Experiencing Frame Drops When Using The Original BMPCC

Hey everybody. Decided to pop in here to see if I could get some personalized help with an issue I'm facing right now while I am in the middle of shooting a production.

I'm using the original BMPCC with a Sandisk Ultra 120 mb/s 128 GB Sd card, shooting in ProRes HQ at 24fps, and I am experiencing random and unpredictable frame drops throughout my shoot.

I've formatted each brand new card before I've used it, and have tried both HFS+ and ExFat formats. Both experience frame drops. ExFat tends to last longer than HFS+ before the frame drops start occurring. On average with HFS+, the frame drops start happening between the 1:50 to 3-minute range, although I have had it happen as early as 14 seconds in. With ExFat it is within the 7:30 to 9-minute range, although I have had times where it has happened as early as 2 minutes in.

From everything I've read, 120 mb/s is plenty for the original BMPCC, but I'm still experiencing consistent frame drops. I've read forums where people used cards that were 95 mb/s and even 80 mb/s and the camera functioned fine under my current shooting settings. I saw another thing online that said that you need 300 mb/s to use the original BMPCC, so there's just so much differing information out there. I don't know what to think.

Sometimes there aren't any frame drops during a shot, and sometimes there are. Sometimes the frame drops don't start happening till 3 minutes into the shot, and sometimes they start at 14 seconds in. I'm at a loss and have no clue what to do about it. I've searched all around and can't seem to find any definite answers. Hopefully, I can find one here.

Most of those cards are rated based on peak read speeds, which usually can't be sustained and which tend to be meaningfully faster than the write speeds of the cards.

For purposes of the camera, it is sustained write speed that is important, and that is rarely advertised with the cards (nor is it always accurate when it is). The advertised speed printed on the card or its packaging is somewhat meaningless when it comes to whether or not the card will work with the camera.

Furthermore most of the "modern" cards are using UHS II or higher to get to their maximum speeds, and the BMPCC does not support that. There are very few cards available which actually work consistently with the camera. While UHS II cards will generally work in a UHS I camera, it may not even max out the UHS I speeds, being slower in a UHS I camera than could other UHS I cards (even if the card would be much faster in a UHS II camera).


Please refer to the existing threads on the subject:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=91479
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=83050

So far I'm finding the most reliable card to be the ones from Angelbird. They're expensive, but they've been tested in the original BMPCC (and Micro Cinema Camera) and they work. See the threads that Frank linked to for details. The original BMPCC match pack has been removed from their site, but as of a few months ago they could still provide those cards, you just have to write to them and inquire if they have any left in stock. I was able to get a couple of 128 gigabyte cards a few months ago and they've been working flawlessly in my original BMPCC at all frame rates for both CDNG raw and ProRes HQ.

I used one of the cheap Kingston cards for a while and it worked fine for about six months and then completely died.