LENS RECOMMENDATIONS FOR Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro

I am about to purchase 3 Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro cameras with the Focus and Zoom demand options on each for my church, and would love to get any lens recommendations you may have.

The lighting varies during the service, and the distance from the cameras can vary from 20 to 50 feet. I would like to find lenses that respond to the focus and zoom demands (do I need a power adapter?) if possible.

I'm not a video production guy so I apologize if I'm not asking the right question here... Thank you SO MUCH for any help! - Rick

Good news and bad news.

The Good News: Most MFT lenses will respond to the focus controller without any issues. I've tried a variety of Panasonic and Olympus lenses and they all work fine. If you use an adapter for other lenses you might not be so lucky, so just stick with MFT lenses if you can.

The Bad News: The zoom controller works with the Studio Camera, but it works much better with the URSA cameras.

There are only 4 lenses that BMD lists as compatible with the zoom controller and the Studio Camera 4K Pro:

• Olympus 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 ED M.Zuiko EZ (not available new)

• Olympus 14-42mm M.Zuiko f/3.5-5.6 Digital ED EZ Lens

• Panasonic Lumix G X Vario PZ 45-175mm f/4.0-5.6 Zoom OIS Lens

• Panasonic Lumix G X Vario PZ 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Power O.I.S. Lens

I've tried the two Panasonic lenses, but the lenses all have the same issues. The zoom control works, but the lenses are not the best (they are horrible). I bought one of each of the Panasonic lenses to try before buying another set for the other cameras. The lenses are low cost, so getting one of each to try out first might be a good idea.

Here are my issues with the lenses:

• The zoom speed is slow and the speed control doesn't appear to work (was meant for professional zoom lenses only).

• They are all variable aperture, so when you zoom there will be a jarring change in the image brightness.

• They are not parfocal (stays in focus at all focal lengths), so as you zoom you will also have to focus.

For me the issues are annoying, but not game breaking. I teach a high school AV class and the cameras are in a studio with controlled lighting. With the lenses available I would not use the zoom control in an actual production setting. I find them adequate for training purposes and non-live production.

There are a few posts floating around about some Canon CN-E lenses working with an EF-MFT adapter, but there are also a few posts saying they don't work. Since I don't want to gamble on a $4600 lens I can't verify if it works or not.

It is very disappointing that BMD hasn't addressed the issue of lens compatibility. They chose to make the camera MFT knowing the lens selection for the zoom controller was lacking. I have three of the Studio Cameras (and studio converters...a must have for multicam IMO). My hope is that BMD addresses the issues with firmware or their own adapter.

If you have the budget I would suggest you get the focus wheel, but skip the zoom. Either get a servo zoom lens with a different controller OR get one of the external focus motors (Tilta Nucleus Nano) and use it for zooming.

Good luck!

I can vouch for the zoom demand not working with CN-E lenses via a Metabones adapter. Very frustrating considering the investment.

Zoom can be controlled on CN-E lenses from older BMD cameras such as the Micro Studio Camera 4K with any of the Metabones speed boosters or smart adapters.. so this problem is in BMD's court, not Metabones.

I'm using the Canon zoom demand with my CN-E 70-200mm lens for the time being, but it's an expensive investment and none of the buttons on the Canon zoom demand talk to the BMD camera.

Parfocal is where it's at. A zoom demand without a parfocal lens is fairly pointless in that you cannot zoom a live shot. The CN-E lenses are expensive but you see the value as soon as your operators start zooming in or out live.

Thank you guys for this - I appreciate the good/bad news

If you can hold off with your purchase they just announced new versions of the Studio Cameras. The 6K pro uses EF lenses, so there might be a larger selection for zoom control. Doesn't help those of us that already purchased the cameras. Hope they don't just stop supporting the older models.

[Tim Schumann]

There is a fairly substantial update for the Studio Camera 4K Pro and Studio Camera 4K Plus as part of the Camera 8.0 update which is available on our support site now.

I'm sorry to say said update does not allow for servo zoom control when using Metabones adapters.

I still don't understand why this does work on the Micro Studio Camera 4K but not the current range.

I'm sorry to say said update does not allow for servo zoom control when using Metabones adapters.

I still don't understand why this does work on the Micro Studio Camera 4K but not the current range.

I have three 4K Pro cameras. I bet that BMD would figure out a functional Zoom Demand solution and bought a Zoom Demand for each camera. I purchased the low quality Panasonic servo zoom lenses as a stop gap.

Now I guess BMD isn't going to bother fixing a major oversight since they are moving on to the 4K G2 and an EF mount 6K version.

Very disappointing.

[Tim Schumann]

We have contacted Metabones and are hoping to be able to get these lenses working on MFT as well but this may require a software update at both ends.

If you are interested in testing a patch build when we have one please PM me.

Why is it Metabones problem to fix? I know I sound like a broken record but it just doesn't make sense. You guys have already done the work, and this works on existing Metabones firmware.. In fact this is not even the latest Metabones firmware.

Here it is. Servo zoom on the CN-E lens working on the very Metabones adapter in question, mounted on the Micro Studio Camera 4K:

If BMD can do it on a camera released in 2015, why can't they now?

[Tim Schumann]

Sometimes adding support for one lens can break others... especially when third party adapters are being used.

Out of interest what firmware is your Metabomes on in this video?

3.70.

(v3.80 broke focus control)

[Tim Schumann]

Yes that’s why the update might need to be at both ends. 3.8 broke multiple things so it seems.

So frustrating trying to find the right power zoom lenses with MFT mount. Panasonic choices are too limited. 14-42 is too short and the other is too zoomed in. They have a 14-140 Lens that would be perfect if it offered the Power Zoom...

I film sports and at time you want a wide zoom and other times you want a real tight zoom, but there's nothing that I've seen that can do that with an MFT mount that's compatible with the Zoom Demand. BM is heading in the right direction, but it would be nice when they come out with a new product if they also worked with a few manufacturers to also provide a few products that would work with it.

[Tim Schumann]

There are a bunch of new lenses now supported following our Camera 8.1.1 update - more info here.

Metabones have also updated their firmware to 3.9 to resolve the compatibility problem that was present with some lenses in 3.7 and some lenses in 3.8.

I have four BMSC Pro4k. We have one set of Zoom and Focus controls (vendor bought them for us and lens they got do not have electronic controls)

I see the list of options on the one page and I am looking at this:
Olympus 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 ED M.Zuiko EZ Micro 4/3 lens

Does that lens support both zoom AND focus control?

Thanks,

-clm