[Pedro Ricardo]

Odd, replied earlier, but the post has disappeared. I’ll repost below roughly what I typed befire.

Sorry, I should have been more clear.
In our case, we are using it for RED ROCKET and fibre channel networking, and for an SSD array, not for extra GPUs, as we haven’t had a need. The 12 Core with Dual D700s has been fast enough to keep us realtime without having to resort to extra GPUs.

We assumed it would work, just at reduced speed (similar to PCIe 4x) due to the limited bandwidth of thunderbolt2, but that wasn’t what we purchased it for, and we haven’t had a need for extra GPUs yet.

Thanks for the heads-up though, good to know as we just assumed it would work, as every other PCIe card we have thrown at it has worked fine.

The expansion chassis works great for what we need and allows us to use compressed footage from the REDs in realtime without having the CPU load.

[Pedro Ricardo]

I’m running a 12 core MacPro with Dual D700s and it handles 4K without a problem. We are running a Sonnet PCI expansion chassis that allows extra GPU cards etc. to be fitted.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/video/news/plug-your-mac-pro-new-sonnet-xmac-pro-server

[Pedro Ricardo]

If you are not working in 4K, then the 980s should do as well as the Titans, the 980 has less CUDA cores, but they are 40% more efficient, so you should get excellent performance in Resolve.

If you are working in 4K however, the 50% extra RAM on the Titan or the GTX780 6GB cards might come into play. Resolve can only accelerate using your GPUs if the scene and effects can fit into the card’s RAM.

If it was me, I would wait about a month, NVidia is releasing 8GB GTX980 cards, and a pair of those would be very quick, and would have enough RAM to handle pretty much anything you threw at it.

[Pedro Ricardo]

I know this is an old thread, but has this been resolved yet?
I want to buy a license of LightSpace, but don’t want to have to purchase a new probe.

[Pedro Ricardo]

I haven’t looked into tethered shooting with the 4K camera yet. I didn’t know it was possible.

[Pedro Ricardo]

Sorry for the confusion. We deliver three hours of *finished footage*, the actual process of getting the animation ‘in the can’ takes months 🙂

So yes 3 hours of finished footage at 24fps (which takes many many many more hours to do).

We also have ‘automated’ stop motion, where the models are motorised and we shoot up to 2fps or so. I’m wondering how fast you can trigger the 4K camera via LANC in ‘time lapse’ mode. If it could manage a frame per second, then I’m in.

[Pedro Ricardo]

We shoot a minimum of 3 hours of Stop motion per film, usually about 45-90mins of it ends up used depending on the project. Commercials of course are much less.
So that is about 260,000 actuations per 3 hours, sometimes we will shoot double that if alternate angles are wanted as options in post, we tend to get about 80-100,000 actuations per body, but sometimes they die earlier. We sometimes buy 2nd hand bodies as well, and we get variable results with those (but it still works out cheaper than buying new).

The dynamic range isn’t all that different compared to the 4K camera, and the workflow is a pain, we don’t use the extra resolution anyway as all it really gives us is bigger files that are more of a pain in the NLE. The 4K camera would also allow us faster playback options, and an all round better workflow, and give us extra cameras to use for non stop-motion work. One set of cameras, one workflow, one set of rigs and gear etc. etc. it would be a much much tidier shoot.

I didn’t know you could start/stop the camera for one frame via LANC, I’ll look into that.

[Pedro Ricardo]

If it had the single frame advance feature, then the BMD 4K camera becomes effectively free, in fact you would be paid to own one as it would save you money on the shoot vs throwing out DSLR camera bodies once the shutters die.

Also, it means you have an extra cine camera to shoot live action or your other projects with. It would have massive advantages over DSLRs if it only had the feature. I’ll be buying multiple 4Ks the day the feature is added.

[Pedro Ricardo]

Except that we keep burning through shutters, so it gets expensive.
On a single shoot we will chew up 3 to 5 Canon 5D bodies, the BMD 4K camera would pay for itself very quickly and be a no brainer for people doing heavy stop motion loads.

[Pedro Ricardo]

I think go for the pocket camera or the 4K. The global shutter is a big plus if you are going to have a lot of movement in your films, as are the options for distribution later. It also will look like a more professional camera, and oddly that counts on set. People tend to lift their game a bit more when the gear looks more pro. I know that sounds weird, but I’ve always found it to be true.

But if starting out, getting the PCC will allow you to work faster (assuming you don’t have to spend time de-jelloing), will leave you with a lot more budget for lights/props/effects/editing gear/storage etc. and if you don’t like it, the resale value will be high in the first 12 months anyway. If you do like it and get better at your craft and think that distribution deals may be in your future, you can always hock it and get the 4K. You will probably only lose $100 on it, and that is pretty cheap camera rental really!