Your main problems with blackmagic cameras?

I have been looking around on amazon.com for Blackmagic Camera deals and I couldn't help but notice their many negative reviews. Mainly they were the horrible battery life, hard to see the screen in the sun, goes through SD cards like a kid eats a cookie etc.

So I was wondering what your top problems with the cameras are and how you work around them? At this point from what I heard, it would probably make sense to get a camera that is more geared towards the film maker and a camera that you don't need a custom software for post production.

Looking forward to your responses and feedback.

Now that time remaining, audio levels and histogram are coming to the BMCC I'm running out of problems... There are now different levels of prores so you can fit more on a card if space is an issue.
The things I want from the BMCC now are just things that would be nice (formatting in camera, aspect ratio lines, more white balance options, longer shutter speeds in timelapse etc) but they're not problems.

The firmware updates are fixing most of my biggest issues. My remaining negatives are bad rolling shutter and hard to see display (in sunlight). These are made up for by the amazing image quality.

Things that would be nice to have:

More white balance options.
In camera formatting and clip deletion.
Ability to copy clips directly from camera to computer using USB instead of having to remove the card/SDD and use an external card/drive reader.

I feel like a lot of the people on Amazon are expecting a DSLR replacement rather than a sensor in a box.

The battery is a dead horse. It's a UPS backup for when an external power source fails. That's it.

The sunshade is bordering on worthless, but the camera has a pro class output setup and an external monitor is easy to use and works great.

SSDs are still cheaper than film.

These aren't big problems. At least not for real productions. For casual shooting, sure. For me, the problems come from some of the minor things missing. Crop marks is a good example. Framerates being capped at 30 is tough too, though for $3k for the production camera, I won't complain. Most of the rest have already been addressed via the latest updates, at least for the 4K. So I have to say...no complaints.

Oh, I guess the BHS issue. Because sometimes I shoot high-intensity LEDs and they are harder to fix in post than a single day-star.

In my case, the only real problem with my Blackmagic Cinema Camera 2.5K is the "Black Hole Sun" issue. I avoid it by not pointing the camera directly at the sun, as I don't find it proper for the sensor, unless you have a ND filter and decent exposure. But even this won't guarantee you'll have a free "Black Hole Sun" image. You can get it accidentally as well if the sun reflects on car windscreens, water surface, or strong and constant lights like the ones in concerts.

Sometimes I see this horizontal line right in the middle of my footage, but it only happens in really dark environments when ASA800 or ASA1600 is on.

And finally I've noticed this Grid Pattern when some sun flares happen.

Well, it's not that I deal with these issues every time I shoot. I have had The "Black Hole Sun" thing on my footage just one time since I bought the camera a year ago, the mid horizontal line I have had it mainly when using the camera on dark environments exaggerating the ASA. And the grid pattern, well you'll see it if the flare is very intense. The camera would be excellent if these 3 things are fixed.

Currently the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K has the same "Black Hole Sun" issue, but other issues as Fixed Noise Pattern (Only known on the 4K version) have been fixed with the most recent Firmware. Now it has Histograms, Audio Levels and it tells you how much recording time you have left (The other cameras don't have these 3 features yet)

The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera is the only one that has everything right, no Black Hole Sun or weird stuff.


Even with the "Black Hole Sun", the Mid Horizontal Line and the Grid Pattern, it depends on how you use you gear to avoid known issues. The BMCC it has been the best choice I've had ever made over any Video Camera or DSLR.

As soon as that next firmware comes with the histogram, time remaining and audio meters, there will be no problems whatsoever with the camera. Yes a few little things here and there, but so does every other camera..

Even in it's beginning with no firmware fixes, and thanks to speedbooster, there should be Noo complainers.

This is a film camera that looks like film with Raw to boot... people will understand if you were about since the time of 35mm imaging adapters and the lengths we used to go though to make stuff look filmic. Black magic design at the time have done something which no other has done.

If you need a camera which is great for run and gun, stick with a DSLR or find away to purchase a pro camera with all the features you desire... at the time of BMCC launch those cameras where very expensive.
Do I have to mention the best color grading software thrown in for free.
Having said all that. I still want more from my BMC camera wanting it to be the best camera it can be and to stick with them as a customer, but I'm not complaining about it.

Thank you for your replies, that was more info than I expected. Any idea why blackmagic cameras need their own post-production colour grader instead of working with footage directly in AVID or Adobe Premiere?

Thank you for your replies, that was more info than I expected. Any idea why blackmagic cameras need their own post-production colour grader instead of working with footage directly in AVID or Adobe Premiere?

You don't necessarily need to (you could record in a burnt in rec709 space) but to take advantage of the full dynamic range these cameras provide - and really get the best image out of them it's best to grade the images in something like Davinci.

I can speak from experience that AVID's color correction tools are very primitive and not very useful in most applications (this is an NLE - not a Color Grading program). Not sure about Premier's grading ability but I've seen Mattias Burling get good results from it.


To the question of the post,

So far I've ran into no major problems with the Blackmagic cameras (other than the 4k getting really hot running off the internal battery). More exposure tools, audio meters, and time remaining will be a welcome addition though!

BMPCC Owner, and DMT/DIT/Colorist for a BM4k owner.

Not sure if you want the 2.5K or 4K. I have both. RED and Arri cameras have problems. I just graded some horrible FPN Epic footage that Neat Video and other heroic efforts fixed. Sony's have problems. What kind of problems can you live with if you are going to buy a professional camera? The BMD cameras are a GREAT value. If you are going to buy a BMCC or a BMPC, plan on buying a rig, a good external monitor, external audio device, and a powerful computer and descent grading monitor to take advantage of the outstanding footage you can get from either of these cameras. In the right hands with a professional and a good AC and gaffer, these cameras produce professional and very cinematic footage. In the wrong hands, the footage can look like junk.

BMD hit a slump with customer service and product consistency and what you are reading about is the rage response to a very poorly managed corporate reaction to a number of serious problems. Looks like they are pulling things together and moving forward in a good way. Now, they just need to update the firmware for the BMCC and then people will be happy. I am confident now that this will happen. However, a few months ago, I was pretty perturbed.

Before I got my camera I must've read and watched every review ever created twice and they all said the same thing ( poor battery, reflective screen etc.) and if I would've based my decision off of that I probably wouldn't have this camera right now but what made me get it was the amazing quality this camera puts out. Especially for the price. I got my setup for 1600 with a l mount battery supply and 480g ssd but even if I would've paid retail this camera is still amazing.

The main problems i do have are the black sun and the screen is really reflective but at the end of the day when I look at my finished projects, to me its definitely worth the few work arounds I have to do to get there

Has anyone tried a matte application? The kind you can get for Apple displays? I'm wondering if it would kill the glare. The screen feels resistive, so it shouldn't impact the touch at all.

Has anyone tried a matte application? The kind you can get for Apple displays? I'm wondering if it would kill the glare. The screen feels resistive, so it shouldn't impact the touch at all.

I find it helpful, but it's a personal preference kind of a thing. Anti-glare film for touch screens is relatively inexpensive, so you can try it and remove it if you don't like it.

Related info here:
http://herefortheweather.wordpress.com/ ... on-on-you/
http://herefortheweather.wordpress.com/ ... uchscreen/

I feel like a lot of the people on Amazon are expecting a DSLR replacement rather than a sensor in a box.

The battery is a dead horse. It's a UPS backup for when an external power source fails. That's it.

The sunshade is bordering on worthless, but the camera has a pro class output setup and an external monitor is easy to use and works great.

SSDs are still cheaper than film.

These aren't big problems. At least not for real productions. For casual shooting, sure. For me, the problems come from some of the minor things missing. Crop marks is a good example. Framerates being capped at 30 is tough too, though for $3k for the production camera, I won't complain. Most of the rest have already been addressed via the latest updates, at least for the 4K. So I have to say...no complaints.

THIS, all of THIS

I feel like a lot of the people on Amazon are expecting a DSLR replacement rather than a sensor in a box.

The battery is a dead horse. It's a UPS backup for when an external power source fails. That's it.

The sunshade is bordering on worthless, but the camera has a pro class output setup and an external monitor is easy to use and works great.

SSDs are still cheaper than film.

These aren't big problems. At least not for real productions. For casual shooting, sure. For me, the problems come from some of the minor things missing. Crop marks is a good example. Framerates being capped at 30 is tough too, though for $3k for the production camera, I won't complain. Most of the rest have already been addressed via the latest updates, at least for the 4K. So I have to say...no complaints.

I saw the same reaction on Reddit the moment the BMPCC went on sale, people bitching about battery life and SD cards blah blah blah.

Realistically I have no problems at all with the BMPCC. It would be nice to have 2.39:1 lines but it's not a feature I expect, I just want it.

I saw the same reaction on Reddit the moment the BMPCC went on sale, people bitching about battery life and SD cards blah blah blah.

Realistically I have no problems at all with the BMPCC. It would be nice to have 2.35:1 lines but it's not a feature I expect, I just want it.

Here's the thing. I've seen people get shots out of the BMPCC, the BMCC, and the BMPC4K that astound me. The group I'm in has easy access to two Dragons on demand (pretty much). And our colorist begs us to shoot BMD.
If you're a great DP, you can shoot almost anything. If you're not, you get on Amazon and whine about how camera A cripples you here or camera B doesn't do whizzbang Y that you HAVE to have to make art.

I wish people would just get out and shoot. I like BMD cameras because they are simple to use. RED ops are a pain to schedule. I can throw my CC or PC4K in a case, head to a site, and my DP can essentially run ALL of camera dept, short of focus pulling on tough shots. And we get so much color info. All the time. Every of the time.

If you need a different camera, get one. If you are complaining that the BMD cameras don't do all of these things, I feel like you're just looking for something to hate about them. You're 'playing your team' but nobody really cares. If you truly TRULY got burned by the purchase, that's fine. I respect being upset and letting people know. But I hate these nitpicking reviews where people talk about things the camera doesn't have like it's a 60K rig. My spaghetti doesn't have donuts! 1 star!

Thank you for all your replies. Seems like BMC are defiantly the best value on the dollar.

You know, after being on the forums for a few months now, I haven't really seen anyone share one of my biggest complaints with my 4K. And that is how easy it is to hold the power button to turn the camera off, only to have it come right back on again

My BMPCC shows little white pixels. I don't know if it always did this, I just recently noticed it.
I saw it during a theatre shoot, and I thought it was a dirty lens, but it shows up in complete darkness.
I don't know why it's doing this, unless this is common issue of the BMPCC.
Sorry, didn't want to make a new thread..


http://i.minus.com/iicCBFSRVmY3I.png

Click on link to see a bigger image and it's pretty noticeable, though I kind kind of hide it by throwing a LUT filter on there.

The group I'm in has easy access to two Dragons on demand (pretty much). And our colorist begs us to shoot BMD.

Hehe, I know why.
I'm shooting a feature film in August and could have had a Dragon if I want, but I decided to shoot it on BMCs.

do tell, Frank.

Issue with dragon, hard to grade?

In general: don't listen to "reviews" on amazon & co. Most of the statements come from people who didn't really know what they were buying, and then complained about the camera not having features they assumed it would/should have. It's just like buying a fork when you needed a spoon, and then complaining that it won't hold the soup and has dangerously pointy tips.

Bad low-light performance.
No slow-motion.

do tell, Frank.

Issue with dragon, hard to grade?

I can't speak for Frank, but our biggest issue has been user error. There are a ton of places you can mess up a shot on that (or any) camera, and our op spent too much time trying to keep noise out of the lows, blowing our highs wide open. Again, that's not the camera. That's user error. But when we shoot RED, we have so many hands in the pot. DP, operator, AC, 2nd, puller...and that's if we're not on steadicam or Mōvi. Throw another op in, plus possibly a remote pan/tilt...any place you can cut out hands is welcome. I know that we could get a DP who removes at least the operator, but we have a set of people we work with. The owner insists on a certified op.
Second is color. Our colorist learned on film and he prefers the footage out of the BMD sensors. RAW of course. I need to start billing him for storage... I don't know enough grading science to qualify this preference, but I've heard him curse RED. He never said a negative thing about the Alexa, the BMD cams...but RED gets him riled up. Hell, we did line edits for the Sirens video from Lightning Bolt and half of that was GoPro. He didn't even gripe about that!

All in all, I like BMD because people have an expectation coming in and they are super careful. I think people feel like RED is some kind of unicorn that will magically be whatever they need in post. That's not true of any camera. Dragon makes a pretty image, but for the price I'll take BMD where I can. I'd rather the Dragon be out making my friends money on non-indie gigs anyway!



EDIT:

I asked my colorist to clarify a bit. Here's what he said:

"The footage doesn't respond well when I color it. If that makes sense. BMD has a cleaner response. RED scales digitally. Like sampled sound. BMD is a more natural scaling color space. The Red color space also doesn't handle skin tones well. It just feels off."

Keep in mind, he's hated Red since we started shooting pro gear four years ago. The post workflow being nearly unworkable without a Rocket on his c2008 Mac is also an issue.

I didn't read all the comments here but Im sure there's more than one person who said something about battery.
Add me up because that is my main problem! They said that the only solution for that is to use external battery...unfortunately, it is difficult to find something like that here in our country (Philippines).

My ONLY real problem is the hdmi-port on the Pocket. It is a mistake.
The rest is brilliant.

Peter

A BMPC4K 1.9 has the only 2 strange things for me.
1. Sensor blows out the hightlights even with 80% of Zebra. Is that ok? Shouldn't 100%?
2. These highlights become reddish.. Is it possible to fix by a firmware?

do tell, Frank.

Issue with dragon, hard to grade?

I asked my colorist to clarify a bit. Here's what he said:

"The footage doesn't respond well when I color it. If that makes sense. BMD has a cleaner response. RED scales digitally. Like sampled sound. BMD is a more natural scaling color space. The Red color space also doesn't handle skin tones well. It just feels off."

Keep in mind, he's hated Red since we started shooting pro gear four years ago. The post workflow being nearly unworkable without a Rocket on his c2008 Mac is also an issue.

I've hated Red for a long time, too. Image always looked plastic-y and digital; albeit not as muddy as DSLR. I've always liked the way Alexa really, really tried to emulate the quality of film and the BMD cameras do that, but less expensive. I've always said I don't mind renting a bigger camera for bigger projects and crews, but I can own and solo-operate a BMCC all day.

do tell, Frank.

Issue with dragon, hard to grade?

I asked my colorist to clarify a bit. Here's what he said:

"The footage doesn't respond well when I color it. If that makes sense. BMD has a cleaner response. RED scales digitally. Like sampled sound. BMD is a more natural scaling color space. The Red color space also doesn't handle skin tones well. It just feels off."

Could not have said it better.
I shoot and color a lot of Red (mostly Epic) if I have to, and of course I can make it look good, but if it is my call, I prefer BMCs. The DNGs feel so much nicer in post, and I can get a certain something out of them, that I can't get out of Red material.

I can make my BMC material look like 90% Alexa without jumping through hoops in post very quick, and if you use a UltraCon filter in high DR situations (outdoor harsh sunlight) it's 95% IMHO

And yes, the Red cameras have some nice features, like HDR mode saved my ass more than once, and if you need slowmo, it's your best bet. But beyond that, BMCs are my favorite in the moment, and the budget has nothing to do with it. As I said, they asked me if I want the Dragon and I said, thanks, but no thanks

Could not have said it better.
I shoot and color a lot of Red (mostly Epic) if I have to, and of course I can make it look good, but if it is my call, I prefer BMCs. The DNGs feel so much nicer in post, and I can get a certain something out of them, that I can't get out of Red material.

I can make my BMC material look like 90% Alexa without jumping through hoops in post very quick, and if you use a UltraCon filter in high DR situations (outdoor harsh sunlight) it's 95% IMHO

And yes, the Red cameras have some nice features, like HDR mode saved my ass more than once, and if you need slowmo, it's your best bet. But beyond that, BMCs are my favorite in the moment, and the budget has nothing to do with it. As I said, they asked me if I want the Dragon and I said, thanks, but no thanks

Frank, have you ever run the FS700 with the Odyssey 7Q recording DNGs?

No, only with a Samurai (ProRes)

If you get a chance, try it. The output is night and day compared to the internal codec.

I have done tests and noticed that my BMCC in low light , causes a horizontal line across the frame and causes a change of different texture on top of the frame and another texture on the bottom , this problem is magnified more when used at 800 and 1600 handle. From what I 've read, it happens to other users BMCC , I hope that technicians can fix this in the short term, with a firmware update !!!

Camera wouldn't charge when I first got it (had to send it in for repairs)
Freezes up after about 10 minutes of using it and drops frame rates
Frequent error recognizing SSD
Rarely connects to a computer via USB
currently does not do firmware updates

I'm beginning to think they sold me a faulty camera...

Over priced, under performing, no fixed lens version, not enough producer camcorder shooting features. Some of these should give at least. If it was better, than the price wouldn't be such an issue. Apart from what others are saying here.

I have the "big" URSA 4K and through being accustomed to heavy cameras, I am well pleased with what it does. Some others do have some grief about struggling and grunting carting it around.

The magenta sun ( apparently previously extant as a black sun in older firmware versions ) is a bit of an issue.

The camera fails to "see" a battery has been connected if it has been unpowered for more than a few days. Momentary power via the XLR connnector is needed to wake it up then all is well again. It might be a fault or there might be a memory battery inside going flat.

The global shutter is a real bonus. It might have been handy to be able to switch to rolling shutter for a bit more dynamic range but I am not heartstruck over this.

People rant about the 4.6K turret having been stillborn but that topic has been adequately aired in other discussion threads so needs no reprise here.