Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

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bradStyle

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Tell me why I'm crazy, but I'm pretty excited about this...
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K | Blackmagic Design

It costs $1,300. It shoots 2160p@60fps. It's got 13 stops of dynamic range. It shoots a variety of excellent existing lenses. And there are companies building underwater housings for it, like this...

NA-BMPCCII Housing for Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

Yes, I know this is a very expensive system once you've housed, lensed, and accessorized it, but so far I've seen very little between a GoPro setup and this that hits the price/quality value metric I've been waiting for. I'm not saying that this is necessarily it, but if it's not, maybe that day is quite a bit closer than I thought.

Frankly I'm surprised to not find anyone else on ScubaBoard talking about it. Any thoughts anyone? If not, at least click the top link and check out some A-grade camera porn.
 
There is a lengthy thread on this subject at wetpixel where one user has recently acquired both the camera and housing. While he has yet to get it wet, his initial impressions are that it trades off much of the functionality of the GH5 for the ability to deliver 12bit 4:4:4 RAW. The jury is still out but first impressions suggest that it may not be ideally suited to underwater videography. The thread is here: Nauticam - BMPCC 4K - Video Gear and Technique
 
There is a significant technical skill gap from GoPro to shooting the BMPCC 4K. The cinema cameras are mostly orientated to shoot in full manual which is diametrically opposite to a gopro
GoPro plus housing is less than $500 the BMPCC 4K is over $6,000 once you factor in lenses hard drives etc
This without including lights and other supporting tools.
Clearly it will produce footage much better than the GoPro but so does the Panasonic GH5
I think it only makes sense to move from gopro once you have realised you need to spend over $2K in lights to get proper footage at depth. If you are happy with purple looking low quality and low CRI chinese lights you may never make the transition to anything and most users here fall in the I am happy category
 
it is too cheap and simple camera....
use this PRO EXPLORE - Gates Underwater Products
plus this DSMC2 BRAIN

:)

Small offtopic from our history...
Two ours magnates meets somewhere on the holiday resort ...
- Hey! Look at this golden chain! I bought it right here for 5k$!
- Phhhh... stupid! On the another street side you can by the same for 10k$!
 
@EvilOtter Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, this is the conversation I was looking for.

@Interceptor121 I hadn't realized that there was another viable 4K/60 option out there. Sounds like I need to read up more on GH5 shooting, as well as suitable lighting options, though I have no idea how you light an ultra wide angle scene without an enormous lighting setup. Clearly I have much to learn here.

@Alex Yes, that looks very nice, but my budget ceiling is closer to $5,000 than $50,000 for the time being :)
 
@EvilOtter Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, this is the conversation I was looking for.

@Interceptor121 I hadn't realized that there was another viable 4K/60 option out there. Sounds like I need to read up more on GH5 shooting, as well as suitable lighting options, though I have no idea how you light an ultra wide angle scene without an enormous lighting setup. Clearly I have much to learn here.

@Alex Yes, that looks very nice, but my budget ceiling is closer to $5,000 than $50,000 for the time being :)

Why do you need 60 fps?
 
you need the camera body, additional external batteries for it (the internal lpe6 batteries dont last long enough on bmpcc4k) , the large cfast cards or alternatively usb-c drives if you can fit them in the housing, the lenses (expensive and you may need couple of them) , the housing itself (very expensive) , the lens ports (expensive and you may need couple of them) , insurance and probably also some type of lights which may also cost substantial money. an external monitor and a separate housing for it may also be needed later on depending on what you do (very expensive as well) . If doing uw cinematography you may need to arrange a client feed to the surface via sdi cable which needs the monitor and converters and batteries for the monitor and the cable and special connectors and customising the housing to fit everything to it.

I don't believe you can manage without spending at least from 8k to 10k to the kit for starters (just the basic kit without anything extra. just the basic stuff needed for normal one man band shooting of stuff) and it may become more if wanting to do serious work with it.

the question is, what you're actually gonna do with it? are you really that interested in underwater cinematography that you need such an expensive system just for practicing and projects (before spending even more on a RED or similar system which will be inevitable if you really want to proceed in the cinematography career) ?
are you able to sell your underwater footage somewhere right now to be able to finance the camera fully in a year or two?

if you just want to shoot web videos or stuff which does not pay the camera costs there is little reason to invest to a +10k camera setup. as others suggested the gh5s would be much more balanced choice with substantially cheaper uw housing to begin with and longer battery life etc. which will become maybe half of the blackmagic price total when you add all the basic stuff you need.
If you are not doing real uw cinematography stuff the cheaper price and better usability will be much better choice for you than a expensive setup with marginally better image quality that you don't even notice much in the end product.

(I'm a newbie diver but have worked in the film industry for numerous years so I know the camera and post production workflow stuff extremely well)
 
I agree @almostDIR, I can't get into one of these for less than $8,000. It's more than I want to spend right now. But it's nice to know where the market is, and I hope to be playing in this space before too much more time goes by. Thanks for the help, everyone!
 

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