Comparing the Cinema Camera & 5D Mk III from OneRiver Media on Vimeo.
As you know not only Panasonic and Olympus but also Blackmagic announced their first videocamera with native Micro Four Thirds mount. The video on top shows how good the Blackmagic compares with the popular Canon 5DmarkII Full Frame camera.
The camera itself can be preordered at BHphoto (Click here) and will ship from December 30th.
23 Responses
Can’t comment on Video as I’m not a Video man .
The X-E1 just reached my place & is tempting to have a try on this little camera .
Eager to know what are Pana & Oly’s cameras after the photokina , should be all Pro cameras I hope .
Hope you enjoy your new camera. How is the auto focus?
I’m loving this one from Fuji because of the size, price, and simplicity.
So what happen to the larger sensor equal to more light can be obtain? Or is it because Canon can’t optimize their sensor + Digic engine ? Or is it due to the low bit rate of video on 5D mk III?
I guess it is both. Plus Blackmagic footage is raw
Panasonic has a unique technology allowing on-sensor pixel binning for the GH series which explains its dominance over DSLR which only use skipping (they only use 1 pixel out of N) in order to grab a full HD shot (which is much lower resolution than the native one).
As for the blackmagic cam, the reason is quite similar, just instead of having pixel binning, it has a 2.5K sensor meaning the photosites are just a lot bigger.
The 5D Mk III doesn’t have a low bitrate. It’s nearly 90mbps, ALL-I or IBP.
“The 5D Mk III doesn’t have a low bitrate. It’s nearly 90mbps, ALL-I or IBP.”
Oh really, says who? Did you do these tests yourself in a lab?
Reason I ask, Canon specifications are notoriously totally silent about such issues as codec type, recording bitrate, etc. And when I called Canon a few times to ask specifically, they told me that they have no idea what I was asking when I was asking them about some video recording bitrates given in the industry standard Mb/second format.
So, if you actually know the Canon DSLR recording bitrate in video, maybe call Canon and tell them. Since they do not seem to have the same info that you seem to possess.
The 5D is about 5MB/s compressed. The BMCC is 5MB/frame, that’s 24x5MB per second at 24FPS or roughly 120MB/s in RAW.
I find already the 5D-files to be a pain to work with and I have a decent box (i7-3930, 32GB RAM, SSDx2 and GTX580)
I won’t pretend to understand the technical reasons behind the Cinema Camera’s dominance, but it is really impressive. Almost makes me wish that I shot more video…
The capability to shoot with proper acquisition formats (RAW/ProRes) alone is a huge advantage over something like H.264.
The result of this wasn’t at all predictable, I almost fell of my seat. Finally a camera reaches the high watermark set by the GH2 😉
Yeah, I wouldn’t mind seeing a comparison between the GH2 and the BM.
What about 50p, 4k? The chipset maker of my superb consumer $67 fullhd camera has announced a 4k chipset (ambarella), and liw cost sensor maker Omnivision has announced a mobile phone 4k p60 video sensor, The Nikon J1 uses a 4k p60 ready sensor probably from a “I’ll roll over and you scratch my belly” ease of ordering sensir maker, and the old Apertus Elphel cinema camera group coming with cheap s35 4k. Some of the rudest, thickest, negative video people I have met have been zealots of this camera, completely anti social, attracting similar people to “keep them” under control. I like good natured reasonable (=social) people. BMC is best to go higher spec to attract higher end, sensible professionals, and distance themselves from those people. Don’t get caught up in that crowds’ BS, there are some real self centered egotistical barrel scrapping there.
BMC is really doing themselves an injustice by not having full Res p50 raw at least. At least they got the 4/3rds mount I suggested in the time frame I predicted, no sweat.
Hmm, it seems to have inserted my comment up in the list instead.
Looks like you may need to buy Blackmagic Design as a company and have a go at designing and manufacturing a proper digital video camera. Interesting how Blackmagic would have to discriminate amongst people ready and willing to pay the price of the camera, so that they only sell the BCC to high-end folks, not to the low-end riff-raff. Oh well, whatever.
Dugo, I was invited to join. I have little problem with the company, at least they did something for the low end people I am interested in, and I have been privately consulted on technical issues in the development of cinema cameras a number of tines. A lot of features on a number of these types of cameras are suggestions I submitted. You miss understand the implications here. By getting a spec higher end people will be happy with for the next three years, for very similar price, more join and can set the standard and direction for the community, rather than people looking up to the gunk from the bottom of the barrel, self imposing gunk too. We have even had the knuckle draggers over at Red camera forums before they scrapped the cheap scarlet, and it was so bad people wanted seperate forums, not me though. BMC community has been even worse. The moment you see people going around with death skulks (rather than real Goths etc) and the such, as their icon, you know that you are getting attitude.
Wherever or not I could design a better camera cheaper with the money, is another question, it is almost beyond doubt, but this is about marketing. It is their first camera, so normally I would not expect much, except in this upcoming market place you need more to make a bigger dent. If they get 4k released by NAB next year, they will be well on their way, as it is likely to be a broadcast media mediocre 4k fest, and some cheap consumer 4k before that. But, 4k now would make you shine in good reputation and bigger sales, by then.
I think BMC is a stayer due to it’s size and expertise, but a smaller company would be more than reduced in market penetration by this, likely crushed. We will see their future NAB next year I hope.
Seems they do follow suggestions, the latest rumor is tgey are also following up with the improved 4/3rds model. You see people hounded for suggesting they could. have a 43rds mount model, or a latter improved version in the BMC community. At least BMC can see the value through all the FUD. Unfortunately RED is not.
If I get one maybe I’ll start my own BMC board (with a short blacklist), in matter of fact, if one handpicked the community could be 100 times better. I could put up a wiki with it, to be a one stop shop for information.
Can’t see ride side of embedded video (as usual – cant you fix this admin? Yes, I am on an iPad), per-order link is broken
It look like video on 5D Mark III was always over exposed by setting and saturate was set to -2. I think this was why BMCC is more saturated and more right exposed than the 5D-III.
I am not a video guy. Just my 2 cent.
POP
I have to agree that the video seemed a bit biased toward the BMCC and utilized poor shooting technique to emphasize their differences.
That being said, of course the BMCC will produce crisper footage straight from the sensor, thanks to RAW. H264, no matter which way you cut it, is a messy acquisition format.
I am not a video expert, but there is a lot more than just the H264 compression going on. The BMCC also had a lot more dynamic range and didn’t blow the highlights and the colors were gorgeous compared to the 5DMIII.
The video on vimeo from OneRiverMedia does not compare Blackmagic Cinema Camera μ4/3 Model vs. Canon 5D Mark III (see introductory text in the video). It compares Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF vs. Canon 5D Mark III! Nevertheless it would be interesting if there is really a difference.
The video quality should be the same across both models.