Bloom (and Flex For Mac
EDIT: Part 1 and 2 of the review are now finished. They are at the bottom of the page along with two short pieces shot on the pocket camera. You can download native footage there. Part 3 is more of a long term test so it won’t be out for a whileperhaps 6 weeks after the first one. Stay tuned to this page for the next week or so as I bring out my in-depth analysis of this unique camera on the market. All the pros and cons, as I am sure you are used to by now! Bookmark it and come back daily (ish) as the pages will constantly be updated with new pics, info and video snippets.!
I hope to have a review of that camera at some point.a different tool of course! 🙂 By the end of this, I will have a proper full-on video review of the camera, but I will most likely break it up into two or three digestible chunks rather than the 45 minutes epic of the Blackmagic EF cinema cameras. It will also mean I will be able to get it out quicker, well at least part 1! I have also decided to share my triumphs and pains here in written form as I progress. The unboxing pics are below, and also today’s timeline is detailed below that! Read and enjoy!
🙂 Also be sure to follow twitter for my constant updatesmy twitter feed is at the bottom of the page and of course you can also follow me here I will shortly be trying out various different kinds of glass with the camera and hopefully shoot some tests with and without the speedbooster, plus comparing frame sizes. Amongst the things I will be looking at: Image quality Low light performance Rolling shutter and moire issues Battery life Sensor size compared to BMCC Speedbooster integration Ease of use Audio performance What it’s like to shoot with How much gear you need to really make it work Where it can fit into your camera arsenal Can it work as your only camera? And anything I can think of! MONDAY AUGUST 17th 2013 BLACKMAGIC POCKET CAMERA DAY TIMELINE. DAY ONE 1300: Picked up the CVP Pocket Camera that they just had in, took some photos of the unboxing for them, and then took it home. CVP are now sponsoring my review, so THANK YOU! I was not getting anywhere in obtaining a camera for review from Blackmagic, but thankfully CVP had theirs in and gave it to me straightaway.
1345: Realised I would need more batteries for it, so I went on Amazon.co.uk and tried to find some Nikon 1 series batteries available for next day delivery. I found some which say “1-2 days.” Best I could do. Ordered 4 plus a charger as the Pocket Camera doesn’t come with one. Just a wall AC power charger thingy.
1400: Really like the look and feel of it. Funny to see the Cinema Camera menus all shrunk on the little back screen. It’s nice quality too, that screen, but I’ve not seen it outside. It’s not touchscreen so could be better than its bigger brother.
Shame no raw yet to try outnot that I can see raw being an essential tool for a camera of this size but the ProRes HQ is therejust the ProResHQ nothing else. Shame no lighter flavour of it, even 422 or LT. 1430: Going through my lenses to see what micro four thirds ones I have left (It’s an active MFT mount unlike its bigger brother!). Annoyingly, I did sell the only nice OIS prime lens a couple of months back, so the only stabilized lens I have is the large and slow Lumix 17-140mmbut I do have lots of glass still.
Two Voigtlanderrs, Lumix 7-14mm F4, 20mm Pancake, Loads of SLR magic glass and adaptors for Leica M and of course the Speedboster for Nikon, Leica R and Contax C/Y. So not a problem there! 1500: Had a kip.
1530: Woke up and had another kip. 1630: Spent ages trying to get the 4K version of my new short film “la tamise” done for Sony who want to show it at IBC in the 4K theatre. Many of my plugins for Premiere no likey 4K! 1730: The 4k Pain goes on until.
1900: Grabbed the pocket camera from the charger. Minor gripe: no charging light on camera or wall socket. Only way you know it’s charging is to turn it on and see the little charging symbol on the screen.
Same as the bigger camera. Little niggles that should have been addressed. 1930: Battery goes down fast.not even shot a frame and it’s below 50%! Damn I will need those batteries! 1931: Put my Angenieux 17.5 to 70mm F2.2 Super 16mm PL zoom lens with MFT PL adaptor onto the MFT mount. Nice vintage lens looks silly on the camera thoughmind you, most lenses do, apart from pancakes!! 1935: Better try recording something.
I put in a fast SD Card. No format in the menu. That is still the case with the Cinema Camera, and I find that amazing. All cameras SHOULD be able to format a card in-camera! It also still cannot delete clips. That has made me a bit grumpy.
1940: Formatted card in Mac as ExFat. 1943:Try HFS+. 1945: Try Fat32 just for laughs. 1946: No laughs. 1948 Try another card and go through the same thing. I try this with so many “fast” SD cards. Sometimes I can get the camera to see the card, but it won’t record, just turns red for record for a split second then stops.
All other cards get a “no sd” display. I do this until 2030 I GIVE UP! I want to put my feet up. So I go to put my feet up and just for a laugh put the pocket camera on my big old Shape rig. It looks silly! 🙂 2035: Order cards on Amazon. They won’t arrive until Wednesday AM.
This review is now also getting more expensive for me. I don’t want to buy any more SD cards!! 2100: Whilst relaxing I have a thoughtMaybe I have one of the Sandisk Xtreme Pro 95mb/s cards in my Leica bag.
I remember seeing it thereand lo and behold it is there! So I format the card as ExFat and BANG it works (there was no bang noise!) 2110: I am tired. I slept 3 hours last night, the 4K conversion of “la tamise” and other things occupied me and my mind. I want to flop on sofa now BUT I must shoot a little something. 2115: Noodle won’t let me. She has been very sick so I understand.
She’s so pretty so it’s a shame. 2120: Percy is a cat camera slut and is well up for being filmed. So with my lovely SLR Magic 16mm Cine Prime I film him in shockingly bad light wide open in ProRes (it’s only ProRes HQ for now, no raw, no Avid DNxHD) at 1600 ISO in the film setting. Pulling focus is fun this wide open!
2130: I upload a file for you here! It’s the native untouched file, so enjoy! 2200: My 4K F55 edit has finally exported and the Blackmagic file has uploaded. Way later than I had hoped, but I wanted to have some success as I was quite annoyed with how it went. Tomorrow will be better. 🙂 I have just one 32GB Sandisk Card to work with, but I do have my trusty NEXTO DI AIR with 500gb SSD in it, so I will be fine.
It rips the file off super quickanyway, tomorrow I will just test. I need to be home to keep an eye on Noodle and make sure she is fine. Fingers crossed she is and Wednesday I go nip out and do some filming outside! The cats are amazed I found a card that worked and wonder what that Nexto thing is! DAY 2 I didn’t get anywhere near as much done as I had hoped.
My cat Noodle has not been well so she was my priority. Massive thanks to them, as they got me out of a one-battery jam! Thankfully Noodle perked up and is home and doing OK. So late last night I filmed the links and some b-roll to the 1st part of the camera review. I have cut a 5 minute taster which you can watch below! This is NOT the review, just snippets of it so please don’t jump to any conclusions from this PLEASE.
Whether positive or negative. In fact you should wait until all three parts are up, only then will you have all my info! Make sure you follow my evolving camera review on my blog here It is continually being updated, it also includes my twitter feed which is where I share my happiness and frustrations. It’s Wednesday 1pm and I am off now to film in London.
Let’s see how she performs as that’s what is important. How it is to shoot with, what’s the image like and how is it in post. I have some cool plans. I hope they work!!
I shot the review on the C100 and lit it with the lovely Gekko Lights which you can see here: DAY 3 The filming of part 2, shooting with the camera went well. Also the footage I shot came out well. I learnt a lot about what glass works the best with it and how I could shoot with minimal gear. I also learned to turn off the camera when not rolling as I only recorded 50 minutes of footage and used 5 batteries. Mostly because I keep forgetting the camera needed to be turned off between shots.
Something I am not used to! Other issues became apparent but for the most part I really enjoyed shooting with it! Today I am going to try and finish editing Part 1 and also do some filming for Part 3. So much to do and I don’t actually have that much time to do it as I am off to a job tomorrow – that means two days gone and next week is very busy. I need a clone!! 🙂 Below are some graded frames from yesterday, most of them with actress Kate Lousteau whom I asked a favour of to be my subject for my shooting! All the stuff in the London Eye was with the SLR Magic 12mm F1.6 Cine version and most of the stuff on the bridge is the Samyang/ Rokinon 35mm F1.4 Nikon Mount with the Speedbooster and held steady with the Zacuto Marauder rig.
On the eye I had no rig at all! Totally minimal!! I backup all the footage I shot onto my Nexto DI air.
I used Sandisk Xtreme Pro cards and one of the new Sony ones I was recommended. I actually experienced dropped frames on the one Sony card I used. I bought 4 so I hope that it was a one off problem!
Once I get all three parts up I will make available some of the footage from yesterday to download. Anywaygotta golots to do today!! 🙂 With the SLR Magic 12mm F1.6 and Scheider Optics 77mm Variable ND.
I shot most of the stuff yesterday with this Yannick Hausler who shot yesterdays Part 2 for me. Filming on the eye minimally! One lens, no rig, no permission Lots of stuff I wanted to go through in Part 2! One of these Nexto DI backup devices is essential if you cannot stretch to all the media you need, even if you can it’s a nice safety thing too. These are the batteries I used up yesterday for my 50 minutes of filming. Too many times I left the camera on standby EDIT: New firmware has given the camera better SD card compatibity and also now works with ny Lumix Pancake 14-42 zoom which it didn’d do before.
“A pocket home video” was shot using my old bolex 8mm wooden rig. Pretty good for handheld, no good for when you build it up, but for not looking professional but getting professional results? People don’t think you are a pro when using this. They think you are eccentric!! If you need something more robust and capable, and it not only works with a fully bulked up pocket camera but will work with cameras all the way up to the C100 in size. It’s the rig I use in part two of the review. The Zacuto Marauder.
Check it out via the banner below. Shot on the Sony F55 from on.
Really looking forward to the rest of your BMPCC review – I ordered as soon as B&H. Had this up for sale. Not a peep yet. I have some nice Panny-Leica M43 lenses – the 12-35mm and 2 Lumix fast primes which I hope work. Your situation with 4k above, further convinces me to not bother with the BMCC 4k just yet – I also order on 8th April but cancelled a week ago.
I have the BMCC EF version at the new cheapo price! The strange quirks that BMCC let happen – like no in-camera formatting do seem odd.
I am sure you will turn up a few more as the review progresses. Great work as usual. Any word on availability? At cvp.com, only pre-orders are listed.
Is your review camera the finished product, Philip? Just wondering how many years we’ll have to wait this time for the final product to be released. Sorry if I sound negative, but in my opinion, reviewers should be much more critical towards Black Magic and their ‘marketing model’. You call it the a “unique camera on the market”, but as far as I can tell, it is still not on the market, and may well not be here for the next year or so.
Philip, First of all thank you for the free information you provide us. It’s pretty awesome you give up your time to do these reviews and they are immensely valuable. I noticed something squirrelly going on in some of the frame grabs that maybe you could clarify. On certain images I noticed white circles popping up.
For example, on the frame grab where the actress is walking down the street you can see the left headlight is way bigger than the right on one of the cars heading in the opposite direction. Also on the last image you posted some of the small intensity lights looks like they came out as perfect white orbs. It seems to only happen in the high intensity highlights on the frames with a deep depth of field. Is this something analogous to the black circle you posted earlier or are my eyes playing tricks on me? I’ve noticed the same thing, it is called “blooming sensor” and it’s a real problem. You can see it on every footage made by the BMPCC besides the clips made by John Brawley.
Probably he had pre-production sensor for testing and it was all right, but in the cameras that are now being produced there is another one Sad:/ Fuji had this problem with the X10 and they needed to modify the sensor, so there were two models of the camera in the market with orbs and without it. I think you can still buy the one with the bad sensor. Here is the link where you can see the difference between those two: I hope that blackmagic saw the orbs and the will modify the sensor asap before more crippled cameras appears on the market. Philip, You may know by now that I’m very critical of Black Magic’s failure to produce enough of their cameras, but I must admit that the image quality of this BMPC is simply mindblowing: I love the dynamic range and the sharpness! One other thing: you mention that this pro-res file is a pro format that needs sufficient editing power Well, I downloaded your Percy-clip and used it on a 5 year old Windows 8 system (with 3GB ram) and edited it using Sony Vegas Studio 12, which is a consumer product, and all was fine (in fact, Vegas works better with this than with Nikon 1 mov files).
So I guess you must be refering to storage and file sizes rather than computing power. Anyhow, thanks for this part of the review!
Thank you for a very interesting review so far Philip, love the trickle trickle. I have not tried this camera yet, but I have three lenses that I would love to try on it. They are: The Kioptik Tegea 5,7mm 1,8 The Fujinon 25mm 0,85 And the TV Kowa 37.5mm 1,1 I the Kioptik is a clumsy lens on any camera (need shims for focusing), but I think could make for a nice wideangle on the PCC. The Fujinon can only be mounted to a shutterless s16mm camera, but I hope it could make for a nice wide portrait lens. They Kowa I have used extensively with m4/3, it covers the whole sensor no problem, so this is the lens that will give the least troubles.
Does anyone have any experience or thought on these lenses with the PCC? Hi Phillip, Just watched your first video about the BMPCC on YouTube. Anyway, I’m new to film – I’m primarily a 2D/3D animator and have been looking into matchmoving/compositing for film. A few of my more filmy friends recommended the BMPCC where friends and family chipped in to get it for my birthday. Which is awesome of them!
So hopefully we’ll all start pushing through a few short films soon. Anyway, I’m somewhat new to film and am learning what I can from friends. I’ve had a Canon EF 24-105mm F4 L lens recommended to me as an all-rounder starter lens, all good and well but I’m going to need an adaptor. In your video you mentioned that MTFservices produce suitable adaptors. Could you please link me to or provide a name to a suitable adaptor for this lens or even a decent Micro Four Thirds all-rounder lens instead? Much appreciated, and thank-you for these videos. Regards, Travis.
Hello Philip, After seeing your film “Hiding Place” it inspired me to go and make this: It was filmed in one evening and the storyboard / shots made up as I went along. I had a basic idea in my head and I’ve always been inspired by how you make something with the tools you have, so I had a go! The tools in my case was a friend called TJ, a GH3 camera, couple of SLR Magic lenses, and my arms 🙂 I also used a slider for two shots, but wasn’t practical to lug that about London with my arms falling off. Hope you enjoy it.
Thanks, James. Hi Philip, I have enjoyed several of your reviews on gear (usually use you as a reference when I go looking for gear) Now, here is my dilemma, and maybe you can help me sort it out. I got some interesting lenses (old C Mount glass from the 70’s, a Canon – V6X16 16-100mm f1.9 and a Canon V6X18 18-108 f1.6) Both of these lenses cover the BMPC sensor without any problems (in theory, as I have not tested them DIRECTLY on one) I tried them out on the Panasonic GH3 on ETC mode (and a vintage 2x extender on regular mode) and it covers the MFT sensor on it without issues. Now, If I already have a Panasonic GH3, would I be doing myself a real benefit getting the BMPC? Or should I hold off and go for the BMCC MFT version? Which leads to question #2 Would those lenses that are designed to cover a 1″ sensor work on the BMCC MFT?
Or would I end up with some vignetting? I would really appreciate your input, as I would like some feedback from someone who has experimented with all 3 before making a final call. Thanks in advance, Franko. Ok good news and bad news. My needs are to have a camera that grades well and can shoot at a nice ISO in not so ideal conditions.
I’m more in the broadcast / TV side of things, tv commercials, e-product videos nothing mayor in film or large scale documentaries. The BMPC from everything I’ve seen seems to hold up better on video in not so “ideal conditions”, but it can create a footage that can be comined very easily with the GH, so they compliment each other and use the same lenses (for the most part) Good news is that the lenses I had WORK with the BMPC. I had 2 lenses that cover no9rmally a 1 inch sensor. Glad to report they work without a glitch.
Old canon TV glass is heavy, but it makes the camera look like a little monster, and in a field where people look at you and say “oh my, thats a tiny camera, you can do anything pro with that” mentality, I just say “ever seen men in black? Where they bring out the “noisy cricket”? Well, this is my version LOL. Anyways, the bad news. The new batch of BMPC cameras have no “black hole sun” or “orbs” issues BUT Some have a problem with MFT Panasonic lenses! It will not autofocus, on some or adjust aperture, and in others it won’t autofocus, allow for change in exposure or even let you bring up the focus peaking feature. On manual lenses that is not a problem, as it lets you focus peak manual glass, but with powered MFTs?
That is a pain because you can’t focus manually the lens at all. Needless to say I sent mine back, and should be replaced by next week. Thanks for your input.
Looking forward to see part 3. Love the shot at 1:15 in Hiding Place – something very surreal about it – beautiful shot. Can you give some insight into the different sharpness of the buildings across the background in the bottom right? Buildings are less sharp on either side – I pondered that it maybe the perspex bubble windows but reckon you are bang central so maybe not.
Also seeing it a 0:51 on the suspension bridge cables bottom right again – this is more likely the perspex I hope. Really looking to get one of these slr magic lenses so barracking that it is the perspex – thanks for this service to us all Philip. I’m sorry Philip, but I’m going to disagree with a statement in your video: You say “There is only one true pocket camera, and that’s your smartphone”. The TRUE pocket cinema camera is the Sony DSC-RX100M2.
It features: – Native 1080/24p/25p/30p and 1080/50p/60p video (for full HD res slow motion) – Decently-large-sized 1″ sensor (esp. Given its size) that gives decent shallow DoF when combined with its fast lens – Backlit CMOS sensor for tremendous low-light and low-noise performance – Fast f:1.8 Zeiss lens – 28-100mm equivalent – Manual EVERYTHING: Manual focus (with focus ring), manual exposure, manual ISO, manual shutter, manual WB – Histogram, peaking, zoom focus assist, exposure lock, focus lock – Great image stabilization, focus tracking (if you need it) – Articulated/tilting screen, smart hot shoe with available OLED EVF and external mic, etc.
– WiFi connectivity (incl. Smartphone remote view/control), NFC – INCREDIBLE stills camera too; DSLR quality in the pocket (incl. RAW) – Best Form Factor: Overall Performance ratio of anything out there Sure, it’s not a pro camera (uses AVCHD) and there are a few niggles to get used to – but it produces absolutely WONDERFUL DSLR-quality video – and for true pocketability (WITH lens) as a “carry-always” it can’t be beat. If you want a real “pocket camera” wait for the GOPRO Hero 3+ Black Edition (silver edition is pretty nice too). It shoots in just about any configuration you can think of (including 4K 15 fps) it’s actually smaller, faster, sharper and, well, better than the Hero 3, and it costs half of the Sony DSC-RX100M2, not to mention that without the protective shell is tiny! And it comes with a remote to activate it as well. True, it wouldn’t be my ONLY camera, but the comment does refer to a pocket camera and, well?
This is definitely in that range. Oh and Philip? Don’t wear skin tight jeans, they are bad for your circulation and in some cases they can choke your man bag in a not so comfortable/painful way if you know what I mean hahaha. Question – Am I correct to assume the shutter speed of the Pocket is set at either 1/48 or 1/50 depending on what frame rate you choose? I just got mine and so begin to play. Regarding audio, I did several tests: First test – I used my Rode Stereo Video Mic Pro set at +20dB with the Pocket’s mic inputs set to 100%.
This actually sounded fairly decent – warm and full but still will need volume boosting in post. I worried about the preamp on the Pocket being cranked all the way up but playing it back on the computer sounded fine. Second test – used Zoom H4n recorder and on board mics – output of Zoom 70, mic inputs of Zoom is 70, inputs of BlackMagic is 70. Plenty of level here but Zoom mics sound a bit hissy and I would probably cut the input levels of the BlackMagic depending on the sound being recorded. Third test – Used Rode Mic + 20 dB into Zoom, input of Zoom 35, output of Zoom 75, inputs of BlackMagic at 25. There is no hiss here using the Rode mic. Plenty of level to play with here so be careful This was the best sound and of course you could capture the audio into the Zoom as well as the camera then sync in post.
Sure this is all extra equipment but I already own it and all 3 tests were vastly superior to the onboard audio/mic of the Pocket! I would say also that using the +20 dB setting of the Rode straight into the Pocket will give you useable audio to sync with if your sound source is loud enough and depending on the project, might be acceptable with some post enhancement, level boost etc. Basically the +20 dB setting of the Rode mic saves the day.
Bloom (and Flex For Mac Download
I’m thinking that wireless mics would also be a work around to pump more level into the Pocket With the C log like film setting of this camera, even with the display set on video, without an exterior monitor etc. Is difficult for me to be confident in my exposure. I am thinking I should turn the Zebra on and expose for highlights. Any comments would be helpful. The Zebra can be set at various%, I have it at 75% now. I thought also of using my iPhone’s exposure meter but then I have an ND filter without hard stops and so that would make it difficult.
Well I guess I am spoiled with having such massive inf. Reading out on my GH3 that I feel like I am flying blind with the Pocket! I have the GH3 and I would say that for “run and gun” type stuff it lets you setup alot quicker. I’m pretty sure once RAW starts coming out on the BMPC it will be alot easier to just go out and shoot with it (and feel more confident with the results) because you can later correct in post better, but still, I hate having that queezy feeling of “oh, what if I am shooting this in the wrong setting and it looks like complete s#$%t?”. I started looking for color temp meters, but they are EXPENSIVE, even the old ones can go for $300+.
Now, for iris, if you have Lumix lenses, if you hit the iris button once, it automatically exposes.sometimes, its on point, other times it misses the mark first try. I have not tried doing the “one button iris” with a variable ND filter yet (waiting for some to get here). Same thing with focus, which seems to work better now after sending mine back for issues with it. YOU will have better results focusing with prime lenses (I have the 14mm f2.5 and a 20mm f1.7) but the longer lenses (45-200 f4) will sometimes get quirky.
Now, I can say that Davinci Resolve 10 (beta) is a “must have” with this camera. I find it so much nicer to color correct with it compared with premiere (but I am new to the color correction thing so I guess its just a matter of taste). For broadcast commercials you really don’t fidget too much from the on camera profile or colors as long as everything is white balanced and sharp, but with the BMPC? You better be ready to learn some color correction and processing to make it shine, otherwise you will get frustrated with what comes out of the camera as is (flat as hell, which now i know is a good thing but its an extra step I wasn’t going through before so it takes some getting used to). Broadcast and film are 2 different realms, so expanding your horizons only makes you better. Battery wise?
Bloom And Flex For Mac
This thing is a cookie monster, it eats them up FAST. I solved that problem by making my own batteries (2, probably order 2 more because they do the job quite well) from parts I found on EBAY and now I can say that I get 4-5 hours out of 1 battery. Someone posted a “do it yourself” battery that works (which is the reference I used) with the BMCC, GH3 and BMPC (BMCC and BMPC both use 12 volts, GH3 uses 8.8 volts, but this battery has a 9V, a 12V and a 5V USB plug so you can run just about anything. ) here is the link: Switronix sells an adapter to the BMPC from the BMCC cable, so if you already have a Switronix system for a BMCC you can just add that adapter and you’re done. ($20 last time I checked-and out of stock wonder why??) If you have a GH3 as well? This battery will run the GH3 from the 9V plug with a modded cable and the battery adapter, AND a 7 inch monitor out the 12V at the SAME TIME!
Bloom (and Flex For Mac Pro
(love it) the H4n also has a 12V plug to it, but in my case, it did not work with the battery, but since it runs on 2 “AA”s im not too worried about it) Hope this info helps anyone else!