Grading Pocket Cinema Camera Footage - First Impressions

Hey All,

I've just posted some sample grades and thoughts on our Blog over at Mixing Light based on the footage John Brawley uploaded . In short I'm blown away by how much you can get from this camera. John is a super talented DOP and the footage looks great but there was some harsh lighting conditions between the shadowy foreground and direct sunlight in the background that I thought would show how well the camera performs in these type of conditions. I've written the blog post from my perspective as a colorist and hopefully you guys enjoy it!

https://mixinglight.com/first-impressions/

D

[Terry Frechette]

Dan:

Thanks. Love the grades.

Terry

Thanks Terry! I'll be posting the videos online today so hopefully people like what they see too!

Thanks for sharing your impressions and images.

In terms of day to day grading, how big a difference do find between prores and raw?

Thanks for sharing your impressions and images.

In terms of day to day grading, how big a difference do find between prores and raw?

I'm also interested in the difference between shooting ProRes vs RAW:
How noticeable is the visual quality?
Apart from "visual quality" is there any other advantage of shooting RAW or ProRes?

like shooting any raw you have more control over the image.

also raw is 2,5 k prorez is only 1080p

…also raw is 2,5 k prorez is only 1080p

Not with the Pocket Camera. Both are 1920x1080 I believe.

Hmm you are right different sensor size.

Hi Dan.

Thanks a lot for the grades and write up.

I'm in the middle of uploading more ProRes files to a new server which seems to have less trouble than dropbox.

https://copy.com/74tnqvQo4hwM

Feel free to take a look. There's 15 qued clips there now.

jb

Thanks John for the footage

Thanks for the footage, John! Do you remember the ISO used in the shots?

After playing around with the new footage on Resolve and AE+Magic Bullet, I can honestly say-
NOW I'm completely blown away.
And to think this is just the ProRes.
Such a huge step-up from the AVCHD files I'm used to…

Thank-you John! and BM!

I agree, the footage is perfectly flat and a dream compared to any kind of grading in H264. I'm sold but now how long must I wait until the preorders are filled?

Hi John Brawley,

Thanks for the new upload. Tried a couple of times with the old Dropbox with no results.

Steve.

Hi John Brawley,

Thanks for the new upload. Tried a couple of times with the old Dropbox with no results.

Steve.

https://www.copy.com/s/74tnqvQo4hwM/SLR ... mm_1.4_MK2

New link

JB

Thank you for this Mr. Brawley. It is such a pleasure to finally work with this footage! I am still trying to choose between the active pocket camera or the passive 2.5k. What do you choose first if you already have active mft lenses?

Thank you for this Mr. Brawley. It is such a pleasure to finally work with this footage! I am still trying to choose between the active pocket camera or the passive 2.5k. What do you choose first if you already have active mft lenses?

I't shard to ignore the pocket if you have active lenses.


I have both though and I do think many forget the comfort and wriggle room of the 2.5K sensor.

If BMD made an active version of the 2.5K BMCC, then I would probably prefer the 2.5K most of the time.

jb

Yes, very hard to ignore. I think I'll go with the pocket for now and get the 2.5k Active MFT when it comes out

Thanks for the clips, John. These are real easy, and a pleasure, to grade. As others have mentioned, some are a bit noisy and required Neat Video, which is a bit dissappointing. Others did not require any noise reduction. Was this an ISO issue relatede to those clips? I look forward to grading some BMPC 4K files and the arrival of my BMPC camera, too.

Again ... thank you.

Scott

I was also worried with the noisiness, but after tweaking with After Effects' basic remove grain effect I had some nice results (let alone with better tools some day). The effect also has it's own unsharp mask to bring details back after dealing with the noise. But are we talking about noise or grain? Sometimes it depends on the output weither some footage requires additional grain/noise to be a working artistic choice..?

After the BMCC price reduction I was in real predicament whether go with BMCC or cancel my BMPCC preorder, but the size and weight with active MFT, I figure, is the best deal. I left my Canon 7D home eventually at home on holidays, but just like i'd take my phone or pad with me, this wouldn't be cumbersome to carry around.

Everybody is going for the big screen with their choices, but be it BMCC or BMPCC, you have to think about the size of pixel-peeping audience vs. money, convenience and fun. My boss said to go with the BMCC only because of the bigger form factor. That's because the client won't take you seriously when shooting stuff with a camera size of a mobile phone.

Because i'm not worried about the connections, the biggest thing with BMCC vs. BMPCC is the resolution, but we're still waiting for the raw. This also boils down in to the question of audience, but being more a post production worker, I'd like to get some nice chroma key results.

I'll be still shooting with my Canon 7D because I know the tool I'm working with. Be it BMPCC or BMCC, it'll take weeks to take it to real shoots in order to trust the tool and myself enough to deliver.

More BMPCC footage from wooden camera that I quickly graded...

Here are a collection of JB's clips graded in FCPX with FilmConvert: . Please "Download" in order to get the full benefit. I can't wait to get my BMPC.