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Lens tests on the BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera (BMPCC)
  • 232 Replies sorted by
  • dbpdbp

    How is the BMPCC in low light compared to the GH2?

    5.6 on the GH2 is sometimes usable indoors, depending on the venue. Most times it is not, though.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    Nobody is talking about shallow depth of field here. It's the low light problems. You seem to be a bit all over the place with your posts here. Are you complaining about low light or that you don't care about shallow depth of field or both? 5.6 is absolutely unusable in any sort of situation that's not blown out by light. This is why the 14-140 is not a good indoors lens and I'm sure this is why people don't care to use the 14-45. It's a starter lens. It's a lens to make you feel good and use your camera when you buy it. If you plan on doing any sort of low profile or under cover type shooting with this camera indoors like many plan, then it's useless. Now car mount day time stuff would probably be great.

  • balazerbalazer

    How can we explain the fact John Brawley used the 14-42mm (no ois switch) on the first test he did, handheld and seemed stabilised?

    John has good hands. John was wrong in thinking the 14-42 was stabilizing. Watch the footage more carefully.

    The 14-45 is a fine choice for what it is: small and cheap, much slower on the long end, heavy barrel distortion on the wide end. Maybe no one tested it because no one has it. But don't let that put you off. I can assure you that it will be a fine lens on the Pocket Camera if you can live with its limitations.

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    @Aerok_Hussain If the14-45, works for you, that's great. I think for some, the problem is that as you zoom to 45, the f stop can't be more open than 5.6, so some low light situations become difficult. I definitely agree that the image produced by the 12-35 isn't very nice.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    You can't say just a .7 stop difference. All of these Pany lenses ramp up quick on the f stop when you zoom in. So you might have a .7 difference at the start but I bet you get to 4 as soon as you start to zoom and 5.6 not too far after. The 14-140 does this.

  • FlaaandeeersFlaaandeeers

    @Aerok_Hussain @matt_gh2
    I also think that the 14-45 could be a cheap alternative to the 12-35, thinking of using it as a stabilized 14mm f3.5.-
    Sigma looks very, very interesting, but I have that range covered with primes, and stabilization might be handy for occasional run&gun.
    If I ever get this camera, of course.

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    @Aerok_Hussain I think the 14-45 is 3.5-5.6, and the 12-35 can do 2.8 all the way thru the zoom range. I think the sigma 18-35 f1.8 will be a good lens for this camera, but it will be a bit pricey.

  • balazerbalazer

    OIS only works on lenses with an on-off switch. I tested it.

  • mattherematthere

    Samyang 8mm "Fisheye" on the pocket looks like it might be usable in certain situations..

    @Kholi is that Takagi Masakatsu?

  • kholikholi

    If it suits you, download the original half-a-gig file. It's still not as detailed as the 4GB file, but better than the vimeo compression.

  • No_SuRReNDeRNo_SuRReNDeR

    Guys I was told the BMPCC will ONLY use stabilization on the lenses with mega OIS "On-off switch". Has anyone checked this out? Was hoping to use my 14-42 piece of crap lens since Im too broke for 12-35.

  • manstokmanstok

    I just saw my pocketcam is arriving tomorrow, can do a test with a 17,5mm voightlander, 35-100mm panasonic, 7-14mm panasonic, 24mm rokinon and last but not least a Moller Bolex 1.5x amorphic with a helios 58mm!

  • kholikholi

    That made me lol. I think it's just really easy to shoot these things to explore whatever camera you have, without interfering with other people. Don't see it more as testing, just exploring, y'know? My thoughts, anyway.

    I'll do some 12 and 25 stuff as well, currently really just enamored with the 18-35's quality, and haven't seen a need to jump to the SLRs.

  • FlaaandeeersFlaaandeeers

    @Vitaliy_Kiselev Random shit on a desk could be in the top 5.

    @kholi Looking forward to your Sigma tests, of course, but more interested in the SLR Magic glass, that I actually have :P

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    I've got some random footage from the Sigma 18-35 on the camera, nothing special (damned flowers xD)

    We love flowers here :-) Cats, bush and flowers. Holy trinity.

  • kholikholi

    I've got some random footage from the Sigma 18-35 on the camera, nothing special (damned flowers xD) but it does show how sharp the camera can be with modern glass, even pretty much wide open.

    If anyone's interested I can upload it, otherwise I'm trying to schedule something worth showing/shooting.

  • JuMoJuMo

    Dang Abakus, get WordPress or something... unless your site is supposed to be a time portal to 1995, in which case, bravo.

  • spacewigspacewig

    http://www.abakus-scitotific.com/Format_Converters.htm

    Scroll down a little to Abakus Super-16 Lens Conversion Kit for Zeiss 10-100mm T2 Zooms

  • kholikholi

    Yeah, not sure what the Abakus is, our 10-100 is PL converted so that's what I'm using it on, Hot Rod PL mount.

  • spacewigspacewig

    OK, so without the abakus 16-S16 converter you get 50-100 @ up to f/1.8

  • kholikholi

    Shoot, sorry, I was actually responding about the pocket camera, not the 2.5k!

    It only covers just below 50mm on the pocket unless you're focusing beyond like 50feet or something. I think the lens' look is great if you want to shoot 50 and beyond, but it's also really heavy, focus throw is a bit long for one-man-band type deals.

    It is fast, on the flipside, and relatively sharp wide open. I believe I deleted my test footage, was going through a lot of PL glass and only had three cards.

  • spacewigspacewig

    @kholi Thanks for the thorough reply. What range do you think it would cover on the pocket camera? Also, any words about your feelings on the lens in general would be very welcome.

    Cheers

  • kholikholi

    That was probably me and I wasn't entirely right. It starts vignetting at right under 50mm, actually. I had it on the camera a few days ago grabbing random footage and as nice as it looks, the focus throw is wild (I forgot how long the focus throw is), and again it only covers from 50-100.

    It APPEARS to cover earlier than that if you're infinity focused, but once you focus twenty feet or less, the lens portholes like crazy.

    The Zeiss S16 Superspeeds start to cover at 9.5mm, I plan on mixing the S16 set with the MKII S35 set starting at 18mm, so that's 9.5, 12, 16, 18, 25, 35, 50, 85 all 1.2~1.3

  • spacewigspacewig

    I'd be very interested in knowing what the usable range of the Zeiss 10-100 is on the pocket. I read on one site that on the BMCC vignetting is gone starting at 32mm wide open...

  • nomadnomad

    The adapters should work (but I have personally only tested a manual lens on them). Main problem is the lack of OIS. If you decide to get an electronic lens with all it's drawbacks in manual focusing, you'd like at least stabilization, wouldn't you?

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