Thanks. Those rigs were custom made by my camera OP. They make it very quick to change locations or move around while flying. We were tired of lugging around the tripod!
So good news... ! The Freefly HDMI converter works! and does not cut off the border text. The picture quality is good. It does run pretty hot, but that probably won't matter at least until spring. One puzzling thing is that when it first comes on, it says 1080P 50 in, NTSC out, which means the camera is outputting a PAL HD signal. I have not figured out if that is switchable. There is no menu item for that. The other PITA is the pocket cam has a MICRO HDMI and the converter uses a Mini. So far I haven't found a Micro to Mini cable, so I joined two other cables with a coupler. So for now, this works.
Thats encouraging, has any one seen any comparisons to to the GH3 yet. I was wondering how this would stack up against it. Nick Just found this basic review. It allows you to download a Prores file to check out
I used the Gh3 all summer and did a side-by-side with the pocket cam when i first got it. For me, there is no question the pocket is much better, and especially when it comes to grading footage, but a video online will show less differences making the two pretty equal. The GH3 wins hands down as an all-around camera with great battery life, 60p, stills, and many other features.
Ha, thats good to know Tim. I was with a filmmaker at the weekend that had several GH3's and he leant me one to fly with. I was totally impressed with the quality of video compared with my 5d mk3. I know the lens he was using would fit on the BMPC (12-35). I just wonder if the file sizes of the BMPC would be to constrictive. Nick
Thanks Nick! Can anyone confirm that they have a LANC controller that works with the cinema cam or the pocket cam?
Wanted to share a quick test from this weekend with the BMPCC. First note, I haven't re-calibrated the radians, they are still set up for the 5D. Second, I wanted to do a quick flight to test the rolling shutter and moire so I found something that I think worked. I filmed in 30P and later conformed to 24P. What a difference that made! I think it really works as the original flight was fast, when slowed down, it looks nice. I was really surprised how far I could push the grade and still retain details in the shadows. I did notice some blocking in the really deep shadows and I definitely clipped some highlights but this was done on purpose in post well, just because-this is a camera test.
I've just had the pleasure of testing out the pocket camera, and am going to be sending it skyward this week, hoping to shoot with it Thursday. This little clip is terrestrial based, the colour potential with this camera is phenomenal compared with the DSLR, I have been using up until now.
Chris that's great. Would be interested in what you were using for lenses and your tools for post processing. Haven't seen many clips from the BMPC so information is helpful.
G'Day Gary, I put a bit a story over on my site, but in essence, that was all shot with the Nikon 70-200 using a Metabones adaptor, just the standard, not the speed booster. I played around with Davinci Resolve, and that does some amazing things with the image colours, however between everything else to learn and do, I can't use it effectively yet, so I installed the Colour Grading Central LUT utility, which lets you use the BMPCC LUT inside FCPX, and then did a simple grade in FCPX. I have bought a Tokina 11-16 to put on the camera to fly with, and I normally steer clear of most third party lenses, but if this one is good enough for Duclos to do a cine mod too, then the glass parts of it should be pretty good, and it is a lot lighter than the Nikon 12-24 plus I can put a ND on the front of it. Memory cards for this little camera are the killer, I have some 64gb 400x Lexar cards, which work well for ProRes files, but are to slow to record the CinemaDNG, for that it is only Sandisk Extreme Pro cards, the 32GB cards work fine for that, but the files get pretty big. One thing I like about the metabones adapter is it has a 1/4 20 mount on it. so with some careful setup I'm hoping to be able to bolt the camera and lens adapter down to the camera plate, and with some padding under the lens hopefully I'll be able to get some better stiffness settings on the MōVI. I'll test it out first, and if it works, I may get special base plate milled. I like the camera, I prefer the video on it the that of the D800, but it being pocket sized is a bit of a misnomer after you attach everything to it to make it work. Let me know if you want to know any more. Cheers Chris
Chris, nice site and thanks for the info. One of the posts I saw elsewhere mentioned they saw some rolling shutter when flying the BMPC. Looking forward to your video and impressions. The good news is that your weight will be less compared to the D800 so that should help your flight times.
The super-16 sized sensor on the BMPCC makes me very interested in an 8 or 9mm lens, which would be about the same focal length as the 12mm on the GH3. I haven't been able to find an image stabilized lens that would seem to be a good candidate for the BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera. Any suggestions? Is image stabilization necessary on this camera with a brushless gimbal?
Hi Shane. We are currently testing out the Olympus 9-18mm lens which does not have IS. We are flying a brushless gimbal and we don't have to stabalise at all. The nice thing about this lens is that it can fit an ND on the end as the glass if flat. The down side is that it's only f4 and the pocket is too grainy at 1600 ISO so not much lower light capabilities.
I ordered one here http://vp-systems.eu/order_cr.html#SET-CR2-PRO. Wont get here till X'mas. I also have the Startto Snapper and the Sony Lanc control v1.1 but I dont think they would work with the BMPCC
I was going to order the Rokinon 7.5mm but after seeing this video I decided that the Rokinon has too much barrel distortion so I went with the Lumix 7-14 MFT. Apparently the barrel distortion will only be gone at 10mm and up
Please share your impressions on the 7-14. You can also see a lot of fine vibration on the video that would probably be all but eliminated by a lens with image stabilization. This fine vibration softens am otherwise sharp image as well. My dream for BMPCC aerials is lightweight 8mm with IS that will take screw on filters.