BMD: How To Make Your Cameras UNBEATABLE
Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2021 12:42 amI love my BMD cameras, I really do. I own a couple BMPCC 4k's and an Ursa Mini Pro 4.6k. I LOVE these beasts, but I find myself more and more using the Pockets - they are easier to transport, more versatile, require lighter tripods, gimbals, sliders... and let's face it, the next time I hike to the top of the Great Wall, I want an amazing camera that won't break my back (and maybe doesn't attract as much attention as the UMP fully rigged up) but still delivers the highest quality.
This is How You Can Make the Pocket Cinema Camera Line Completely Unbeatable In the Marketplace:
There's a couple of weaknesses (as there are for any camera):
1. There is no image stabilization - fortunately you have given us the ability to use stabilized lenses and now my f2.8 12-35 works awesome. I prefer cinema lenses like the Fujinons and DZO's when I am on a tripod, but for fast work, the Panasonic lens does a really good job, light, adds a bit of stabilization, awesome. Problem solved.
2. The viewfinder, while large and responsive, is difficult in sunlight and requires (for hand held use) that I hold it away from my body which makes it less stable. No worries, I use SmallRig cages and I added an electronic viewfinder - now I have three points of stabilization, can function well in any light, awesome. If BMD ever makes a viewfinder specifically for the Pockets, I will be first in line, but for now, this works. Problem solved.
3. The BIG ONE. Focus. The other companies are gaining a lot of ground because of auto focus and tracking, something the Pockets cannot do. I appreciate the push to focus button, but once a take starts, it's manual (which tends to make a handheld shot unsteady) or using the app (which requires an assistant or adding a clamp and floating arm to the side of my cage on the left to hold my cell phone so I can use the app to pull focus.
It is a PITA. Unnecessary weight, bulk and it's clumsy. And relies on my camera... as do my gimbals, slider and every other bit of kit these days. Even some of my lights want my phone.
You will continue to lose ground and sales and see die hard fans like myself leave (or never become die hard fans) because pulling focus on a Pocket is a pain in the backside unless tripod mounted.
The GOOD NEWS is BlackMagic could turn this around in a heartbeat.
I do not want auto focus or tracking, even on the best cameras, auto focus can go wrong - and almost always does at the worst time during a once-in-a-lifetime happening or emotional high point of an interview. I want good old manual focus, but the form factor and lenses on the Pocket make this wobbly.
The fix would be INCREDIBLY EASY.
Take that lovely dial on the front and the function buttons on top and give us one more, easy to implement mode:
Direct Focus
When switched on, the dial on the front would control any lens with electronic focus.
Simple as that.
No extra bulk to the camera or additional gadgets. Dial left to focus closer, dial right to focus further. Push in the dial/switch for momentary auto focus.
With the viewfinder (and a bunch of batteries and T5 SSD's) I could film all day like this confident I would nail every shot every time. No more trying to run stabilization and hope to get those torque camera shakes out - with a small movement of the right hand finger, follow focus and rack focus get a whole lot easier.
An alternative (or perhaps second option) for using the wheel to focus would be to have the wheel spin to control focus manually and a long push (maybe three seconds) to set an "A" focal point and another long push to set the "B" focal point. After setting the two points, a short push on the dial/switch would cause the camera to rack focus for a number of seconds as set in the menus.
You cannot tell me this is difficult - the app already does this. The tech is there, it's just stuck on my phone, my bulky, battery eating, too-much-in-demand, almost forces me to use an assistant, phone.
Put this feature in the body of the camera, no physical changes needed. Just a little software tweak and your camera becomes an unbeatable combination of quality, price, performance and usability.
As a serious cinematographer and a YouTuber (I am starting a YouTube show, own a visual brand marketing company (28 years) and work at a university (8 years)), this camera update would make me think very long and hard before ever considering another brand's machine.
It's not 8k, 12k or 64k, it's not 3,000 frames per second high speed, it's not animorphic and it's not 32bit deep pixel color - the biggest single marketing move you could make to make your Pocket cameras a better all around choice than Canon, Sony, Fuji, Panasonic, Nikon or anyone else is to give us [b]real time focus control. Read the reviews, this is the single most complained about deficit on the Pockets.
The capability is there - it's in the app already.
The dial functionality is there.
There is room in the setup menus.
Oh, and if you want to go back to controlling the iris instead? Simply turn off whichever of the three function buttons was set for direct focus.
Toggle on, toggle off.
Until then, I am still looking at other brands for my fast moving handheld filming assignments. And because matching different brands is often a pain, I, like many, like to keep all my cameras coming from the same company (did I mention I have two Pockets and an Ursa Mini Pro 4.6?). But I also have a pair of Lumix and a Fuji XT3 and I am flirting with a Sony A7S III... not because of quality, but because of the focus issue.
Give me this option in the menu and my next purchase will be another Pocket (I want a permanent gimbal machine and controlling focus on the app there makes more sense) and after that BlackMagic's entrance into the Pocket 8k. I could go with many brands and get good results, but I really like the look and feel of the BMD's, not to mention BRAW. Help me stay with your brand.
Thank you for listening.
This is How You Can Make the Pocket Cinema Camera Line Completely Unbeatable In the Marketplace:
There's a couple of weaknesses (as there are for any camera):
1. There is no image stabilization - fortunately you have given us the ability to use stabilized lenses and now my f2.8 12-35 works awesome. I prefer cinema lenses like the Fujinons and DZO's when I am on a tripod, but for fast work, the Panasonic lens does a really good job, light, adds a bit of stabilization, awesome. Problem solved.
2. The viewfinder, while large and responsive, is difficult in sunlight and requires (for hand held use) that I hold it away from my body which makes it less stable. No worries, I use SmallRig cages and I added an electronic viewfinder - now I have three points of stabilization, can function well in any light, awesome. If BMD ever makes a viewfinder specifically for the Pockets, I will be first in line, but for now, this works. Problem solved.
3. The BIG ONE. Focus. The other companies are gaining a lot of ground because of auto focus and tracking, something the Pockets cannot do. I appreciate the push to focus button, but once a take starts, it's manual (which tends to make a handheld shot unsteady) or using the app (which requires an assistant or adding a clamp and floating arm to the side of my cage on the left to hold my cell phone so I can use the app to pull focus.
It is a PITA. Unnecessary weight, bulk and it's clumsy. And relies on my camera... as do my gimbals, slider and every other bit of kit these days. Even some of my lights want my phone.
You will continue to lose ground and sales and see die hard fans like myself leave (or never become die hard fans) because pulling focus on a Pocket is a pain in the backside unless tripod mounted.
The GOOD NEWS is BlackMagic could turn this around in a heartbeat.
I do not want auto focus or tracking, even on the best cameras, auto focus can go wrong - and almost always does at the worst time during a once-in-a-lifetime happening or emotional high point of an interview. I want good old manual focus, but the form factor and lenses on the Pocket make this wobbly.
The fix would be INCREDIBLY EASY.
Take that lovely dial on the front and the function buttons on top and give us one more, easy to implement mode:
Direct Focus
When switched on, the dial on the front would control any lens with electronic focus.
Simple as that.
No extra bulk to the camera or additional gadgets. Dial left to focus closer, dial right to focus further. Push in the dial/switch for momentary auto focus.
With the viewfinder (and a bunch of batteries and T5 SSD's) I could film all day like this confident I would nail every shot every time. No more trying to run stabilization and hope to get those torque camera shakes out - with a small movement of the right hand finger, follow focus and rack focus get a whole lot easier.
An alternative (or perhaps second option) for using the wheel to focus would be to have the wheel spin to control focus manually and a long push (maybe three seconds) to set an "A" focal point and another long push to set the "B" focal point. After setting the two points, a short push on the dial/switch would cause the camera to rack focus for a number of seconds as set in the menus.
You cannot tell me this is difficult - the app already does this. The tech is there, it's just stuck on my phone, my bulky, battery eating, too-much-in-demand, almost forces me to use an assistant, phone.
Put this feature in the body of the camera, no physical changes needed. Just a little software tweak and your camera becomes an unbeatable combination of quality, price, performance and usability.
As a serious cinematographer and a YouTuber (I am starting a YouTube show, own a visual brand marketing company (28 years) and work at a university (8 years)), this camera update would make me think very long and hard before ever considering another brand's machine.
It's not 8k, 12k or 64k, it's not 3,000 frames per second high speed, it's not animorphic and it's not 32bit deep pixel color - the biggest single marketing move you could make to make your Pocket cameras a better all around choice than Canon, Sony, Fuji, Panasonic, Nikon or anyone else is to give us [b]real time focus control. Read the reviews, this is the single most complained about deficit on the Pockets.
The capability is there - it's in the app already.
The dial functionality is there.
There is room in the setup menus.
Oh, and if you want to go back to controlling the iris instead? Simply turn off whichever of the three function buttons was set for direct focus.
Toggle on, toggle off.
Until then, I am still looking at other brands for my fast moving handheld filming assignments. And because matching different brands is often a pain, I, like many, like to keep all my cameras coming from the same company (did I mention I have two Pockets and an Ursa Mini Pro 4.6?). But I also have a pair of Lumix and a Fuji XT3 and I am flirting with a Sony A7S III... not because of quality, but because of the focus issue.
Give me this option in the menu and my next purchase will be another Pocket (I want a permanent gimbal machine and controlling focus on the app there makes more sense) and after that BlackMagic's entrance into the Pocket 8k. I could go with many brands and get good results, but I really like the look and feel of the BMD's, not to mention BRAW. Help me stay with your brand.
Thank you for listening.
