NAB 2018: Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

[John Brawley]

not only that, they are passing it around to other companies for different aspects of the project. one company is doing the edit, another is doing color, another is doing graphics, another is doing vfx, and there is a post producer that is working with all his clients to get it done. like i said once before, it took 3 days to get 3.2k approved to shoot one shot.
yes, all people i know with 8k cameras doing productions, basically do it on their own or with their own little company, all in one shop.
though network tv shows dont work that way.

Yep, I’ll mirror this as well.

In the US (and Australia) unless it’s for a certain set of streamers then no broadcaster is interested in 4K origination or even RAW. IN fact even the Netflix mythology doens’t so much hold up. They stream plenty of content shot Alexa, it’s only their own “Netflix Original” brand of content that has the 4K+ requirement. Stuff they actually commission themselves (which they’re tending to do more and more of in the face of other competition)

Otherwise it’s overwhelmingly 1920 ProRes for both acquisition and delivery. I’m not sure anyone who’s not inside that market understands how truly complex it becomes when dealing with the turnaround, amount of dailies, working in different cities with many different vendors.

ProRes isn’t ideal by a long shot, but it’s what the defacto standard is.

I was at first excited about ProRes RAW, but the more I look at it, the less I understand it.

JB

 

[Savannah Miller]

From my limited experience from VFX on popular netflix shows, I can assure you some of them are breaking the netflix rules about how material should be captured.

I've also worked on shows purchased and branded as "netflix originals" containing entire scenes that I would be hesitant to even call HD.

 

[jordan levy]

From my limited experience from VFX on popular netflix shows, I can assure you some of them are breaking the netflix rules about how material should be captured.

I've also worked on shows purchased and branded as "netflix originals" containing entire scenes that I would be hesitant to even call HD.

yup, i shot a comedy special, on alexa, 2k, 1080 finish, it was bought by netflix and branded as a netflix original.

 

[David Peterson]

The first thing I take umbrage with is how dismissive you are about the flip screen. For folks who are operating the camera while it is pointing at someone or something else, that’s no problem. Sure, you’re gonna have to get down and dirty for certain angles, but that’s a compromise that I think a lot of folks—myself included—are willing to make to have a gorgeous 5”, 1080p touch screen.

However, Grant specifically said that they designed the 4KPCC so people could shoot themselves with it and that’s really hard to do when you can’t see the frame. You might think of Casey Neistat and his ilk’s content as lame populist vlogger bullshit, but the fact is that consumers watch that content and a generation of people are motivated to continue making it, so if a manufacturer claims to have designed their product with that market segment in mind but it omits a feature broadly used by that demographic, it bears mentioning.

Hopefully as decent smaller 5" (or 3.5") screens get cheaper then the lack of a flip screen will become less of an issue.

 

[Savannah Miller]

Hopefully as decent smaller 5" (or 3.5") screens get cheaper then the lack of a flip screen will become less of an issue.

I wonder it that's the same supplier of the 5" display that's already in the Pocket 4K. Otherwise, you can use a couple mirrors (like a periscope) to solve the issue for simple purposes like vlogging. Saves on size, weight and battery life.

However, that being said tons of Vloggers use cameras without a flip screen. There are so many shooting on sony Alpha series cameras and just getting so used to it that everything is generally in frame well enough to tell a story. People also vlog without autofocus too. The push-button focus like on the Blackmagic cameras is totally usable in that scenario to just push once to focus, and hold the camera in front of you and film. Not ideal, but it should be usable if you really want to.

 

[Jacek Zakowicz]

I wonder it that's the same supplier of the 5" display that's already in the Pocket 4K. Otherwise, you can use a couple mirrors (like a periscope) to solve the issue for simple purposes like vlogging. Saves on size, weight and battery life.

However, that being said tons of Vloggers use cameras without a flip screen. There are so many shooting on sony Alpha series cameras and just getting so used to it that everything is generally in frame well enough to tell a story. People also vlog without autofocus too. The push-button focus like on the Blackmagic cameras is totally usable in that scenario to just push once to focus, and hold the camera in front of you and film. Not ideal, but it should be usable if you really want to.

You can pull a tooth through an a**hole if you really want to. But why should you?

 

[Savannah Miller]

You can pull a tooth through an a**hole if you really want to. But why should you?

Maybe if it's image quality you're after than sacrifices have to be made. I remember seeing a video of iJustine talking about how she vlogs with sony alpha cameras and she did exactly as I described. Place the camera in front of her and use the shutter button as a "push to focus" just as you would on the Blackmagic. No front facing screen and no continuous autofocus enabled. Once you get good at it, it's as almost as if you don't need these features anymore.

There are a number of very popular vloggers using the 1DX mark II (Peter Mckinnon, Sawyer Hartman, etc.) which has no front facing screen or IBIS. And people vlog on Panasonic too which doesn't exactly have a usable continuous auto-focus.
If you make a list of the four most important features to a vlogger (front facing screen, IBIS, continuos autofocus, and image quality (dynamic range, iso performance, codecs) there's no camera that has all 4. The closest is the Olympus EM1-Mark II which has best in class autofocus and IBIS combo, and a flip screen. The olympus does however not have the most detailed codec and lacks in dynamic range a little bit compared to other cams. 10-bit prores might be a fair tradeoff for some of the other things the Blackmagic camera lacks.

 

[Jacek Zakowicz]

And vloggers are the ones that REALLY need a detailed codec and dynamic range - OK....
As opposed to a properly framed image that's stable and in focus....

 

[Karim D. Ghantous]

No vlogger really needs a fancy camera, although if you're showing people finely detailed objects, you would expect some level of clarity. Some of my favourite vloggers use potatoes.

Ethan Van Sciver has a perfect system of filming his iPads with his phone instead of using screen capture. It sounds crude because it is, but it works.

My favourite two vloggers right now use their phones. Mind you, my next two favourite do use decent mirrorless cameras, but they are camera reviewers after all.

 

[Alexander_Klose]

That pocket camera will be a kiler b-cam and action cam with great codecs and nice Images in 4k.

 

[David Peterson]

My favourite two vloggers right now use their phones. Mind you, my next two favourite do use decent mirrorless cameras, but they are camera reviewers after all.

https://www.youtube.com/c/SoundSpeeding

Heh, the vast majority of my vlog is shot with my cellphone! And my rear camera too on the phone.

Why? Because it is a camera I ALWAYS have with me.

However if only the Sony RX100 had a mic input to go with the flip up screen then I'd probably buy and change over to that.

 

[Alex Fuerst]

Based on the sensor size (18.96 x 10 mm) what metabones speedbooster would pair with this for S35 and/or FF cinema lenses?

Would the T CINE Speed Booster ULTRA x0.71 not work with S35 lenses?

 

[Misha Engel]

Based on the sensor size (18.96 x 10 mm) what metabones speedbooster would pair with this for S35 and/or FF cinema lenses?

Would the T CINE Speed Booster ULTRA x0.71 not work with S35 lenses?

Image circle of the sensor is sqrt(18.96^2 + 10^2)=21.436 mm
Image circle with the T CINE Speed Booster ULTRA x0.71 = 21.436/0.71= 30.19 ~ 30.2 (the image circle of the speedbooster should be the same or larger than this value).
When the image circle of your S35 lenses is the same or larger it should work without vignetting.

 

[Alex Fuerst]

Image circle of the sensor is sqrt(18.96^2 + 10^2)=21.436 mm
Image circle with the T CINE Speed Booster ULTRA x0.71 = 21.436/0.71= 30.19 ~ 30.2 (the image circle of the speedbooster should be the same or larger than this value).
When the image circle of your S35 lenses is the same or larger it should work without vignetting.

Fantastic answer. Thank you Misha!

 

[Savannah Miller]

First footage from the camera. Not sure why they took so long to release anything and why it's not showcasing more of dual-iso low light performance or more challenging situations, but it does look nice.

 

[Misha Engel]

First footage from the camera. Not sure why they took so long to release anything and why it's not showcasing more of dual-iso low light performance or more challenging situations, but it does look nice.

IBC 2018, 13-18 september.

Marketing reasons

 

[Slavik Boyechko]

Yeah, I mean, it's not a bad showcase, but it doesn't really have that magical feeling like the other BM camera showpieces. Maybe it's just the subject of old trees is not as sexy as live people doing living things.

 

[Brandon Veen]

Yeah, I mean, it's not a bad showcase, but it doesn't really have that magical feeling like the other BM camera showpieces. Maybe it's just the subject of old trees is not as sexy as live people doing living things.

Looks like here's some live people doing live things.

 

[Tarquin Cardona]

For the price point looks very good.

 

[Savannah Miller]