Blackmagic Design Cinema Cam finally shipping!

[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.

[Normalnorm]

Arrrgh. I was waiting to read about your first day shooting.

Thanks for the overview though. You mentioned a number of things that I think most of us were unaware of.
The WB and SSD formatting issues seem to be things that may be addressed in future FW upgrades but as I am not an engineer I have no idea.

The sensor size seems to be a point of concern for many but as you noted in an earlier post there are some very good examples of shallow DOF from this camera.
What is of the greatest interest to me is the DR available from the sensor.

I am looking forward to that happy day when yours is truly here.

I am interested in your GoPro experience as you use it.

[HurtinMinorKey]

If you are going to use Raw, i don't think the limited WB settings matter that much except for giving you a better reference on your monitor.

Sorry to hear about the f-up by your camera store. I hope these black magic guys get their supply chain issues figured out in a hurry.

[paul13walnut5]

Bummer, thanks for the time taken to update, and for your candour.

The wee gopros are a hoot.  I'm still on a hero hd 1, but its doing the job for me when i need it.

[Axilrod]

Bummer, thanks for the time taken to update, and for your candour.

The wee gopros are a hoot.  I'm still on a hero hd 1, but its doing the job for me when i need it.

I too have a Hero 1 and was glad I never picked up the 2nd.  Paulie I have to say the Hero 3 is absolutely worth the upgrade.  Being able to preview and change all the settings on your phone (instead of hitting those 2 damn buttons over and over) alone makes it worth the purchase.  The footage will intercut with DSLR footage far better than the original or even the Hero 2.  Definitely worth checking out.  And thanks for the sympathy!

Honestly I wonder if it was a blessing in disguise, that C100 is pretty amazing and even though its far more expensive I'm still considering it.

[Axilrod]

The sensor size seems to be a point of concern for many but as you noted in an earlier post there are some very good examples of shallow DOF from this camera.
What is of the greatest interest to me is the DR available from the sensor.

I am looking forward to that happy day when yours is truly here.

I am interested in your GoPro experience as you use it.

The DOF did look very shallow, especially at F/1.4.  I think the fact that the lens retains it's minimum focusing distance allows you to really turn the background into mush.  I didn't really get a chance to push it to the limit in terms of dynamic range, but from what I saw it's far better than DSLR's (as expected).  13 stops at that price range is just unheard of, I think you'll be pleased with it either way. 

As for the GoPro Hero 3, it's amazing from what I can tell.  Being able to control it from your phone is just awesome, you can change from 2.7Kcine/24fps to 720p/120fps in a few seconds instead of hitting those buttons over and over.  The IQ is noticeably better, low-light is better, image is sharper, and the "Protune" feature is nice (gives you a more washed out image for color-grading and manual white balance control).  I think it's absolutely worth the upgrade from the Hero 1 and even the Hero 2.  I'd feel much better about intercutting footage from it with DSLR footage.

Also, the guys at the shop seemed super pumped about the Sony F5 (which looks amazing of course but is considerably more expensive).  I can't wait to check that thing out, 4K, 2K Raw with high framerates, etc. I think Sony is going to kill it with those things.