ProRes on the Pocket Cinema Camera

Nicholas Bedford · December 5, 2013

At the start of the year I owned a Blackmagic Cinema Camera for a few months before selling it for various reasons. Produced a lovely image in ProRes, but I ended up using the money to travel etc. Recently though, I picked up a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and a Panasonic 12-35mm F2.8 OIS lens and some bits and pieces.

The image is much, much better than the 5D Mark III I was shooting with. It feels like I'm grading a poor man's raw, but it means I can cut and grade directly in Final Cut Pro X. I've been pushing it through FilmConvert with lovely results.

So far in my unscientific testing, I've found that being about a stop over middle (while making sure to not clip what you don't want) gives very nice and subtle noise results.

I'm picking up a Sekonic L308S meter soon so I'll be able to do some quantifiable testing with regards to middle grey, exposure and where to compensate for cleaner results.

Here are some frames I posted through FilmConvert's Kodak Vision3 5207 emulation before I bought the plugin (hence the watermark). Some have grain enabled, some are clean.

So far I'm as blown away with is as the BMCC 2.5K, especially given its price and size.

Adrian Sierkowski · December 5, 2013

I like the pocket a lot more than the cinema personally. The compressed raw is nice, it's smaller, the cards are easier to find, and I can change out the battery. Plus, MFT mount and S16 lenses make wide shots a lot easier. I can, with my pocket, get the shots I'd like -v- with the cinema get the shot I roughly want, but not quite because a wide lens doesn't feel right.