DEAL ALERT - FREE Atomos Shinobi with purchase of a BMC 6K

traviswears said:
Hey friends, wanted to share this deal I helped put together for Adorama on the new Blackmagic 6K. Use this link plus the code FILMMAKERS and instantly save $305 which gets you the Shinobi for FREE. We included some other badass accessories and stuff in the kit. Take a look if you're interested in picking one of these up.

https://www.adorama.com/bmccp6keff.html?kbid=913830

TW
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I just sent the review BMD PCC 6K I shot with for a few weeks back to BMD. It's an impressive little camera and this is a screaming deal, I used it with my Shinobi, it worked great.
 
It's a very capable little camera. I liked it a lot more than I expected to and I liked it better than the UMP G2 actually.
 
Looks like the 4k and 6k pockets are now generally in stock, so the downward price pressure is just beginning.

I would not be surprised the 6k will soon retail around $2000. :)
 
boo said:
Would you still choose the X-T3 over the BMPCC6K?
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For me, yes. The XT-3 is a lot smaller, lighter and the weird, offset mounting and balance of the PCC 6K makes mounting it on a single hand gimbal a PITA.
The AF on the XT-3, while a bit broken now (I'm confident Fuji can tune it to be better than it is and will), is leagues better than the sort of one touch, sort of AF the PCC 6K has. I mainly bought the XT-3 as a gimbal
camera and it's been really great other then the FW 3.0 focus hunting. Plus the XT-3 is a hybrid stills camera. I have not shot stills with it yet, I have an 80D that I use for
stills as the XT-3 is usually rigged for video on the gimbal but if I travel or need it, the XT-3 is a killer still camera. The BMD is not.

But if I was an indie filmmaker or someone who wanted to rig up a cool cage, handheld rig for situations where manual focus could fly, I would get the BMD PCC 6K, it's a lot
of bang for the buck and the images looked great. I was surprised at how big and heavy it was though with a monitor, my EF 24-105mm f/4.0 IS II, etc. It needs either the battery
grip or a V-Mount which makes it even bigger and heavier. Fully rigged how most users would need it to be to be useful on pro shoots, it's going to be much bigger and heavier than the
XT-3.

In the end, the two are completely different cameras for completely different uses in my mind. I was surprised at how much I liked the PCC 6K though, best menus of any camera on the market.
Good image quality, very gradeable RAW and Prores, the single XLR is super cool. I think the BMD with the new Tilta screen swivel option with an internal tiny drive tucked behind the screen is
a pretty neat solution. The swivel screen means you could mount a hood on the monitor that makes it actually usable outside.

If you need to shoot stills, get the Fuji
If size and weight matters to you, get the Fuji
If AF matters to you, get the Fuji
If you want to use a one handed gimbal, get the Fuji

If you already have a pile of good EF lenses, get the BMD
If you want to shoot commercials, music videos, narrative, get the BMD
If you want to build a digital cinema rig with rods, matte box, FF, and have ACs to pull focus, get the BMD
 
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I'd be strongly thinking of a Z Cam e2-s6 instead of the BM6kpcc, price is similar even though you really need a Portkeys monitor with the E2 cameras (another $500).
 
If i was a hobby shooter, the bm is simpler and nicer to just go shoot something. BM is a more inuitive and fun experience.

For pro work, i’d almost certainly go with a zcam, for configurability.

From online comparisons, and my personal, yet limited experience, the m43 zcam seems to have an image on par with bm, if not slightly better.

But learning curve and usability out of box with bm is better. It is familiar and simple.
 
Greg_E said:
I'd be strongly thinking of a Z Cam e2-s6 instead of the BM6kpcc, price is similar even though you really need a Portkeys monitor with the E2 cameras (another $500).
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I'm not sold on the Zcams yet, at all. I am in two FB user groups for them and I am seeing a lot of initial manufacturing defects, weird features missing that you would think they would have, software issues that they are fixing, day by day,
week by week. They get points that Kinson is on the boards, talking to users and that they seem responsive. The RAW implementation at this point is a convoluted, hot mess. I think Zcam holds a lot of potential, eventually they may become
a major player as they are a price disruptor but I don't like paying to be a Guinea Pig as new manufacturers figure it all out, I leave that to the hobbyists. Same underlying issue as the BMD too with reliability.

I just spent a month with two BMD cameras, one on a paying client shoot, the other on my own and while both performed perfectly reliably close to home, in situations where I had a backup strategy,
I would hesitate to COUNT on either a BMD or ZCam camera in a travel, couldn't bring a back up camera package because of flying limitations, high stress, clients breathing down your neck shoots as I sometimes find myself in.
I would hesitate to shoot in Antarctica, the Sahara, the Rain Forest, hanging off of a boat, bouncing around on a high speed sand rail, etc. The reliability of both brands, personally, I wouldn't put my trust in as much as I would a
Sony, Canon or Panasonic product, but maybe that's just me? My C100 and 300 were 100% bulletproof, never had even a bobble. My C200 had some issues, but to be fair, I did several shoots in situations where
we were actually planning that we might lose a camera or two and it was my own fault that the C200 went down, not Canons fault.

I've been eyeing the ZCams, they are a lot of bang for the buck, but for pro use, I don't think they are quite there yet. Give them a couple of years to establish reputation, we can check to see if initial defect rates subside, and most
importantly, not saying that they aren't capable, but I am having a hard time finding ZCam footage that seems to be amazing. I've found stuff from the BMDs that I would consider amazing, but the ZCams, not so much. Yet. Have any of you found
Zcam footage that gets you excited for what the cameras can do? Maybe its out there and I just can't find it? It's a big world. I've seen respectable with it but have yet to see a few Zcam pieces like I saw with the C200 came out that looked amazingly
good or when the XT-3 came out that looked amazingly nice.
 
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IMO, if you like that "big brand" reliability, you'd want S1 or S1H.

Z6 is an option for some with a lot of Nikon glass, especially if they get the external Raw upgrade.
 
DLD said:
IMO, if you like that "big brand" reliability, you'd want S1 or S1H.

Z6 is an option for some with a lot of Nikon glass, especially if they get the external Raw upgrade.
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S1H looks like it has amazing features but I wouldn't consider it because then I would need to buy a big, expensive pile of L Mount glass to work with it.
I already have 12 EF lenses, 3 XF lenses and 4 Nikon F mount lenses. I've learned with the XT-3 and the Fringer Pro adapter, no matter how tempting it
is to adapt lenses, the adapted lenses never perform nearly as well as the native mount lenses.

External RAW recording, to me, is a non-starter. I spent three years shooting a ton of stuff with my C100 and the Ninja Blade (not RAW obviously, but the same footprint and hassle with an external recorder) and while it worked and
worked well, once you go to internal RAW like with the C200, external RAW is a big step backwards.

Same issue that would probably keep me from going Sony too. Of course, I could get a Metabones adapter to use my EF glass on a Sony
but I would also want at least one or two of those Sony Servo zooms, which also adds a lot to the overall bill to change platforms.

If anything was to tempt me, it would be a C500 MKII with an S35 sensor (C300 MKIII?) at about $10-$12k, but even that, I doubt it would look noticeably better than
our C200. I'm so interested to get a hold of the C500 MKII and shoot some side by side tests shooting 4K CRL against the C200, I genuinely curious if it will look better
and if so, how much better. Only perceptible to a DP better or better to clients?
 
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New ecosystems are very hard to launch. Samsung tried it with NX1, which was several years ahead of its time in performance but, ultimately, decided that it wasn't worth the trouble. Panasonic might be a bit different because they're likely to expand their body lineup both below S1 and above S1H. Still, it's a hard sell because they're going to be competing against two 900 pound gorillas in Sony and Canon. Which is why BMD wisely chose the "if you can't beat'em, join'em" strategy.

As to ZCam, they'll have to go through their own growing pains a la BMD with the Cinema Camera and so on.

PS. I am not sure if one can regard the APS-C Sony cameras as being ignored by the pros but, if one can get by with a baked-in or only slightly graded footage, A6600 has many redeeming qualities, including the top notch auto focus and an improved color science. It's a Sony ecosystem, obviously. Maybe someone will have a series of the multi-mount AF adapters somewhere down the road, so any lens could be used with almost any camera. The currently available units from FotoDiox and alike seem to have mixed reviews.
 
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