Cinematography : Cinematography with the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 2.5k by Adán J. González Mercado

Adan - I see this post got buried a few pages back, but it's definitely a great topic. I've moved it forward so any DPs/Cinematographers, etc. can chime in with their thoughts on the Blackmagic CC2.5K.

Hi Adan, I noticed no one else had replied to this so thought I'd drop in. I've worked a bit with this camera over the past couple of years and now that the RAW cinema DNG files work natively within Premiere Pro it's possible to have a pretty straightforward work flow. When correctly exposed and focused the raw shots are wonderful with a high dynamic range (that being it retains tonnes of information in the shadows/highlights). Working outdoors though, I would strongly suggest rigging it to the extent where you at least have an external monitor. The one built into the camera is extremely difficult to view in sunlight and you will definitely want some additional means for doing that. As with my approach to any cinema camera, recording externally via something like a Zoom H4N is a must. It breaks my heart to see people linking audio directly into DSLRs JUST BECAUSE it has an input for it. The audio quality of the mic on the BMCC is absolutely dreadful but that should never be a reason to avoid using it, because as I said it would be preferable to record externally anyway. As for low-light shots - this has always been one of the downsides to the camera. In a situation where you don't have access to fast lenses and are forced to shoot in low-lit places you will experience a terrible amount of fixed pattern noise. The quality of the picture is significantly reduced. There have been a number of successful tests conducted by video bloggers which demonstrate the best quality from the camera can be achieved by over exposing the shot somewhat and taking advantage of RAW recover to bring back the highlights - This removes the risk of FPN. If you can use in well-lit locations and/or with sufficiently fast lenses then noise shouldn't be an issue for you. There is perhaps just one more thing to consider, which you hadn't asked in your post, which is the cropped sensor. Unlike most DSLRs which are at a crop of 1.6x (APS-C) or full frame, I do believe the BMCC is about 2.5x, which effectively increases your focal length and hinders your access to shallow depth of field. This may not be an issue to you unless specifically looking to record at super-wide focal lengths where you may need to find lenses sub 16mm....

Hi Adan, I made this feature film with the bmcc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU63Y_dMaLA I filmed everything at native iso 800 using samyang lenses, most of the time wide open at t 1.5, raw format, you can overexpose up to 2 stop in post. I exposed almost everything to the right (ETTR). Audio: we had a boom operator recording on a zoom H4n. Rig: any shoulder rig works fine, but you need a good EVF and a good monitor. I use the atomos shogun for my 1st AC and a Gratical HD for me. If you still have to buy it, get the MFT version and use EF lenses with Metabones Speed Booster. Ciao

Nice trailer Roberto, great picture quality

thanks

Love the cam, lots of light, prime lenses, zoom recorder, and raw....