About BMPCC...

[dreed]

On the topic of raw video, Magic Lantern have unleashed the beast within some Canon DSLRs:
http://www.cinema5d.com/news/?p=17898
... albeit not any faster than 25fps on the 5D3 but with almost no aliasing. Other Canon DSLRs are not as capable, so there would seem to be some kind of twist to the combination of sensor and hardware behind it that makes CinemaDNG possible at 1080p.

Unfortunately if Canon shipped this in their standard DSLR range then it would undermine the 1DC in a serious way.

[Telecaster]

I have a Blackmagic pocket cinecam on order, and I'm not even much of a video guy. Video from still cams has never interested me from a technical standpoint...things like line skipping and down-sampling are such kludges. But a video-specific HD sensor in a tiny device...it's too much for the gadget geek in me to resist.     Plus I've become fond of the M43 system and its small, sharp lenses.

It'll be fun to see how small of a rig I can get by with and still end up with high-quality results. Minimalism is the thing with this gizmo, methinks.

-Dave-

[michael]

The Magic lantern hack is brilliant, and I've read it produces quite good quality files.

But, it's very limited in some areas, such as no in-camera playback.

Michael

[MarkL]

I've only briefly played with video and one thing i learned early is that stability and being able to move the camera smoothly is a must. It is a tiny size at a nice price but will this mean it works ok on good fluid heads, glidecam-style stadycam rigs and the like or is this purely a run and gun handheld camera?

[michael]

It's just a camera. Big or small, put it on a support when needed. If you look at the Blackmagic pics on their site you see it both fully kitted out and also handheld. It will utilize the stabilization in Panasonic lenses that have it.

Michael

[Telecaster]

The rig shown at the top of the BMPCC Accessories page looks to be just the ticket for stable handheld shooting. That's how I imagine I'll primarily use the cam, though we'll see how things go once it's in hand. Should be fun!

-Dave-

[Tony Jay]

Well Blackmagic are certainly pointing the way - especially at the price points offered for the 4K production model.
Obviously it will only be part of a larger kit though for practical shooting.

BTW the Magic Lantern hack is very good.
The iteration I have on my 5D III will allow playback.
The major limitation currently is read/write speeds to a CF card.
Even getting 1080p @ 30 fps is a stretch currently
If ML can utilize the latest firmware update from Canon to allow uncompressed HDMI download to a HD, perhaps an SSD, then with the massive sensor perhaps 2K and even 4K at 50-60 fps may not be impossible in principle.
If they achieve it then that will change the game again.

Tony Jay

[Telecaster]

I see Metabones has released M43 versions of their Speed Booster .71x focal length reducers for Nikon F and Zeiss Y/C mount lenses. If these perform well optically I can imagine them being very popular with BMPCC owners. Y/C lenses like the 85/1.4 and 100/2, which are rather long on M43 for general cine work, would come back into play. Think I'll have to get one of these gizmos and give it a spin on my Oly camera.

-Dave-