Denny Smith wrote:I disagree, B4 lenses are not essential to live productions, unless you are trying to cover sporting events or concerts (if trying to do it with one or two cameras. Original TV live production was done in studio cameras with fixed or three lens turrets, and the camera was dolled back and forth to frame a shot with a given fixed focal length lens. Most productions only used three cameras, with three camera operators. The B4 Zoom was not originally used in the studio, it was developed and primarily used for electronic news gathering on location live entente, being covered by one or two cameras operators, recording their shots or later live switched for some remote productions.
Today, most studio productions use fixed several cameras and one or two manned cameras. So lens choice is going to do more with the type of production, cameras being used, and how the studio is setup for a specific production. The use of the B4 zoom in the studio is a fairly recent change, down to using the same cameras for both field and studio production. Doing a live zoom in a studio shoot, while once popular, is no longer in favor and not done. So a selection of primes, and/or short range zooms will cover most situations just as well.
You can do many of the same types of productions with fixed or limited range zooms that a full range B4 zoom is used for. Very few situations in a studio camera for being able to go from a very wide shot to a head only close up with just one camera. I had a b4 zoom on our Ursa Broadcast camera (which as an ENG style camera made sense as it was used in the field too), but never needed the full range of the zoom during a studio production. So lens choice is going to boil down to what type of shot you want, and if you have the camera resources to dedicate a single camera to close ups, and another for wide shots, with a mid range zoom on a third camera.
While using primes and having to change lenses, and have dedicated cameras setup is not as convenient as a wide range zoom, one can get by very nicely without using a big B4 zoom in the studio.
Cheers
I agree that B4 lenses are not essential to live production in the studio but these days, not a lot of live production ( in the class of production that these cameras are aimed at) gets done from a studio. In the past studios had many lights but blackmagic make a point of boasting about the low-light ability of these new cameras so if they are only to be used for 'traditional' studio production, why is low-light important? Also, studio cameras traditionally used very expensive pedestals and a camera operator could track in and out very easily to reframe so an all in one lens with good 'do it all' range was not so important. I can't see these cameras getting bought to use on nice smooth shiny floor studio shows though or being placed on expensive pedestals so lens range is far more important.
Today, live streaming of events is in high demand, events that are almost never done in the studio and this is the market I can see this camera really shining in.....if only there was a good 'do it all' & PARFOCAL lens available! While I'm no fan of zooms in narrative production, for event coverage, sometimes a slight zoom during a shot is necessary if a singer or speaker is walking toward you so having the option is handy.
As I said, I like the MFT mount and sensor size for live production and think it could be the future if other companies took it on board but, with only BMD adopting the standard, and with the current lens selection and state of MFT lens production, I'm not all that keen on investing my money in four of these cameras and four zoom and focus demands when Panasonic, the only last manufacturer of suitable lenses for this camera, could decide to stop producing the only two lenses remaining that are really suitable for this system.....like Olympus did!
For me ideally, I'd love to see BMD convince a lens manufacturer to build at least one good 'do it all' lens for this system. If they can't do this, they need to adopt another more widely accepted mount to build their range on and for live production, even though I'd prefer the larger MFT sensor, B4 would make more sense as there are a plethora of suitable lenses available.