

8 hours ago, Emanuel said:

Forget the model just for a while : P and tell me if this is not the best bang for the buck nowadays?

- EAG

I would be tempted to say best-bang-for-buck would be OG BMPCC BMMCC...  

BUT, used prices on them are going up because people have worked out that more pixels isn't progress and are re-buying them again.  So yeah, maybe not best value for money..

[kye]

On 11/2/2023 at 2:47 AM, Emanuel said:

Forget the model just for a while : P and tell me if this is not the best bang for the buck nowadays?

Actually, here's my nomination for best-bang-for-buck camera nowadays - the Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 just announced by BM.

Here's why:

• It's tiny, and fits the entire ecosystem of the previous Micro models, including battery type (Canon LP-E6)
• It can record BRAW up to DCI 4K60 to USB-C....    so you don't need a big expensive external recorder, you can use any old HDMI monitor you like!
• BM specifies 13 stops of DR, the same as all their previous cinema cameras, and up from the 11 stops they quoted for the previous Micro Studio camera
• It has AF (it won't be fast, but the previous BMMCC didn't have AF, and the OG BMPCC one was quite useful)
• It's $995!

So, it's smaller and cheaper than the P4K, but appears to only have one native ISO.  Interesting.

[BTM_Pix]

5 hours ago, kye said:

Appears to only have one native ISO.

It does have two but with it being made for broadcast it is expressed as gain (0db and 18db in this case).

[kye]

9 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

It does have two but with it being made for broadcast it is expressed as gain (0db and 18db in this case).

Ah, I missed that.

Any idea what ISOs they correspond to?  I'm guessing one is three stops above the other, and this document here lists some cameras sensitivities and ISOs, so maybe 500 and 4000?

[IronFilm]

19 hours ago, kye said:

Actually, here's my nomination for best-bang-for-buck camera nowadays - the Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 just announced by BM.

Here's why:

• It's tiny, and fits the entire ecosystem of the previous Micro models, including battery type (Canon LP-E6)
• It can record BRAW up to DCI 4K60 to USB-C....    so you don't need a big expensive external recorder, you can use any old HDMI monitor you like!
• BM specifies 13 stops of DR, the same as all their previous cinema cameras, and up from the 11 stops they quoted for the previous Micro Studio camera
• It has AF (it won't be fast, but the previous BMMCC didn't have AF, and the OG BMPCC one was quite useful)
• It's $995!

So, it's smaller and cheaper than the P4K

Yup! That's why I rated it as one my camera releases of note from 2023: 

 

[BTM_Pix]

8 hours ago, kye said:

Ah, I missed that.

Any idea what ISOs they correspond to?  I'm guessing one is three stops above the other, and this document here lists some cameras sensitivities and ISOs, so maybe 500 and 4000?

Based on a presumption of the ISO/Gain relationship between the P6K and the Ursa Broadcast G2/Studio Camera 6K Pro (which are both P6K in different form factors) then I would expect the same relationship between the P4K and the Micro Studio Camera 4K G2.

So, 0dB and 18dB would equate to the Pocket 4K's dual native ISO values of 400 and 3200 respectively.

 

[kye]

1 hour ago, BTM_Pix said:

Based on a presumption of the ISO/Gain relationship between the P6K and the Ursa Broadcast G2/Studio Camera 6K Pro (which are both P6K in different form factors) then I would expect the same relationship between the P4K and the Micro Studio Camera 4K G2.

So, 0dB and 18dB would equate to the Pocket 4K's dual native ISO values of 400 and 3200 respectively.

It's all slightly relative too - I recall a video that Toneh made where he tested a bunch of cameras to see what level of exposure they got at the same ISO setting, and the results were that there was quite a lot of variation despite them all being tested in controlled conditions - IIRC the differences were more than a stop different across the range of cameras.

[BTM_Pix]

16 minutes ago, kye said:

It's all slightly relative too - I recall a video that Toneh made where he tested a bunch of cameras to see what level of exposure they got at the same ISO setting, and the results were that there was quite a lot of variation despite them all being tested in controlled conditions - IIRC the differences were more than a stop different across the range of cameras.

I’m guessing one of the camera brands involved as showing a lot of variance would have been Fuji as they had a very optimistic idea of how much light there was when I was using them side by side with Nikons.

 

[bjohn]

On 11/4/2023 at 7:54 AM, kye said:

Here's why

Add one more reason:

If (like me) you already own a couple of the original Micro Cinema Cameras, you can buy this one and your spouse/partner will never notice that you bought (yet) another camera.

Seriously, though, for me this is an interesting option because I already have everything I need for it (cage, monitor, bigger external battery (the one Dmitry Shijan made), but it would give me much better low-light performance than my Micros which is important for some of likely situations in my case.

[BTM_Pix]

29 minutes ago, bjohn said:

If (like me) you already own a couple of the original Micro Cinema Cameras, you can buy this one and your spouse/partner will never notice that you bought (yet) another camera.

One of the most useful pieces of technical advice that has appeared on this forum.

[kye]

8 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

One of the most useful pieces of technical advice that has appeared on this forum.

My year 11 English teacher decided that there wasn't enough life education in school, so he told us stories, and let us sleep in class, but still taught us what we needed to pass the tests.

One recurring theme he'd tell us stories about was how he'd get away with buying hifi equipment and smuggling it into his house without his wife finding out.  The most memorable one was how he got away with buying a pair of large subwoofers, which were about 1 meter/yard cubed each.  

Here's the procedure he recommended:

1. Buy them, but have the store hold them until you can arrange a good delivery time
2. Subtly arrange for your wife to be away overnight (e.g. concert tickets for her and a friend to something she'll like but you won't and then a "girls night" stay at a hotel afterwards)
3. Arrange to have the subwoofers delivered as soon as she's gone
4. Put them in the corners of the room
5. Cut some plywood to cover the sides of the subwoofers that aren't against the wall, so it's not visible
6. Cover over the ply with a nice tablecloth and have it go all the way to the floor
7. Put a pair of matching fancy trays and a pair of plants your wife likes and put them on top
8. When your wife comes home, tell her you bought her some plants, if she asks about the boxes, just say they're boxes but change the subject
9. After a few months, remove the false boxes and adjust the cloths so they don't interfere with the subwoofers, and wire up the subwoofers
10. Only use the subwoofers on very low and only when she isn't home
11. After another few months, you can start using the subwoofers while she is home, but only very very subtly
12. If she ever notices, say they've been there for years and act surprised she doesn't remember - immediately start talking about their specifications and history of the company so that she is eager to change the subject

I enjoyed his English classes.

[bjohn]

My partner works at home several days per week and in her employer's office the rest of the time. When I buy camera or video equipment on eBay I try to time the shipment so it arrives when she's not here. Doesn't always work out that way, though. But she pays so little attention to my equipment that she doesn't even notice when I'm using a new camera or lenses. She has her own obsessions, although they're cheaper.

The only resistance I've encountered from her is my re-entry into the world of film (photography, not video). She views it as a waste of money but especially as an avoidable environmental impact, from cradle to grave (manufacturing the film, distributing it to retailers, processing it, and ultimately disposing of the negatives). Lots of materials and energy use, all of which could be avoided if I stuck to shooting digital. Some people argue that the environmental footprint of a new digital camera is much larger than that of an antique film camera and hundreds of rolls of film, but if you already own a digital camera that's not the way to look at it: every roll of film has an avoidable impact. I agree with her about the environmental impact and I try to limit my film photography because of it, but I love shooting film enough that I continue.

[IronFilm]

@bjohn, you need to get a digital camera that looks like a film camera such as the Nikons Df and then she'll never be able to tell if you're being responsible shooting digital or being evil using film 😉

[seanzzxx]

Pulled the trigger on this after using the 4k for exactly five years (and the Ursa's at work a lot). I don't know if it is the biggest mistake not going for the 6K pro but I am really excited, especially after loving my S5 II (and in my eyes this camera is a 'proper' cinema S5 II). I'll keep you guys posted.

[PannySVHS]

I wish they had added Prores. Braw does not allow playback on usual players such as Vlc.