- Posts: 212
- Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2012 10:34 pm
- Location: Culver City, CA
Mon Feb 11, 2013 2:06 am
My company is expanding beyond post-production. Our core business is editing and finishing documentary/reality television, as well as advertising, promotion, publicity, and documentary and narrative independent films. I would never consider myself a DP- barely even a hobbyist with a camera. I’m posting because there is a very high interest in this camera, and until Friday I was reading everything I could find about it! If there’s no interest, I promise not to do a giant post like this again 
My BMCC arrived Friday Feb 8, 2013 from Keycode Media in Burbank. I had pre-ordered at some point the previous summer. During the fall I collected a set of Rokinon Cine lenses – 8, 24, 35 and 85. They also make a 14, which I haven’t ordered (also noticed I failed to try the 8 at the beach.) They do not have a 50mm cine version yet. The lenses are canon mount, fully manual lenses- no focus or aperture motors, declicked, with gears on the outside for cine use. I prefer this type of lens to an auto-focus/auto aperture type still lens. They are cheap lenses but surprisingly high quality for the price. They’re designed for full frame, so the sensor of the BMCC only uses the center of the lens – the much talked about 2.3 (?) ‘crop factor.’
Here’s a simple setup comparing the focal lengths. There’s a $100 canon still lens in the mix, just to round out the selection; most of the shots were DNx in log (‘film’) mode, then a quick grade on my home iMac (1 or 2 generations old – 12,1) and not my regular finishing monitor:
https://vimeo.com/secrethq/review/59373305/73e59fe2ca
or
vimeo.com/59373305
There are also a few shots of my dog on a hike, too, for fun. Some are CinemaDNG – converted to DNx with resolve lite. Note that DNG was VERY tough on the iMac- I suppose you need a more powerful GPU, however, DNG gave the most range for grading. I did the ‘focal length comparison’ from the top of the hill, too, but all those shots were overexposed and unusable, so not included.
I’m in no position to offer advice yet. My main conclusion from Saturday was that I need to shoot A LOT more, and get more comfortable with the camera ( I’m out of practice with ANY camera, really.)
Initial observations about the camera and lenses:
- I like the look of image, and particularly the ‘film’ mode, which is the log recording mode.
- No way to hand-hold this brick without accessories. Very odd ergonomics, definitely no better than dslr, except bigger monitor. Rails, shoulder mount, follow focus will all be needed.
- You need a battery system- but it seems like anything you can adapt will work since it’s 12-30v. The internal battery lasts about 90 minutes at most- which is not long in terms of actual shooting.
- I had no problem using un-recommended SSDs, but I can’t suggest that. I think I was just lucky.
- Less obvious moiré, and no apparent line skip- the annoying things that made me give up the DSLR. Really like the picture so far. In the beach shots, there is a modest amount of mosquito noise and moiré visible in the railing of the roller coaster (may not be visible after upload to Vimeo.) This may be due to the time-lapse mode, or something else, and is exasperated by the ‘heat’ rising from the sand. More testing needed!
- Very difficult to monitor and focus in bright daylight, even with the shade on. I have not tried any interiors yet, but I’ll probably need to add an eye-piece type viewfinder to my kit for outdoors. No flexibility on the monitor makes it hard to use in low or high camera positions. Accessory monitor will be needed.
- Peaking mode (focus) very helpful – however, the ‘1:1 pixel’ mode is very hard to engage – maybe I’m doing something wrong, but almost every time I try to use the 1:1 pixel mode the camera goes into data-entry mode. (I suppose the ‘metadata entry’ will be useful for some, but would be FAR more useful as a wifi or blue tooth connected iPad app. Doc shooters won’t type all that info in, dramatic shooters could have someone with them to do the typing if there was an ipad –type app.)
- As expected, ‘video’ mode looks better right out of the camera, ‘film’ mode much better for grading and is more forgiving for exposure errors.
- Don’t like the ‘videoish’ look of the severely over-exposed highlights (dog’s hair)
- Same highlight can be ‘recovered’ when shooting DNG / grading in Resolve.
- Not convinced that the prime lenses are worth the extra cost for this particular camera. A single high-quality zoom might have been a better investment. Ooops.
- Stopped to buy a nice camera backpack between beach and mountain! ThinkTank makes very nice bags. Prime lenses are a nice idea, but that’s a lot of stuff to carry up the trail.
- Also purchased a variable ND between locations – the lenses are very big and collect a LOT of light! Even stopped all the way down I had to lower ASA and shutter angle – which means I wasn’t working in the ‘sweet spot’ of the sensor – 800 ISO according to the manual. Given the smaller sensor size, any hope for shallow depth of field will likely require that lens is near wide open. Note also that the Rokinon lenses don’t have the same filter size – very irritating – two were 77, and one was 72. The 8mm will not accept filters because it’s a fisheye.
- I work in both Avid and FCP, but prefer Avid. The ‘Avid DNx’ workflow records DNx –in- QT, not MXF, so you still may want to consolidate from AMA, or import. Reasonable to assume that ProRes QTs load directly to FCP.
- The lenses feel a little ‘fogged,’ but I’m quite certain I shouldn’t judge them until I’ve shot much, much more material.
- Time lapse mode is fun and easy.
- Don’t expect to use DNG files without a powerful computer, or at least a powerful GPU(?) ! Further, I love Resolve, and am very familiar with it, but it’s tough to use efficiently without a control panel.
My BMCC arrived Friday Feb 8, 2013 from Keycode Media in Burbank. I had pre-ordered at some point the previous summer. During the fall I collected a set of Rokinon Cine lenses – 8, 24, 35 and 85. They also make a 14, which I haven’t ordered (also noticed I failed to try the 8 at the beach.) They do not have a 50mm cine version yet. The lenses are canon mount, fully manual lenses- no focus or aperture motors, declicked, with gears on the outside for cine use. I prefer this type of lens to an auto-focus/auto aperture type still lens. They are cheap lenses but surprisingly high quality for the price. They’re designed for full frame, so the sensor of the BMCC only uses the center of the lens – the much talked about 2.3 (?) ‘crop factor.’
Here’s a simple setup comparing the focal lengths. There’s a $100 canon still lens in the mix, just to round out the selection; most of the shots were DNx in log (‘film’) mode, then a quick grade on my home iMac (1 or 2 generations old – 12,1) and not my regular finishing monitor:
https://vimeo.com/secrethq/review/59373305/73e59fe2ca
or
vimeo.com/59373305
There are also a few shots of my dog on a hike, too, for fun. Some are CinemaDNG – converted to DNx with resolve lite. Note that DNG was VERY tough on the iMac- I suppose you need a more powerful GPU, however, DNG gave the most range for grading. I did the ‘focal length comparison’ from the top of the hill, too, but all those shots were overexposed and unusable, so not included.
I’m in no position to offer advice yet. My main conclusion from Saturday was that I need to shoot A LOT more, and get more comfortable with the camera ( I’m out of practice with ANY camera, really.)
Initial observations about the camera and lenses:
- I like the look of image, and particularly the ‘film’ mode, which is the log recording mode.
- No way to hand-hold this brick without accessories. Very odd ergonomics, definitely no better than dslr, except bigger monitor. Rails, shoulder mount, follow focus will all be needed.
- You need a battery system- but it seems like anything you can adapt will work since it’s 12-30v. The internal battery lasts about 90 minutes at most- which is not long in terms of actual shooting.
- I had no problem using un-recommended SSDs, but I can’t suggest that. I think I was just lucky.
- Less obvious moiré, and no apparent line skip- the annoying things that made me give up the DSLR. Really like the picture so far. In the beach shots, there is a modest amount of mosquito noise and moiré visible in the railing of the roller coaster (may not be visible after upload to Vimeo.) This may be due to the time-lapse mode, or something else, and is exasperated by the ‘heat’ rising from the sand. More testing needed!
- Very difficult to monitor and focus in bright daylight, even with the shade on. I have not tried any interiors yet, but I’ll probably need to add an eye-piece type viewfinder to my kit for outdoors. No flexibility on the monitor makes it hard to use in low or high camera positions. Accessory monitor will be needed.
- Peaking mode (focus) very helpful – however, the ‘1:1 pixel’ mode is very hard to engage – maybe I’m doing something wrong, but almost every time I try to use the 1:1 pixel mode the camera goes into data-entry mode. (I suppose the ‘metadata entry’ will be useful for some, but would be FAR more useful as a wifi or blue tooth connected iPad app. Doc shooters won’t type all that info in, dramatic shooters could have someone with them to do the typing if there was an ipad –type app.)
- As expected, ‘video’ mode looks better right out of the camera, ‘film’ mode much better for grading and is more forgiving for exposure errors.
- Don’t like the ‘videoish’ look of the severely over-exposed highlights (dog’s hair)
- Same highlight can be ‘recovered’ when shooting DNG / grading in Resolve.
- Not convinced that the prime lenses are worth the extra cost for this particular camera. A single high-quality zoom might have been a better investment. Ooops.
- Stopped to buy a nice camera backpack between beach and mountain! ThinkTank makes very nice bags. Prime lenses are a nice idea, but that’s a lot of stuff to carry up the trail.
- Also purchased a variable ND between locations – the lenses are very big and collect a LOT of light! Even stopped all the way down I had to lower ASA and shutter angle – which means I wasn’t working in the ‘sweet spot’ of the sensor – 800 ISO according to the manual. Given the smaller sensor size, any hope for shallow depth of field will likely require that lens is near wide open. Note also that the Rokinon lenses don’t have the same filter size – very irritating – two were 77, and one was 72. The 8mm will not accept filters because it’s a fisheye.
- I work in both Avid and FCP, but prefer Avid. The ‘Avid DNx’ workflow records DNx –in- QT, not MXF, so you still may want to consolidate from AMA, or import. Reasonable to assume that ProRes QTs load directly to FCP.
- The lenses feel a little ‘fogged,’ but I’m quite certain I shouldn’t judge them until I’ve shot much, much more material.
- Time lapse mode is fun and easy.
- Don’t expect to use DNG files without a powerful computer, or at least a powerful GPU(?) ! Further, I love Resolve, and am very familiar with it, but it’s tough to use efficiently without a control panel.
GH
----------------------------------------------------
Greg Huson
Secret Headquarters, Inc
Post Production / Production
Santa Monica, CA
323 677 2092
www.SecretHQ.com
greg (at) SecretHQ.com
----------------------------------------------------
Greg Huson
Secret Headquarters, Inc
Post Production / Production
Santa Monica, CA
323 677 2092
www.SecretHQ.com
greg (at) SecretHQ.com