Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera – Market from John Brawley Tests on Vimeo.
John Brawley (Click here) had the pleasure to test the new Blackmagic Cinema Pocket Micro Four Thirds camera. And Rick Young posted a hands-on video on Vimeo (Click here). I can’t wait to see real video comparison between the Blackmagic and the GH3 🙂
P.S.: Again more new PEN and OMD auctions on refurbished cameras at [shoplink 22691 ebay]Olympusmarket (Click here to see all their auctions)[/shoplink].
38 Responses
It looks good, especially for someone who wasn’t trying to show off the camera’s abilities. I’m surprised that the 12-35mm looks so sharp. I guess I’m using my 35-100mm incorrectly because it never seems that sharp.
Aye the reason it looks sharper is not that you are misusing the 35-100 but the camera is better,
background looks very bright for iso 800
good rendering, very pleasant,flat,looks
It’s too bad this doesn’t have a native m4/3 sensor size. Would give even larger pixels and fit the lenses better.
It would have the wrong sensor size for cinematographers then.
They’re not trying to sell equipment to consumers.
@bousozoku
+1
Too many drongos think that sensor size or mpx are the most important thing in the world. The most important thing is what comes out of the camera, and what comes out of this <$1000 video cam is amazing.
This quality in a camera under $1K is simply astonishing. This camera does 10bit raw with 13 stops!!! That’s just staggering. There may be a lot of overhead to get all set up right but there’s no doubt this camera is an incredible step.
Clarification: The BMPCC (Pocket Cinema Camera) will record either 1080p 12-bit lossless compressed RAW with 13 stops of DR; or: 1080p 10-bit 4:2:2 compressed ProRes HQ at up to 220 megabits/sec. with about 1 stop less DR.
GRADE-A-BLE!!
That looks fantastic. BM just hit a home run. If I didn’t need a camera that could do stills and video well I would get one. However, the GH3 really suites my needs better. Both are fantastic pieces of equipment though.
I am hoping for big improvements to the GH5. If Panasonic’s “hybrid” camera cannot hold a candle to the smaller, cheaper BMPC, then it will fall by the wayside like the Canon video market has in the past few years. Panasonic cannot afford to fall into a similar trap since they don’t have the deep pockets Canon has. In fact, the BMPC could filled these shortcomings if it was capable of stills and housed a m43-sized sensor. If next year’s technology can improve to the point where we can also get RAW 4K and global shutter support, we are talking about the perfect hybrid camera that the GH5 or GH6 should be.
No hybrid camera will ever be able to match a dedicated cinema camera. Dedicated cinema cameras will outperform on the video because they are designed to. Sensors used for video only are designed not to overheat. Hybrid cameras give you both worlds and do a good job.
With steps like these it does seem like a 4k camera with 12bit raw, global shutter, and 13+ DR will be possible for under $2K in the next five years. Which is bananas. Basically you have the whole cookie then and everything else is just academic. People will be carrying around Alexa/Red type cameras in their backpacks.
Asking for raw 4k in a gh body is a bit unreasonable and quite frankly overkill. I do agree that it could benefit greatly from a more flat profile and at least 10 bits color On a lossy ccompression.
I’m not saying in a GH. I’m saying that video capabilities that cost $30K a year ago will likely be available at a fraction of that price in about 5 years. And it will likely be in smaller and smaller packages.
5 years is a long time in the video electronics business. It’s fun to think about what might happen years from now, but I’m not sure how useful it is. In 5 years, “8K” video or some such will be the new buzzword (already is in some circles), and maybe “16K” 5 years after that, or whatever.
The merry-go-round isn’t going to stop at 4K, that’s for certain.
Meanwhile, go out and shoot with whatever camera you have today. Cheers.
I’ve noticed in the past, there are those who ask and wish for too much, and those who shoot them down saying they’re being “unreasonable”. I’m curious the flak someone would’ve gotten a month ago if someone said “All I want is a camera that shoots raw, is nearly pocketable, takes m43 lenses and natively auto focuses, and I’d like it to be less than a thousand bucks.”
That is not a fair comparison. The Black Magic does not do stills. So for 1000 euro you get a very nice video cam. For about the same price, you get a cam that is slightly worse in video but also does great stills.
For dedicated videomakers this cam seems to great. but for hybrid shooting (like documentaries or weddings) the Gh3 is great.
But GH3 has very good video everstill and has excellent AF tracking. I don’t know if the BMCC has it? Also: GH3 is weathersealed, I don’t think this cam is. It has a nice swivelingscreen. As one package it has much to offer and is more complete than any other cam out there I think.
It is competition for sure, but it does not render the GH3 useless. Not at all.
The weather-sealed body is only truly valuable if you’re going out with the 12-35 and 35-100 exclusively. If you have one lens in your bag that isn’t weather-sealed that you plan on using, it eliminates the worth of the GH3 being weather-sealed. There’s the Olympus 12-50 I guess, if you wanna get technical. It’s a good feature in a narrow way.
You can also use the Olympus MMF-3 adapter and quite a few ZD High Grade and Super High Grade lenses, which are all weather-proofed.
True, you should also add that AF is much slower if we’re putting all the information out there. But again, one non-weather-sealed lens in your bag, and there ya go.
I mainly shoot weahter, either snow/blizzards in winter or (supercell) thunderstorms in summer. The GH3 has a clear advante here. Also, with the 12-35 and 35-100 you get very smooth AF.
For cinema and these kinds of shootings things may be different. The Black Magic is very appealing still, also for me.
Only thing is it is not 995 euro, it’s $995, £650. Euro price is about 765 to 795. Also the GH3 is more than slightly worse It’s a long way off. The extra DR of the Blackmagic makes a huge difference.
Each camera has its strengths.
It’s likely that GH3 1080p recordings resolve more real resolution than will Pocket Cinema Camera recordings, because the GH3 down-scales to 1080p from a much higher res sensor (and does it well). The BMPCC sensor is 1080p, so after debayering its recorded resolution will probably be equivalent to about 720p resolution or so (recorded in a 1080p file).
The BMPCC can record video with significantly more dynamic range (13 stops) than can the GH3. BMPCC recordings will contain little or no visible motion or banding compression artifacts, and more accurate color, because it uses higher bit-depths & data rates, and uses more advanced codecs than the GH3.
It’ll be interesting to see how the noise levels compare between the 2 cams. GH3 video _might_ be slightly less noisy than BMPCC video will be, but we’ll have to wait to see camera-original (not Vimeo compressed) BMPCC footage to know for sure.
Stay tuned to JB’s blog for more info about all of BMD’s cameras:
http://johnbrawley.wordpress.com/
And don’t forget Brawley is also on twitter. The guy is a professional cinematographer- really knows his stuff. I’m waiting to see some raw footage from this camera and some locked off shots- that is where it will really shine. Because of the small sensor it will really benefit from image stabilization. It’s a pity the Panasonic primes aren’t stabilized.
Every new announcement reaffirms my belief I have chosen the best system moving forward. The choices available to m43rds users from lenses to bodies is almost unmatched.
I will probably get one of these, and then I can throw on any of my m43rds panasonic, olympus, SLR magic lenses… I can also throw on my 43rds lenses, I can use an adaptor and throw on anything…
Superb.
@Abraham
+1
two years ago the “m43 will die” crowd could have maybe had a slight argument. Today those same people who mount that argument look like total nutters.
Three Schneider primes (Same Schott glass used by Zeiss)
BM’s M43 pro cams
Fantastic IQ cams like the OM-D and GH3
Panasonics constant 2.8 zooms
Olympus’ astounding 75 1.8 and 12 2.0
Voigtlanders three 0.95 primes
This system has serious momentum and unless something very disruptive occurs that is not likely to stop any time soon
Consumer and sales people’s attitudes are the main things holding micro Four-Thirds back in the U.S.A. Some sales person was telling me how wonderful the Nikon 1 system was. I suppose if they don’t have the other equipment, they have to promote what they have but it’s a disservice to people who want something more.
It seems to me that it’s a lot cheaper and easier to mount a few of these Black Magic Pocket Cinema Cameras or GH3s to a car than it is to put a huge rig on a car with typically large film equipment, so almost anyone can learn the technical side of making films more easily.
In the pro video world (not stills, but video), the S35-size (approx. APS-C) sensor is the disruptive thing, at least for MFT.
The current MFT mount, and lenses designed for the format, are too small to cover S35/APS-C.
As time goes on, more & more pro video cameras have S35/APS-C size sensors and compatible mounts, such as EF, E, PL, etc. The other new camera BMD announced at the NAB Expo was their “Production Camera”, a S35, 4K, global shutter, RAW/ProRes cinema camera with an active EF lens mount.
But the current MFT standard isn’t compatible with S35/APS-C.
Perhaps a modified version of the MFT standard will be developed that can be used with S35-size sensors (for use with new lenses, or optically-adapted MFT lenses)?
Cheers.
@admin
http://www.mu-43.com/f49/theory-photog-forums-incivility-45220/ your thoughts?
Those look like great markets! Anyone know where they are?
Pretty sure they are the Addison Road markets in Marrackville, Sydney.
Sydney, Australia
I thought so!
I live in Newtown, and have been there a couple of times, but couldn’t be sure if that was it.
I like what I see.. They have a new version of the Cinema Camera that’s 4k S35 and global shutter… $4k. I remember when Scarlet was supposed supposed to be 3k for $3k… BMCC is going to be 4k for $4k… Kinda awesome.
http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicproductioncamera4k
Agreed! (I’ve pre-ordered one):
http://herefortheweather.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/bmpc-4k-vs-bmcc-mft-no-really-which-one/
Valuable information. Lucky me I found your site by accident, and I am
shocked why this accident didn’t happened earlier! I bookmarked it.
would there be a way to mount any lens you want on it? i have a bunch of new nikon lenses that i use with my nikon for photography and it would be amazing if i could use some of those on this and not have to spend the extra money on another set of lenses.