Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

Very nice and user friendly, can't wait to get ahold of some fine lenses to use with it.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

Not impressed, The worst: clunky, no audio meters, Iso 1600 limit, the absolute worst lcd screen I have ever seen. Honestly if you outside you will not be able to see the screen, the shade is useless. The audio inputs obviously require some sort of adapter but why even get those when you cant see the audio meters. So many shortcomings that were suppose to be worth it for the image quality but I honestly think a tiny sony nex-7 blows this thing away. This camera is for a tentative, slow, post reliant shooter with a huge budget for buying the $5000 worth of add-ons to make this thing usable.

The best: Nice neck strap included.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

This is a great camera and a great concept. The problems I see are file sizes with RAW footage and the small sensor size.
I am looking forward to the 4K Production Camera from BlackMagic... Mmmmmmmmmm, 4K compressed RAW and large sensor!

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

Ok, the camera works pretty fine. I've used to shoot commercials on studio so far so I could fix some of the problems I did bump into.First Battery. Who had this incredibly poor idea of having an internal battery? A weak one! I can't take this camera seriously if it doesn't give me freedom.Second Lenses. I was fighting with my canon 24-70 2.8 to change iris but... It's not compatible! Are you kidding? Do I need to get on of those ugly metal things to handle a $3K camera? Come on!Fourth Audio. How hard was to have Phantom power on this cam?? Are you guys at BM thinking as a user?Fifth Sensor. Having great picture quality but starting from a small sensor. Would be like having a Ferrari with a Prius engine. Drives smooth but doesn't deliver like it should.I'm sure Black Magic will fix all this wrong decisions (some of them I've seen stay the same on new models) so I hope, eventually they do it or some other camera will kick them out from where they'd come.Being said so, I'll get the most out of it and sell it in the next months.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

This camera is an amazing breakthrough for many reasons. It's flexibility is probably the best feature. Although it does take some time to understand the dynamics between the raw imagery and it's DaVinci partner, it is certainly worth the effort. Great price point and a very flexible camera. The camera loves light so keep that in mind, but once you realize this, the sky is the limit..

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

I use this product for tv show, this is a very good product, very strong and easy to use.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

The price point is what's so astonishing. I just shot a night piece where our actress was using her iPhone as a flashlight to look around in a dark room. When she pointed the light right at the Blackmagic, it didn't bloom out. The light was distinctly clear, the phone itself could be seen as well as the light washing over our her face. Incredible dynamic range. I have a lot of power in my hands for just a little bit of money. There are trade-offs, which I gladly accept. Recording in raw fills the SSD in 30 minutes. I have to take the footage into DaVinci Resolve to color grade it and output to ProRes so that I can edit it. The internal battery is non-removeable and lasts just 90 minutes. And non crop-sensor lenses have a crop factor of 2.2 or greater. So, the workarounds? A full copy of DaVinci Resolve which costs $1k comes free with the camera. The bonus is that I now have a tool to fix my other work. I bought an external battery pack that solved my power issues. And when needing to knock out work that isn't going to the big screen, I record in ProRes instead of RAW and take it right into FCP no rendering necessary. There is no perfect camera, and I have my cameras for day to day food on the table work. But I can't afford an expensive Scarlet or Canon for my film fesitval hopefuls. The Blackmagic gives me cinema results that require me to do the heavy lifting, but not my wallet. That works for me!

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

I'll start with my final recommendation, then the details follow if you like. If you are starting out, get a Canon 5D Mark 2. Since the Mark 3 came out you can get really sweet deals on the Mark 2. I've seen narrative features shot with it. Get more skilled, make some money with it. Then, when you want a really good cinematic camera, save up for the BMDC (Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera) and get the version that uses your existing Canon lenses. That is a killer one-two punch in my opinion. Here's why I think that.

My wife and I own an indy camera & gear rental shop in Austin and we buy all the gear we can here at B&H. We have a 5D Mii, 5D Miii, 7D, 60D, C300, and a Red Scarlet. So we bought the BMDC to give our customers a "poor man's Red". But I was so impressed with the results that I've taken it off the rental shelf and put it in my personal arsenal (also because it's so rare, if a customer broke it it would take months to replace). I'm shooting two documentaries and a narrative short. The dynamic range is stunning, bigger than the C300 cinema camera that cost $15k. The 2.5k raw image is superior to all the Canon DSLR's we own.

We are shooting the narrative in raw, getting 30 mins per hard drive and employing a DIT to cycle out the footage. It has an incredible filmmatic look. We are shooting the documentaries in ProRes because we can get much more footage per hard drive, and the workflow is quicker.

No camera is perfect at everything. Because we have the luxury of owning several types of cameras we can plug the Blackmagic in to fit a specific need. It is now our goto camera for shooting narrative film. There are quite a few downsides but the final result is worth it to me. We had to buy a battery pack that mounts on the bottom to extend life to several hours, and bought extra 256gig SSDs. I didn't want bigger SSD's and risk losing an hour of footage if the drive got lost or damaged. We had to buy a special rig for holding it and for mounting to a tripod because the fan is on the bottom and can be blocked by regular plates. Finally, the workflow in raw is a lot more work but com'on, it's why I bought it in the first place. The stunning cinema look.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

This camera did not surprise me when it arrived. I was very pleased with the image, and totally confused by the design. It looks so good, but is almost impossible to handle without a rig... and the touch-screen is a disaster waiting to happen.

The only thing it does better than a DSLR is create massive video files for color-correctors. I don't want to come down too hard, I still give 3 stars, but since I already own a DSLR, I sent the camera back. The truth is, as a documentary shooter, the kind of color grading that I am called to do is pretty subtle, and I can usually handle the footage from a DSLR, even though it is compressed.

If Blackmagic put this camera inside a shoulder-mount with an eyepiece, phantom-power XLR audio, built-in ND, and a few buttons and dials, I would pay twice the price, no joke.

A+ for Post, C for Production.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

PROS:-2.5k for 3k!-GREAT-12 bit RAW!-GREAT!-Resolve copy FREE!-13 stops DR! NICE! CONS:-will shut down if shooting under 40f. (takes forever to warm up)-Terrible Rolling Shutter-Post WorkFlow will cost a lot of $$$-no overcranking (slow-mo)

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

Am VERY happy with this purchase. I use this camera for projects ranging from documentary to commercial advertising. The image quality, dynamic range, color depth, and RAW ability make this camera an outstanding device for any form of motion picture capture. The faults (more like warnings) I have with the camera is the ergonomics of it and its more of an investment than it appears at first. You will not be able to properly shoot with this camera without a cinema kit. At least a Matte box and focus pull knob at bare minimum. The RAW format also eats up a lot of space, aprox. 250 gigs per 30 minutes of footage, so have spare SSDs. The camera also has a set internal battery, that has about 1 hour of life in it, with over an hour charge time, so a battery solution is a must in most environments. With that, a good lens for the camera can set you back the cost of the camera or more. If you are serious about production, and willing to shell out the "hidden costs", then this is a great camera! Also, be aware you are taking on a much more extensive work flow than with typical digital capture devices, especially when in the RAW format. The controls while shooting, on the other hand, are very simple and easy to understand.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

I shoot lots of video. This is an incredible camera that captures lots and lots of detail. What is unique about this camera is the software that comes with it. Included with the camera is a copy of Davinci Resolve, color grading program. The camera shoots video in Raw format (like raw photos). This means you can use the color grading program to bring out detail in the shadow areas, and in the bright light areas of your video. This extra step in your preparation of video files can be time consuming but is worth it for the results. There are lots of tutorials on the internet that I found to help me know how to use the color grading software. Minus one star away for the internal fan that makes enough noise to be present in the video. It is a quiet fan but still a noise that I would rather not have at all.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

This camera was worth the wait. The low light performance with a fast lens is reason enough to buy it. It basically sees what my eyes see. Love the time lapse feature with the latest firmware upgrade. Got some weird flickering on the monitor right after the firmware upgrade, but it went away after I rebooted. It's awkward for a DSLR shape, so you definitely need some add-ons to make it viable as a hand-held camera. You'll also want a separate monitor so you don't always have to be right behind the camera. The raw footage (DNG) is pretty easy to work with if your system meets the minimum specs for working with raw in DaVinci Resolve 9, which comes with the camera. Very pleased with the camera so far.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

this thing is way better than I anticipated. the dynamic range on this guy will blow you away. Dont be afraid of the smallish sensor its not as bad as people are making it out to be. I LOVE my BMCC!

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

I am an early adopter. I have owned Davinci Resolve for a couple of years, but until version 9 and the Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera, I didn't use it that much. Most of my color work was done within FCPX or Premiere Pro. That has all changed. I love shooting with this camera. Yes it has many of the drawbacks that new technology brings to the market. The firmware upgrades are addressing many of these issues as the arrive. The first issue is the workhorse Canon 24-70 mm f2.8, which only shoots wide open with this camera. You need to purchase ND filters to use it outside. Not being able to erase files in the camera is annoying. Not having any idea how much space is left on the SSD is unnerving. So for now, you need to keep a close eye on that stuff. The internal battery doesn't last long but I connected a cheap Cool Lux lead acid battery that lasted well over 5 hours. But the big news is that shooting RAW and processing with Resolve will take your craft to hieghts you could never experience in h.264-land. It is like the first time I used Adobe Camera Raw to edit still RAW files. Once I saw the results I could never shoot another JPEG. Will this make your 5D Mark III obsolete for film making? Perhaps, eventually. For now there are too many nice little conveniences and tools with shooting the 5D that aren't available on the Blackmagic YET. But it is going to get closer with every firmware update. Regardless, 12 bit RAW at 2.5K is ridiculous. Like way way way more flexibility and possibility in post production. If you get used to the workarounds, your final output will have you in "cinema nirvana". To think that this little beast is capable of delivering quality in a league with the top cameras in the world, gives me chills.Nothing is perfect. But with the inclusion of Davinci Resolve and the Ultrascope software, this is probably the best technology bang for the buck available. Make sure you find Philip Bloom's review on Vimeo. It is pretty dead on. As good as this camera is, in the end it's about telling your story in a way that connects with your audience. Imagine doing that at 2.5K with the gorgeous images you can get from RAW DNG files.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

Put down your DSLR and pick up a BMCC. The resolution, dynamic range, and the color are way ahead of any DSLR including the 5D???.

I have found it very easy to use, but there is a learning curve involved. It's not a run and gun right from the box. You will need an external battery and possibly some monitoring options. However, this is a cinema camera designed for well planned scenes. If you approach your situation with that mindset, I think you will be more than pleased. It has been great to see what RAW can do, but the ProRes very adequate in many of the same situations.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

Read all of the reviews and blogs carefully. Excited about the potential and I felt I had a pretty good understanding about the shortcomings, form factor etc. I purchased three lenses from B&H to beat the crop factor. Canon 24-70 f2.8, Tokina 11-16 f2.8, Rokinon 8mm cine prime f3.5. After taking the camera into the studio to do some testing I noticed I could not make the Rokinon or the Tokina focus to infiniti below a 5.6. The Tokina is getting heavy praise by the reviewers as a great zoom to work around the crop factor. The Rokinon is a low price lens and I assumed there might be distortion around the edges. Trouble is the image is soft all over the frame. Both the Tokina and Rokinon were soft all over the frame from wide open to 5.6 and were not tack sharp at that point. The Canon 24-70 would seemingly focus to infiniti, but if you zoomed into 70 and focused on an object and pulled back to 24 the object you just focused on would then be significantly soft.
I contacted Black Magic support and they dismissed the Rokinon and Tokina as inferior lenses and would only address the Canon 24-70. Apparently EF mount really doesn't mean all EF lenses. All of the lenses shoot sharp images on a Canon DSLR. It has been three days with no communication. I packed up the camera and shipped it back to B&H for a refund. I have no particular beef with Black Magic, but no time or inclination to be the guinea pig to sort this out. I post this only so others can thoroughly evaluate the purchase. I will continue my camera search for another camera.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

As an owner of an fs100 and a 5dm3, I decided to purchase the Blackmagic after really looking at the pros and cons. I've seen Bloom's long review, and I've seen the tragedy of people converting raw to 8-bit on youtube, and there seem to be some real downsides to this camera.Thing is, if you're shooting footage for documentary work (which is what I'm doing), then you have a single shot to get it right. And even though it's more work, being able to bend your footage to your will with post-processing makes it worth it for most projects.I went ahead and bought the EF version because I shoot a lot of run-and-gun work too, and I want the IS capabilities of the canon glass (which works well on the 24-70 I'm using).It's an awkward for factor to be honest. I've actually been using this with the Zacuto DSLR baseplate (which works) and an Oconner OBox (which I love), and the whole setup works really well and is quite versatile. I would want something more solid if I was working on a set, but as a quick setup run-and-gun rig, this works well. I considered wooden camera's rig, but it's so heavy I would really only want to use it in the aforementioned set situation. Using a follow focus on this thing can be challenging with a short lens because of it's shape, so be aware of that.You'll want an external battery. I'm using a Swixtronix Powerbase-70, which has awkward mounts. I'd consider using this with an Anton-Bauer battery if I bought over again, but having a dedicated external battery is a must.You'll also have to be aware that you can use a heck of a lot of disk space really quickly shooting raw. The problem with having a 480GB card in a camera is that you need ~480GB of disk space to offload. Consider this aspect. That said, shooting in prores is a lot smaller, and it's still a lovely format (Canon and Sony only wish they had the ease of workflow of shooting prores).The 2.3 crop is a lot, and you'll have to get some wide-open lenses, or expect to shoot from farther back. I've been really struggling to find a really wide lens that doesn't distort unacceptably, or vignette when wide open.Sound is ok, but a little janky. I'm using an RM-333 with a rode ntg-2 on it right now, and with a good breakout cable (also available via B&H), I'm getting what I'd consider to be acceptable audio out of it. I really want OSD for audio monitoring, and hope it gets added to the camera by BM. Audio isn't this camera's current strong suite, but it's workable. Obviously this isn't a concern for all but the one man bands and small crews out there, but it's worth considering. For all of it's quirks, it's an astoundingly good camera when the workflow calls for it, and there's really nothing else out there like it. I'd recommend it.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

The Blackmagic Cinema Camera is awesome. Best picture quality in it's price range. Nothing comes close.

It's not an DSLR, you need extra gear to make the camera really useful. It's better to think of it as a film camera.

It's very well built. The interface is well thought out and will get better with a few upgrades.

Highly recommended.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

Well, it took awhile but it was well worth the wait! It's bulky and pretty heavy but there's no denying the beauty of the image. I've worked with RED and ALEXA cameras and this camera's image can compete...not to mention Da Vinci for free. This camera gives the tools for indie filmmakers to compete with the big boys!

Yes, it's not the easiest to hand hold, no audio meters, etc but those are minor nitpicks. I just can't believe this camera exists. Truly a revolutionary camera.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

Very nice and user friendly, can't wait to get ahold of some fine lenses to use with it.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

Not impressed, The worst: clunky, no audio meters, Iso 1600 limit, the absolute worst lcd screen I have ever seen. Honestly if you outside you will not be able to see the screen, the shade is useless. The audio inputs obviously require some sort of adapter but why even get those when you cant see the audio meters. So many shortcomings that were suppose to be worth it for the image quality but I honestly think a tiny sony nex-7 blows this thing away. This camera is for a tentative, slow, post reliant shooter with a huge budget for buying the $5000 worth of add-ons to make this thing usable.

The best: Nice neck strap included.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

This is a great camera and a great concept. The problems I see are file sizes with RAW footage and the small sensor size.
I am looking forward to the 4K Production Camera from BlackMagic... Mmmmmmmmmm, 4K compressed RAW and large sensor!

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

Ok, the camera works pretty fine. I've used to shoot commercials on studio so far so I could fix some of the problems I did bump into.First Battery. Who had this incredibly poor idea of having an internal battery? A weak one! I can't take this camera seriously if it doesn't give me freedom.Second Lenses. I was fighting with my canon 24-70 2.8 to change iris but... It's not compatible! Are you kidding? Do I need to get on of those ugly metal things to handle a $3K camera? Come on!Fourth Audio. How hard was to have Phantom power on this cam?? Are you guys at BM thinking as a user?Fifth Sensor. Having great picture quality but starting from a small sensor. Would be like having a Ferrari with a Prius engine. Drives smooth but doesn't deliver like it should.I'm sure Black Magic will fix all this wrong decisions (some of them I've seen stay the same on new models) so I hope, eventually they do it or some other camera will kick them out from where they'd come.Being said so, I'll get the most out of it and sell it in the next months.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

This camera is an amazing breakthrough for many reasons. It's flexibility is probably the best feature. Although it does take some time to understand the dynamics between the raw imagery and it's DaVinci partner, it is certainly worth the effort. Great price point and a very flexible camera. The camera loves light so keep that in mind, but once you realize this, the sky is the limit..

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

I use this product for tv show, this is a very good product, very strong and easy to use.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

The price point is what's so astonishing. I just shot a night piece where our actress was using her iPhone as a flashlight to look around in a dark room. When she pointed the light right at the Blackmagic, it didn't bloom out. The light was distinctly clear, the phone itself could be seen as well as the light washing over our her face. Incredible dynamic range. I have a lot of power in my hands for just a little bit of money. There are trade-offs, which I gladly accept. Recording in raw fills the SSD in 30 minutes. I have to take the footage into DaVinci Resolve to color grade it and output to ProRes so that I can edit it. The internal battery is non-removeable and lasts just 90 minutes. And non crop-sensor lenses have a crop factor of 2.2 or greater. So, the workarounds? A full copy of DaVinci Resolve which costs $1k comes free with the camera. The bonus is that I now have a tool to fix my other work. I bought an external battery pack that solved my power issues. And when needing to knock out work that isn't going to the big screen, I record in ProRes instead of RAW and take it right into FCP no rendering necessary. There is no perfect camera, and I have my cameras for day to day food on the table work. But I can't afford an expensive Scarlet or Canon for my film fesitval hopefuls. The Blackmagic gives me cinema results that require me to do the heavy lifting, but not my wallet. That works for me!

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

I'll start with my final recommendation, then the details follow if you like. If you are starting out, get a Canon 5D Mark 2. Since the Mark 3 came out you can get really sweet deals on the Mark 2. I've seen narrative features shot with it. Get more skilled, make some money with it. Then, when you want a really good cinematic camera, save up for the BMDC (Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera) and get the version that uses your existing Canon lenses. That is a killer one-two punch in my opinion. Here's why I think that.

My wife and I own an indy camera & gear rental shop in Austin and we buy all the gear we can here at B&H. We have a 5D Mii, 5D Miii, 7D, 60D, C300, and a Red Scarlet. So we bought the BMDC to give our customers a "poor man's Red". But I was so impressed with the results that I've taken it off the rental shelf and put it in my personal arsenal (also because it's so rare, if a customer broke it it would take months to replace). I'm shooting two documentaries and a narrative short. The dynamic range is stunning, bigger than the C300 cinema camera that cost $15k. The 2.5k raw image is superior to all the Canon DSLR's we own.

We are shooting the narrative in raw, getting 30 mins per hard drive and employing a DIT to cycle out the footage. It has an incredible filmmatic look. We are shooting the documentaries in ProRes because we can get much more footage per hard drive, and the workflow is quicker.

No camera is perfect at everything. Because we have the luxury of owning several types of cameras we can plug the Blackmagic in to fit a specific need. It is now our goto camera for shooting narrative film. There are quite a few downsides but the final result is worth it to me. We had to buy a battery pack that mounts on the bottom to extend life to several hours, and bought extra 256gig SSDs. I didn't want bigger SSD's and risk losing an hour of footage if the drive got lost or damaged. We had to buy a special rig for holding it and for mounting to a tripod because the fan is on the bottom and can be blocked by regular plates. Finally, the workflow in raw is a lot more work but com'on, it's why I bought it in the first place. The stunning cinema look.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

This camera did not surprise me when it arrived. I was very pleased with the image, and totally confused by the design. It looks so good, but is almost impossible to handle without a rig... and the touch-screen is a disaster waiting to happen.

The only thing it does better than a DSLR is create massive video files for color-correctors. I don't want to come down too hard, I still give 3 stars, but since I already own a DSLR, I sent the camera back. The truth is, as a documentary shooter, the kind of color grading that I am called to do is pretty subtle, and I can usually handle the footage from a DSLR, even though it is compressed.

If Blackmagic put this camera inside a shoulder-mount with an eyepiece, phantom-power XLR audio, built-in ND, and a few buttons and dials, I would pay twice the price, no joke.

A+ for Post, C for Production.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

PROS:-2.5k for 3k!-GREAT-12 bit RAW!-GREAT!-Resolve copy FREE!-13 stops DR! NICE! CONS:-will shut down if shooting under 40f. (takes forever to warm up)-Terrible Rolling Shutter-Post WorkFlow will cost a lot of $$$-no overcranking (slow-mo)

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

Am VERY happy with this purchase. I use this camera for projects ranging from documentary to commercial advertising. The image quality, dynamic range, color depth, and RAW ability make this camera an outstanding device for any form of motion picture capture. The faults (more like warnings) I have with the camera is the ergonomics of it and its more of an investment than it appears at first. You will not be able to properly shoot with this camera without a cinema kit. At least a Matte box and focus pull knob at bare minimum. The RAW format also eats up a lot of space, aprox. 250 gigs per 30 minutes of footage, so have spare SSDs. The camera also has a set internal battery, that has about 1 hour of life in it, with over an hour charge time, so a battery solution is a must in most environments. With that, a good lens for the camera can set you back the cost of the camera or more. If you are serious about production, and willing to shell out the "hidden costs", then this is a great camera! Also, be aware you are taking on a much more extensive work flow than with typical digital capture devices, especially when in the RAW format. The controls while shooting, on the other hand, are very simple and easy to understand.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

I shoot lots of video. This is an incredible camera that captures lots and lots of detail. What is unique about this camera is the software that comes with it. Included with the camera is a copy of Davinci Resolve, color grading program. The camera shoots video in Raw format (like raw photos). This means you can use the color grading program to bring out detail in the shadow areas, and in the bright light areas of your video. This extra step in your preparation of video files can be time consuming but is worth it for the results. There are lots of tutorials on the internet that I found to help me know how to use the color grading software. Minus one star away for the internal fan that makes enough noise to be present in the video. It is a quiet fan but still a noise that I would rather not have at all.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

This camera was worth the wait. The low light performance with a fast lens is reason enough to buy it. It basically sees what my eyes see. Love the time lapse feature with the latest firmware upgrade. Got some weird flickering on the monitor right after the firmware upgrade, but it went away after I rebooted. It's awkward for a DSLR shape, so you definitely need some add-ons to make it viable as a hand-held camera. You'll also want a separate monitor so you don't always have to be right behind the camera. The raw footage (DNG) is pretty easy to work with if your system meets the minimum specs for working with raw in DaVinci Resolve 9, which comes with the camera. Very pleased with the camera so far.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

this thing is way better than I anticipated. the dynamic range on this guy will blow you away. Dont be afraid of the smallish sensor its not as bad as people are making it out to be. I LOVE my BMCC!

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

I am an early adopter. I have owned Davinci Resolve for a couple of years, but until version 9 and the Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera, I didn't use it that much. Most of my color work was done within FCPX or Premiere Pro. That has all changed. I love shooting with this camera. Yes it has many of the drawbacks that new technology brings to the market. The firmware upgrades are addressing many of these issues as the arrive. The first issue is the workhorse Canon 24-70 mm f2.8, which only shoots wide open with this camera. You need to purchase ND filters to use it outside. Not being able to erase files in the camera is annoying. Not having any idea how much space is left on the SSD is unnerving. So for now, you need to keep a close eye on that stuff. The internal battery doesn't last long but I connected a cheap Cool Lux lead acid battery that lasted well over 5 hours. But the big news is that shooting RAW and processing with Resolve will take your craft to hieghts you could never experience in h.264-land. It is like the first time I used Adobe Camera Raw to edit still RAW files. Once I saw the results I could never shoot another JPEG. Will this make your 5D Mark III obsolete for film making? Perhaps, eventually. For now there are too many nice little conveniences and tools with shooting the 5D that aren't available on the Blackmagic YET. But it is going to get closer with every firmware update. Regardless, 12 bit RAW at 2.5K is ridiculous. Like way way way more flexibility and possibility in post production. If you get used to the workarounds, your final output will have you in "cinema nirvana". To think that this little beast is capable of delivering quality in a league with the top cameras in the world, gives me chills.Nothing is perfect. But with the inclusion of Davinci Resolve and the Ultrascope software, this is probably the best technology bang for the buck available. Make sure you find Philip Bloom's review on Vimeo. It is pretty dead on. As good as this camera is, in the end it's about telling your story in a way that connects with your audience. Imagine doing that at 2.5K with the gorgeous images you can get from RAW DNG files.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

Put down your DSLR and pick up a BMCC. The resolution, dynamic range, and the color are way ahead of any DSLR including the 5D???.

I have found it very easy to use, but there is a learning curve involved. It's not a run and gun right from the box. You will need an external battery and possibly some monitoring options. However, this is a cinema camera designed for well planned scenes. If you approach your situation with that mindset, I think you will be more than pleased. It has been great to see what RAW can do, but the ProRes very adequate in many of the same situations.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

Read all of the reviews and blogs carefully. Excited about the potential and I felt I had a pretty good understanding about the shortcomings, form factor etc. I purchased three lenses from B&H to beat the crop factor. Canon 24-70 f2.8, Tokina 11-16 f2.8, Rokinon 8mm cine prime f3.5. After taking the camera into the studio to do some testing I noticed I could not make the Rokinon or the Tokina focus to infiniti below a 5.6. The Tokina is getting heavy praise by the reviewers as a great zoom to work around the crop factor. The Rokinon is a low price lens and I assumed there might be distortion around the edges. Trouble is the image is soft all over the frame. Both the Tokina and Rokinon were soft all over the frame from wide open to 5.6 and were not tack sharp at that point. The Canon 24-70 would seemingly focus to infiniti, but if you zoomed into 70 and focused on an object and pulled back to 24 the object you just focused on would then be significantly soft.
I contacted Black Magic support and they dismissed the Rokinon and Tokina as inferior lenses and would only address the Canon 24-70. Apparently EF mount really doesn't mean all EF lenses. All of the lenses shoot sharp images on a Canon DSLR. It has been three days with no communication. I packed up the camera and shipped it back to B&H for a refund. I have no particular beef with Black Magic, but no time or inclination to be the guinea pig to sort this out. I post this only so others can thoroughly evaluate the purchase. I will continue my camera search for another camera.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

As an owner of an fs100 and a 5dm3, I decided to purchase the Blackmagic after really looking at the pros and cons. I've seen Bloom's long review, and I've seen the tragedy of people converting raw to 8-bit on youtube, and there seem to be some real downsides to this camera.Thing is, if you're shooting footage for documentary work (which is what I'm doing), then you have a single shot to get it right. And even though it's more work, being able to bend your footage to your will with post-processing makes it worth it for most projects.I went ahead and bought the EF version because I shoot a lot of run-and-gun work too, and I want the IS capabilities of the canon glass (which works well on the 24-70 I'm using).It's an awkward for factor to be honest. I've actually been using this with the Zacuto DSLR baseplate (which works) and an Oconner OBox (which I love), and the whole setup works really well and is quite versatile. I would want something more solid if I was working on a set, but as a quick setup run-and-gun rig, this works well. I considered wooden camera's rig, but it's so heavy I would really only want to use it in the aforementioned set situation. Using a follow focus on this thing can be challenging with a short lens because of it's shape, so be aware of that.You'll want an external battery. I'm using a Swixtronix Powerbase-70, which has awkward mounts. I'd consider using this with an Anton-Bauer battery if I bought over again, but having a dedicated external battery is a must.You'll also have to be aware that you can use a heck of a lot of disk space really quickly shooting raw. The problem with having a 480GB card in a camera is that you need ~480GB of disk space to offload. Consider this aspect. That said, shooting in prores is a lot smaller, and it's still a lovely format (Canon and Sony only wish they had the ease of workflow of shooting prores).The 2.3 crop is a lot, and you'll have to get some wide-open lenses, or expect to shoot from farther back. I've been really struggling to find a really wide lens that doesn't distort unacceptably, or vignette when wide open.Sound is ok, but a little janky. I'm using an RM-333 with a rode ntg-2 on it right now, and with a good breakout cable (also available via B&H), I'm getting what I'd consider to be acceptable audio out of it. I really want OSD for audio monitoring, and hope it gets added to the camera by BM. Audio isn't this camera's current strong suite, but it's workable. Obviously this isn't a concern for all but the one man bands and small crews out there, but it's worth considering. For all of it's quirks, it's an astoundingly good camera when the workflow calls for it, and there's really nothing else out there like it. I'd recommend it.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

The Blackmagic Cinema Camera is awesome. Best picture quality in it's price range. Nothing comes close.

It's not an DSLR, you need extra gear to make the camera really useful. It's better to think of it as a film camera.

It's very well built. The interface is well thought out and will get better with a few upgrades.

Highly recommended.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera with EF Mount:

Well, it took awhile but it was well worth the wait! It's bulky and pretty heavy but there's no denying the beauty of the image. I've worked with RED and ALEXA cameras and this camera's image can compete...not to mention Da Vinci for free. This camera gives the tools for indie filmmakers to compete with the big boys!

Yes, it's not the easiest to hand hold, no audio meters, etc but those are minor nitpicks. I just can't believe this camera exists. Truly a revolutionary camera.