Blackmagic Camera Update July 2020

[Timothy Jones]

https://vimeo.com/436209544

You tell me ?

I like the way it draws a face. I find the tones very subtle. I thought more resolution would be unflattering on a face, but it’s the opposite. It’s actually incredibly beautiful.

Well, maybe it was the lenses. Supremes in this case.

JB

Wow, that looks quite alright!
Thanks for sharing,
Tim

[Chris McKechnie]

Blackmagic continues to push the boundaries. Not much discussion though about LL capabilities. My guess is it will still be plagued with some FPN issues at higher ISO's - like 3200+ which is unfortunate. I think they should have focused less on resolution increase and more on maybe going with a FF sensor, internal variable ND, Af, etc. I think it could have appealed more to the masses. I think it's just a slight boost from the G2. Most people are perfectly content shooting 4k...12K is just insane. Interesting times for sure. Gone are the days of 1-2 cam manufacturers paving the way in the industry. I much prefer it this way...more competition and a wider range of cams to choose from!

[Anders Ledin]

"[QUOTE=Phil Holland;1904824]John Brawley mentioned on CML that:

As for the sensor design, I know of 3 companies who were doing 2.2 micron work in 2018. Likely a developed concept based on on specific sensor design I'm thinking of. Those are very small micro lenses and the W pixel or clear pixel more accurately is an interesting solve to that issue."


Does anyone have a link to that post?

[rand thompson]

Anders

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthr...uly-2020/page5

Post#44

[Audy Erel]

Now the only thing holding me back from buying their cameras is the appearance; it still looks like a plastic toy. The best design from them IMO was the original pocketable pocket cinema camera.

[Scott Pultz]

Now the only thing holding me back from buying their cameras is the appearance; it still looks like a plastic toy. The best design from them IMO was the original pocketable pocket cinema camera.

Good news, you just have to get over the appearance :)

[Scott Pultz]

JB, how does the DR compare to the G2?

[Curtis boggs]

Andrew, you can see my join date right below my name -- just like I can see yours. And I was not making fun of Curtis, I was simply pointing out that I have not seen anyone that I would call a "cool kid" sharing Komodo footage.

Am I not "cool" ? :-)

[Michael Tiemann]

BMDs first cameras were a lesson in what not to do. Perhaps they've figured a few things out since then. Look forward to seeing what the gaudy specs actually mean in usage...

Cheers - #19

I hear you! I had a BMCC back in the day (before I decided to get on the RED bandwagon), and I just couldn't get happy with the gaudy colors. I sold those cameras, bough a DRAGON, some WEAPONS, converted to HELIUM, got my DRAGON-VV delivered as a MONSTRO, and here I am.

I downloaded the BRAW sample images, downloaded Resolve 16.3.0B.003, and populated a timeline using REC 709 defaults all the way around (BMD RAW, Timeline, Flanders Scientific XM310K). The clip of the dark-skinned woman, nice. The clip of the olive-skinned man, ok. The clip with the fair-skinned woman--reminded me why I left BMD behind back in 2014. I really hated the way that the light skin seemed to be way too highlight-contrasty.

But then I decided, what about REC 2020 ST2084 PQ? I changed the RAW, Timeline, and Monitor settings, and >BOOM< Suddenly everything looked absolutely fantastic. Even when I bumped exposure up a stop, everything looked fantastic.

Note--I didn't do any grading whatsoever. Just camera metadata into Gen 5 color science into a reference monitor.

This tells me that indeed the bones of the color and DR are definitely there. This also tells me what I already knew, which is that REC 709 is a tricky bastard, and it is very easy to push it in ways that it does not like to be pushed, even (or especially) with RAW footage. However, given how well things look in REC 2100 PQ, I know that the demons can be tamed with some curves or some LGG adjustments and the camera should be not judged on straight-through REC 709 interpretations. And who knows, perhaps BMD will tweak their Gen5 REC709 interpretation to be just a little less gaudy and a little better behaved on footage that's well within those specs.

[John Brawley]

JB, how does the DR compare to the G2?

Hard for me to say really. I only today got the final hardware version, I’ve been on early builds of hardware where those things are more....aspirational targets.

I think 14 is a smidge conservative, but it’s decent. Not as good as others, but no slouch. I think it’s kind of the same as a G2, even though the G2 is dual gain and should be more. I think with the smaller pixels and better noise, it feels like it’s pretty close to the G2.

I’ve still got to walk the more final version I only just got today to rearly find out...

JB