BMD Pocket Cinema Camera 4K/6K/6KPro - SDI Output

Hello everybody,

I think I'll buy a BMD Studio Camera 4K II, but I'm still unsure about that. Should I rather get a BMD Cinema Camera 4K/6K/6KPro. The reason is, someone told Studio Camera 4K has bad performance in low light. But I dunno the definition of a low light. Is Indoor already low light?

Use cases:

• Filming/Livestreaming sign language interpreter in studio. (camera distance less than 2m)
• Filming/Lifestreaming Speaker on the stage in a conference hall (camera distance around 6m)

I have some BMD ATEM Mini ISO (Pro), but I prefer SDI because of the distance between camera and switcher, and some benefits of SDI cables.

Sadly the Pocket Cinema Camera doesn't have SDI connection. I have several BMD Micro Converter BiDirectional SDI/HDMI 3G. Should I expect some quality loss there? Will I get some latency? Will I still have all back-channel-features like tally, remote controlling, etc...?

Best regards
Floh

The BMPCC like most cinema cameras likes light. (BTW if all they announce at NAB is a new name for these cameras I will be thrilled) But when we say it isn't a low light monster we mean it isn't great at shooting outdoors at night. Though if you know what your doing you can still make it work as Josh over at Make Art Now showed shooting on the 4K with a MFT sensor in the desert at night without lights.

It sounds like you are trying to do some kind of a studio style setup so will have at least some artificial lighting. If that is the case then as long as you aren't shooting on an F4 lens or need to stop it down to get the entire orchestra in focus or what ever then you should be able to get good results indoors with the BMPCC. If you are looking for better low light get the 6K over the 4K as the 6K's APS-C crop will give you more light.

Hi, thank you for replying. Yes I want to upgrade the studio and ditch the Logitech BRIO 4K Ultra HD. (I know )

I have a light setup but I want to avoid making sign language interpreters blind with strong lights because of wrong chosen camera.

I think I'll get a Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 12-35mm f2.8 ASPH II as lens. So, theroetically a BMD Studio Camera 4K II should be fine, but in youtube channels they're telling the issue, that it's too dark Unfortunately I didn't find any indoor footages yet with a 2.8f lens.

Best regards
Floh

The Studio camera is ~100 ISO at 0db of gain, then;
200 ISO-6db
400ISO-12db
800ISO-18db

A good exposure at 6db of gain is going to require 50-60 footcandles wide open. One can halve that number at 12db of gain but it's going to get noisy. Pcam has an exposure calculator a well.

Good Luck

So does it mean I need lamps in total of 5000-6000Lux in front of a person with 200 ISO (6db gain)?

500-600 lux at the subject where the incident meter reading is taken. The brightness of the fixture is only part of the equation, distance (inverse square law) and diffusion are also big factors.

Good Luck

SDI Output on the Pockets is definitely one of my most desired upgrades. I prefer SDI. They could even go with the Micro SDI that they have on the Video Assist 5". Overall, SDI is a far more secure and better than HDMI.

Thank you very much. Sure there are a lot of facts. It's just difficult to explain/understand the light (candle meter, etc...) but I am starting to get an idea of that.

Now Blackmagic Design just released BMD Studio Camera 4K Pro (and Plus) which could be most interesting thing for me since it hat bigger sensor size.

If we go back to topic: Are there cons about combining Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro with BiDirectional SDI/HDMI Converter?

Jupp, that is the one what I mean.