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Black-Magic Design Announces 2.5k Cinema Camera


Tim Tyler

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Yesterday, Andrew Julian posted his short, "Meet me in Big Sur", shot on his BMCC in RAW mode.

 

Download the 814MB version from the Vimeo page to see it in better quality.

 

http://vimeo.com/58045466

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When is this thing going to actually be made available to the point of "I order it today, it is shipped tomorrow?"

 

That's a question perhaps best directed to Blackmagic Design.

 

The past few weeks I've noticed a definite uptick in reports of deliveries of early pre-orders by users all over the world in forums such as BMD's own forum, and on BMCuser. BMD has not announced numbers (such as the number of pre-orders, the number of cameras being produced per week, etc.). Most of us on the outside assume there are at least several thousand BMCC pre-orders.

 

In BMD's latest post on the topic, Grant Petty says BMCC-EF production is slowly ramping up, and he seems to favor fulfilling most BMCC-EF pre-orders before shipping to BMCC-MFT pre-order customers. Whether that policy changes going forward remains to be seen.

 

Given the above, it could be months, perhaps several months, before the BMCC will be available "off the shelf", but really: Folks who know the answer are likely under NDA and so can't say, and folks not under NDA (like me) can only speculate.

 

Sorry I don't have a better answer for you. Cheers.

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A BMCC-EF lens compatibility list is on Blackmagic Design's user forum. The list is based on informal reports from end users working with BMCC firmware v1.1.

Lens compatibility may or may not change as a result of installing the new BMCC firmware v1.2 announced today, so a new BMCC-EF lens compatibility list for firmware v1.2 has been started. User reports are added frequently.

Caution: There have been numerous reports of an infinity focus issue with the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 zoom lens on the BMCC-EF. A few users report that their copy of the EF-mount lens works OK, but most do not. A few users of the Nikon mount version report good results using a Novoflex Nikon-to-EF or other lens mount adapters, but most do not.

Note: Christian Schmeer describes in a blog post a possible DIY fix for the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 lens infinity focus issue, but the jury is still out as to its effectiveness. YMMV!

 

UPDATE: On Feb. 27, 2013 Blackmagic Design announced a fix for the BMCC for a flange distance issue which could cause back-focus / infinity focus issues especially with certain wide angle EF lenses such as the popular Tokina 11-16mm zoom.


An alternative ultra-wide-angle rectilinear zoom lens for use with the BMCC-EF is the Sigma 8-16mm. It's not as fast as the Tokina 11-16mm, but it's 20% wider at the wide end, and fully compatible (BMCC-EF video examples here and here).

If at all possible, I strongly recommend not buying a lens before you have a BMCC in-hand, and only buy lenses from a reputable dealer with a 100% refund policy. Another approach is to rent a lens locally or from a company such as LensRentals.com so you can test the lens on your BMCC before deciding which lens to buy.

The BMCC-EF & BMCC-MFT cameras feature focus peaking and magnify focussing aids on the LCD, but they don’t support lens AF. So whatever lens is used must include a manual focus feature.

Lenses such as Panasonic Lumix for MFT require power to focus (AF & manual focus) and to set aperture. These lenses can’t be used on the BMCC-MFT camera’s passive lens mount which has no electrical contacts.

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Today Blackmagic Design announced a fix for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera for a flange distance issue which could cause back-focus / infinity focus issues especially with certain wide angle EF lenses such as the popular Tokina 11-16mm zoom.


================================


"Hi guys,


I want to give you an update about this issue.


The cameras are all shimmed and calibrated to 44mm as per the reported focal flange depth of EF mount. I use the term “reported” as Canon does not publish the specifications officially so the exact expected tolerances are not known.


When checked against a collimated cine lens, we expect the Blackmagic Cinema Camera to get accurate focus according to the witness marks on the lens. For example, at focus chart placed 6 ft from the camera sensor plane will be in focus when the witness mark on the lens is at 6 ft.


When I tried the same collimated lens on some 5Ds, 7Ds and even a C300, the witness marks fall short of the expected distance which indicates to me that there’s some fair amount of tolerances built into the Canon cameras to cater for still lenses where the tolerances are not as critical as cine lenses.


To address this, we need to put in the same allowances. We have tested this with some of the cameras from customers reporting this and it works.


If you think you’re encountering this issue, please contact your local Blackmagic Design support office and we’ll sort you out."


- Kristian Lam, Blackmagic Design

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