Blackmagic Forum

Hi everyone, i have a question regarding the crop factor of the BMC. Most of you are probably familiar with the A-Cam of Ikonoskop which shoots FULL HD with a 16mm-like sensor so there is no cropping on these 'older' lenses, but as now is known that the BMC's sensor is slightly larger than 16mm and slightly smaller than M43, i was wondering if you could still shoot with 16mm lenses because of the 2.5K image and cropping it to 2K or FULL HD.

Would this work? You could save a --load of money on quality cinema lenses this way...

Hi Lumberjacksatan,

most S16 PL lenses will not cover the entire sensor of the BMCC.
But it seems that the Arri Ultra16 lenses have an image circle that is big enough to use them without vignetting, at least from the 9,5mm on.

Fred from FJS International told me that he spoke to Panavision LA and they confirmed that the lenses do cover the entire sensor.

But what about corner resolution? Wont that diminish pretty significantly?

The Ultra16´s are really good lenses that perform outstandingly well. I think corner resolution will not be much of an issue.
But there´s quiet a lot of discussion going on wether the whole set covers the sensor or not. Here´s a link that might help: http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=56326

I think it´ll be necessary to wait and make some tests. Once my BMCC arrives I´ll do that and post the results.
By the way: I think it would be nice if Blackmagic would offer a "windowed sensor" at 2K resolution similar to the RED. There´s a lot of fine S16 lenses out there at very accessible prices.