-
So what is the Blackmagic Cine Camera Really Like?
We’re about to begin pre-production on a project and I’m wondering whether to use the Blackmagic Cine Camera on it? So what’s it like, what are the general pros and cons you guys are experiencing? From what I know about it, it seems to sit comfortably between DSLR/NEX FS100 and RED? We’re looking for awesome visuals on this shoot but without the RED budget.
“There’s no point in filming if you don’t have fun”
Charles Meadows
Creative Director
Incubate Productions South Africa
http://www.incubatevideo.co.za -
7 Replies
-
Blackmagic will probably be what you are looking for. For budgetary concerns however I would definitely recommend that you shoot in ProRes over the raw recording unless you have a beast of a computer and a ton of hard drive space.
Blackmagic Cinema Camera, RED Scarlet-X, Panasonic HPX170, Canon 7D
2011 Macbook Pro 17″, 2.3 Ghz Quad Core, 16GB RAM
AJA IoXT
Adobe Production Premium CS6, Avid Symphony 6, Final Cut Pro Studio 3
The College of William and Mary -
Thanks for the info. I see the Blackmagic has some limitations with rolling shutter? Anything else to be aware of that comes to mind.
Cheers
“There’s no point in filming if you don’t have fun”
Charles Meadows
Creative Director
Incubate Productions South Africa
http://www.incubatevideo.co.za -
Hi Charles. Matthew pretty much said it all. As for rolling shutter, it’s *exactly* the same as the 5D Mk III, so your practices controlling it there will need to carry over to the BMCC. I showed this in great detail in my Cinema Camera & 5D Mk III Comparison video earlier last year on Vimeo. I also created a Part 2 follow-up video delving more into 12-bit RAW.
Part 1: https://vimeo.com/49875510
Part 2: https://vimeo.com/52269416And yeah, I agree that the BMCC sits well in what you’re trying to do with it. Definitely much better than HDSLR quality by all accounts, even when clean HDMI is available, as the 5D still has scaling issues, lack of fine detail, and still trapped in an 8-bit cage. Even if you don’t shoot 12-bit RAW with the BMCC, 10-bit ProRes HQ with it is still FAR superior than 8-bit alternatives.
Cheers!
Marco Solorio | CreativeCow Host | OneRiver Media | ORM Blog | Facebook | Twitter | BMCC Newsletter
-
I would certainly recommend shooting RAW if you can though, the extra latitude is well worth it
Steve Connor
There’s nothing we can’t argue about on the FCPX COW Forum
-
Marco,
Thanks for the feedback and the links to your excellent comparison videos, they really gave me an in depth understanding of the camera’s strengths and uses. Now convinced that this is the camera to hire for my up and coming project. The only quandary now is do I buy the existing camera or wait for the new 4K camera? One thing is for certain and that’s Blackmagic Design are seriously shaking up the camera market at the moment, I wonder how the other manufacturers are going to respond?
“There’s no point in filming if you don’t have fun”
Charles Meadows
Creative Director
Incubate Productions South Africa
http://www.incubatevideo.co.za -
Charles,
When are you planning on shooting this project? Keep in mind that you won’t have access to a 4K camera until at least the end of July and that current BMCC’s are backordered endlessly. It sounds to me though that you may be doing this project sooner in which case you will probably have to rent and that means that your only option will be the currently “available” model. If time is not an issue on it though, then that is another story that reopens the debate.
Blackmagic Cinema Camera, RED Scarlet-X, Panasonic HPX170, Canon 7D
2011 Macbook Pro 17″, 2.3 Ghz Quad Core, 16GB RAM
AJA IoXT
Adobe Production Premium CS6, Avid Symphony 6, Final Cut Pro Studio 3
The College of William and Mary -
Hey Matt, will hire the 2.5K camera for my upcoming shoot then will wait and see as to which camera I’ll buy later.
Cheers
“There’s no point in filming if you don’t have fun”
Charles Meadows
Creative Director
Incubate Productions South Africa
http://www.incubatevideo.co.za
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up