@Wilbo - Thanks, I was just trying to grab what I could without a tripod! I had the BMCC4K on order, but dropped it like a rock when the $1995 price was announced. The "news" coming from BM just wasn't sitting right with me. I know they'll produce a nice cam, but if John Brawley is not saying favorable things about the 4k's DR as opposed to the 2.5k's, then... well, you get my drift. My cam is completely kitted out for around $5000. That includes B&H's 2 yr drops/spills warranty. Imagine that price point on top of a $4000 camera. I have no regrets as of yet, as I am still learning the camera, but I love what I see so far.

@rockroadpix - Oh, very good points indeed. Glad to hear you're pretty satisfied with what you have so far. I just may jump ship to the BMCC in the next few days, although I don't think I can afford to drop another $3k to kit it out like yourself :)

Thanks for the input! And your footage stills look even nicer now that I know they were hand held!

-Will

@vicharris " I actually need to go lower." Vic, what needs to go lower?

Print out the pdf: http://176.32.230.28/ocon.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Rod-Standards.pdf measure the 85mm height markings to make sure your printer hasn't changed the dimensions. cut out the holes and line it up on your rods/lens mount. Then you'll need to see if your rods need to go up or down and by how much.

LWS or light weight support is what every Arri 16mm and Aaton 16mm cam had for "on board rods" and it always worked and lined up, no matter if the matte box was from Chroszeil, Arri or even Petroff. It's the standard. The problem today is most manufacturers have no idea that there even is a standard. A DSLR is not made to this standard and a company making a baseplate doesn't know what camera (lens height) you are going to put on there.

There are a few baseplates that are adjustable (Lanparte makes one) or you could use a small riser (Zacuto makes one or try one of these: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/5563-REG/Manfrotto_394_394_Low_Profile_Quick.html ), or if nothing else works and you just always need a battery grip under your DSLR you could look for an adjustable height matte box. Red Rock Micro makes a big one (although is goes lower more than it goes higher), Shoot35 makes one (I believe) and I am sure there are others.

Point is, get your camera and rods to conform to the standard, and any mattebox you buy or rent from Chroszeil, Arri, Petroff (and probably a bunch of others) will work great and I bet your follow focus will reach your lens with a zip gear on it better too.

Possible solutions (I do not have any 1st hand experience with any of these products):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PSPRO-US-Camera-Mount-15mm-Rod-Support-5-Quick-Release-Resettable-Head-Screws-/281148330244?ViewItem=&item=281148330244&nma=true&si=mFvACJgwS9WFJ%252F5cLw566Uw5LRk%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PSPRO-US-Camera-Mount-with-15mm-Rod-Support-and-Black-Resettable-Head-Screws-/271200906687?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f24d56dbf

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DSLR-15mm-Rod-Rail-Support-Baseplate-Mount-For-Handle-Follow-Focus-5D2-5D3-GH1-/271257936231?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f283ba167

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lanparte-Aluminum-alloy-High-Riser-Baseplate-15mm-Support-Rail-fr-Follow-Focus-/360718795647?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53fc84037f

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DP500-Rrail-Rod-support-system-Quick-Release-Plate-15mm-for-DSLR-Camera/321185438170?_trksid=p2047675.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D11%26meid%3D577833554920047206%26pid%3D100011%26prg%3D1005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D281148330244%26

So we just finished our first commercial shoot with the BMCC. Actually we had 3 of them on set! :) First, I'd just like to thank Kholi and his crew for all the help and showing me the ropes on these cameras. He was my DP and he brought a great swing and sound guy! Here's a couple quick grabs with a couple different looks on them. Nothing fancy or crazy, I just wanted to get a couple stills for some of the actors so they could put them up on whatever social media sites they want to. All I have to say is this camera is a gem to shoot with and even easier to grade. All these were done with tow nodes. First just some gamma, lift, saturation and contrast stuff (very basic) and one of Shians CG luts, the dense one added in another node. Fun times are around us gents.

Shot on ProRes using all Rokinon Cine glass. 16mm(which is better than the Tokina11-16), 24mm, 35mm and 85mm.

@Wilbo You won't be sorry you dropped your Pocket Cam order for this one I think. If I could have just one, I'd prob have the 2.5 just to have that option if I get in a bad lighting situation. But honestly, the ProResHQ at 13 stops is more than I'll ever need for the time being.

As far as the grades. yeah, the lighter ones are nice. I thought that little girl just looked to pissed off, I wanted to make a darker grade just for shits and giggles. These are me just fooling around. If anything, I imagine the girl with the dark curly hair might be the closest to the look we might want in the end, but I'm not the big boss so what the boss wants, the boss gets! :)

And as for advice, don't trust external monitors on this thing. If you record film log, most external monitors only see Rec709 so all your scopes will be off. I thought I was clipping all over the place and Kholi told me to chill and we were ok. Oh, by the way, it's not like I was using a bottom end monitor. I have a $1000 Ikan monitor with a full range of scopes on it.

@Wilbo I agree, I'm not that impressed with the grabs coming out of the Pocket right now. I'm sure they are great but since the price of this camera came down a third, it just didn't make any sense to me. But that's just my opinion and what the hell do I know :)

@GravitateMediaGroup Yep, I've had some bad rolling noise/banding in underexposed ProRes footage. RAW is ok there. That's what I meant by switching to RAW to save your ass a little in the bottom end. But I agree, not a low light camera but I light everything I do. Actually, I probably put WAY too much light in everything I do, which leads to my mentor yelling at me in a drunken rage about how all my footage looks like a fucking Fish n Chips shop! And yep, he's British :)

One more thing, remember that from all the reports I've read that we really only have 7 or 8 stops to really work with well in this camera. The rest is throw away if it's lite for that...so to speak.

And yet, again, I could be completely wrong there as well :)

@vicharris

looking good. What lenses did you use?

@vicharris, I love the 85, but mostly use the 14, I just wish it was a little faster.

@kazuo

Finally, i am late to the game, but bit the bullet and got my mft 2.5k.

Me too... The new $1000 price drop was too much to resist. And the fact that Davinci Resolve is still included with the camera is mind-blowing! Got the MFT mount, Switronics base-mount battery, and 240GB Sandisk Extreme for under $2500. Should be a nice shoot-able package to get started with... :)

Nice screengrabs. This is way better. @vicharris @kholi

@vicharris Thanks! That's looking a lot better than the pocket camera to me. I like the lower right frame better. Stunning image. Now I'm thinking again....do I need it??????