Micro-Four Thirds Blackmagic Cinema Camera - Shipping December

[mcbob]

A killer design would be to have a BM MFT-EOS adapter that gets it electronic connectivity via something like a small wire-to-plug near the lens mount... same body, one optional schmegeggidy to use whatever.

Between old S16, current m43 manuals from Voigtlander and SLR magic, and the forthcoming Rokinon wide cinema glass, this was a smart move.

 

[Barry_Green]

This. Why would I cripple all of the amazing m4/3 lenses I have and not be able to control the aperture or have autofocus? Or focus at all, since a lot of them are focus by wire.

This is a concern, yes. The brilliant Lumix 7-14, a fully rectilinear lens, would be so ideal on the BMC, but I guess it remains to be seen whether it can be used at all.

Regardless, this is such a better choice than the Canon version, for those who don't have or don't want to use Canon lenses! You can now adapt pretty much anything, including the full range of PL lenses. The Canon EF mount is very restrictive in what can be adapted to it. Passive m43 is not the ideal choice, powered m43 would be ideal, but passive m43 is still a darn sight more flexible than Canon EF...

The Voigtlander 17.5, 25, and the SLR Magic 12mm are going to be incredibly useful additions to the BMC shooter's arsenal. And the m43 BMC will still be able to use all Canon EF lenses if you get the Redrock LiveLens adapter. We may not be able to use the Lumix lenses, but -- we certainly couldn't use them on the EF version, so we're no worse off in that regard, and much better off because of the option of using the Voigtlanders!

So, it's good news, not ideal news (powered m43 mount would be ideal!) but good news nonetheless. The best news, to me, however, was this snippet:

HyperDeck ExFAT Update
We have a new software update that should ship in the next week or so that includes ExFAT support for all HyperDeck disk recorders. It’s exciting as ExFAT is the disk format used on Windows, but Mac OS X also supports and formats ExFAT disks as well. So this means HyperDeck recorders are better able to handle disks from both computer platforms.
Using ExFAT is easy as HyperDeck will recognize both formants and just record and play from them. There are no settings to adjust and nothing to do but upgrade the software and get ExFAT compatibility.
This update will be free of charge to all HyperDeck customers

Granted that's only talking about the HyperDeck, but it certainly portends well! ExFAT is such a better choice than HFS, so perhaps this means the BMC will be updated to support ExFAT as well.

I must admit my optimism about the BMC has been waning significantly, but these announcements give me a lot more confidence in it.

 

[Barry_Green]

A killer design would be to have a BM MFT-EOS adapter that gets it electronic connectivity via something like a small wire-to-plug near the lens mount... same body, one optional schmegeggidy to use whatever.

The Redrock LiveLens mount adapter basically gives you that capability already.

 

[KINOKS]

I must admit my optimism about the BMC has been waning significantly, but these announcements give me a lot more confidence in it.

Mine to. Upon watching mr. Blooms review even more so. I mean the camera doesn't even show how much space or time there is left on the HDD when your shooting.
I mean, seriously??

Anyway, the M4/3 is a step in the wright direction. I got all excited when I saw the name of the thread but then I read that it's a dumb mount, doh!:=)
I realize that this is a first camera from BMD, so I wish them all the best. They'll need to listen to the community a lot in order to bring this or the next camera
to the standards that we are used to.

 

[Barry_Green]

They'll need to listen to the community a lot in order to bring this or the next camerato the standards that we are used to.

Agreed, but -- the quick response on the lens mount bodes well, it shows that they are listening. I guess we need to be more clear on what we're asking for!

To be so tantalizingly close to being able to use the Lumix 7-14 and 20mm and 12-35, and yet not able to... well, I'll still use them on my AF100 and GH2/GH3, so it's not like we've actually lost anything, but how magnificent would it have been if they'd gone the full distance?

But it's enough of a step, now I can use all my PL lenses and my Voigtlander and other manual lenses, so it's still a big step. Only real heartburn for me left at this point is the egregious lack of an OLPF. I'm hoping that they'll have a solution for that by the time the m43 version ships!

 

[Kholi]

Barry,

Can you check to see if you set aperture on the GH2, remove the 7-14mm, does the aperture remain at the same place or opens again like EF glass?

 

[Kholi]

Nevermind, Peter answered. Tsk. I don't own any Panasonic glass so I didn't know.

 

[mcbob]

The Redrock LiveLens mount adapter basically gives you that capability already.

It does, but I'm thinking more in terms of simplicity of design... still using the same in-camera controls for the lens, et al.

On watching through some of the reviews, though, it sounds like you'd be better off just going the Redrock route... at least then you could know your stop.

 

[Barry_Green]

Barry,

Can you check to see if you set aperture on the GH2, remove the 7-14mm, does the aperture remain at the same place or opens again like EF glass?

Interesting. Researching now.

If you set the GH2 to, say, f9... and then remove the lens... and then put the lens back on, the GH2 reports that it is at f9.

If you set the GH2 to f9, and then remove the lens, and put the lens on the AF100, the AF100 reports that it's at f4.

I'm not sure what's happening here -- my guess is that the GH2 is just remembering the last position the lens was at. I don't know if the iris is staying shut or not. Will investigate with a flashlight.

 

[Barry_Green]

Okay, part II of the weirdness... set the AF100 to f/7.6. Pull the lens off, put it on the GH2, it says f/9.0. Pull it back off the GH2 and put it back on the AF100, it says f/7.6.

So it seems like the body is definitely remembering what position the lens was in, and setting the lens to that position.

 

[Barry_Green]

More fun... it remembers even when the power is off. I.e., set the GH2 to f9, turn the power off. Put the lens on the AF100, it still remembers it as f/7.6. Pull the lens back off, put it on the GH2, and power the GH2 up -- it says F9.

 

[Barry_Green]

All right, one mystery solved, it's definitely the body remembering. Set the 7-14 to f/5.6, pulled it off, and put on the 14-140. Set the 14-140 to f/10, pulled it off, and put on the 7-14 -- it reads f/10.

So, what we have learned is -- nothing, really. Off to investigate the actual iris with a flashlight...

 

[Geoff Gilson]

I fully expected the m4/3 mount version of the BMCC to come along, but not this soon. Kudos to them.
A dumb mount is fine for the sake of simplicity, but I can't help thinking that the omission of any electronic control will make a lot of folks feel let down.

It's all fine and good choosing to use a Redrock LiveLens EF adapter, but that's just putting extra expense and bulk into the formula. (There goes the simplicity of the original package.)
If there's no provision for Canon EF pass-through contacts in the m4/3 mount, it would seem wrong for this "dumb" version not to be cheaper, IMO.

 

[Barry_Green]

Okay, final ruling -- the lens DOES remember what f-stop you set it to. And so does the body.

Set it to f/22, pull the lens off, it stays at f/22. Put the lens back on, and the first thing the camera does is open the iris all the way open, and then stops it back down to where you had last set it.

So could you use an m43 body to set the iris and then pull the lens off and put it on a BMC, and have it retain the aperture? Apparently yes.

 

[Barry_Green]

Verified with the 14-140, it also remember the aperture you had set.

 

[ErikTande]

Good info Barry, thanks.

You still wouldn't be able to focus though, right? If I understand correctly the focus ring is electronic or focus by wire, so it wouldn't work on a passive mount. (although at f9 you would hardly need to)

 

[Gary Huff]

Am I correct in assuming the only real benefit to the m4/3 BMC is Voigtländer/Canon FD/PL adapter support? Being a dumb adapter, it really doesn't seem ideal for working with native m4/3 lenses, even if the aperture does stay set when unmounted.

I have EOS and Nikon F glass at the moment, so a m4/3 mount doesn't seem to offer much benefit to me.

 

[Barry_Green]

Testing focus is not so easy. The camera appears to remember the focus position of the lens, but I don't know if the lens remembers the focus position of the lens.

Next up, I'll try paper-covering the contacts to turn it into a fully manual lens, and see if the focus ring works at all.

 

[Barry_Green]

Am I correct in assuming the only real benefit to the m4/3 BMC is Voigtländer/Canon FD/PL adapter support? Being a dumb adapter, it really doesn't seem ideal for working with native m4/3 lenses, even if the aperture does stay set when unmounted.

Correct. Voigtlanders, Canon FD's, c-mount lenses, PL mount lenses, all those become an option. Lumix or Olympus lenses, not so much. Even if they powered the focus, there would still be the question of the automatic chromatic aberration and distortion correction that m43 bodies do, that the BMC wouldn't be doing, so I don't know that the Lumix or Olympus lenses would ever be as useful on the BMC as they would on a true 4/3 body.

I have EOS and Nikon F glass at the moment, so a m4/3 mount doesn't seem to offer much benefit to me.

If that's what you mainly shoot with, then no, this new version doesn't open up much to you. But, with the new one, you could always get EF or Nikon adapters and use them anyway, and it opens up the possibility that you could use the 17.5/f0.95 Voigtlander, which is nearly four stops faster than the ZF 18/3.5 lens, so -- when you want fast & wide, the m43 version provides a path to get it, that the EF version will likely never offer.

 

[Barry_Green]

Yep, focus is a big no-go. On a dumb mount, you will not be able to focus a Lumix or Olympus lens. You can zoom, and you can carry the iris over from another body, but you can't focus or change iris when the lens is mounted on a dumb mount.