Pro Colorist Opinions of BMPC4K Footage.

I'd love to read some pro colorist's opinions on Grant Petty's Production Camera footage (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=16615), especially comparing it to the BMCC, F55, Alexa etc. Can anyone spare the time?

I'd love to read some pro colorist's opinions on Grant Petty's Production Camera footage (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=16615), especially comparing it to the BMCC, F55, Alexa etc. Can anyone spare the time?

Euan, I'm not a pro colourist and it is frankly early to get an authoritative opinion since the camera is not shipping beyond the beta testers who are cinematographers. However comments have indicated that the major difference between the BMPC4K and the BMCC is the smaller dynamic range and way highlights are handled. With the BMPC4K, there is at least one stop less latitude at 12 stops and the highlight roll off is not as gentle as the BMCC with 13 stops.

It may be that the roll off can be tweaked in the firmware before the camera is shipping in production volumes. I doubt more can be done on the latitude but I don't know if BMD has used the HDR capabilities of the sensor to get to 12 stops or it would be feasible to go beyond 12 stops if they turned on the HDR capability. Maybe in a future release that would be feasible if it's not yet utilized.

Rick Lang
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Im not a pro either, but im a hardcore enthusiast and I've been playing with the BMCC, BMPCC and the ALEXA in the last months - I also love to post process my videos.

- Im a big fan of the BM cameras
- The color science in the ALEXA cant be beaten
- 12 stops of DR is a great amount of dynamic range, and will be enough for almost everyone. I can feel the difference in DR between the ALEXA and the BMCC. We have yet to see the differences between the BMCC and the BMPC4K
- In the sample videos shared here, in the pier shot you can see the highlight roll-off of the camera, and it looks ugly - but thats not a big problem. Avoid overexposing. 12 stops of DR and ProRes/RAW will give you enough flexibility to recover shadow info. You can also use tricks in post to overcome that.

So, in the end of the day:

- The BMPCC is awesome
- The BMCC is awesome
- It looks like the BMPC4K will be awesome

- I think that the big difference (in image science) between those cameras will be the resolution, not the colors and the DR - specially because with RAW and ProRes you can push the footage so much. And most people are not even using all the 13 stops.

- The ALEXA is in another league

Thank you both for your thoughtful replies. I experimented with the 4K footage in Resolve and was very impressed.