Opinions on the BMD 4.6 camera footage?

Wow do you have some kind of search-word warning system activated to find posts like this? ;)

Oh hey, pass this down to the product developement guys... ADD ND'S TO YOUR CAMERAS.

I wrote off the mini because of that as it makes no sense whatsoever to make a smaller, doc. style camera without them. The guy at NAB said to me "I dont know how you'd do that.. it would have to be some huge wheel on the front taking up lots of room.". LOL... I just shook my head and stopped from mentioning stuff like... oh, the AF100, The F3, F5, F55, FS7, Amira and so on.

I know BMD doesnt have the experience in building professional style cameras and functional bodies are a new thing for them but, seriously, that is well beyond excusable.
 
I'm actually waiting for more ursa mini 4.6k footage as i'm on the fence between that and the f35 at the moment :(
 
I think it was mentioned eventually that BMD doesn't have any experience with optics. Finally they admitted. Or my guess is that they did not want to kill the URSA with the Mini w/NDs. I have a feeling in three years they will add NDs into their new cameras when they have to upgrade all the hardware in the URSA. Though there is the debate whether NDs are necessary or not, because people are being so adamant about it, BMD will listen.
 
The footage looks very nice, but it should do as it is a promotional video. Also - are those helicopter shots to begin with? If so, I would love to see more of your "home movies" :)

It certainly looks like an improvement over the previous 4K camera anyway.
 
strancali said:
I'm actually waiting for more ursa mini 4.6k footage as i'm on the fence between that and the f35 at the moment :(
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My problem is, and no offense to present company, but BMD has several years of proving to do before you can compare their cameras to Sony, Arri, etc.

It's one thing to build a camera with a nice picture but another huge step to make one professional in function and reliability. I seriously doubt that Mini would hold up in the same way an F55 would, much less an Amira or Varicam. I'd still pay $10K for it if its fully what it appears to be on paper, but only after they add ND's, the audio quality is tested and it's shown that dust and water don't easily affect it over time.
 
The picture of the Mini and the larger URSA should be identical, but engineering and QC have up until this point not been BMD strong points. For the price they are building them, we can't expect miracles though.
 
JMtheDP said:
The footage looks very nice, but it should do as it is a promotional video. Also - are those helicopter shots to begin with?
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No, a friend is training as a pilot so we went up in a 4 seater airplane. I shot by holding the URSA in front of me, leaning the back of the camera on the pilots seat and shooting out the window. Because the pilot was to my left and i had to shoot out the right of the plane, i could only use just the 5" monitor on the dumb side but it was hard to see and my face was right up against the camera as i had no room to move. Luckily there wasn't much wind that morning, and 60fps helped.

Although the footage i shot was used as an early preview and could be seen as "promotional", i actually ended up spending my own money while shooting to buy some friends lunch/dinner in return for letting me film them. So not your typical "promotional video" by a company making cameras in that sense. Some of it really is just shooting friends while hanging out having lunch, or walking around the city and grabbing clips to get a feel for the camera/sensor. And it was just me and the camera which is why so much of it is shot on my shoulder so that i wasn't carrying a tripod and bunch of gear at the same time.

All the pre-release videos i've done on Blackmagic cameras have been done like this, but some have had some footage from music videos etc thrown in because the week i would collect footage happened to coincide with a job i could use the camera on:

https://vimeo.com/104918710

https://vimeo.com/82269515

https://vimeo.com/70676876
 
If I was you and a major company like Blackmagic were using my footage on their front page, I think I would have at least got them to pay for lunch!

Nice work though.

Question for you - do you feel on the BM4K there is a tangible benefit to shooting raw, especially in the DR stakes?
 
Generally you can at least get a little more from RAW by using highlight recovery as it uses non-clipped channels to generate/recover detail (most RAW apps have some kind of option to do something similar).But really it's personal preference and what you're shooting and how you're exposing etc, but working for BMD now it's not really appropriate for me to give opinions or recommend a certain way to work - we leave that to the user/customer to decide as much as possible. I would always suggest doing your own tests when possible to see what works for you.
 
CaptainHook said:
Generally you can at least get a little more from RAW by using highlight recovery as it uses non-clipped channels to generate/recover detail (most RAW apps have some kind of option to do something similar).But really it's personal preference and what you're shooting and how you're exposing etc, but working for BMD now it's not really appropriate for me to give opinions or recommend a certain way to work - we leave that to the user/customer to decide as much as possible. I would always suggest doing your own tests when possible to see what works for you.
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I understand what you're trying to say here, but I don't really agree. Certainly, since you represent a company, I don't expect that I can have a thorough conversation about a competitor's product, but in regards to your own company's product, I would much rather that you did suggest workflows that produce superior results, because it would give me more confidence in the product. Having to do my own tests is part of the process, but having a manufacturer advised baseline is very useful in pointing operators and colorists in the right direction.
 
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The first footsge looked great so far, even with your grade I have a sense what the imgae looks like. Hell, if it's just an improvemt over the current bmcc than that's fantastic. It's not an ENG camera so do I don't expect NDs and from what I've noticed the ones who complain about no ND or expensive media must not shoot professionally or is a complete newbie. Or you just could be completely spoiled and this isn't the camera for you anyway.
 
CaptainHook said:
Generally you can at least get a little more from RAW by using highlight recovery as it uses non-clipped channels to generate/recover detail (most RAW apps have some kind of option to do something similar).But really it's personal preference and what you're shooting and how you're exposing etc, but working for BMD now it's not really appropriate for me to give opinions or recommend a certain way to work - we leave that to the user/customer to decide as much as possible. I would always suggest doing your own tests when possible to see what works for you.
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Hi, is there any footage we can download yet? And why not at least plug resolve?didn't quite understand the post. Thanks
 
Marino215 said:
The first footsge looked great so far, even with your grade I have a sense what the imgae looks like. Hell, if it's just an improvemt over the current bmcc than that's fantastic. It's not an ENG camera so do I don't expect NDs and from what I've noticed the ones who complain about no ND or expensive media must not shoot professionally or is a complete newbie. Or you just could be completely spoiled and this isn't the camera for you anyway.
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Having shot for years with an F900, having no NDs in the F35 was a pain. I shoot professionally but not with a large crew - the time it takes to keep changing NDs adds up. It is particularly annoying in England because our weather is extremely changeable. Having them in the F65 is very nice, but it comes at a price (size)
 
JMtheDP said:
Having shot for years with an F900, having no NDs in the F35 was a pain. I shoot professionally but not with a large crew - the time it takes to keep changing NDs adds up. It is particularly annoying in England because our weather is extremely changeable. Having them in the F65 is very nice, but it comes at a price (size)
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Of course James I do agree 100% having shot with the F3 and fs700 last 3 years, built in NDs are a necessity. I'm strictly talking image, price point, as you mentioned. 12 bit, internal raw no recorder, decent form factor, excellent 4:3 mode, ok frame rates and I'm sure they'll be a few firmware upgrades over time. Still even in this day in age for a lower price point the compromise seems to be ND for internal recordings. I figure if I get the FS7 it's an add on plus recorder, ursa mini its just NDs. If I need super frame rates there's always the phantom or epic. Though I'd love an opportunity to shot on the F65. M Night Shyamalan lives about 20 miles from me maybe I'll go ask if I can borrow his. Lol. Stay well James
 
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