Third John Brawley BMPCC test

If you read John's comment he indicates that it's the Vimeo video encoding that's killing the resolution. I've seen plenty of 5Dlll footage that looks ...well mushy....until you download it. Then it's a whole new ballgame. The resolution is definitely there but we just can not fully judge it as yet.
 
Ian, what about all the footage which isn't mushed by Vimeo? The "Meet Me in Big Sur" clip from the original BMCC, for example, looks tack sharp when viewed on the site.
 
Ian, what about all the footage which isn't mushed by Vimeo? The "Meet Me in Big Sur" clip from the original BMCC, for example, looks tack sharp when viewed on the site.

I think that the comparison between those two films, shot with different cameras and different lenses, under very different lighting and environmental conditions, is not valid. We really do not know what the effect that Vimeo compression had on the "Meet Me in Big Sur" clip. The BMCC is a higher resolution camera and that clip was shot, mostly, in daylight on clear days with different lenses. The BMCCP is a lower resolution camera, shot at night, under very difficult environmental conditions with different lenses. Let's hold off pixel peeping about the resolution of the new camera until the test charts shots are available for Pete's sake. I think the footage looks good, for what it is. Is it tack sharp, no, but it not unpleasantly soft either, IMHO. I think this is an exciting camera. I am not going to rush right out and buy one as I am doing what I am doing with the camera that I have and kitting out a new camera right now would be a distraction for me. I am still excited about it.
 
Ian, what about all the footage which isn't mushed by Vimeo? The "Meet Me in Big Sur" clip from the original BMCC, for example, looks tack sharp when viewed on the site.

Some people use Plus-accounts which enable 1080p uploads. You have to manually activate those though so a lot of stuff in Vimeo is actually 720p. That's why comparisons are impossible as someguys video can be 720p and some others 1080p.
 
Ian, what about all the footage which isn't mushed by Vimeo? The "Meet Me in Big Sur" clip from the original BMCC, for example, looks tack sharp when viewed on the site.

My humble observation is that this seems to be quite unique to the 5D MK 3 hack - call me crazy but it seems to be like looking through a window more than anything else I have seen watching on Vimeo. ( Actually Alexa and Sony F55 and F3 can be similiar if recorded to super high res capture devices ) Not perfect in some areas but boy is it sharp. You just can't beat uncompressed RAW aquisition. Not even RED jumps out like that IMHO. 5D is a quarter of the res at double the data rate. It's gonna be real sharp. Hope to test the BMPCC with a Bolex anamorphot - 1.5X that can look crazy sharp. Sort of negates the res loss from the debayer and hopefully we will be able to really judge then how much it jumps out as well. RAW is where its at....you know - RED could have stuck with the 3k for 3k scarlet interchangeable and made a kind of mini Alexa. They are more business savvy than I am so cannot criticise but man that would have been my dream cam. It was compact and powerful. Happy that the pocket ticks all the boxes for me except resolution and higher frame rates. Perhaps the next model ay????
 
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And at $1k, who can complain? :)

Me using the Big Sur (raw) footage probably wasn't the best example, and of course this is all personal taste, but the GH2 is currently my minimum res limit for a new purchase. Time and more tests will tell the true tale of course.
 
And at $1k, who can complain? :)

Me using the Big Sur (raw) footage probably wasn't the best example, and of course this is all personal taste, but the GH2 is currently my minimum res limit for a new purchase. Time and more tests will tell the true tale of course.

My experience is that perceived "sharpness" is only partially related to resolution, and also depends on color dynamics such as DR and depth. The pocket camera may surprise us. It will not match the BMCC but it may fall within acceptable standards for films that do not rely on heavy CGI. My guess, and hope.

The question is not test charts but subjective quality. Subjective. Our team shoots frequently with Canon C100s because we need its extreme low light. It has very good measured resolution. Not sure I would use it for a narrative feature, even with an external recorder. So, there is more to "sharpness" than we have been including in our discussions.

The BMPCC may have it, or not. But nothng seen so far removes it from consideration. at the same time, we have not seen anything that proves it will work. Blackmagic's secret sauce is as much to do with color science as sensor resolution. I suspect they can do wonders.
 
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Ian, what about all the footage which isn't mushed by Vimeo? The "Meet Me in Big Sur" clip from the original BMCC, for example, looks tack sharp when viewed on the site.

I’ll just ditto what everyone else has said so far especially what maarek stated. For example, I’ve seen that issue on a number of videos that I was going to ignore watching because it didn’t strike me as “detailed” enough or worth my time (re)viewing. That is until I downloaded it and at that point my opinion of what I saw changed. So really “how” they uploaded to Vimeo matters especially when one don’t have the option to download.

Also, as someone already, mentioned, “Meet Me in Bug Sur”was shot entirely wide open during the day. That’s going to look spectacular every time…if you’re careful that is. I love that video. The download looks exactly like what we see onVimeo…just about. Then there are the plethoraof 5Dlll videos out there. I have notbeen giving the 5Dlll RAW hack a fair shake lately but I realize it’s the mix-up of good and badly encoded videos that I’ve been seeing. For the most part, as henryolanga suggested it is sharp but then there are others where you can’t tell all because of how it was uploaded or encoded.

Just wait until it’s released which will give more people the opportunity to shoot with it and we’ll see how good it does. Heck…I used to think the BMCC was not anymore detailed than the GH-2 that I own. But as time went by and I seen more videos and tests etc. I knew I was way off.
 
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I find the dynamic range impressive. Another attractive quality for me is that we can get this kind of quality from a camera that will not attract attention. Pulling out this camera out of my pocket I'll just look like an average Joe taking pictures. And in some situations it's an advantage. At least for me...

L.
 
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