Advice on upgrading to BMCC MFT (from GH2)

Hi,

I currently own a GH2 with some manual prime lenses, NDs, follow focus & tripod etc… which I use to make indie shorts. Since the recent price drop I’ve been thinking of upgrading to the BMCC MFT. However, my Mac & hard drives aren’t really good enough to handle resolve and although I could afford the camera, SSDs and battery I couldn’t afford to upgrade my machine too, at least not for a while.

I guess I’d therefore be working with ProRes and just doing a small amount of color correction and grading in Apple Color. I’m interested in hearing opinions as to whether this approach would give me a significant improvement in image quality over the hacked GH2 or whether it’s just not worth bothering if I can’t use Resolve to get the full potential out of the camera. Thoughts greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks,
Matt

I am kind of the same predicament, although my sights are set on the BMPCC.

I currently own the GH2, hacked to the max bit rate and it produces great quality stuff. I own the standard 14-42 kit lens and the Panny Leica 25mm 1.4 and that has kind of served me well.

My macbook pro is only a year old and can handle pro res (from testing the sample files being made available) quite easily in FCP X, although it has not got the video capacity to handle resolve.

So my question is, as a hobbyist shall I stick with my pre order of my BMPCC which can utilize my existing MFT lenses, or instead use the £800 to get one or two better lenses for my arsenal like the Sigma 18-35 1.8, ior the Lumix 12-35 2.8, the Tokina 11-16, the slr magic 12mm 1.6?

Any thoughts would be appreciated...

I'm in the same situation and looking to upgrade from a GH2 to a BMPCC (when it arrives).

Have done some basic grades in Apple Color to test footage from the BMPCC, basically trying to make it as natural as possible. It is amazing how much it can be 'pushed' without falling apart.

Download some footage yourself and have a play or better still rent the camera and see for yourself!

Details here:



Best wishes,
Chris

Moving over from a hacked GH2 to a pocket myself. The color sampling rate for the GH2 is only 4.2.0 vs 4.2.2 with the Prores HQ. Prores also records at 220 Mbps which is far greater than my hacked GH2.

I have upgraded my edit/grading rig to a custom built hackintosh that will handle 4k footage. I don't need it now but the hardware will be able to handle it when it comes.

All my lenses are either EF, FD or C mount manual lenses. All of them will work with the pocket camera since I already have adapters and when I move to a EF mount camera, most of my lenses will be native or an inexpensive adapter away.

There are tons of vids shot out there that are colored with Colorista or other color correction software, even in After Effects that look incredible. Remember, Resolve was only really affordable until more recently. So there is no question at all that even if your computer couldn't handle Resolve, you could color it with another program and get amazing results. If you're worried about cutting it, just get you some sample ProRes footage or Raw footage and see how your computer handles it and try coloring it yourself.

One thing to keep in mind with the BMCC cameras is all the hidden costs to operate it properly. Since the internal battery only lasts around 90 minutes or less, you'll need to spend $350 for the external switch tronic power base ($299 for the base, $45 for the plug to charge the base). $240 roughly for a 240gb SSD card. $30 for a SSD card reader cable to dump data on set. If you shoot outdoors, the monitor is practically useless because of the glare, so you need an external monitor solution that has SDI-3G connections on it with a sunhood. They run around $1,000 for the monitor. $300 for the SDI-3G converter box alone if you have an HD monitor already.

Once you have the power brick, it can be screwed under the camera which makes it a bit wobbly. Which is why some people actually screw it on top of their camera which looks really odd since you usually put a mic or something else on top. But that is the only option some people have, and it looks ridiculous on top like that in my opinion. So you're better off getting rails. You're looking at a few hundred for a rail kit just to keep your battery pack near your camera. Otherwise you could get velcro bag like device and tape it to the tripod leg like some people do, which also looks really bad in my opinion.

Then you need a carrying case for it all. I use a Pelican 1550, which according to the camera store I bought it at, is the largest Pelican you can buy that can also be carried on to an airplane as carry on. They are $125 for the black one on B&H.

You'll also need ND filters if shooting outdoors since there are no built in ND filters. Your footage will look way overexposed and unusable outdoors without one. You have to have them. And that means buying one for each lens. If you buy a cheap one and put it on an expensive lens, you degrade the picture quality. So expect to pay more for quality ND filter glass. Since there are different ND filters, it's recommended to get at least 2 or get a variable ND filter which usually runs around $100+ because it rotates and gives you a range of ND filters. Or you could spend around $1,000 for a mattebox and ND filters to slide into it.

Also there is no shoe mount on the top of the camera, just screw holes. This mean you cannot mount anything on top of it without either buying a cage or shoe mount screw of some sort. Or you have to find a device that allows you to remove a piece on it to screw in somehow. That's why so many people buy a cage.

Thanks to everyone who has replied or commented so far. Chris that footage you graded in Apple Color does look good. As suggested by a few people I'll probably try and download some footage and have a play.

It's good to know that there are lots of great looking vids done that have been graded with other software. I'm pretty sure my Mac will handle the ProRes cos as I currently transcode the GH2 footage to ProRes to work with Final Cut. Although I normally use standard ProRes I have transcoded some stuff as ProRes HQ just to check the system can handle it.

I'm hoping the extras won't be too bad as I've got the rails, follow focus, variable ND, cases etc… with my GH2 kit so it's just the SSDs, card reader and battery which I have budgeted for. Even so, it's only now that the camera itself has dropped in price that it might be a viable option for me.

I upgraded from the canon 60d (ML) to the BMCC mft. The ProRes files are bigger but not too bad. I haven't figured out the raw workflow with resolve yet but as far as ProRes with the camera, that is an upgrade for me. Don't forget to throw in an external battery if getting the BMCC, you will need it. That will be an additional $300+. Be prepared for the lens crop differences too., Lenses will cost you.