Guys, I made

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/4336/blackmagic-test-footage-grading-discussions

So, you can post all your opinions, grading attempts, etc.

@attichris

I doubt the BM is the right camera for you.. It seems completely counter-intuitive in relation to the work you do and the camera you seem to be used to.

Unless you per habit carry around filters, lots of storage and can manage with one or two lenses. The amount of data to store won´t be convenient for you if you like to have a lot of coverage. For raw you would use up 7.2 gb (unless I´ve calculated badly) / minute. For PRORES HQ it´s about 1/5th of that. Re: lenses the 70-200mm would mean approximately 150mm - 420mm full frame equivalent (give or take) so it might be of most use for you if you are a bird watcher.

Check out Sony´s new ENG camera. Not sure if the IQ holds up well enough for you, but it´s an option, nonetheless. The FS700 might be another good choice, consider getting an additional viewfinder for it. Get the bundled kit zoom lens if you are uncertain about lenses. Then you can bring an additional fast 50mm (or thereabouts) manual, adapted lens with you for situations where you really have to push low light performance.

For suggestions about lenses, check out the thread about video friendly lenses.

If you need a physically smaller camera (stealth should not be under-estimated); then the gh2 is great, budget friendly and the gh3 just around the corner. (pannys new zoom lens x 12-35 is perfect for documentary stuff).

...

That said, it could be quite interesting to shoot a documentary with a BM a-cam and a couple of small b-cams, like the compact rx100 or hx9v. Not for everyone or anything, though.

Looking at the latest footage now. Even on vimeo it is very very nice. I am asking myself, what are all the other manufacturers thinking. From red to the Japanese manufacturers. If I were them I would be shitting myself. This camera will be like the dslr revolution mark 2. While some like Canon have tried to quell the original revolution it was the instigator by accident, by putting sub par models and trying to channel people to a new line of its more traditional very costly camcorder division. Others like Sony have put multiple models, that all have some sort of limitation depending on the price point.

Now we have a company that is putting some RAW camera at 5 time lower price than Canon 50 mbit 8 bit camera for example!!!! It is true that the BMC has some flaws that will prevent it from owing a big part of the market. Low light, sensor size for some. But in the qualitative film and commercial/advertising market it will be a big hit. People, DP etc will own this camera and then they might rent a C300 etc when need be. This camera has a bigger sensor and about the same DR that camera that have been use in two of the best film I have watch lately like black swan and The Hurt Locker.

So what will happen to this industry will be nice to watch. I sincerely hopes it hurts, looking at the C300 spec or the latest Sony NEX camera. Yes an eng style camera without built in ND. Yes sorry it will be in the next model for another $ 4000. So yes they can keep there last century 8 bit codec, there hunger strike bitrate and put it in every camera they want, we fortunately consumers are now free from that.

@shian Have you looked at the noise in the ISO1600 shot? My eye's not very experienced, but it seems very clean, doesn't it?

I don't think the other manufacturers are too worried basically because the sensor size of BMC is small. If they had made APS-C that would be another story. Also, the camera will be too difficult for most people to use--it's for experts. The GH3 will have a larger sensor, let's see what the IQ looks like. I see an opportunity here for the big three to retool a DSLR or mirrorless to simply provide 2K output. I think it is the high end market that should be worried, but they in some ways are more threatened by hacked GH2.

@atticchris

I´m just saying it´s counter-intuitive for documentary work, that´s all. :) If I were you I´d wait around a bit to see what happens. Don´t get too attached to what camera has more support for what system. I have no issues with Sony cams and Mac whatsoever, although I don´t use avid and I´ve let go of FCP for Premiere. If you have a cam with a clean hdmi / hd-sdi + recorder combo you can record to prores directly, for instance.

re: the sensor, it´s s16 sized, meaning the crop factor relative to a full frame stills camera is over 2x. So unless you shoot a lot in the long end normally, you should be looking mainly at the range of 10-50mm lenses (from wide to normal tele range) to go with this camera. There´s not a lot of fast lens options in the wide end for the mounts that the BMD cam support.

Here´s an in depth article about what the BMD has to offer in relation to f.i. mkIII: http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/is-the-new-blackmagic-cinema-camera-the-hdslr-killer

Personally I would never consider mkIII if I didn´t have very strong intentions to shoot a lot of stills. It´s just not worth the trouble and the expense, in my view. Shallow DoF in it´s occasional glory; it can only be gotten rid of by reducing light to the sensor (stopping down). A smaller sensor; in-between s35 and s16mm film sits much better in terms of focus field control / wide open lens low light capacity than the vistavision size for filmic video and available light photography. Right now, there are plenty of very good cameras coming out on the market, so it may be good to have a wait and see approach.

I will most likely get a BMD cam soon. Although there are some issues (it´s not really perfect), it will be cheap in relation to renting an Alexa for short films, and the RAW option is absolutely perfect for that kind of work.

If you absolutely must have a new camera within the next month; get a gh2 and good glass that you can adapt to a variety of cameras (keep the glass for your REAL investment). That gives you the opportunity to get into the custom / modular approach and back into manual photography. Many new things will be unveiled at Photokina, no doubt.

Since this discussion strayed quite a lot off topic; I suggest we continue it elsewhere in specific topics!

My prediction is that projection adapters will live once more with this cam..

@danyyyel

I adapted all my nikons (7 primes and 2 zooms) with those Chinese adapters and they work great on all the Canon camera shoots I've been on. You need to put a few tabs of paper tape on them to get rid of any play, but once you do that you're golden..

@Brian202020, thanks for the tip. Do you know any video or pictures how to do it?

@bwhitz Well, rolling shutter - unlike sensor size - is a real problem if you wanna film heavy action stuff. You're really limited in what you can do. Just try filming "Saving Private Ryan"-like scenes with a BMCC or a DSLR and you'll fail miserably.

But sensor size really isn't that big of a deal, the EF-bayonet they went for has been a much weaker choice, especially for me since I'm a fan of extreme wide angle shots.

@Pechente

Gamer and other Red shot films have rolling shutter galore... and it's not the least bit distracting. I bet the audience would think you were crazy if you even tried to explain what rolling shutter was to them. It would be nice to not have it, of course, but some people talk about RS as if thier films would suddenly be "pro quality" without it, when it really has nowhere near that level of impact on the final product.

@danyyyel

Nowadays it is too much about tech. At certain moment, something must be good enough and people should concentrate on the creation. Being a still photographer, I am shock when I see people complaining about clean 12000 ISO. Yes it is as if 12 000 ISO was a standard.

Yep. Agreed. I think we might actually be seeing more "gear blame" as RAW shooting video becomes affordable. People who buy into the BM workflow, and still aren't turning out good products, are just naturally going to blame the fact that it's "not real s35mm" or "it ONLY goes up to ISO 1600". Nobody want to think that it might just be the fact that they're not creative or talented enough.

Because in the end, when you look at hollywood and other mainstream productions, you looking at the product of TALENTED people... not just "skilled" people who put in X amount of hours and have "pro" sets they work on. There's definitely a sense of "gear-hubris" these days.