Blackmagic cinema camera(2.5k) MUST HAVE accessories

[ajedproduction]

Any Blackmagic cinema camera owners in here?

I'm seriously looking into getting the Blackmagic 2.5k Ef mount. I'm tired of relying on my 6D for filmmaking and having to deal with soft image, bad moire, crap dynamic range and blown out windows in the background of shots. I'll still keep my 6d for corporate run and gun stuff, so the blackmagic is purely for film, music videos and adverts. Also interested in the GH4, but it looks a little bit too video compared to the bmcc. Since I wanna keep my 6D I may as well just go for the camera with the best image, which is the blackmagic.

Ok so anyways, what accessories are essential to make the camera usable and can you give me examples of the ones you use and the price.
External Battery - which one? Price?
SSD - which one? price?
SSD reader for mac - which one? Price?
External monitor - is this really essential? I get by fine with just my DSLR screen.

Any other items?
I already have/am aware of the basics like tripod, shoulder rig of course.

 

[brunerww]

Any Blackmagic cinema camera owners in here?

I'm seriously looking into getting the Blackmagic 2.5k Ef mount. I'm tired of relying on my 6D for filmmaking and having to deal with soft image, bad moire, crap dynamic range and blown out windows in the background of shots. I'll still keep my 6d for corporate run and gun stuff, so the blackmagic is purely for film, music videos and adverts. Also interested in the GH4, but it looks a little bit too video compared to the bmcc. Since I wanna keep my 6D I may as well just go for the camera with the best image, which is the blackmagic.

Ok so anyways, what accessories are essential to make the camera usable and can you give me examples of the ones you use and the price.
External Battery - which one? Price?
SSD - which one? price?
SSD reader for mac - which one? Price?
External monitor - is this really essential? I get by fine with just my DSLR screen.

Any other items?
I already have/am aware of the basics like tripod, shoulder rig of course.

Hi ajed - I have the Pocket Cam, so I can't help you with SSDs, but the best external battery solution for Blackmagic owners who come from Canon DSLRs is the $79.95 Ikan Blackmagic Belt Clip Power Kit for Canon E6 batteries.

If you prefer not to wear it on your belt, you can get a version that mounts on either one rod or two rods on your rig.

This is the least expensive solution for shooters who already have a supply of LP-E6 batteries.

Hope this is helpful!

Bill

 

[Will Vincent]

Any Blackmagic cinema camera owners in here?

I've got the pocket and the 4k..

I'm seriously looking into getting the Blackmagic 2.5k Ef mount.

You'd be better off getting the MFT mount than the EF mount. It gives you a lot more flexibility for lens options. For example, you could get a PL mount adapter and use high end rental glass intended for film cameras and the like. That wouldn't be an option with the EF mount.

Ok so anyways, what accessories are essential to make the camera usable and can you give me examples of the ones you use and the price.

External Battery - which one? Price?

Most people ultimately wind up rigging their camera up.. rails with follow focus, mattebox, etc. A battery 'pinch' like those offered by lanparte that accepts a v-lock or AB Gold-Mount battery is a great solution. For a pair of ~99Wh batteries and charger you can figure roughly $800, the pinch will run you another couple hundred.

SSD - which one? price?

Refer to the official list of approved SSDs: http://bmdsoftware.s3.amazonaws.com/CinemaCamera/docs/Blackmagic_Cinema_Camera_SSDs.pdf

SSD reader for mac - which one? Price?

You don't need anything too crazy.. USB3 or thunderbolt would be advisable. I use something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-SuperSpeed-Docking-Station/dp/B0099TX7O4

External monitor - is this really essential? I get by fine with just my DSLR screen.

Essential? No probably not, but the internal display has a mirror-like finish so it's VERY difficult to see in daylight. So, some sort of external monitor or EVF would probably be wise. I've my my sights on the forthcoming zacuto gratical for an evf. the smallhd DP7 is a good external monitor option as it lets you use your own LUT. That's a bonus because if you're shooting with the 'film' setting, even though you're able to internally monitor it in 'video' mode you get the film footage out of the SDI output. It's lower contrast so it can be more difficult to judge when you've got good focus.

Any other items?
I already have/am aware of the basics like tripod, shoulder rig of course.

The black magic cameras tend to be highly sensitive to infrared light, so an IR cut filter is really a must. You'll likely want ND filters too. I have a set of 4" x 5.65" IRND filters from skier. My mattebox has a dual stage so I can use two of those filters at a time, and a third rotating stage that's 4x4 for other filters (polarizer, gradients, etc)

Realistically speaking, you should expect to spend at least double the camera cost to get it really usable... probably a bit more.

 

[ajedproduction]

Nice, thanks guys.

Would it be possible to get an active ef mount speedbooster for the MFT version so I can use my ef lenses? Would the bm pocket cam speedbooster work with the 2.5k?

@brunerww
Do you know how long the canon ep 06 batteries usually last with the pocket cam? Are they longer than the nikon batteries it normally takes?

 

[brunerww]

Nice, thanks guys.

Would it be possible to get an active ef mount speedbooster for the MFT version so I can use my ef lenses? Would the bm pocket cam speedbooster work with the 2.5k?

Sadly, the £1699 MFT version of the BMCC has an unpowered mount, while the £505 EF mount Speed Booster for the BMPCC needs power from the camera.

You could, however, use the standard EF to MFT Speed Booster, which takes external USB power.

For Canon shooters, it would probably be easier to simply buy the £1575 2.5K BMCC with the active EF mount to begin with.

@brunerww
Do you know how long the canon ep 06 batteries usually last with the pocket cam? Are they longer than the nikon batteries it normally takes?

The £35 standard BMPCC battery has a capacity of 800 milliamp hours (mah) while a £47 standard Canon LP-E6 has a 1800mah capacity - which means it will last a little over twice as long.

That said, you can get 2500mah third party E6 batteries for £10 that should last over three times as long as a standard Pocket Cam battery.

Again, hope this is helpful!

Bill

 

[Will Vincent]

The Metabones EF -> BMPCC speedbooster will fit the 2.5k camera, but image circle may not cover the sensor with all lenses. This one, on the other hand, would work, and is slightly less cost than the pocket version: http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB_SPEF-m43-BM1

So.. that's another bonus to getting the MFT mount version of the 2.5k, you can use a speedbooster with EF glass (or Nikon glass, or whatever others there are) which you wouldn't get with the EF mount version.

Of course if you don't need it to be an active mount, there are cheaper options roxsen (search ebay) makes a EF to MFT speedbooster that sells for about $100. I have one that I picked up for my pocket cam, there seem to be some QC issues with them, unfortunatley as the one I have doesn't quite fit the mount. I don't know if it's a QC issue with the camera's mount flange, or with the flange on the adapter, but it's so tight I can't twist it into position to lock. Others have had good luck with them though.

 

[ajedproduction]

Nice nice thanks. I'm now debating between the BMCC, Pocket cam and GH4. Possibly leaning towards the pocket cam because it would work with my steadicam merlin. Gh4 dynamic range doesn't look much better than canon dslrs and it does have a slightly more 'video' feel compared to the blackmagics.

Btw in terms of editing for both the pocket and cinema camera, assuming I'd be shooting pro res 90% of the time would my macbook pro be able to handle it? I'd be using Premiere Cs6.

 

[Will Vincent]

That would easily handle 1080p, should be fine for the bmcc's 2.5k raw as well, though it may struggle a bit with that.

The weak point is going to be the lack of a decent GPU, and potentially drive speed. But the processor should do fine for most things, and 16GB should be plenty of ram.

Without an AMD or Nvidia gpu you're not going to be able to run resolve on that machine.