11Apr No on screen audio meters on the Blackmagic 4k and Pocket cameras, plus huge file sizes
The last day of NAB seems to be the best time to actually play around with gear. I was able to spend over an hour playing around with both the Blackmagic 4k camera and the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. Basically it was the reps, myself, and maybe 5 other people milling around off and on. In that time I was able to ask a lot of questions and fondle all of the cameras on display.
The first bit of bad news for those interested in the Blackmagic 4k camera according to the rep, is that the maximum ASA (basically iso) setting will be ASA 800 upon release. According to the rep, having that much resolution in an S35 size sensor means that the Blackmagic 4k camera had to sacrifice a lot of low light sensitivity. You do get 4k for $4k but you’ll want to bring along a lighting kit.
Taking a closer look at the Blackmagic 4k camera record settings screen, you’ll see that they have included a time lapse features. However I was unable to change or adjust any of the settings in this menu on the greasy little touch screen. The rep explained that the recording options were still in development. Apparently Blackmagic isn’t sure what they’ll have working by the time of this cameras release, he wouldn’t confirm or deny any frame rates, settings, or time lapse options.
I have confirmation from Blackmagic reps that neither the Blackmagic 4k camera or the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera will have audio level meters upon release. You will be able to adjust both the left and right input levels and monitoring levels in camera but there aren’t any on screen meters. They did say that the “feature” might be implemented in the future, but that it wasn’t very high on their priority list.
Data rates on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera are large as I mentioned in an earlier post, but the Blackmagic 4k camera’s files are obese. Shooting in Proress 422 at 4k will be about 7GB a minute and if you plan to shoot RAW DNG expect at least 10.5GB a minute. The advantage that Red cameras offer over Blackmagic cameras is a decent compression rate in their R3D file format, with 1:5 compression rates as standard and the ability to increase the compression rate on RAW capture even higher if needed. Blackmagic’s open sources RAW DNG format is basically just taking advantage of an open source RAW image format. Sure it’s RAW, but it basically gives you a single image file per frame of video which is a lot less efficient than the R3D file format Red cameras use.
I think both the Blackmagic 4k camera and the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera will, like the original BMCC camera, be unfinished upon release. From the sounds of it, they’ll be struggling to meet the release date and we’ll end up getting a beta camera that will eventually be ready for prime time at some future date.
Blackmagic is one of the few companies in the camera market pushing the envelope. If you are willing to accept a beta camera and cross your fingers for future updates it’s the wild west and you could be headed for a gold rush or a stagecoach robbery, only time will tell. I’m going to risk it with the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, wish me luck.
April 11th, 2013 at 8:37 pm
Thanks for the update, good to know.
April 11th, 2013 at 10:25 pm
+1, thanks for confirming about the lack of audio meters. That single fact puts me into a holding pattern on the BMPCC.
April 11th, 2013 at 10:58 pm
It does seem like some accessories will be required to get a full setup going, like a separate field mixer/recorder and a rig. Everything will need to attach to the rig in order to not be top-heavy and solid.
Good write-up.
April 11th, 2013 at 11:50 pm
Thanks for this, I have also been debating on getting the PocketCC. I’ve been poking around the forum (mostly EOSHD) and figured the PocketCC’s CinemaDNG is likely going to be a 3:1 compression ratio (similar to the BMCC and RED Epic) which will require about 75MB/s~600Mbps. The ProRes HQ option however is stated as 220Mbps~27.5MB/s which while easier to deal with still requires the “premium level” SD cards. Right now I use DSLRs and it cost me about $700 (cards, batteries, accessories and lens) to get each one up and running but to get the PocketCC to run at an equal level to replace one of my A or B cams is proving to be quite more expensive…
First I figured to get a PocketCC up and running with my work as an A cam or B cam would cost me about $150 in cards (since all of my current SD cards aren’t fast enough).
Second I would need to buy a new “ultra wide” lens as my 24mm will now be 70mm, I’ve narrowed my choices to either a $500 Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC (and hope a “smart” M4/3 to EF adapter comes out soon) or the $1300 Panasonic 12-35/2.8.
Third none of my LCD loupes fit a 3.5″ 16:9 screen, the only one I found that covers 3.5″ is the Varavon MultiView but it’s $300 and huge! …and ugly.
Fourth I might need a new “project storage system” since my current setup is meant for 100GB projects and this looks like those projects could potentially be at least 2.5x larger with the ProRes HQ option alone; which will likely be another $100.
So to incorporate it, I’m likely looking at another $1,050 – $1,950, that’s potentially the cost range to add 6D or D600 or GH3 or NEX VG30 or D7100… but with the PocketCC it forces me to get me ready for a “RAW/Low Compression” workflow which I think was Black Magic’s point and not really a bad idea for me to do.
April 12th, 2013 at 12:28 am
thank christ! someone said something negative about this camera… great job! i played with it at NAB and noticed a good quality on the provided monitors, the camera screen in embarrassing. if you turned the camera toward the crowd or adjusted the settings to anything other than the overlit scene setup… there is some very obvious sensor banding… i asked the BM rep and he said he didnt notice… until the rest of surrounding crowd saw it after pointed out on all of the setups… then he insisted it’s the first time he’s ever seen it…. dont get me wrong, 4K for $4K is great and all, but the significant difference between these cameras and the images displayed and the next booth over (Red) is significant. you get whay you pay for.
April 12th, 2013 at 1:42 am
I agree, the 4k image is a few steps behind the original Red one. It’s not horrible but I think most are more excited about it then I am. While I was playing with it people would walk up and ask the rep and I about the camera, as soon as data rates and ISO came up people started looking disappointed. People see the shiny 4k label and think “this is amazing”, but few low budget filmmakers are setup to handle 10.5 GB a minute or even 7 GB a minute for that matter.
On the features I’ve worked on, we usually end up shooting between 18 to 30 hours worth of footage. Even at the low end of the scale (18 hours) in proress that’s about 7.5 TB of footage to deal with. You’d need a raid area of at least 4x4tb drives just to safely store your footage in a single location and that doesn’t even take into consideration data speeds for editing. That adds at least $2k to the price right out of the gate not to mention everything else involved with making this camera usable.
April 22nd, 2013 at 3:46 pm
Thanks for the perspectives from cooler heads Brandon & Deejay. It’s always good to take a deep breath and count to ten when some really exciting news comes out… there might be a catch.
April 22nd, 2013 at 4:09 pm
I was pretty excited at first glance as well. But when I spoke with one of their engineers at the booth a lot of his answers to my questions were basically. “We might add that in the future”. I couldn’t even get a positive yes or no on the pocket cam actually supporting raw mode to SDXC. The longer the conversation went on the more I started to realized that both of these cameras are being pulled out of the oven before they’re done cooking.
April 25th, 2013 at 1:25 am
The 4K camera isn’t ready yet for shooting, which is why you’re seeing those kinds of faults.
it’s also why they haven’t yet released 4K footage.
jb
April 25th, 2013 at 7:18 am
The rep at the booth confirmed that audio level meters aren’t coming at release and won’t be out for several revisions.
April 25th, 2013 at 8:02 am
@John Brawley, it would be great if you can give BM the feedback that some users would like to see in-camera audio meters (and focus peaking, if it isn’t already on the list)
OT: The early GH3 footage with pre-production firmware had quite a bit more moire than the GH2, which made me not want to upgrade from my GH2’s, although from what I’ve seen from the camera with production firmware, the problem is gone.
…So I do have some hope the the new cameras from BM could have a better level of low light IQ than what’s been reported from NAB, when the production version is available.
April 25th, 2013 at 4:54 pm
The 4K version will have a slightly lower native ISO than the current BMCC because it has a new GLOBAL shutter sensor.
They know about the demand for Audio Levels.
The camera already has focus peaking and double tap 1:1 for fine focus on the screen.
jb
April 25th, 2013 at 5:37 pm
Those are great features to have. Hopefully BM gets the other features sorted out. I still have my BMPC on pre-order even knowing those features are missing. Thanks for your input jb.
April 22nd, 2013 at 8:13 am
I’m just curious, is it thunderbolt or firewire friendly? because an external memory of 1tb wouldnt be a bad choice at all… I’ve got a couple laying around.
April 22nd, 2013 at 9:23 am
Thunderbolt.