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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

NAB 2018: Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

C. Burkhart said:
As anyone at BMCuser will tell you, I am not a fan of the color "science" on BM cameras. I find it very "thin" in terms of it's latitude and correctibility (is that a word?). I got tired of trying to explain what I see coming from the camera if you don't exactly hit the sweet spot. Never seen such a bunch of defensive (and insulting) group of individuals. So disgusting, I just gave up on them. If you are a glutton for personal self-punshment try expressing a dissenting point of view over there.

However, to BM's credit they do try for better or worse to provide an alternative to the big boy's with corporate roll outs and I commend their smaller projects like this new pocket. I think if they have gotten rid of the artifacts from the previous gen, they will definitely have a winner, and I see a lot of film school students owning one of these and a "why not?" cam for the owner's of their larger camera. It's almost a lost leader which could turn into a nice litte profit center, if they can produce a really clean output from it.
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Yeah, seen that sort of thing, pretty feral. I think moderator should try eating their bananas instead.
 
Frank Glencairn said:
Yeah, but still not a professional acquisition codec, which makes all other features IMHO mute.
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Prores appears to be a professional aquisition codec. People use it all the time on the Alexa instead of the RAW output. Frankly, even 422HQ is completely acceptable in many pro situations.
 
But still a lot better than a GoPro with a better mount. There is maybe a lot better features etc to be announced. They talk about 100mb/s 4kp30, is that 12 bit 4:2:2 h265 and will 4kp120 be 400mb/s, or is it all you get. The H2 chipset gets 240 or so mb/s h264, and last year's h3 8k chipset I don't know. So 100 is low. But what if there is also a pro codec in there, or you can ProRes record 4kp120 externally. We don't know yet.
 
I actually shot a documentary for the theater with the BMPCC and was very pleased by the the look of the skin. It certainly had technical problems (aliasing and IR pollution) and the skin tones where quite tricky (VS RED) but the look was very soft and pleasing kind of film like S16mm.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7169096/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

I used it with a Zacuto Gunner for shoulder and with 48Wh external batteries. Metabones speedbooster and it was sometimes mounted on drones or Nebula 4000 gimbal.





 
Frank Glencairn said:
"Leaped" with a shity H.264/H.265 @ 100Mbps - seriously?

The Z cam is not even close to the BM league, it's more like a GoPro with a better mount.
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Here is what I found:
"It seems people are so curious about the Bit rate. Let me give you some numbers:
1.6Gbps for HEVC and 1768Mbps for YUV422 4K@60fps."
 
Lol Jacek, where was that from?
 
Their facebook page Jasons comment... From the source pretty much...
 
My only hesitation with the original Pocket was that it was only 1080p (which had negative trickle down effects like more noticeable moire/aliasing/noise) ... But it was so cheap compared to everything else, that those are merely nitpicks.

I'm hoping for the same thing with the v2; basically expecting a ~$1k Scarlet-X or better (rumours are 15+ stops!), that fits in your pocket and has FF35 focal reduction support (which will eliminate the sensor size differences)... And even with what little we know so far (that its 4k/30p), it seems like it should definitely achieve that.

I'd also like to see Super16 and 16mm modes/crops with higher frame rates (presuming its a 16:9 m43 sensor, which is substantially bigger than most s16 glass can cover.)
 
The original BM Pocket is a diamond in the rough over there, i still use it on big locations when my A-C cameras are on rigs, cranes, steadicams and i feel like i want to run around and grab action, able to shoot pro res like an alexa doesnt freak out the dit or post dept...PL adapter, throw on the lens choice of the day and get some extra footage, it's all been cut together in tv shows with alexa footage and no one knows the difference. The only downfall for me has been the lack of high speed, if it even did 40fps then that would be fantastic and much more usuable as a low budget A cam for people doing their own music videos and specs. I personally hope they keep it super 16, m4/3 mount but 4k up to 60fps. Ill for sure buy it.
 
Can't get past the "thin" color issue C. Burkhart notes, or how they handle mixed/poor lighting.

Congrats to Jordan for getting the BM Pocket to cut in with Alexa footage, but on a proper production with real lights I can believe it. I'd also throw in props to the colorist on the show - but that's just me ;-)

Cheers - #19
 
jordan levy said:
The original BM Pocket is a diamond in the rough over there, i still use it on big locations when my A-C cameras are on rigs, cranes, steadicams and i feel like i want to run around and grab action, able to shoot pro res like an alexa doesnt freak out the dit or post dept...PL adapter, throw on the lens choice of the day and get some extra footage, it's all been cut together in tv shows with alexa footage and no one knows the difference. The only downfall for me has been the lack of high speed, if it even did 40fps then that would be fantastic and much more usuable as a low budget A cam for people doing their own music videos and specs. I personally hope they keep it super 16, m4/3 mount but 4k up to 60fps. Ill for sure buy it.
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amen
 
Patrick Tresch said:
I actually shot a documentary for the theater with the BMPCC and was very pleased by the the look of the skin. It certainly had technical problems (aliasing and IR pollution) and the skin tones where quite tricky (VS RED) but the look was very soft and pleasing kind of film like S16mm.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7169096/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

I used it with a Zacuto Gunner for shoulder and with 48Wh external batteries. Metabones speedbooster and it was sometimes mounted on drones or Nebula 4000 gimbal.





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Patrick, well done. I just watched the trailer and liked it very much. Beautiful work.

https://youtu.be/LoKqlfjKPis
 
C. Burkhart said:
As anyone at BMCuser will tell you, I am not a fan of the color "science" on BM cameras. I find it very "thin" (or dull) in terms of it's latitude, color seperation and correctibility (is that a word?). I got tired of trying to explain what I see coming from the camera if you don't exactly hit the sweet spot. (Every camera looks good in the sweet spot, it's what happens when you go under or over that counts). However, I have never seen such a bunch of defensive (and insulting) group of individuals. So disgusting, I just gave up on them. Why bother ? If you are a glutton for personal self-punshment try expressing a dissenting point of view over there.
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You are so right, we have 2 UMP's and 2 Micro Studio Camera's 4K and blackmagicdesign davinci resolve knows absolutely nothing about color, that must be one of the reasons they give it for free when you buy a camera from them. Still looking for a program that can color correct the un-compressed RAW output of BMD camera's and make it look thicker. Maybe there is an ipad app for it...
 
Blair S. Paulsen said:
Can't get past the "thin" color issue C. Burkhart notes,
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Don't know what Burkhart is shooting, but the color was officially "thick" enough for 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' - so maybe he has a higher quality standard than Joss Whedon and Ben Davis, who knows?

Also I never had a "thin color issue" with it on any production since years, and I'm talking international high glossy documentary stuff.
But I know how to process raw CDNG BM material in a proper way.
A lot of folks who claim to have problems with BM material, after I looked at it, turned out, they just had the wrong workflow.
 
Yes they are. They are showing the object tracking AF function
 
Which chip Jacek?

Explains the pricing and data rates if he is using normal priced Jetson embedded boards.
 
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