Ran across this, this morning.

Auckland In My Pocket - Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera on Vimeo

mm, still don't know if I should get excited over this, I read that the camera has not been delivered out yet he seems to have one now? did bmc have one camera in stock and send that one out? :)

I"m still waiting for someone that has a tripod so I can at least can have a good look at the image, with this one I got seasick the first minute and yeah, I know it's supposed to be a camera you can use handheld but still.

The biggest issue for me is the almost 3x cropfactor (if I understood it right) which makes it very hard to get a decent wideangle view.

He mentions using "his" LUT to grade the footage (the Captain Hook LUT John Brawley has mentioned using before). Seems they are friends, so he may have had access to John's camera. Who knows?

me thinks so, the first question on his vimeo page is how he was able to get a camera while no-one else has and it remains unanswered, maybe bmc is trying to trow us another bone to keep everyone happy for another while untill they manage to sort out their deliveries.

I thought the low light stuff looked nice and the highlights were handled pretty well in the basketball footage.

I'm still very excited about this camera. While my plan to get to know it, is to shoot similar "walking around" type scenarios, I'm looking forward to seeing some narrative type shots from it (I'm a wanna be indie guy).

When he mentioned using the Glidecam HD4000, was hoping for a bit more steady cam footage. Although I can't help but think the HD4000 is a bit over kill for the pocket cam. I hoping to pick up a HD1000, and still be able to rig my DP6 monitor to it.

On the Blackmagic forum, people were asking the guy what shutter angle he shot at, saying the basketball footage looked "choppy" on their computers. I watched on my ipad, and it didn't seem choppy to me at all.

Can't wait for that thing to get here.

I'm wondering about logistics. John Brawley announced a couple new features with the latest firmware. Wondering when cameras,are leaving the manufacture point, to arrive in the hands of the dealers who will be filling the orders. And if they will be shipping with the latest firmware, or will we be updating as soon as we are unboxing? I not holding out hope thst ill get mine on the first go around of order fulfilment's. I didn't preorder mine until May 22. So expecting to be a ways down the list.

Good find Jeff, thanks for the link.

Nice footage, sort of. Actually, seems to me more of a Blackmagic promo for the cam all planed and ‘approved’ as one might expect. No, can’t get excited over this; looks too soft for my purposes even though he never keeps the camera still for one second in order, as you say Noa, that one might get a good look. And yes, I’m a bit seasick too however the nearby magnitude 5.8 earthquake that went on and on while I was watching this didn’t help!

Clearly they are targeting this kind of use as in the comments section the ‘shooter’ says ‘I couldn't bring myself to rig up this camera as it kind of defeats the purpose to me’ ha ha, which confirms the marketing strategy of Blackmagic to position this cam for this kind of shooting. And that’s understandable as then it won’t eat into their more expensive model's market and in all probability the footage won’t measure up to the other models anyway though as of now that’s still somewhat of an assumption.

His last sentence at Vimeo says it all; promotion, promotion promotion, and why not!

Do I cancel my order and pop my (premature) lens on Trademe? Or just cancel my order and get myself a GH3? Or just wait...

Hmmmmm.

Now another earthquake, this one 4.6.

Clearly they are targeting this kind of use as in the comments section the ‘shooter’ says ‘I couldn't bring myself to rig up this camera as it kind of defeats the purpose to me’ ha ha, which confirms the marketing strategy of Blackmagic to position this cam for this kind of shooting. And that’s understandable as then it won’t eat into their more expensive model's market and in all probability the footage won’t measure up to the other models anyway though as of now that’s still somewhat of an assumption.



You love pushing this conspiracy barrow don't you ?

Hook had free reign to shoot whatever he liked. Why don't you ask him instead of positing theories about why BMD are somehow holding back whatever footage it is you're expecting to see.

jb

John, I'm sure you've been asked this a million times, but are you allowed to comment on RAW yet?

I rather would like to see some footage from someone that has gotten their camera through the normal delivery chain then from someone BMD exclusively pick themselves for whatever reason, no offense John but all footage I have seen so far from this camera looks the same to me, lots of shake as if we are not supposed to have good look or because it's asked to do so because of the way the camera is marketed.

Why does BMD hand one model over to another person asking to make yet another shaky home video while they should be delivering the camera out to all dealers, as promised, for everyone to try and see for themselves?

John, I'm sure you've been asked this a million times, but are you allowed to comment on RAW yet?

RAW is not likely to be ready for shipping but will be added later.

To be certain, it will be the same as on the BMCC. The compression is lossless.

jb

I rather would like to see some footage from someone that has gotten their camera through the normal delivery chain then from someone BMD exclusively pick themselves for whatever reason, no offense John but all footage I have seen so far from this camera looks the same to me, lots of shake as if we are not supposed to have good look or because it's asked to do so because of the way the camera is marketed.

Why does BMD hand one model over to another person asking to make yet another shaky home video while they should be delivering the camera out to all dealers, as promised, for everyone to try and see for themselves?

The camera hasn't shipped yet.

Why don't you wait until it has and then see if it's for you.

jb

The camera hasn't shipped yet.
If they wait some more they could put this line of text under their logo because that's what they will be associated with. :)

You love pushing this conspiracy barrow don't you ?

jb

Marketing plan: determining the target market and ascertaining the market needs. Understanding the competition strength and weaknesses, designing a product to meet the needs especially capitalizing on the gaps in the competition's performance, putting in place promotion material to support the product introduction... and so it goes. All successful companies do it and my guess is that Blackmagic do it too, and in this instance perhaps quite successfully eh!

Conspiracy theory: I noticed a ship in the Picton harbour with the name Austral Carina. I thought, Austral short for Australia, and furthermore I once knew a girl called Carina, from Venezuela. Ah ha, I’ve got it: the Aussies have formed a partnership with the Venezuelans to take over New Zealand and this ship is here doing under-cover reconnaissance!

Don’t even try, John, I’m up to your tricks, ha ha. You should also know that Carina was ‘difficult’, problematic to say the least, and the Kiwis are no push-over so if I were you I would flag that completely:-)

Don’t be defensive John, it’s all good fun, talking about this stuff while we wait, don’t you think?

Dozens of earthquakes here today. One servere, four strong, a bunch of moderates and a whole lot of little tremors. Such fun living on a fault line.

Oh dear. The flock IS becoming a little restless.

To make everybody satisfied, shall I ping off some footage on the SI2K with an ultracon filter in front of the lens, export it as cinema DNG from DVR2, and upload as RAW purportedly from the BMCC? Would anyone really be any the wiser?

The passage of time and the consignment of features when they are matured and ready is probably the best move. BM are probably still a little tender after the sensor supply problem and the bad press that ensued.

Those of us who are interested should perhaps give them the time and space to get it right, lest they become fed up instead and just decide to stick with switchers, mixers and the like.

With Adobe's decision relating to Creative Cloud, my greater interest is in seeing if Blackmagic has a crack at adding an editing feature set to Resolve. If such were to come to pass, it would be pigheaven on roids for me. The camera would be a bonus.

Don't expect to get specific data, the biggest confusion comes from people that don't know either and just guess themselves, only if those people are the ones that have direct access to the camera or have direct contact with BMD what they say has a much bigger impact on the rumor mill.

The camera hasn't shipped yet.

Why don't you wait until it has and then see if it's for you.

jb

The first uservideos are starting to appear now and the first thing I notice is some horrendous blooming artifacts on car headlights, streetlights, sun reflecting in the water... Not sure if it's firmware fixable or if it's a hardware/sensor issue. Now we know why there was no evening time demo footage before the camera was released to the public :) So I"m glad I waited to know this is not the camera for me, unless they are able to fix the blooming issues then I might reconsider.

[QUOTE=Noa Put;1810539]TNow we know why there was no evening time demo footage before the camera was released to the public :) [QUOTE]

https://vimeo.com/m/67562461

Once again you've stumbled into a thread you have no actual knowledge about.

JB

you got me there :D let me rephrase that remark: "Now we know why there was no evening time demo footage without any visible blooming artefacts before the camera was released to the public :)

Unless you had a special camera, or unless those users so far are doing something wrong in camera, have you never noticed the camera did produce these obvious artefacts?

Once again you've stumbled into a thread you have no actual knowledge about.

Ok John pls look at below examples and tell me what I don't know about, I only like to know if this is a user error or not.

This video, in the beginning the sun reflection on the cars and at 01:14 the sun has turned black.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera production model tester - ungraded on Vimeo

This video, the big blobs at 00:53 from the sunreflection in the water.

Rode VideoMic + BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera + Atomos Ninja 2 HDMI Recorder on Vimeo

This video at 02:53, the car's headlights

BMPCC+NOKTON Test Footage on Vimeo

this video, the obvious black spots in the harsh highlights

Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera Sensor Blooming 2 - YouTube

I've read this thread, and about 5 of the 7 pages (as of this morning) of the thread over in the BMD forum. I understand this is an issue, but why are people so angry? Is Blackmagic all of a sudden the only camera manufacturer in the world? I have not received my preorder and don't have any intentions of canceling either. If people are unhappy with what they are seeing online, what is stopping them from canceling or not buying? Hopefully this is a "working the kinks out" phase. But come on people, if it turns you off so much, buy something else.

I don't want say this is a non issue, because it is. But we are talking about moving pictures. I once owned a DLP front projector, and people started obsessing over the "rainbow" effect. Took me about two days to finally notice it, and about 2 months to try and stop seeing it. I hope they figure out a solution, but I didn't notice this prior to it being pointed out to me, and because I'm aware of it, I see it easily now.

But come on people, if it turns you off so much, buy something else

For me that's not the issue, I was smart enough to wait until the first uservideos appeared, I can't understand why this blooming artifact (or "white orbs") was never mentioned or noticed, for me it would render this camera useless, it probably would not show in most shots but from the look of it it can be quite nasty when it does. I only would like to know if it is a wrong setting in camera or something wrong done in post, but I"m sure John can answer this question.

Early versions of the 5D2 had similar black spots in highlights on photos. Canon released a firmware fix pretty quickly. Hopefully, BM will solve this bit wraparound issue quickly as well.

You can fix the blackspots in post, that I know, but the white orb blooming thing is detail that is lost, no way to recover that, unless someone knows a magical formula for that?.

Yeah, that's odd.

At first I was thinking that this might be due to a combination of diffusion and the lack of a smooth S-curve at the top end. Now I'm wondering if the sensor isn't leaking charge to neighboring pixels when it is oversaturated. If that's the case, one would need to choke the light to the sensor and add gain in the middle regions (with a nice S-curve), which could add noise.

Hopefully, firmware can fix this. It's not pretty.

Back to the 5D2... at NAB, we did a shot where we exposed to see the side/back of a camera that was quite dark and as we moved the view, we captured some of the lit set. The set was totally blown out, but the overall result was still quite pleasing. That shot led me to believe that the 5D2 became popular not only for its large format and nice skin tones but because of the way it handles highlights. Things might blow out but they don't get ugly.

By contrast, those orbs and dots are not pretty.

The orb thing kind of sucks, but if it doesn't show up in raw I don't care...I have no intention of shooting ProRes with it.
I remember dpreview or at least it's members making a big deal out of orbs as well on the Fujifilm X10. Fuji tried a firmware fix and it looks like they finally had to resort to having a new sensor put in.

Firmware fix
Fujifilm X10 'Orbs' Investigated. Does the Firmware Fix Work?: Digital Photography Review (http://www.dpreview.com/articles/3340468423/fujifilm-x10-orbs-investigated-does-the-firmware-fix-work)

New Sensor
Fujifilm provides modified-sensor X10 to address white-orb issue: Digital Photography Review (http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/04/26/Fujifilm-X10-white-orb-update)

I wonder if shooting at a higher ISO would mask the problem like it did with the X10.

Yes Noa, you were indeed smart enough to wait and you did the right thing, in my opinion. And I recently congratulated myself on cancelling my pre-order and obtaining a full refund of the deposit. Then along came the white orbs and black spots not to mention a huge price drop on the BMCC. The next thing we know the drama queens on both sides of the situation get all bent out of shape and the on-line (not here thank heavens) frothing gets going full bore, and it still is.

A few days ago while out and about with a couple of cameras, the BMPCC the last thing on my mind, I got a call on my cell phone. It’s a fellow from the reseller I originally placed my order with but a different employee and he tells me my camera has arrived, number two on the list, ten more in the line-up, and how do I want to pay for it. He didn’t get the cancellation memo and my name had not been removed even as my deposit was refunded.

To cut to the chase I went ahead and the camera arrived yesterday. My dear old mother would say I have more money than sense. She’s probably correct and I am certainly not wealthy. None of the myriad of cards I have worked and it will be early next week before a suitable one arrives. In the meantime it sure is pretty to look at and nice in the hands.

Let me hasten to add; I am not a working professional nor am I about to make a movie. I’m a retired ageing layabout to be taken about as seriously as I take capturing moving pictures. I’m in it for the fun, that’s all. And fooling around with this ‘different’ little charmer looks like it will be fun enough for a while at least. And in due course I shall probably have an opinion about the footage I can coax out of it and about the somewhat involved post-production business that must follow.

If I was running out the door to shoot a wedding, a documentary, a corporate piece, a promo, or any paying proposition then the little BMPCC would stay at home, for now.

My predictions: the orbs and spots will probably get fixed, the back orders filled, and 13 stops of dynamic range will be relegated to its rightful place as just one of the factors to consider and not the end all and the be all as some would have us believe.

Content is still king and queen and probably always will be. And for this old kid the BMPCC is just a new toy to play with.

I"m sure they will fix the orb thing at some time, maybe it's just something the users are doing wrong, or maybe a version II will have a newer and better sensor, time or John will tell I suppose. I"m also sure they will add the promised raw functionality once they have got their delivery schedule under control or maybe they will remove the raw capability statement on the box they ship it in. :). All joking aside, I"ll be watching more user videos, the camera still has my interest but my new purchased panasonic gh3 and g6 will keep me occupied for a while, long enough I hope for the bmcpc to reach it's full potential.

Wile I'm not a retired guy, I'm a lot like John, I'm not a working professional. Mearly an enthusiastic hobbyist. Looking forward to my Pockets arrival and the implementation of raw.

I’m still waiting on the card so I can meaningfully press the record button. In the meantime I am taking a renewed interest in what’s out there and came across this below. If I was predisposed to using worn out hipster language I would tell you I think this is awesome, epic and blows Bloom and Brawley’s footage out of the water but I won’t however I will disclose my bias in confessing I do love New York city. Still, this is the best footage out of the Pocket I’ve seen to date and the sound track here just works too. Obviously that’s all a personal opinion, no more.

Yes, the orbs are here and there through the footage but for me easily ignored. I would also suggest the casual look belies the amount of work involved in post. Not sure this could be done so well with a GH3. Yes, the GH3 would produce a sharper image, but...

I’m encouraged, very much so, even as I won’t choose the Pocket as a camera gift for my granddaughter, at least not until she progresses in the art of cinematography a tad more.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera - NYC on Vimeo

Scene after scene there are orbs or blown out whites. (:11 :19 :21 :45 and so on). Most of the sky shots are solid white. I have the much more expensive 4k camera on order but after seeing this I'm going to cancel and wait until they work out any possible bugs.

I know the ord issue is just that, an issue. But part of me thinks since the issue has been pointed out, everyone who knows is looking for it. I hope they fix it, but also feel content is king, and with moving pictures, if you're filming something worth wild, a lot of the issue would go unnoticed to the untrained eye. I for one have no intention of canceling my pocket preorder.

Also, with regards to the gh3 having a sharper picture. I believe I've read the pocket camera doesn't add any in camera sharpening to the footage, like other camera do. So adding a touch in post, will make these images,as sharp as any other camera, I suspect.

He mentions in the comments on that video that nearly every shot has been stabilized, with most blown up in the 102 -104% range and some as high as 108% - so that's going to add a little softening to the footage as well.

I'm curious about the glow that shows up in a few shots - in the comments he mentions it only happens at f/0.95 and in daylight. I'm assuming he's using ND to shoot wide open like that, is that IR bleeding through? I wonder if this camera is going to require an additional IR filter in those kinds of situations, or if it will benefit from one under other conditions as well.

Yes, he mentions he used a Lightcraft fader ND MKII filter.

Some night footage I just discovered.

Blackmagic pocket cinema camera - 1600 ASA night test on Vimeo

Seen a lot of footage lately, and have to say I'm as excited as ever to get my hands on this camera. The orb issue doesn't make me hesitate on bit.

Looking forward to seeing what raw can do.

Looking for orbs in night shots is pointless because most cameras will do that. It is more of an issue when it does it broad daylight though.