My BMCC Experience

[Paul Abrahams]

Hi David, I’ve had my BMCC for a few months, fairly low budget here trying to decide which monitor to get. My first shoot was a live band under typical bands lights. You guess it, not enough light to do much in post. 2nd experience is underway now, a short 20 min student film.

The outdoor shots were pretty easy to expose but indoors again I was fooled by the REC709 on the BMC. I was considering the BMD Smartscope Duo (8″) to have scopes and to see the lighting/framing and DOF better. The other option is a regular monitor with some exposure tools, false colours perhaps.

I’m in two minds as I know the Smartscope will work great but lots of people get by with a small field monitor.

I don’t have the experience like most of you guys here, lighting for me is experimental and without the proper exposure tools I’m winging it and while it looks good to the eye… I need to judge exposure better.

The director insists on using incidental lighting and I can’t stress enough to him the need for me to have more light for this sensor. If I had scopes I can visually show him what is truly happening with exposure.

Any advice appreciated.

[Matthew Sonnenfeld]

Honestly you need a monitor with a waveform. Smartscope Duo won’t really help you unless you have a rack setup which will probably get cumbersome. The BMD monitors are ideally suited to studio and OB van situations. Personally I would look to the TVLogic 5.4″ monitors. There are a few Marshals that are good but I am a big fan of the TVLogic. Been on the pre-order for the SmallHD DP7 for a while now but it sounds like you need it sooner than that.

Co-President at fourB Productions, Inc.
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

[Paul Abrahams]

Hi Matthew,

This is the sort of insight I need, having not used any of these monitors I don’t know (jack) 🙂
My knowledge of waveform and use in Davinci is growing every time I practice correction & grading so I agree, waveform would be great to have live.

So a small SDI field monitor with waveform or perhaps an SDI EVF with waveform?

[Ali Quintana]

HI, I read that you have used both BMCC, mft and ef.

I am just about to buy one. Most probably the EF, but I am changing
my mind daily almost.

There is one question: Is the image quality the same of the EF and MFT. I mean if u have a equal type of quality lens?

[Marco Solorio]

[Ali Quintana] “There is one question: Is the image quality the same of the EF and MFT. I mean if u have a equal type of quality lens?”

Both the EF and MFT models share the same exact sensor. They will look identical using the same compatible lens between them. We have both the EF and MFT models.

Marco Solorio | CreativeCow Host | OneRiver Media | ORM Blog | Facebook | Twitter | BMCC Newsletter

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME TO PRESENT AT SXSW 2014!

[Ali Quintana]

Thanks for that reply, I am buying mine this week from a supplyer that has both in stock.

If the image quality is the same, I will for sure get the EF version.

The reason why asking is that the EF version does not seem to use the intire lens. Just part of the lens, or am I mistaken?

[Marco Solorio]

[Ali Quintana] “The reason why asking is that the EF version does not seem to use the intire lens. Just part of the lens, or am I mistaken?”

Correct. Both the EF and MFT model use the same sensor which is slightly smaller than a standard MFT sensor, (which is smaller than a full frame 35mm sensor). Because of this size reduction, the sensor “crops” the image circle of a full-frame lens by a factor of about 2.3, hence the term, “a crop factor of 2.3”. The benefit is you only use the sweet spot of the lens circle where edge smearing and vignetting are avoided. The downfall is that by not using the entire image circle of the lens you do not use all the width, speed and light ability the full-frame lens has to offer, as well as a possible reduction in sharpness, depending on the lens. Keep an eye on the new Speed Booster adapters from Metabones that help to counteract these downfalls I mention which work for full-frame lenses on the MFT model (will not be available on the EF model).

Marco Solorio | CreativeCow Host | OneRiver Media | ORM Blog | Facebook | Twitter | BMCC Newsletter

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME TO PRESENT AT SXSW 2014!

[Ali Quintana]

Thank you,so with all this in mind with similar lens on both EF and MFT will deliver same image quality?

EF will not be inferior quality to MFT version?

I am sorry for kind of repeating my question… I am just about to buy mine from the supplier here.

Thank you

[Dimi Arhontidis]

Heya, this has been a great thread. Would you recommend an external monitor or a EVF for more handheld setups with the BMCC? If so do you guys have one you recommend?

Thanks!

[Matthew Sonnenfeld]

I definitely recommend using an external monitor as the one on the camera is not sharp enough for critical focus or judging color. It also suffers severely from off axis color shift and glare reflections. I personally recommend the TVLogic VFM-056W or the SmallHD DP7 Pro LCD or OLED if you want to spend on it.

Co-President at fourB Productions, Inc.
Blackmagic Cinema Camera, RED Scarlet-X, Panasonic HPX170, Canon 7D
2011 Macbook Pro 17″, 2.3 Ghz Quad Core, 16GB RAM
2008 Mac Pro 2.6 Ghz 8 Core, 10GB RAM
AJA IoXT, Blackmagic Intensity Pro, Blackmagic Mini Monitor
Adobe Production Premium CC, Avid Media Composer 7, Final Cut Pro Studio 3