Blackmagic Design Cinema Cam finally shipping!

[Axilrod]

Shop called and said the distributor already has them and mine will be here 2 days after Christmas!  Looking forward to playing with it.

[paul13walnut5]

Nice, looking forward to seeing what you get out of it.

What add-ons are you speccing?

I'm tempted by the C100... 

[Axilrod]

Nice, looking forward to seeing what you get out of it.

What add-ons are you speccing?

I'm tempted by the C100...

Long time no see Paulie!  I played with the C100 actually and was very impressed with it, excellent ergonomics and image quality, I think it's a great camera.  Anyone that was bashing it based on specs should give it another look.

I thought about picking one up, and might still in the future, but the BMCC's price and 2.5K raw is just too attractive (plus my local shop bumped me to the top of the list of 40 preorders so I couldn't pass it up).  As for accessories, all I've really checked out are the handles, SSD's, and Anton Bauer battery packs, those are the most necessary for now.  I guess I'm going to have to get some new lenses as well, either the Tokina 11-16mm or the Sigma 8-16mm (although I don't know that I can deal with the variable aperture of the Sigma). 

[HurtinMinorKey]

Congrats!

What type of workstation do you have for it?

[Axilrod]

Congrats!

What type of workstation do you have for it?

At the moment I have a 3.1 i5 iMac, 16GB RAM, 1TB 7200RPM, 1GB VRAM, but my new one should be coming in early January.  3.4 i7, 3TB Fusion Drive, 32GB RAM, 2GB VRAM, and I'm working off of SSD thunderbolt drives so I think I'll be alright.  I've messed with some of the Cinema DNG files and even on my current setup it seemed to handle it just fine, so I'm hoping it'll be pretty snappy with my new setup.  But if that doesn't work I may buy a Mac Pro or build a Hackintosh.

[Axilrod]

Oh an Paulie, were there any accessories for the BMC that you found intriguing?

[HurtinMinorKey]

Congrats!

What type of workstation do you have for it?

At the moment I have a 3.1 i5 iMac, 16GB RAM, 1TB 7200RPM, 1GB VRAM, but my new one should be coming in early January.  3.4 i7, 3TB Fusion Drive, 32GB RAM, 2GB VRAM, and I'm working off of SSD thunderbolt drives so I think I'll be alright.  I've messed with some of the Cinema DNG files and even on my current setup it seemed to handle it just fine, so I'm hoping it'll be pretty snappy with my new setup.  But if that doesn't work I may buy a Mac Pro or build a Hackintosh.

Thanks for the info. It will be really interesting to see how the new iMacs handle editing RAW in  DaVinici Resolve. I am considering this setup myself. keep us up to date with how it goes!

[Axilrod]

Congrats!

What type of workstation do you have for it?

At the moment I have a 3.1 i5 iMac, 16GB RAM, 1TB 7200RPM, 1GB VRAM, but my new one should be coming in early January.  3.4 i7, 3TB Fusion Drive, 32GB RAM, 2GB VRAM, and I'm working off of SSD thunderbolt drives so I think I'll be alright.  I've messed with some of the Cinema DNG files and even on my current setup it seemed to handle it just fine, so I'm hoping it'll be pretty snappy with my new setup.  But if that doesn't work I may buy a Mac Pro or build a Hackintosh.

Thanks for the info. It will be really interesting to see how the new iMacs handle editing RAW in  DaVinici Resolve. I am considering this setup myself. keep us up to date with how it goes!

I'm pretty sure it's going to scream.  My current setup scored around 9500 on Geekbench, I'm expecting the new one to score at least 13000.  Even my 2.3 i7 Macbook pro with 256GB SSD/16GB Ram scored 11,500, SSD's alone make a huge difference. 

I also use the Lacie Thunderbolt to eSata adapter so I can hook up at least 2 of my drives via eSata, that thing is absolutely worth the couple hundred bucks.  Also the Sonnet Thunderbolt Expresscard Adapter is great when coupled with the dual CF card reader, absolutely screams and you can copy two completely full cards in a couple minutes, also highly recommended.

[paul13walnut5]

@Axilrod

Oh an Paulie, were there any accessories for the BMC that you found intriguing?

I find the whole concept quite intriguing.  I like and trust blackmagic from using their video cards and codecs, I am pretty confident they haven't got into this lightly.

I like things that look different.  It usually means a grass roots redesign from the generic templates. Again, the blackmagic guys know video so I'm guessing things that look nuts will make sense (think Dyson, Citroen XM) in use.

One area that concerns me is handling.. how are you rigging or supporting it?

You speccing a bigger external screen for it?

It's a good price, some reservations re: sensor, but I'll happily be proven wrong.

I'm also interested in what kind of price it takes to get a real world usuable kit.

One mans guinea pig is another mans pioneer.  I have the funds accruing for the safe option, the c100, but I'll be keeping a keen eye on your developments before I commit.  Please do keep us posted.

[JasonATL]

Shop called and said the distributor already has them and mine will be here 2 days after Christmas!  Looking forward to playing with it.

Congrats! A merry Christmas, it sounds like.

After following it for a while, I decided late in the game to pre-order. So, I'll live vicariously through you and others for a while. Looking forward to your thoughts as you work with it.

[Axilrod]

@Axilrod

Oh an Paulie, were there any accessories for the BMC that you found intriguing?

I find the whole concept quite intriguing.  I like and trust blackmagic from using their video cards and codecs, I am pretty confident they haven't got into this lightly.

I like things that look different.  It usually means a grass roots redesign from the generic templates. Again, the blackmagic guys know video so I'm guessing things that look nuts will make sense (think Dyson, Citroen XM) in use.

One area that concerns me is handling.. how are you rigging or supporting it?

You speccing a bigger external screen for it?

It's a good price, some reservations re: sensor, but I'll happily be proven wrong.

I'm also interested in what kind of price it takes to get a real world usuable kit.

One mans guinea pig is another mans pioneer.  I have the funds accruing for the safe option, the c100, but I'll be keeping a keen eye on your developments before I commit.  Please do keep us posted.

The sensor size was one of my reservations, but this video kind of sold me on it: https://vimeo.com/49875510
Also I played with some of the Cinema DNG files and was very impressed.

I'm gonna have to pick up a Tokina 11-16mm or Sigma 8-16mm to go wide, but on the same note my 135mm f/2 for instance will turn into a 300mm f/2 (which is pretty sweet). 

As for rigging, I have a Redrock Field Cinema Deluxe bundle, I'm sure I can figure out a way to make it work on that.  As for external monitors, I have a 5" Marshall, a 7" Marshall, and a Zacuto EVF.  The 7" Marshall has HD-SDI out, but I might have to get an adapter for the EVF.

Not sure about the real-world kit price, but I'd say closer to $4k.  SSD's have gotten cheaper luckily, you can get a couple of 256GB for about $350, so at the minimum $3200 or so to be able to shoot at all.  Then I'd say some kind of rig, but I don't think that would necessarily cost more than a DSLR rig. 

[Axilrod]

Congrats! A merry Christmas, it sounds like.

After following it for a while, I decided late in the game to pre-order. So, I'll live vicariously through you and others for a while. Looking forward to your thoughts as you work with it.

Thanks Jason, hopefully they can get the shipping kinks worked out and get these preorders filled.  I know Showcase had 30 preorders as of a couple weeks ago, so it looks like this one is gonna be a hot seller.

[Axilrod]

@Axilrod

Oh an Paulie, were there any accessories for the BMC that you found intriguing?

I find the whole concept quite intriguing.  I like and trust blackmagic from using their video cards and codecs, I am pretty confident they haven't got into this lightly.

I like things that look different.  It usually means a grass roots redesign from the generic templates. Again, the blackmagic guys know video so I'm guessing things that look nuts will make sense (think Dyson, Citroen XM) in use.

One area that concerns me is handling.. how are you rigging or supporting it?

You speccing a bigger external screen for it?

It's a good price, some reservations re: sensor, but I'll happily be proven wrong.

I'm also interested in what kind of price it takes to get a real world usuable kit.

One mans guinea pig is another mans pioneer.  I have the funds accruing for the safe option, the c100, but I'll be keeping a keen eye on your developments before I commit.  Please do keep us posted.

Will do Paulie, happy holidays to you!

[paul13walnut5]

And to you and yours buddy!

[Axilrod]

So I anxiously headed to the shop this morning, walk in, and there in all it's glory is the BMCC Cinema Camera sitting on the counter.  As I approached the counter the guy behind the counter (friend of mine) asked "did you check your messages today?"  I hadn't, but was quickly informed that the purchasing agent there had made a mistake, they weren't getting 20 of them they got ONE.  One single BMD Cinema Camera.  Guy behind the counter was in the process of making 20 phone calls informing people of the mistake.  So that was a huge bummer, but I did get to play around with the one they got for about an hour with the Samyang 24mm T/1.5 strapped to it.  I'll give you a rundown of my opinions and the opinions of the guys at the shop. 

First off, the Samyang 24mm is a stellar lens and was beautifully sharp even wide open, kudos to them for making such great, affordable lenses.

As for the BMCC, here are my initial thoughts:
•It's alot heavier than it looks.  It was strapped to a makeshift Redrock Rig that was essentially just a tripod plate and handles, but even the camera itself is heavier than you would expect.
•Touch screen interface is cool, but options are limited.  There were only maybe 4 white balance settings (I saw 3200K, 4500K, and 5500K, but not anything inbetween.  Same with the ASA settings, all it has is 200, 400, 800, and 1600.
•SSD's have to be formatted by a computer, they won't work if you just stick them straight in. (They were pretty annoyed by that).
•Image quality is excellent from what I could tell, when you change the preview setting to "Cinema" you can see what the final image will look like and it looks like an excellent base for color grading.  If you set it to "video" it bumps up the contrast and saturation to make monitoring easier.
•Man that sensor looks tiny after looking at 5D sensors.  It felt very strange having a 24mm lens on a camera and seeing the FOV look that tight. 

Anyways, after playing with it I kind of have mixed feelings, it does some things great but at the same time the menus seem a bit oversimplified, I'd like more manual control.  Of course no camera is perfect nowadays, but I really question basing this around an EF mount.  I wonder if it would be worth looking into the MFT version, since those lenses are built around a 2x crop to start with.  Then again that would mean buying a whole new collection of lenses, so it's a tough call.

On the plus side my GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition did come in, so that softened the blow a bit, and so far that thing is amazing and I highly recommend it.