sofia wrote:I realize the product is not readily available as of yet but could someone comment on if they think the Pocket Cinema Camera might be a good performer in lowlight conditions in filming interiors of homes with the appropriate lens? I have seen very good results with higher end DSLR cameras for this purpose. I have some projects this winter which will require better lowlight performance than my professional camcorders can deliver. Any feedback would be appreciated. Here is an example of the production quality I am looking to emulate.
http://www.nashuavideotours.com/pages/R ... mples.html These videos were shot with Canon 5D Mark III and Mark II as well a Canon EOS Cinema Camcorders. Unfortuantly those cameras are not in my budget at this time.
I looked at the video for 15 Miner, Auburn as an example since the home seemed representative of what you want to shoot although there is lots of practical light in many of the rooms, but that video does appear to be shot without additional lighting. Notice these homes generally are shot in the evening when there is no direct sunlight or late on an overcast day so there doesn't appear to be issues with strong light casting dark shadows in the interiors. Just soft light coming in the windows. It is obviously what the website does well, not an accident of timing. The camera is also well stabilized and very smooth while the shooter is walking from one room to another.
You can get a good idea what you can capture with your exposure meter in your own home. Set the meter to ISO 800 preferably or 1600 if you wish. Turn on all the lights you have and walkabout seeing what the meter has to tell you. You should set your shutter angle to 180 degrees or perhaps 360 degrees and your frame rate could be 23.976 to get the longest exposure. Now what range of aperture settings are you seeing on the exposure meter?
The BMPCC has several advantages for this type of work in terms of being able to produce a good-looking well-exposed video in practical light.
First, the MFT mount allows you to use some very fast lenses that are designed for the MFT mount. You need to be careful which lenses you select if you are planning on shooting very fast apertures. The SLR Magic lens you may use offers a T1.6 aperture in a 12mm rectilinear format. That is likely the best lens I would use and has about a 55 degree angle of view on the BMPCC (performing like a 35mm lens on a full-frame camera such as the popular Canon 5D. I think that may be work for most rooms, but might not get all of a small bathroom in frame. Still you can make it work for you without the ugly perspective changes that very wide angle lenses can give you as you move about (fine in a horror movie but not ideal when selling a home). The SLR Magic lens are manual.
Second, there are fast automatic lenses that are designed for true micro four thirds cameras and you can mount them on the active mount of the BMPCC. Be careful that the lens will not have unsettling barrel distortion in the BMPCC if you buy lenses from Panasonic and Olympus. Since the sensor of the BMPCC is smaller than a true micro four thirds camera, the edge distortion will not be as bad as a lens review would indicate. These distortions are corrected in-camera on Pansonic and Olympus cameras but you don't have that feature on the BMPCC. You may be able to correct distortion then in post if needed. A lens like the Panasonic 12-35mm may be fine. The Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 prime may work, the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 should be fast enough for anything and is a better lens but it will only work in larger rooms since it is a long normal lens on the BMPCC.
Third, you should consider using a Metabones Speed Booster on the BMPCC. Currently there is a version for adapting most Nikon lenses to the MFT mount but that is a passive connection and you use the MSB to control the iris in the adapter. Shortly there will be a MSB to adapt electronic or manual EF Mount lenses to the active MFT mount of the BMPCC. What these give you is a full stop faster aperture and an apparent focal length reduction with a factor of 0.71x. So for example a Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 lens becomes an f/2.0 lens and takes on the field of view similar to a 14mm lens. But you need to compensate for the smaller sensor size (crop 2.88x) so that lens would give you roughly a 40mm view in terms of a full-frame camera with a 48 degree horizontal angle of view and a frame height of 5' for subjects at a distance of 10'.
Lots to consider. Personally I avoid using fisheye lenses but those certainly have wife field of view. There is an 8-16mm Sigma that is rectilinear but not as fast as the Sigma 12mm. There is also a rectilinear Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 that I think you could get in Nikon or EF mount and apply the Metabones Speed Booster to get an f/2.0 lens with a wider field of view that the Sigma 8-16mm.
That covers some of the aspects of using the BMPCC camera. And the camera will likely produce very good video especially if you are interested in doing post processing of the video since the camera itself does not provide the H.264 codec you likely would use on your web site. The camera will shoot ProRes Film (log) or ProRes Video. Both require you to use other programs in post processing to generate your web-ready video. ProRes Film will give you a superior image to work with in post and ProRes Video will give you something that may require almost no post adjustments. Let us know if you need more information about those options and processes.
Rick Lang
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
Thu Aug 22, 2013 9:43 pm