Author: David Peterson

Firmware update for Tascam DR-60D mk1 fixes recording interruptions when running on external USB power packs.

Posted on by David Peterson

If you have a Tascam DR-60D mk1 and haven’t updated to the latest firmware then dooooo it!

As the DR-60D is battery eating monster, but now with the latest firmware I can put on it a big external battery pack and never worry again about batteries for hours and hours.

As before whenever I powered a DR-60D over USB the recording would halt if the USB power was ever bumped and reattached (which can accidentally happen a lot out in the field!) as a pop up would then show up asking you to select USB power or act as a USB storage device. Which made it practically impossible to use USB power while recording it unless you just left it on a desk and didn’t even breath too hard on it least the cord got bumped slightly (strangely it had never mentioned this issue being fixed in the firmware release notes, so I hadn’t bothered to update mine earlier. But I’d heard it mentioned by another person that the latest firmware fixed this issue so I thought I’d give it a go before tomorrow’s sound job. Now after testing it thoroughly I can say it works! Yay).

Now the pop up box only shows up on the screen for you to select an option for USB if you are not currently recording, thus it doesn’t interfere now with recordings.

Is a very neat and tidy arrangement too, stick a Velcro patch on the back of the battery pack and the other side of the Velcro patch on the rear of the Tascam DR-60D, then I hang the whole thing from my neck using a camera strap attached to the handles of the DR-60D. A very nifty and lightweight arrangement!

I’m using one of these (Xiaomi is a major major brand name in China, kinda like Apple in the USA):
http://www.banggood.com/Original-XIAOMI-5_1V-2_1A-10000mAh-Power-Bank-For-Smartphone-p-977406.html

Does Canon 50D Magic Lantern Raw make sense in late 2015??

Posted on by David Peterson
Canon 50D for Magic Lantern Raw with a Nikon 85mm f18D lens

Canon 50D for Magic Lantern Raw with a Nikon 85mm f18D lens

I’m seeing them going cheaper than ever before! Could pick one up in the US$150ish region on eBay, or even less (as if being used for Magic Lantern Raw you can buy “broken” ones, which are fine so long as live view still works then you can tap into its video capabilities).

The Canon 50D was a huge hit on the internet with filmmakers getting excited over its beautiful capabilities when Magic Lantern unleashed its video power back in early 2013. Turns out that the Canon 50D is the next best camera for Magic Lantern Raw after the (very expensive) Canon 5D mkIII!

But does it make sense though to get a Canon 50D for video in this day and age? (be it raw, or the ML H.264 option which is handy as you don’t always want to shoot everything in raw. No sound however… which is a big downside)

I almost *ALMOST* purchased a Canon 50D back when the ML video hack first came to light back in early 2015. Very very glad now I didn’t, as with hindsight (and the BMPCC hitting only US$500) I can see that would not be a good idea.

But with a Canon 50D being so much cheaper than what it was back when the ML raw hack happened, I’m being tempted again… Though what would be the point? Already got a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera.

Anyway, I shall soon find out the answer to all this! As a FB friend offered a used 50D at a “can’t say no” price (the body however is no good for photography, but live view works so is 100% good to go for ML raw video!), and I bought it!

Handily my good friend Dion from Oneironaut Studios has dabbled in using a 50D before (long since sold) and still has a left over ultra fast card from those days which we can use to experiment a little with 50D’s ML raw. As the only CF Card I’ve got is a SanDisk 16GB 50MB/s ULTRA CF Card, which is waaaay to slow (except I hope it will be good enough for ML’s H.264 video).

However if I decide to use this 50D more seriously…. then the adventure begins to find the right cards for ML raw! (as Dion’s single small card wouldn’t last long on a shoot) One double pack of this might do the trick, I think (two KomputerBay 1000X 150MB/s 128GB CF cards):
http://www.amazon.com/KOMPUTERBAY-PACK-Professional-COMPACT-Extreme/dp/B00D09AJM2

But I highly doubt I’ll do anything else than experiment and dabble with the 50D’s capabilities. However who knows, maybe I might fall in love with it and use it on the various little things where audio doesn’t matter such as BTS shoots, B roll, & music videos.

Pity a hack for 50D audio will never happen. As the 50D had the capability to shoot video but at the last moment Canon pulled it from the camera. Canon 50d even has a mic socket for where a mic would be if you open it up as you can see in the PetaPixel article.

As to the reason why it never shipped with audio, the reason is obvious enough to this PetaPixel commentator (and I’m slightly inclined to agree…):

Its pretty obvious. Canon sold a TON of 5DMkIIs thanks to video capability. If they had done this with the 50D they would have easily lost a grand on each of those sales.

Another intriguing thought is the 50D has a USB port which data can be sent over to the camera, and audio is often enough dealt with over USB, putting two and two together…. could it happen?? Unfortunately I’d rate it as very very unlikely that audio input over USB will ever be implemented in Magic Lantern, won’t hold my breath for that happening as likely too hard and too little demand for it.

Brainstorming a future US$3,000 Samsung cinema camera.

Posted on by David Peterson

Samsung NX1

http://www.eoshd.com/2015/11/official-statement-samsung-withdraws-from-camera-market-in-germany/

This is a shame because the NX1 and NX500 are best in class for video performance and features, in some ways for stills too. Perhaps Samsung should consider building a professional $3000 cinema camera based around the Super 35mm sensor in the NX1 which plays on their astounding technological strengths

Andrew Reid suggested Samsung should make a cinema camera, and thought that is such a great idea it deserves its own detailed response thus this blog post . (waves to Samsung reps! Hopes they’re reading…. one can but hope!)

I don’t think it would take much more to get there (well…. it would be a significant sized project for Samsung for sure, but easily well within their grasp to pull off). Because the Samsung NX1 is already such a fantastic video camera! The best at its price point, and arguably the best stills camera for filming with at *any* price point! Even over a year later since the Samsung NX1 was announced. (yes, I’m even including the new Sony A7s mk2 in this comparison! Though what is “best” at this point can at times get to be highly subjective, depending on what you place more or less weight on as being important) Thus we could easily imagine how great a pro version of the NX1 focused on filming (rather than photo stills) could be….

All Samsung need to do is increase the size of the NX1 body the minimum amount needed so it can do this (perhaps C100/C300 shape/size? Although, I’d much much rather have the ergonomics of an FS5/FS7! But even if, g-d forbid, it has the shape of an FS100/FS700 then I’d still be “ok” with that that!):

  1. Make space for dual mSATA slots, perhaps mSATA already in their own simple plastic casing like what Atomos does with SSDs (I think Sound Devices made a good choice going mSATA on their small PIX-E5 recorder, and in a small camera it makes even more sense over the large SSDs). Dual slots are needed so you can write a proxy to the 2nd slot, or just simply if you need the extra bandwidth when doing 6.5K raw at high speed. Can’t stick with SD cards, as they won’t handle 4K ProRes HQ, which leads me onto my next point….
  2. Add DNxHR / ProRes, whichever licensing of DNxHR or ProRes is easiest for them to get. Though having ProRes HQ would be preferable I suspect over DNxHR (just because ProRes is more commonly recognised by the market, thanks to BMD and others widely using them), plus ProRes 444 or even raw would be dreamy! (but maybe a little unrealistic in a $3k camera?!)
  3. Add two XLR inputs.
  4. Make its HDMI port a full sized HDMI port.
  5. Add two SDI outputs (important to have two, what happens if one breaks? You’ll have a nearly useless camera for many people, as SDI is for them *essential*. Plus is very common to run more than one monitor in a production environment, thus got to have two)

I think if Samsung did this (and nothing else, just the five points listed above: mSATA + DNxHR/ProRes + XLR + full HDMI + SDI inputs) for US$3,000 then they’d have a huge huge indy cinema camera hit on their hands! The next DVX100 or 5Dmk2 of our generation??

Even if it came out at US$5k I reckon it could maybe still be rather successful, although it would be up against the URSA Mini 4.6K, Sony FS5, and Canon C100 mk2, all at a similar price point. (plus whatever else comes out in the next 6 months)

For bonus points Samsung could do:

  1. Camera mount: just before, I’m assuming they’re sticking with the Samsung NX mount that the NX1 has, and only making the body a little bit bigger. As Andrew mentioned perhaps their mount held back sales of the NX1, maybe this cinema camera should have a different mount? Ideally I’d like to see them use the Sony FZ mount (as this would mark it out as a true cinema camera, able to be used with the best of the best cinema lenses, yet also allowing tremendous flexibility with this mount!), next best choice would be using the Sony E mount, 3rd best is Micro Four Thirds (like the JVC LS300). Branding/marketing/licensing issues mean I expect sadly all of these are out of the question. Thus I feel the best Samsung can realistically do is create their own open cinema mount, which has similar features to the Sony FZ mount. But make it completely open and easy for anybody else to adapt. Thus Samsung will start off by selling their Samsung Cinema Camera with the high prestige PL Mount, but in a blink of an eye we’ll see third party manufacturers offering adapters for everything you can possibly imagine (like they do now for the Sony FZ mount!).
  2. High Speed Options: apparently their engineers managed 6.5K 240fps in testing, maybe we could at least get this cinema camera to give us 1080p 240fps or 4K 60fps?
  3. High than 4K resolutions: give us all 6.5K resolution from the sensor!! 😮
  4. Raw: need I say any more? This could hit it out of the park!

What are your thoughts? Write a comment below! Remember, it should be based on the existing underlying NX1 technology (so not too much more R&D is needed for Samsung to get it to market. As even this limited list would take a huge effort on Samsung’s part to make happen) or using commonplace readily available tech (such as mSATA, or SDI connections) and hit a US$3k price point or at least not more than a couple thousand over that.

Which recorder/monitor is best for the Sony PMW-F3?

Posted on by David Peterson

The Sony PMW-F3 is an awesome camera, but with an external recorder it turns into a whole new beast! Leaping from its 35Mb/s 8bit 420 internal to uncompressed 12bit 444 RGB with an external recorder!

Atomos Samurai Blade

Tap into ProRes HQ out of the Sony PMW-F3!

Now the internal recordings are still rather nice, and many great things have been shot with just the internal recording such as the feature film “Safety Not Guaranteed” (which was also shot pre s-log update as well!! So basically was shot in the worst configuration of the F3, which in a way shows just how good the camera is). But I know I absolutely do want to get a recorder soon to unleash the power within the F3, and having a new monitor (as most recorders these days are combo monitors/recorders) would be a nice upgrade from my existing Feelworld FW759 monitor. Because its EVF is basically pointless, and its side monitor is positioned too awkwardly for use when on the shoulder.

While 12bit 444 would be nice, recorders which can do that are much rarer and very pricey (with the exception of the newly announced Video Devices PIX-E5, which is bringing this to a new low price), so I might want to limit myself to only checking out 10bit 422 recorders. Because for the vast majority of work having ProRes HQ files recorded is more than sufficient (and for the rare few times 12bit 444 is needed, I can always rent), as I’ve already been using rented/borrowed Atomos Shogun and Atomos Ninja 2 recorders on shoots with my Sony PMW-F3.

And the good news is with the move to 4K, there are now extremely affordable pricing on HD recorders. Last NAB Blackmagic Design announced their new Video Assist for a low low price of only US$495 (and it just finally started shipping in the last few days), and then Atomos responded at IBC by massively dropping the price of their Ninja 2 to US$295 and their Samurai Blade to US$495 match the Video Assist price (which means in total for the Samurai Blade and everything else I’d need with it such as recording media / accessories / batteries / S&H / taxes, I could get one to my door in NZ for somewhere just under NZ$1,500. Very cheap indeed!! Got to love the constant marching forward of technology)

The three main options to look at:

1) BMD Video Assist
Pro: cheap cheap! Has HDMI & SDI, and FHD screen
Con: is micro SDI, and is lacking in shipping firmware

2) Atomos Samurai Blade
Pro: cheap cheap!! Has mature firmware with peaking / waveforms / vectorscopes
Con: no HDMI (so you’ll need an HDMI/SDI converter, only sixty bucks or so from B&H) and no FHD 60fps (limited to 720p when doing slow motion)

3) Video Devices PIX-E5
Pro: the best, everything that you could want! (444 / 12bit / 60fps FHD / waveforms / vectorscopes / HDMI / SDI / 4K for futureproofing / etc). Has great add on audio options, with the top notch reputation of Sound Devices behind them.
Con: price…. is really cheap for what it does, but is more pricey than the other two options :-/ Also its recording media might be seen as a con by some (maybe… I think it is nifty what they’re doing, and is arguably a good choice for media. As it is small and cheap)

Haven’t listed the whole SD vs SSD thing as either Pro or Con for either of the Video Assist or Samurai Blade, as your viewpoint on SD/SSD as Pro/Con can be quite subjective.

I absolutely wouldn’t add Video Devices PIX 240i, Convergent Design Odyssey 7Q/7Q+, or Atomos Shogun to this list, they’re much more pricey (and I do not at all like the bulk of the Shogun when I’ve used it). Atomos Ninja 2 is also out because its monitor is far too low resolution (and it doesn’t have SDI or waveforms like the Samurai Blade has), ditto Atomos Samurai Blade is out because of its missing SDI. Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Shuttle 2 was out because it doesn’t have a monitor at all! (and yet its price is even a little more than the Atomos Ninja 2 is)

Basically my logic process then went, if:
a) you have a bit more cash, get the PIX-E5
Because aside from its price (which is pricey relative to a Samurai Blade or Video Assist, however PIX-E5 is cheap compared to any of its direct competitors!) it is practically almost flawless! Especially as I feel 5 inches is the “sweet spot” for an operator’s monitor while shooting, but if you disagree there is always the PIX-E7 instead with its 7 inch screen.

b) don’t mind focus peaking / waveforms / vector scopes / etc are missing, get the BMD VA!
Some people don’t mind living without these and don’t see what is the big deal, others would shudder at the thought of being without them….

c) otherwise…. am left with the last choice of the three 😛 Get a Samurai Blade

Or at least, that is how my thought process went.

Thus personally I went for the Atomos Samurai Blade, which I’ll use with my PMW-F3. It arrives next week! (it just arrived today at my reshipper service in the USA)

Forgot to order the HDMI/SDI converter at the same time from B&H, but oh well…. not a big issue. As I don’t really *need* one urgently I won’t rush to order one now, I’ll just order it in a month or five when I do my next B&H order (cheaper shipping for me as a NZer if I order a few things at once).

I’ll likely get one of these two:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1123529-REG/kanexpro_ext_hdsdix_hdmi_to_3g_hd_sd_sdi_converter.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1100266-REG/lanparte_sdi_hdmi_c_sdi_to_hdmi_converter.html

RED Raven or URSA Mini 4.6K?

Posted on by David Peterson

RED’s hot new camera just got announced, and many are drawing the natural conclusion…. RED Raven or URSA Mini 4.6K? I wondered to ask, which to go for if their body price is the same & you could pick either? (which they’re not! URSA Mini is clearly going to be many thousands cheaper to own)

Clearly the URSA Mini comes out the winner here, as I don’t think the Raven is better specced.
URSA Mini is:
a) has 4K ProRes (Raven doesn’t)
b) has XLR inputs
c) better ergonomics
d) global shutter option
e) sensor size which is a better match for the Canon EF mount (URSA Mini is a little larger than APS-C vs GH2 sized for the Raven)
f) as well as PL/B4 (and more??) mount options available instead
g) cheaper media (and rapidly getting cheaper!! You won’t see the same rate of price drops happen with RED’s media)
h) I half suspect URSA Mini will have the edge over Raven in low light (though not by a huge amount,. a stop or less). I suspect dynamic range to be close too, given how RED overstates theirs. Will have to wait for each to ship however before this can be really clear which way it falls.
i) way cheaper EVF (and better too I reckon)
j) URSA Mini doesn’t have the very heavy 13:1 compression in slow motion that the RED Raven has, instead is lossless raw from the URSA Mini.
k) better input/output options.
l) BMD wins with the higher resolution (ironically so…. as that is RED’s big obsession, resolution)
m) free copy of the industry standard DaVinci Resolve (which you’ll need to purchase if you wish to colour grade Raven’s footage with it)
n) and last but not least…. URSA Mini will ship earlier!! (yes, even with BMD’s record of always being late)

Of course the usual caveats apply with this analysis: nobody has either of these in their hands yet, so specs analysis vs real world use might be far apart!

Sony FS100 discontinued, “Sony FS1” coming soon?

Posted on by David Peterson

Sony FS100 discontinued

I just discovered the Sony FS100 is marked as discontinued:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/761578-REG/Sony_NEX_FS100U_NEX_FS100E_Super_35mm_Sensor.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/761580-REG/Sony_NEX_FS100UK_NEX_FS100U_Super_35mm_Sensor.html

Can’t buy it at all from B&H, hopefully that means a “FS1” is just around the corner??

Is marked as “closeout” at Adorama:
http://www.adorama.com/sonexfs100u.html
http://www.adorama.com/sonexfs100uk.html

Amazon (which has Adorama listed in their marketplace) states only 15 units are left:
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-NEX-FS100U-Sensor-Camcorder-Recording/dp/B00796NCY4/
http://www.amazon.com/Handycam-NEX-FS100UK-Digital-Camcorder-CMOS/dp/B006J7AUW6/

It is not hard to see why they’re bringing to an end selling the Sony FS100, as even after its price drops, you could still buy for the same kind of money the revolutionary Sony A7s new or the awesome Sony PMW-F3 refurbished (which is the one I own, is a great camera!).

This strongly indicates that a successor for the Sony FS100 could be heading our way, a new E mount camcorder which is priced below the Sony FS7. This makes sense too from a timeline perspective for when the model should be refreshed, as the FS100 has been around for a long time (not as long as the F3, but that has been replaced already by Sony PMW-F5, but the FS100 has been around longer than the FS700 which has for all intents and purposes been replaced by the FS7)

Often people express a wish for a “full frame” camcorder with the Sony A7s sensor in it. But I don’t necessarily need a Sony NEX-VG900 with an A7s sensor in it.

I’d be quite happy for an “FS1” to come along to replace the FS100, just like the FS7 “replaced” the FS700.

Its specs could be:

Same form factor as the FS7 is (but even lighter??), and not shaped like the FS100/FS700!!
FHD 422 10bit XAVC
Slow motion of 120fps at FHD
Sticking with SD cards please (not XQD)
4K 420 8bit at 24/25/30 (maybe if lucky 4K 422 10bit over SDI?)
2x SDI
3 stage internal ND filters
S-log 2 / S-log 3
Reuse the same sensor as is currently in the FS700
Priced same as a JVC GY-LS300

I’d buy one of these.

And its specs/price makes it a very attractive upgrade for FS100 owners (or even Sony F3 owners like myself! Even a FS700 owner might consider this as an interesting sideways move).
And of course it will attract lots of interest from other non-Sony owners too, such as C100/C300 users, AF100 users, and BMD camera owners. And every DSLR/MILC shooter will of course be attracted to it!

Yet at the same time I believe it has a sufficiently restrained specs/price mix that FS7/F5/FS700 owners won’t get outright pissed about it being released (like the FS7 did to F5 owners…).

“Dream” Camera?

Posted on by David Peterson
Note: This post came out of a thread on Facebook, click through there for more info and context.

SH-PMWF3

Answer: Arri Alexa SXT Studio of course! D’oh 😀
Except I think the SXT series is not yet shipping?

So then instead an Arri Alexa XT Studio. Otherwise, Arri Alexa Mini or Arri Alexa Amira.
Or my next choices after them, Arri Alexa 65 or then Arri Alexa XT Plus.

If getting an Arri Alexa is out of the question for whatever reason, next I’d dream of a Panasonic Varicam 35. Or after that, a Phantom Flex4K would be very dreamy to own.

Next on the list after those, Sony F65. Then Sony F55 or RED Weapon.

Anyway, you can see I’ve gone through soooo many options already (& I likely missed a few along the way), yet all of them are ultra expensive.

Thus we need to confront the fact PRICE does matter a *lot*! When choosing your next camera to own.

The cameras which I could own myself if I really stretched my finances to the max would be:
URSA Mini 4.6K, C100mk2 or Sony FS7 or maaaaaaaybe C300mk2 (but crazy Canon prices don’t appeal to me. Thus ruling both C100mk2 and C300mk2 out, but diehard Canon fans might think they’re worth a second look).
Or on the second hand market a RED Scarlet or Sony FS700 (with Odyssey for the 4K raw goodness).

That would be the short list of everything in that price bracket which is appealing, if I cast the net a little wider I’d include AJA Cion (but it appears to be very poor value for many, even after the price drop. It would need a second major price drop to be able to seriously get into contention), Sony F35 (but VERY big and heavy, and so old and expensive to maintain), and the KineFinity KineMini 4K (or maaaaaaaybe at an ultra stretch the KineMax 6K). The KineFinity cameras are *very* appealing, could even go on the initial short list, but I fear their complete lack of brand recognition could make them a hard sell to use on set and I fear what unknown difficulties there might be in dealing with a distant parent company with me being the only person in the country with one. Plus after the URSA Mini announcement KineFinity’s crazy good pricing no longer books quite as good as before.

Out of those, an URSA Mini 4.6K certainly is the most appealing, and for many weeks I had my heart and head set on getting that for sure at the end of the year. But as I said before, price does matter a *lot*….. it isn’t rational to stretch yourself to the max if you don’t have a clear plan to quickly recoup the cost.

Thus for many of us we should set our sights lower. Such as URSA Mini 4K. But I feel there are a lot of bargains to be found in the secondhand market with the older cameras, such as: Panasonic AF100 / Sony FS100 / Sony PMW-F3 / RED One (and of course the original Canon C100, or even C300, but I’m no Canon fan). And out of all of those which I listed in this paragraph, I find the Sony F3 to be the most appealing, which not at all coincidentally I just purchased and I’ll be going into further detail about the F3 in a later blog post (a photo of my Sony F3 is at the start of the blog post).

But I can say the F3 is easily far better than an AF100 or FS100, and based on my experiences shooting with a RED One I find a R1 in a practical sense to be inferior to a F3. Too early to compare with the URSA Mini 4K vs Sony F3, but the 4K sensor is the “same” as the one in the Blackmagic Design Production Camera, and I haven’t been too impressed with that (worse dynamic range and worse low light than my Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera) thus I wouldn’t be surprised if I find the PMW-F3 preferable over even the URSA Mini 4K.

Where is Fujifilm’s fast standard zoom??

Posted on by David Peterson

Partially because of the release of the newly announced Fujifilm X-T10, I went and checked out the range of Fujifilm lenses out of curiosity. (because hey, they suck for video now, but maybe one day they’ll catch up? Always good to keep informed in advance)

To my surprise they appear to be lacking the most essential of pro lenses, a fast standard range zoom! The closest to it is the Fujinon XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4, but that slows down to f/4 at the long end.

Which is strange, as I have kept on hearing that the lenses are Fujifilm’s strong point for going with their system over the others. Yet it appears Panasonic, Olympus, and Samsung are the only mirrorless systems which have the basics covered (wide angle, fast standard zoom, fast tele zoom, wide prime, standard prime, portrait prime). Sony is still lacking with their refusal to make f/2.8 zooms because they want to keep size down (so your only left with f/4 from their zooms).

Looking at those three which do have the basics covered:
1) Olympus and Panasonic, as the oldest system it isn’t surprising they’ve got all the core bases covered. And as they share the same mount, Micro Four Third users truly are spoilt for choice! Able to pick from either brand.
2) Samsung is the kinda surprising one here out of the three, as they’re a very new entrant and up until lately just made lower end cameras (NX3000/NX300/NX30) but with the completion of their core lens range and the amazing Samsung NX1 I reckon it shows Samsung is here to fight and how seriously they’re taking it. They’re the one to watch!

Update #1:
Well… a few minutes after I published this I discovered I got the main premise of this blog post wrong! Ah my bad… there is a Fujifilm 16-55mm f/2.8 But it appears the 16-55mm f/2.8 only just came out this year however (and even the 50-150mm f/2.8 didn’t come out until late last year), guess that is why I missed it. And also it didn’t come out until a year after Samsung’s 16-50mm f/2.8 (and 50-150mm f/2.8), thus meaning the broad point of my post remains the same (Olympus/Panasonic are first, Samsung second, in covering the basics for lenses).

Update #2:
While looking at the specs for the new Fujifilm X-T10 I see is a world camera with 25fps & 30fps! (and 24fps too of course) Gee, why can’t Panasonic do the same with their G7 which was just announced yesterday?? Such a disappointment.

How to pick a camera when buying more than one?

Posted on by David Peterson

When buying multiple cameras there are two key ways to look at it:

Complementary cameras or matching cameras.

In some cases you want your cameras to be “matching cameras”, such as when doing multi camera coverage of wedding ceremony or doing an interview. Such as 2x GH4 to cover the wide of the interview and the close up, or one to cover the interviewer himself and another on the person being interviewed.

But in most cases you want your cameras to be complementary instead. As you need to view each camera body as merely one kind of tool in your box of tricks. So when you go out on a shoot, you can pick the best tool for the job.

Thus for cameras to be complementary, you want one camera to cover the weaknesses of the other, and in the reverse too.

For instance GH4 + BMPCC:

96fps vs 30fps
Compressed vs raw
Photos vs n/a
4K vs 1080

Or A7s vs BMPCC:

FF vs S16
Amazing low light vs so so low light
Compress vs raw

You can see how in each case, one does well in covering some of the weaknesses of the other camera.

Thus you can see how for many people getting a BMCC and BMPCC makes no sense at all really, as they’re two very similar cameras.
So this BMCC + BMPCC combo only makes sense if you’re looking for two “matching cameras” rather than two “complementary cameras”, or if you already have a BMCC and you want the BMPCC to just cover for the big weakness of the BMCC: its bulky size.

I really wouldn’t recommend the BMPC4K at the moment, URSA Mini 4K is just around the corner for the same price and is better in every way.

What I’d suggest is getting a Samsung NX1 right now (or any one of the currently top three hybrid cameras: Samsung NX1 / Sony A7s / Panasonic GH4. But I reckon the NX1 is the best of the 3 at the moment) and a set of Nikon F mount lenses. Then when the USRA Mini ships (and “if” it gets the favorable reviews we’re all expecting) get that as well. You’ll have a killer combo of two cameras able to cover a wide range of needs. Don’t worry that the URSA Mini is still a few months away from shipping, as having the Samsung NX1 to start with is still a phenomenal camera, and when you’re just starting out your equipment really isn’t your limiting factor just yet. As gear has got so good and so affordable.

If you lean towards doing a lot more multi camera work (such as weddings) than single camera, then I’d suggest instead starting out with a Panasonic GH4 for you, plus Panasonic G7 for your second shooter (your second shooter might supply their own camera, but even if they do, it is best if their camera matches well with your own. Makes life easier in post), and 3x Panasonic GH1 bodies (which go for merely US$150 on eBay, and still are quite damn fine cameras! Does miles better than any Canon Rebel series DSLR shoots) to cover the multiple extra angles during the ceremony and speeches. Then once they ship, pick up a BMMCC and BMD VA for your single camera work (music videos / adverts / short films / etc). Or get a BMPCC if you simply can’t wait for that.

I wrote this post in response to this thread on bmcuser, and felt like sharing it as a blog post too because my response is length yet generic enough it might be helpful for others too looking at getting more than one camera.

Where to next after shooting Magic Lantern Raw with a Canon Rebel series camera?

Posted on by David Peterson

As No Film School appears to have a serious glitch with their boards which prevents me from posting (I’ve tried with three different browsers!), I’m posting my reply here for now until the bug is fixed:

As you’re comfortable shooting raw I’d highly recommend you get a BMPCC or wait for the BMMCC (plus BMD VA). So you can leave behind Canon (who have gone nowhere for years, Canon are one of the worst now when it comes to MILC/DSLR market).

Samsung NX1 or Sony A7s or Panasonic GH4 are all solid choices too, but I’d say just go for Blackmagic Design’s cameras as you’ve already got experience with ML raw.

In the Blackmagic Design line up, I prefer the BMPCC the most. BMCC doesn’t really gain anything (aside from a very slight increase in resolution) but at the cost of much increased size (BMCC can cost over twice as much too). BMPC4K is simple a BMCC with greater resolution and global shutter, but at the cost of dynamic range and worse low light. Which I’m not so keen about.

Then there is the URSA…. which is HUGE. And the most expensive of them all.

The studio cameras are not suitable for your needs.

Now there is just left the new ones coming…. BMMCC looks awesome, but will need a BMD VA (or some kind of screen at least). And the URSA Mini, which with the new 4.6K sensor should be awesome. But again, rather pricey! Thus way outside your stated budget of under US$2k.

So in the end it boils down to…. get the BMPCC! 😀
Unless you don’t mind waiting for the BMMCC and paying a little bit more.