blackmagic shooters in nyc?

[Rob Katz]

i have become throughly enamored by the many clips i have seen produced by blackmagic cameras.

i know the ergos are questionable (to say the least!).

i know that blackmagic often promises more than they initially deliver.

i know many feature found in a "proper" camera (such as my trusty sony fs100) are lacking on the blackmagic cameras.

...but i REALLY dig the footage i'm seeing.

i'm based in nyc.

i am looking for anyone on the dvinfo.net board who shoots blackmagic and is also based in the nyc metro area.

if you shoot blackmagic, step right up and tell me about your camera, how you shoot, how you rig your camera, which mount, low light issues, etc.

thanks in advance to those who care to share.

ymmv

be well.

rob
smalltalk productions/nyc

[Craig Seeman]

BMPCC user in NYC.
Periodically it's crossed my mind to start a user group thinking that meeting at AbelCine might be viable.

One of the bigger draws for me is a small camera able to shoot discretely.

As a bit of a compression geek, I've always disliked shooting with heavily compressed codecs. Never had HDV (went to XDCAM EX instead). Don't want to deal AVC/H.264 8 bit 4:2:0 GOP either.

I like the flexible of shooting with ProRes (or cDNG if needed). I find even ProResLT gives me very good grading flexibility without breaking the codec and still fairly long record times (close to 90 minutes on 64GB card).

Very happy with the camera especially with most recent firmware updates with histogram and audio meters.

[Craig Seeman]

BTW you'll see me posting in the SPC (Single Person Crew) forum. As a NYC shooter I want to be able to carry my gear on the Subway and avoid car, traffic, parking when going to shoots.

Typical kit is BMPCC and lenses in a Lowpro backpack.
Sennheiser G3 wireless mic kit.
Tripod (looking to get new lighter one than my heavy Sachtler FSB6 with CF legs).
Two DigtitalJuice Miniburst 128s and one Sola ENG and light stands. Airbox inflatable softbox.
I often have to shoot in very small offices.
Have both Nikon and Canon Metabones SpeedBooster. Various lenses. Lumix f2.8 12-35 OIS for hand held work.

[Rob Katz]

Originally Posted by Craig Seeman

BMPCC user in NYC.
Periodically it's crossed my mind to start a user group thinking that meeting at AbelCine might be viable.

One of the bigger draws for me is a small camera able to shoot discretely.

As a bit of a compression geek, I've always disliked shooting with heavily compressed codecs. Never had HDV (went to XDCAM EX instead). Don't want to deal AVC/H.264 8 bit 4:2:0 GOP either.

I like the flexible of shooting with ProRes (or cDNG if needed). I find even ProResLT gives me very good grading flexibility without breaking the codec and still fairly long record times (close to 90 minutes on 64GB card).

Very happy with the camera especially with most recent firmware updates with histogram and audio meters.

craig-

thanks for the reply.

in the coming weeks, i'm going to have some time.

perhaps we can find a moment and i'll head to brooklyn and we can have lunch and chat blackmagic!

email if interested.

be well.

rob
smalltalk productions/nyc

[Rob Katz]

and a blackmagic user group gathering at abel would be great!

be well.

rob
smalltalk productions/nyc

[Loch Phillipps]

I have a BMCC and have it rigged for run and gun. I do like the picture quality and with all the firmware upgrades, the audio quality is now better than on Canon 5D or similar DSLRs. But, ergonomically it is killing me and I am in the market for a new camera.

With that, I should say that the big drawback with the Sony FS7 and the AJA Cion are the lens mounts. Sony lens options aren't great and why would AJA use a PL mount when they would seem to be appealing to the lower budget doc crowd?

My big hope had been that BlackMagic would come out with one of their cameras designed for run and gun. They'd be the perfect company to do it and still can. The questions are will they, and how soon? I can't shoot another year with my BMCC. I need what the URSA has in a smaller form factor and soon.

[Craig Seeman]

loch, just a wild guess on my part but I can't help but think BMD is going to do exactly that. With a camera like Ursa, I think they'll be a small version called Ursa Minor. Given that JVC just came out with a small handycam style interchangeable lens camera, I suspect BMD will have their variant recording to cDNG and ProRes of course.

I will say I'm pretty happy with the ergonomics of the BMPCC. It can work very well as pseudo point and shoot with a Lumix zoom with IS. Replaceable batteries help as well.

Rob, I do think meeting in the city is a good idea. perhaps after the new year. BTW BMD already "sponsors" the Mopictiv group meeting at AbelCine so I think there might even be interest on BMD,s part on sponsoring a group specific to the cameras

[Loch Phillipps]

I'm curious about the BMPCC but I do a lot of sports work. My production company is looking to shoot fairly often in 60fps and is also tired of all the post syncing a lot of these cameras require. The great things about BlackMagic are being able to shoot in ProRes and DNxHD natively, vastly or completely reducing ingest times, and the EF mount. I hope they will carry this into delivering a legit and balanced run and gun version of the URSA. Love the name URSA Minor BTW.

I'm not confident that there is anything near enough on the horizon to be worth waiting for. I want to be reasonably up to speed on a new camera by March or so. I'm more of a director/field producer, so that has to be taken into account. I think it's fair to say that the camera you use matters a lot but it's at least equally important to be familiar enough with it to get the best out of it. I've seen good shooters deliver better footage than I ever could on some pretty crappy cameras.

[Erick Munari]

Hello guys, I'm in NYC as well, I shoot regularly on C100 but I just purchased the BMPCC, along with the SpeedBooster recently but have not yet had the chance to use it, however, I'd be interested in having a coffee with you guys and talk shop.

Erick

[Craig Seeman]

I'm not sure I'd use BMPCC for fast action sports given it doesn't have 60p, slow push focus when lenses support it and no zoom beyond manual on the lens. You may need a long zoom as well such as Tamron 16-300 or Sigma 18-300 both of which "might" support OIS on EF mount.

Of course these are things that might be addressed if there's an Ursa Minor in the works.

For me the codec (cDNG and ProRes variants only in the BMPCC, no DNxHD) allows for fixing color/light in post without it falling apart. Keep in many many codecs work natively in a lot of NLEs so fast ingest is common.