Some time ago I've been thinking that one day they will see cameras with dreamy benefits available to our pockets and BMC has taken the first big step.

After impact caused by Pocket Camera at NAB seems as if all DSLR cameras literally stay in the past, the film market and videographic intermediate, semi-pro and professional low budget now has a gear of very low cost, then I wonder how that argument would have for example someone who wants today to buy a 5D MKIII about U$3000 for videos and films when for a third of the cost you have a body that offers RAW with 13 EVF of DR. Who less would suffer possibly are cameras under US$1,000 where the user amateur looking a camera for photo and with video to record the dog pacing on the garden, the family eating BBQ, an afternoon at the beach or something without more pretense, but I dont know if that market segment is sufficient for these traditional manufacturers.

I assume that traditional manufacturers must have a headache because they did not expect this movement. Anybody what will buy a camera for video a film low cost will prefer a DSLR digital -regardless the record format- to a camera to record in RAW?

BMC's movement beneficent the market because it will be forced to Sony, Panasonic, Canon and Nikon to compete with similar or better gear features, that or leave the market for inematographers and filmakers low budget because they havent argument to compete equal now.

PS, sorry for my poor english.

• one Pocket Camera HD Raw for 995$ - http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/6632/2k-blackmagic-pocket-cinema-camera-active-m43-995#Item_8
• and another S35 4K for 3995$ - http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/6631/4k-raw-black-magic-production-camera-3995#Item_1

https://twitter.com/danielogarcia1/status/321087295606386691 https://twitter.com/michaelkammes/status/321082752566964224/photo/1

3D Rig:

Shoulder Rig:

Test video 1:

1080p60, Narrow FOV, Protune, CamRAW WB

Neat Video, Magic Bullet Looks, a little Shadow/Highlight to recover the clouds

Here's a frame without 3D for reference:

Gotta say, I LOVE the dynamic range on these cameras! Unless you're shooting something really dark, all but the brightest highlights (ie. the sun) can almost always be recovered in post. There doesn't seem to be much of an issue recovering shadows under most conditions, either. Of course, you'll need to use noise reduction on more serious shadow lifting. I find Neat Video invaluable for heavy processing, as it will remove blocking on smooth areas once you start pushing the limits.

Rig Setup:

Pretty simple, actually. For the 3D part, I got a pair of macro sliders, tore off the rubber surface grip for the bottom piece, removed one of the mounts for use as the top piece, used a 1/4-20 hex standoff to link them together, and slid the GoPros inside. The tension holds them in place perfectly, and the gap from no grip lets me perfectly align the cameras in parallel. The only downfall of this one is that things 5ft or closer tend to hurt the 3D effect, since the lenses are spaced around 3" or so apart. If you're focusing on a subject further back, close objects will look quite a bit off. Same with close subjects, things behind him will be off. After about 5ft, though, everything is fine. I'll be making a more sophisticated and lightweight setup soon, which will allow me to invert one of the cameras to get the lenses much closer.

For the shoulder rig, it's just a Cavision shoulder pad with some 15,000mah USB batteries gaffer taped to a flat section of a flash bracket, screwed into one of the holes in the back. I have a Swivi monitor up front with the 3D rig mounted onto it. It's really lightweight, but I definitely need something more in back to balance it better.

As far as battery life, I left the GoPros running for 6hrs straight. I was able to monitor the battery life through the Swivi's meter, and after that time period, even with the Swivi on, I only used about half the battery. So I should hopefully be able to get around 12 hrs max from that setup.

Here's my Red/Blue workflow:

As far as syncing the left and right, I've found that they're usually about 2 frames off. I try to find and event that is easy to spot on both cameras (subject just passing in front/behind something, light turning on, etc.) to do an easy sync. If that doesn't work, Pluraleyes has no problem matching them up.

Once that's done, I color correct and grade, then apply the 3D Glasses effect in AE. Using the Difference mode, I can align the frames and set keyframes, so the focus can follow the subject no matter where he moves. Then set Keframe Interpolation to smooth the transitions. It's tedious, but the effect is worth it.

Finally, I'll set to Balanced Colored Red Blue and adjust the Red/Blue balance to reduce/eliminate ghosting, scale up to get rid of the edges (aligning will throw them off), and export.

And for Side by Side:

A lot of it is the same, though I seem to have issues with the 3D Glasses effect in Stereo Pair leaving lots of empty space around each frame, and you can't scale each side up individually to fill it. To get around that, I set everything up in the 3D Glasses effect, then export the left and right sides individually. This aligns them properly from the start, so I can get around the empty space issue. Then I do correction and grading, and put them into a double-wide frame next to each other (3840x1080) to get the side by side 3D. YouTube doesn't seem to have a problem with this, though I'm not sure if it would be compatible with any place else.

In the end, it's not really much more work, just more time waiting for it to encode, and with the double wide setup, you get true 1080p 3D.

A note about Premiere/After Effects and 5DtoRGB:

Both Adobe programs will crush the highlights and shadows a bit, at least in Protune. Running the video through 5DtoRGB first will prevent this from happening. It'll also create a much higher quality file than converting through Cineform Studio, since it interpolates color, reducing blocking artifacts. Plus, you can reverse the Cinestyle curve while converting if you want. 5DtoRGB also makes the reds look redder, instead of the slight orange cast they seem to have.

Watch the video in 1080p to see what I mean, anyone else get this? I'm wondering if it's a sensor problem, I'm using Sedna AQ1 patch.

I know the editing is poor in this video. I shot WAY TOO MANY things this weekend and just didn't have time to do the editing justice. Take it for what it is. Just a bunch of samples from both cameras.

I tried editing the colors on the first few clips but after that I just didn't have time. I shot in 720p 60 FPS and F2.8 for the GH2 shots(Can you tell which one those are?). And I shot at 720p @ 120 FPS Narrow angle non-Protune, 720p @ 120 FPS Wide angle Pro-tune, 1080p @ 60 FPS Medium Angle Pro-tune, and 2.7K @ 30 FPS Pro-tune for the Go-Pro 3.

Can you tell which clips are what resolution and frame rates for the GoPro? Hint, several of the clips having very bad aliasing in the fence in the background. That is eliminated by using a narrower field of view.

There is also a sample image below of what the GP3 looks like on the GH2 + 35-100mm.

I know that Nostalgic film mode has best dynamic range (from what I've read), but I also read on EOSHD Guide to GH2 that Black and White Smooth Film mode on GH2 is supposed to have the best DR and smoothest gradation out of all film modes. Should I just shoot Black and White Smooth mode straight in the camera or do use another mode and then do B&W in post? How about the best patch?

Any input is appreciated enormously,

Thank you so much.

http://www.personal-view.com/faqs

Feature highlights include:

• 13 stops of dynamic range
• Large 2.5k sensor
• Integrated solid state drive recorder (SSD)
• Ability to capture CinemaDNG, RAW, ProRes and DNxHD files
• Touchscreen for metadata entry
• Compatibility with EF and F mou
• SDI and Thunderbolt connectors
• Includes a FULL copy of DaVinci Resolve and UltraScope software

First videos:

http://vimeopro.com/johnbrawleytests/blackmagic-cinema-camera

Full specs

Videos:

Links:

http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagiccinemacamera/

http://johnbrawley.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/blackmagic-cinema-camera-lets-take-it-from-the-top/

If this camera delivers, this is going to be my next camera. BlackMagic Design is gong to deliver what RED promised with the original Scarlet announcement. Thunderbolt connector, free Resolve, Touchscreen for metadata entry!

This happens when honest companies like BlackMagic Design, which don't have to artificially protect their high-end gear (I am talking about you Sony, Panasonic, Canon) start entering the camera business. If the image quality lives up to the specifications, this is going to be THE camera to get. Sony, Canon, Panasonic won't be happy in that case. The 5D Mark III could do the same but Canon doesn't allow it because of C500/C300. Same for Sony, Panasonic. If BlackMagic delivers, I will respect them so much!

I won't be surprised if BlackMagic Design will launch their own NLE down the road as well.

http://www.mpoweruk.com/life.htm article

And also in PDF in attachment.

It is easy to see that heat does not help batteries.

As well as full charging (if you undercharge battery it'll live much longer and won't drop capacity so fast).

And it looks like in BM Cinema Camera we have both of this issues.
Battery is made small, so it is charged to full (hence it'll have very fast capacity drop) and it'll be made worse by temperature modes. Camera will make battery perform worse and battery in it's turn during charging will induce heat, and, hence, increased noise.

I have a BMD HyperDeck Shuttle 2 and it records uncompressed and in the DNxHD (220) codec.

I can import, play and edit the files just fine, but there's a major problem that makes the files useless.

Static scenes are fine except they are flat and require color correction to make them aesthetically acceptable.

The main problem is that the files have horrible interlacing problems... and I'll explain.

First of all, it doesn't matter whether I shoot in FSH, HBR, 24p or don't hit the camera record button at all and just record from the cleaned display... the same problem occurs, so it isn't a camera setting (I've spent 2 days experimenting with different cam settings as well).

When panning I get fine interlacing lines. They are annoying and unacceptable in their own right, but it gets worst. Once encoded (as in for distribution) the problem is accentuated. Huge lines appear and and make the video look horrible... it is unusable.

On close inspection of the files in PP CS6 I can see that the file is filled with ghost images, which I thought were a result of duplicate frames that the GH2 has served to the BMD Shuttle 2.

I've read about certain fixes for this and a the color shift issues, but a) most sound too difficult to be used in a practical workflow and at the end of the day, they may not even work.

So I'm here with hat in hand hoping that a discussion might yield some fruit that can help me, and others that are having the same problem or looking to use a Shuttle with their GH2s.

Update...

I said that extra frames were being added, well I read that recording from the GH2's HDMI port added and deleted frames randomly, and that clouded my judgment and made me lean in that direction, but upon closer inspection (I was going to experiment with manually removing the extra frames) I found that there are no extra frames per-say.

The ghosting I described is at the heart of the problem.

When panning each frame appears to be a combination of 2 frames at different times. So depending on the speed of the pan (and the shutter speed - the higher the SS the closer together is the dual images) you get an interlaced image (half of the lines) at one point in time, and another (the other half of the lines) at a later point in time.

Where they overlap, the image is solid, but on either side you have a "ghost" image which when played back you can see through the image where the missing lines are, thereby giving a notched edge effect.

And I haven't even wrapped my head around how I can fix that yet??

Thanks for your interest and feedback!!

Anthony

1. OCZ 240GB Vertex 3
2. OCZ 480GB Vertex 3
3. Crucial 256GB C300
4. Crucial 512GB M4 (firmware 009)
5. Kingston 64GB SSDNow V+100
6. Kingston 128GB SSDNow V+100
7. Samsung SSD 830 512GB

I think any modern >=128Gb SSD will do.

From: http://www.blackmagic-design.com/support/detail/faqs/?sid=3960&pid=3968

Methods to work with HFS discs on PC

HFS+ for Windows® 9.0
Experience total communication between Mac & Windows with the industry’s highest performing file system technology

Paragon HFS+ for Windows is the only solution that provides full read-write access to HFS+/HFSX partitions on any type of disks (APM, GPT, MBR) under most of Windows versions! Access Mac-formatted partitions in Windows systems with the fastest and most stable HFS driver on the market.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/hfs-windows/ , cost $20

JHFSPlus

Quite weird Java thing (and read only). But free.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/jhfsplus/

MacDrive

Seamless access to files on virtually any Mac-formatted disk from Windows.

• Access Mac disks in Windows
• Partition, format and repair disks

http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive

TransMac

Commercial toold supporting all operations, including formatting.

http://www.asy.com/scrtm.htm

HFS Explorer

HFS Explorer is a Windows file browser that allows you to access your Mac hard disks and disk partitions through a program window. HFS Explorer can't mount Mac drives in Windows Explorer or do anything particularly fancy, but it works great if you just need an easy way to read and write to your Mac drives in Windows. Most importantly, HFS Explorer is free. It hasn't been updated since 2008, but the HFS+ format hasn't really changed since then, so compatibility isn't an issue

http://www.catacombae.org/hfsx.html

I'll be adding to this topic all suitable solutions that I know.

Some of our deal partners manufacture suitable solutions and I also hope to have them soon on deals in special kits aimed to future BM camera users.

See also

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/3008/black-magic-is-internal-battery-complete-disaster-or-reliable-solution

http://www.personal-view.com/faqs/blackmagic-cinema-camera/blackmagic-cinema-camera-faq

I am making this topic to help maintaining it in always actual state.

Let me know any questions or information that you have.

P.S. If you want to help me maintain it on Wiki send me PM.

Would it be possible to get digital cinema 4k black and white out of the gh2?? or atleast 4096 × 1714 (2.39 aspect ratio 4k)??

I love my GH2 and the Driftwood quantum x v4b orion patch and its a bullet proof combo for my work. but i would love to experiment with black and white 4k.