First Narrative Short Shot With Pocket Cinema Camera

Another sign that we may be about to get our cameras! They are starting to appear in the hands of consumers who don't seem to have special relationships with either Blackmagic or with dealers.

A talented amateur who goes by "Jsflimz" has posted a 1080p action short on YouTube.  As far as I can tell, this is the first Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera footage with the whole package - actors with dialogue, VFX, and post-production (cutting and grading). Check it out (please watch at 1080p):




This is clearly an amateur production with a couple of rough spots, but the dynamic range here is very exciting and, dare I say it, "filmic".

This is what I had hoped the camera could do - give amateurs access to the dynamic range and bitrate to allow them to get past the typical DSLR's horrid compression and 8 bit colorspace.

Reading Jsfimz' notes in the comments section is informative too - but not at all  like reading "American Cinematographer".  Here, the filmmaker describes his motivation:

"btw i dont have any experience at all. i just do this short films for fun. instead of getting drunk everynight. this and fishing is [sic] my outlet"

Nevertheless, he did a great job.

If you're as impressed by the image quality here as I am, and you've been waiting to see some narrative from this camera before ordering, you can go ahead and pre-order your Pocket Cinema Camera here or by clicking on the Adorama display ad below.

If you don't want to wait for the Pocket, you can order a Cinema Camera EF or MFT from Amazon. It won't cost you anything extra, and it will help to keep posts like this coming.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Boxed & Ready to Ship!

Hat tip to RedShark News

Hope this is mine!  

To whet your appetite even further, here is a new downloadable (and gradeable) ProRes BMPC file from John Brawley (you might have to wait a while - so many people have tried to access the file that Dropbox has temporarily disabled the link).

In the meantime, here is a graded sample from the download via Ruben Kremer on Vimeo:

If you're as impressed as I am, and want to order this incredible little camera, please click here or on the display ad below:

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Ship Date Imminent?

As everyone who has pre-ordered a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera knows, Blackmagic Design's promised ship date for this eagerly anticipated camera was "sometime in July".  Well, according to this post on Instagram, it looks like Blackmagic is on track to fulfill that promise.

B&H appears to be hands-on with the camera, and expects it to be available on July 25th.  In addition, it is reported that cameras are starting to trickle out to Canadian dealers  - and accessory manufacturer Wooden Camera has posted four great hands-on videos showing Wooden Camera accessories on the BPCC.

The first of these videos reminds me of many of the reasons I look forward to shooting with this camera (in addition to the promise of ProRes 422 and CinemaDNG RAW):

 - Unbelievably compact size  - 220mbps ProRes 422 video in a camera the size of a point and shoot

- Standard SDXC cards (e.g., the $67 Sandisk Extreme 64GB SDXC) - no expensive SSDs or even CFs

- 1/4"-20 mounting screws on the top and bottom of the camera

- Standard Nikon EN-EL20 internal batteries - and uninterruptible power using the internal battery as a backup for hot swapping external batteries.



The cages and rails shown in the Wooden Camera videos are a little over the top for my shooting style - but I have ordered a $25 Wooden Camera hot shoe to mount mics or lights on top of the camera, plus a $50 Cavision Loupe with a $6 3.5" rubber adapter to turn the LCD into a viewfinder. Combined with my $22 Rainbowimaging pistol grip (with trigger), I am hoping to turn the BPCC into a "Super 8" style cinema camera.    I'll let you know how it turns out! If you're not already on the list, you can pre-order the $995 Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera from Adorama here.