Blog Post: Documentary Shooting with an ENG Cinema Camera

My latest blog post, "Thinking Outside the Box: Documentary Shooting with an ENG Cinema Camera". It's quite extensive and covers a lot of details on the topic. Join me in New York, August 8th at the Blackmagic Design Day, where I'll present and have this exact rig in person with video footage examples and more! Enjoy!

http://www.onerivermedia.com/blog/?p=984

Cheers!

BMCC_ENG_Marco_Solorio_Blog_Photo.jpg (48.99 KiB) Viewed 3018 times

That's the beauty of the size. It can be configured to be anything you want.

Hopefully I'll see you in NY, Marco since we didn't get a chance to meet at NAB!

Yeah, I agree... when you strip the beast down, it'll fit in the tiniest of places and still give the same fantastic image results. Good luck doing that with a full size ENG camera!

Would be great to meet, Paul! Hopefully you can make it for the NYC event. Cheers!

Thanks Marco . . . nice presentation in Burbank and good to see it written down.

I'm really intrigued by these lenses. I've currently got an BMCC EF so not sure it would be right for me, but I really see the benefit when running and gunning. Big time.

Appreciate the little details you're passing along. Cabling, batteries and plates, those are just a few examples of all small stuff that each of us spend so much time working out. For instance I've been trying out lots of vendors for cabling with varying success. It was refreshing to see that you made your own. Why didn't I think of that. That way you can have right angles where you need them and the cables are a perfect fit. Who do you use for parts?

Also like the tight fit of your rig.

I'm sure I'll have more questions as I read more if only there were more time . . . . .

Thanks for the kind words, Marshall. And happy you enjoyed the LA event!

Yeah, the EF mount does throw a slight monkey wrench in the works for mounting B4 lenses, but you can do it, albeit much more costly with a very slight reduction in image quality. I know of at least one person doing the B4 to EF marriage and they seem to like it.

Yeah, sometimes building your own cables just makes so much more sense. Pre-built LEMO cables are especially costly, so I'm happy to build my own. For common things like XLR cables and such, I'm happy to just buy those as needed in most cases.

Yeah the tight fit was important to me as well and took a while to get it to where it is now. The entire back end pivots and slides for touch screen access as needed.

Thanks!

Soooooo, are you ever going to finish this BMW doc?

Great write up Marco! Can you mention the cage you're using?

cheers
sean

Thanks Sean! Yeah, we knew going into the BMW doc that it would take at least a year to cover the race season and such (started December 2012), so we still have a lot to shoot actually! We plan on wrapping all shooting schedules in January 2014.

I'm using the Viewfactor cage as part of the build. Actually, I use the Viewfactor cage on pretty much every rig I do. Mates perfectly with the ARRI MMB-1 matte box without the need of risers or modifications.

Thanks Marco.

My latest blog post, "Thinking Outside the Box: Documentary Shooting with an ENG Cinema Camera". It's quite extensive and covers a lot of details on the topic. Join me in New York, August 8th at the Blackmagic Design Day, where I'll present and have this exact rig in person with video footage examples and more! Enjoy!

http://www.onerivermedia.com/blog/?p=984

Cheers!

BMCC_ENG_Marco_Solorio_Blog_Photo.jpg

Thanks for all the insights, Marco. I had not paid any attention to ENG B4 2/3" lenses since I didn't know how they would cover BMCC sensors. You answered that easily. One item might need clarification when you write your detailed eBook. In terms of the 17x7.6mm lens you used, with the 2x extender that would be like a 15-258mm lens. Then when you mount that on the BMCC, with its crop factor of 2.28x, you are looking at the field of view of a 35-589mm lens on a full-frame camera. Steady as she goes!
Rick Lang
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Thanks for all the insights, Marco. I had not paid any attention to ENG B4 2/3" lenses since I didn't know how they would cover BMCC sensors. You answered that easily. One item might need clarification when you write your detailed eBook. In terms of the 17x7.6mm lens you used, with the 2x extender that would be like a 15-258mm lens. Then when you mount that on the BMCC, with its crop factor of 2.28x, you are looking at the field of view of a 35-589mm lens on a full-frame camera. Steady as she goes!

Hey Rick! Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I should probably re-word that small part in the blog post. What I was trying to convey was that the 17x7.6mm would give me an effect zoom range that started on the wide end to that of a 16mm Canon EF lens and zoomed out to that of about a 300mm Canon EF lens equivalent. Or in other words, it was like having a Canon 16-300mm lens on there (referenced by swapping and matching with actual EF zoom lenses), figuring this might be easiest for people to understand the relative zoom range against wheat they're used to currently using with still photo lenses. But yeah, after the crop factor calculation is in place, it's more akin to the 35-589 range you speak of. I should probably clarify this in the blog post. Thanks!

Another nice article, Marco. Thanks!

I'd love to see a Fuji Cabrio PL mount zoom lens on a BMCC-MFT via a PL-to-MFT adapter (such as Hot Rod).

At ~$40K per lens the Cabrios are perhaps rental items ...

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Another nice article, Marco. Thanks!

I'd love to see a Fuji Cabrio PL mount zoom lens on a BMCC-MFT via a PL-to-MFT adapter (such as Hot Rod).

At ~$40K per lens the Cabrios are perhaps rental items ...

Thanks as always, Peter! Very kind of you.

I'm still trying to figure out if the Cabrio line-up only gets power via the PL mount itself, or if there's a Hirose port on the grip. If it's only through the PL mount, I'm not sure how you'd get power to the lens. For the cost of that lens, I have to assume there's a simple Hirose port on it. And yeah, that's definitely a rental lens. At least for me it is!

Another nice article, Marco. Thanks!

I'd love to see a Fuji Cabrio PL mount zoom lens on a BMCC-MFT via a PL-to-MFT adapter (such as Hot Rod).

At ~$40K per lens the Cabrios are perhaps rental items ...

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Yep, but ebay is full of old sd 2/3" tv zoom lenses. I paid 27 pounds on tv zoom lens. But adapter cost like 250 $.

Yep, but ebay is full of old sd 2/3" tv zoom lenses. I paid 27 pounds on tv zoom lens. But adapter cost like 250 $.

Yeah, good quality adapters, especially those with mechanics in them aren't cheap but necessary. As mentioned in the article, I'd highly advise against using SD ENG lenses (for client paid work) with the BMCC. The camera has an incredible amount of detail and using bad glass or glass with little resolving power will obliterate the detail the BMCC delivers. If just for fun, an SD ENG lens will prove a cheap and fun solution!