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2K BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera, active m43, $995
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  • TronTron

    A quick and dirty grade of the wooden camera splash footage with a small amount of sharpening applied. Aliasing seems to be essentially non-existent on wires and fencing. I'm very pleased with the detail that can be extracted from these files in post.

  • fatkidfatkid

    @lmackreath my guess is that Taiwan test doesn't have fast enough of a card, looks like there is frames dropping.

  • nomadnomad

    Let me add something to judge resolution and aliasing now. Left is the GH2, these images are JPEG for size, but very close to the PNGs out of DaVinci Resolve. Only contrast enhancement, no color correction. Used one of my best lenses, the Zeiss C/Y 35mm 2.8.

    The BMPCC on the right seems to have some more resolution, but a lot of this can be false detail because of missing OLPF. Plus, it has far more chroma moiré, which is well controlled in the GH2, which shows mainly luma aliasing.

    Later I'll send some color chart exposure series and make a short piece of them downloadable in original ProRes.

    Res_GH2.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 252K
    Res_BMPCC.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 313K
  • lmackreathlmackreath

    That footage is not available to download in the original format so it's not the same as the other prores footage made available and also it's so shakey and badly shot who would want to touch it!

    My opinion that is all

  • StylzStylz

    A lot of people actually like to have ungraded footage posted so they can grade it themselves to test it out. Actually it was done here in this thread a page back or two. I think you are overreacting. Not sure why.

  • lmackreathlmackreath

    I don't blame the camera at all .. But I wished by now someone out there with the cam would be able to post something decent with good grading that can help those of us decide if the camera can produce good enough footage to warrant a purchase.

    Why buy the camera and then just post ungraded hand held stuff like that which is no help to anyone and doesn't show anything!

  • flabloflablo

    @jrd +1

  • jrdjrd

    @lmackreath

    more awful footage from the bmpcc

    This is a horse which probably isn't worth beating any longer -- how many times does it have to be said? -- but footage directly out of the BMPCC isn't supposed to look good, any more than the footage out of an Alexa is. That dull, washed-out look is the result of the camera retaining maximum dynamic. If you want something that pops out of the camera, there are plenty of consumer cameras which will do just that, including the GH2 with settings boosted.

  • mrbillmrbill

    @lmackreath - looks badly white balanced and a nasty encode for the web - amateur hour, I would say. The footage that pros are posting makes the camera look very desirable, IMHO

  • lmackreathlmackreath

    and now noise issues!!

  • lmackreathlmackreath

    more awful footage from the bmpcc

  • LongJohnSilverLongJohnSilver

    Still no photos but it's here...

    http://www.nauticam.com.au/products/housings/pro-video/blackmagic-pocket-cinema-camera/index.html

  • driftwooddriftwood

    Has anyone done any aerial footage with the BMPCC? 80% of this was shot with Moon T5 setting, the rest on the Nebula Cluster 6.

  • nomadnomad

    @lmackreath Duh, my fault! Maybe I didn't press fast enough when trying. It works that way, thanks for making me check again.

    I assumed that it is not working, since the manual also mentions RAW, which is definitely not yet active.

    Edited: The reason for it not being functional was a lens change. It seems that the current firmware is not always recognizing the change from a manual lens to an AF one (which I must have done a dozen times now or more). Sometimes you have to power cycle the camera to make an AF lens work as expected.

    P.S. Pressing the "OK" button twice for pixel zoom works as well with AF lenses.

  • sh1ggysh1ggy

    @lmackreath First day, just minutes after it went online.

  • lmackreathlmackreath

    The manual says that is what it does?

    "When using BMPCC with an auto focus lens press the FOCUS button for focus peaking or autofocus. press the FOCUS button once to auto focus. Press the FOCUS button twice for focus peaking."

  • nomadnomad

    No, I have to press "Focus" on the camera to activate it again. No problem at all!

    The only disadvantage with AF lenses: you can't get the green edge enhancement for manual focusing. I'll suggest that as a feature to BM (like a double-click on "Focus").

  • lmackreathlmackreath

    Thats good to know...but then when you stop turning the focus ring does it then switch back to auto?

  • nomadnomad

    My 12-35mm switches to manual when I turn the focus ring, just as I'm used to on the GH2.

  • lmackreathlmackreath

    This statement is worrying from someone on the blackmagic forums who is playing around with their BMPCC:

    "Focus assist is nice, works well with the L39 Schneider 16mm and the above Sigma 17-50, but a bit disappointing that it doesn't work with the Panny - you get AF, or focus assist. Unlike my EF lenses, there is no AF/MF switch on the Panny so you're stuck in auto. Seems to work well but somewhat disappointing"

    So this basicly means any Lumix Pansonic lens that supports autofocus can only use autofocus on the BMPCC and there is no option to swtich to MF unless there is an actual switch on the lens?

  • TronTron

    Footage looks great. The hand-wringing and sharpness debate is just deja vu with the early GH3 threads from back in the day. I sold my GH2 a week after I actually started working with GH3 files and never had any regrets. This camera should round out a nice lightweight, travel-friendly production kit together with a GH3 or GH2.

  • lmackreathlmackreath

    @niGGo what date did you order?

  • sh1ggysh1ggy

    My Pocket Camera just shipped, ordered from BPM-Media in Germany. I'll probably recieve it on monday and I'm looking VERY forward.

  • flabloflablo

    I just downloaded the ProRes sample from GearAddix (http://goo.gl/hRzyT0) and it doesn't look soft at all (considering the background is more in focus than the presenters)

  • WilboWilbo

    @lmackreath Good find. Actually, the first shot looked really soft, but I think it's got to be because the lens was not in focus. The rest of it doesn't look too bad. Maybe it's not as sharp looking as a hacked GH2, but it's got a good "creaminess" to the color and entire image that's not all together unpleasing. Still waiting to see eye poppingly good footage from the Pocket cam though :/

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