Blackmagic Forum

I am getting my camera in a couple of days so I will find this out soon enough, but I am curious to see what others have to say about it at the moment.

When I first heard about the camera people were saying it was awesome but it wasn't great in lowlight. That was a bummer for me a little bit, because I love to have that flexibility to really see in darker areas. However, a friend of mine pointed something out to me not long ago that made me think. If we are getting a latitude of 13 stops going up to an ASA of 1600 then how much could you push this footage in post? Just how dark can it be and still ultimately pull out usable footage? I am coming from a 5D MKIII which was amazing in low light. So that might be a good jumping off point for comparison.

Love to hear some opinions.

if you compare lowlight against the 5d you will be disappointed with its lowlight abilities. The 5D is so much better in low light.

brad12d3 wrote:... When I first heard about the camera people were saying it was awesome but it wasn't great in lowlight. That was a bummer for me a little bit, because I love to have that flexibility to really see in darker areas. ... I am coming from a 5D MKIII which was amazing in low light. So that might be a good jumping off point for comparison. ...

Watch this video by Marco Solorio, especially the night street scene at the 4:16 point:


... and James Tonkin's "A Night in 9 Elms" (and Den Lennie's BTS):



... and Filippo Chiesa’s daylight & night tests:


There are other "low light" BMCC examples online.

The BMCC can be used in "low light", but it's not a "no light" camera.

Enjoy your new BMCC camera. Cheers.

Peter J. DeCrescenzo wrote:

brad12d3 wrote:... When I first heard about the camera people were saying it was awesome but it wasn't great in lowlight. That was a bummer for me a little bit, because I love to have that flexibility to really see in darker areas. ... I am coming from a 5D MKIII which was amazing in low light. So that might be a good jumping off point for comparison. ...

Watch this video by Marco Solario, especially the night street scene at the 4:16 point:


... and James Tonkin's "A Night in 9 Elms" (and Den Lennie's BTS):



... and Filippo Chiesa’s daylight & night tests:


There are other "low light" BMCC examples online.

The BMCC can be used in "low light", but it's not a "no light" camera.

Enjoy your new BMCC camera. Cheers.

Thanks for the links. Yeah I didn't expect the "no light" capabilities of the 5D mkiii, but I was hopeful that it could handle a minimal light situation. For instance, being able to use the light from a streetlight. If I could get low light performance equivalent to say what I could get on my 5D at around 3200 then I would be very happy. If I could get performance equivalent to the 5D at 6400 then that would be incredible but not totally necessary. Everyone has their own lighting style and for me I like to use practical lighting a lot with minimal artificial lighting. If I can go out and shoot at night on a location with minimal artificial lighting then I am a happy camper.

I do a lot of run and gun shooting for the show I work on and they want us to be able to get a lot of creative looking shots in a very short amount of time. We have to be able to to work with very minimal lighting set ups and use whatever practical lighting we have to make the shots work. It is also very helpful to have a camera that can see in very lowlight situations when you don't have time for lighting and the natural light is very limiting. We have several DSLRs at the station but I would love to use my BMCC for a lot of my shoots. I know my 5D MKIII served me well in many different situations, and I think the BMCC will too.

It's a cinema camera and really shines when you feed it with light. It's not a pig in low light but there are many better options out there.

You should not bank on getting more than 1600ISO.

Here is a test I did. One small exterior light not to dissimilar to a street lamp.

http://www.adamroberts.net/blog/blackma ... ight-test/

adamroberts wrote:It's a cinema camera and really shines when you feed it with light. It's not a pig in low light but there are many better options out there.

You should not bank on getting more than 1600ISO.

Here is a test I did. One small exterior light not to dissimilar to a street lamp.

http://www.adamroberts.net/blog/blackma ... ight-test/

I think this camera will work for me quite well. I plan on using it on a couple of short films this year which of course will have more controlled lighting. Of course I do like to work the practicals as much as I can since I think it gives a much more natural look. However, I would love to use this camera on some of the other work I do which doesn't always afford me the luxury of artificial lighting, so as long as my camera can handle low light relatively well then thats ok. In the end the latitude and high quality codecs are what matters to me most. Plus I have been anxious to try out DaVinci Resolve.

My camera should be arriving at any moment actually so hopefully I will have some of my own footage to share soon.

It seems to me that your situation is precisely the one where you go after a low-light camera, and preferably one that helps with run-and-gun. To me you need to target a low-light champ, because you cannot bring light, and usually don't want to, plus you shoot at night where it is rather dark. So the BMCC is not the right camera for the 'no setup' shooting you describe. It is not good for run-and-gun compared to quite a few other cameras, and it is not designed for extreme low light. For your other shooting it should serve well enough.

I love the BMCC, but I also always want to keep my camera near to its optimum light range, to get really nice images. But when you cannot set up, and you have to run and gun in a documentary in the moment, I don't think this is the camera for that.