Blackmagic Forum

It looks like Panasonic is close to announcing a higher tier Micro Four Thirds cinema camera. Is the BMCC Micro Four Thirds getting delayed because of this new Panasonic? I wonder if they'll drop that mount entirely, or if they are engineering a features bump.

i am the one wrote: Is the BMCC Micro Four Thirds getting delayed because of this new Panasonic? I wonder if they'll drop that mount entirely

yeah, I guess BMD sees the people standing in line for the mft model (and the HUGE demand/success of the ef version).. and says "oh darn, theres speculation of Panasonic releasing a camera, we should just walk away from this..."

or not

NAB opens on Monday. I suspect we'll know more by then ...

A great deal depends on the recording format available.
Pretty hard to beat uncompressed raw 12 bit ....
Pretty hard to beat 10 bit ProRes/Dnx as well ...

... not to mention the BMCC sells for only $3K, produces a beautiful "look", and also includes an industrial-strength software bundle ...

I'm not suggesting they'll dump the entire camera, just the m4/3 mount option. As it stands, the BMCC m4/3 mount is for manual lenses only. That leaves out a giant swath of usable m4/3 lenses. If Panasonic delivers a raw platform in the same price ballpark, Black magic will either have to power up their m4/3 mount or pull out of the horse race.

I'm still ready to buy a BMCC, but the powerless m4/3 mount is going to be a real problem for me to deal with.

If the new Panny is an AF101 that shoots 422 10bit, that would be interesting.

i am the one wrote:I'm not suggesting they'll dump the entire camera, just the m4/3 mount option. As it stands, the BMCC m4/3 mount is for manual lenses only. That leaves out a giant swath of usable m4/3 lenses. If Panasonic delivers a raw platform in the same price ballpark, Black magic will either have to power up their m4/3 mount or pull out of the horse race.

I'm still ready to buy a BMCC, but the powerless m4/3 mount is going to be a real problem for me to deal with.

MFT lenses which require power for focus, IS, aperture and/or power zoom (such as Panasonic Lumix) also rely on in-camera processing for things such as CA & barrel distortion correction. These lenses don't perform well without that sort of in-camera processing.

I suspect that's why BMD hasn't made a high priority of offering an electronic MFT lens mount. It's a huge engineering effort.

As much as I'd like a new cam body to use my Lumix lenses on, I don't want to wait for, or pay extra for, a cinema camera that can use them.

In my case, my legacy Nikkor F manual primes, perhaps together with a Metabones Speed Booster for Nikon-to-MFT, makes more sense. I may add an ultra-wide manual prime such as the SLR Magic 12mm to complete my kit.

Back on topic: I suspect a new "pro" MFT cam from Panasonic will cost considerably more than the BMCC, and probably won't include Davinci Resolve, etc.

You guys all don't get it, There is no such thing as "automatic" lenses for cinema.

M43 mount is for the adaptable options, PL, C-MOUNT, etc etc.
Not for Image stabilization not for Automatic Iris etc.

Peter J. DeCrescenzo wrote:MFT lenses which require power for focus, IS, aperture and/or power zoom (such as Panasonic Lumix) also rely on in-camera processing for things such as CA & barrel distortion correction. These lenses don't perform well without that sort of in-camera processing.

I know the camera post processing helps with their cheaper lenses, but if they use that magic bullet on their expensive lenses I will be quite outraged.

sicovanderplas wrote:You guys all don't get it, There is no such thing as "automatic" lenses for cinema.

M43 mount is for the adaptable options, PL, C-MOUNT, etc etc.
Not for Image stabilization not for Automatic Iris etc.

Nobody is asking for image stabilization etc, the point is a great many of those lenses wont work at all without power.

Peter J. DeCrescenzo wrote:I suspect that's why BMD hasn't made a high priority of offering an electronic MFT lens mount. It's a huge engineering effort.

On top of that, every professional cinematographer worth his/her salt will want manual control anyway. Personally, i think that the electronically controlled lenses are defective anyway, because they're specifically designed both to cost less than good lenses, and also to serve the needs of people who prefer to let their cameras do their thinking for them.

Cinema lenses they are not, and never will be.

i am the one wrote:

Peter J. DeCrescenzo wrote:MFT lenses which require power for focus, IS, aperture and/or power zoom (such as Panasonic Lumix) also rely on in-camera processing for things such as CA & barrel distortion correction. These lenses don't perform well without that sort of in-camera processing.

I know the camera post processing helps with their cheaper lenses, but if they use that magic bullet on their expensive lenses I will be quite outraged.

I'd be surprised if Panasonic doesn't, but I could be wrong.

It looks like I was right after all....

i am the one wrote:It looks like I was right after all....

I don't see how, these are two new cameras, the boosted features model is EF, the m43 is a lower range model and theres no news that the m43 BMCC is being dropped....