Wed Apr 10, 2013 10:33 pm
I was pretty lucky to get the camera so early. I ordered in January 2013 (just a few months ago) and received mine on April 7 from Markertek. I guess the B&H queue is so long, glad I didn't order it from them. If you have an order in with them, might want to look elsewhere (Asia).
Here's my cursory review. This is not intended as a professional review, more of a first impression, mildly uninformed without a full test. I haven't edited the limited test footage yet, so we'll see.
So far... not feeling the love. First, the crop factor of 2.4. I need an 8mm to do 17mm and my Canon 16-35mm is 35-80mm. Of course, I knew that going in. I put my Rokinon 8mm on it and was sort of happy because it was barely usable on my 5D. And well, the new Rokinon cine lenses are pretty nice when the absolute best quality is not needed (in other words, about everything I shoot). The 8mm cine is probably not their strongest (but the 85mm is great).
The focus assist is a strange edge detection display that's not easy to use even with the bigger screen. Maybe I'll find a way to get used to it, short of ALWAYS using a monitor. It doesn't help that my eyesight is like a +2.50 now.
Because BMD suggests 'overexposing' to zebra stripes and the image is flat in appearance, it's hard to see the image at all when shooting outdoors. I imagine I can adjust the video display setting to be darker, but then I'm not getting a true exposure view. I just can't get a focus on it.
The Iris button is supposed to work the aperture on my EF lenses... worked the other day, but today, it didn't work at all on any of my EF lenses. Now that's messed up... I read the BMCC forum briefly and am not the only one with the same issue. Prime manual cine type lenses will be a necessity.
Battery is non-removable, lasts about 45 min max particularly with the EF lenses sucking life out of it.
ISO settings are limited, but with the dynamic range, even in ProRes, not a big deal. Except, with the smaller sensor, low-light performance could be an issue. And that's one of the things I like most about the 5D, looks magic in low light, even 6400 looks quite good if the subject is good enough to distract you from the quality.
And I just noticed this earlier Philip Bloom review that addressed the apparent lack of improvement in sharpness and range on the MkIII (). He demonstrates adding a sharpness filter in Premiere and it really comes alive, in contrast to the MkII (same filter makes it muddy). I didn't think the MkIII images looked any better when I rented it. That's been one of my issues with video out of the Canon all along... not that sharp and sort of muddy even with a good setup.
At the end of the day, for me the flexibility and functionality of a video and still camera in the MkIII is pretty compelling. The compression scheme is vastly improved and the video functionality is much better. I like the ability to take stills and video with the same camera, at least for me personally. Professionally, the BMCC is just a completely different camera, completely different setup, and rig altogether. Certainly not a replacement for the 5D mkIII.
I knew I had to order the BMCC to demo it and could sell it if it's not a good fit. I think I can still make really good use of it once I work out the lens and functionality issues. The bundle with DaVinci at $3,000 is so cheap I won't likely give it up. I'll keep testing it.
David Fielding
Everything I touch is broken
