Cinematography : Seeking advice about BlackMagic Cinema Camera by Debbi Mack

Love it. Just shot my new feature on Black Magic - www.vimeo.com/ondemand/lackofcockery

Hi Debbi, Blackmagic comes with your choice of lens mount. EF mount would be wiser choice if you would like to use canon lenses. Depending on your budget you will have a lot of options to have your lens kit. So far rokinon lenses are the good and cheap ones, you can buy a set of rokinon cinema lenses around $2200. Canons are quite expensive. Also if you would like to go higher quality lenses I definitely suggest you to buy the zeiss package. This package will cost you around $6000 yet it's really comes cheap if you consider the quality of that lenses. They are having exactly the same glass with CP2 lenses which will cost you over $20000 for a set.

Before you spend money on a camera and lenses; its not the particular equipment choice that makes the difference. A DSLR with good fast glass in the hands of someone who can tell a great story visually, can be more compelling than a story poorly told using an Arri Alexa. Cameras change so rapidly these days, renting or borrowing a camera and lenses may be a far better way to go at least initially.

This is all great food for thought. Thanks for your responses. Someone recommended the BlackMagic Cinema Camera with Passive MFT Mount to me a few months ago. Now, it looks like one can use a variety of lenses with different mounts on it. As a newbie to photography, I'm a bit confused. At the same time, I hate to rent when I can buy. Is there a less expensive camera you'd recommend? I'm initially shooting videos, but would like to eventually make indie films.

It can be confusing and camera bodies change every year as new innovations and features are added. They all have their pluses and minuses. Lenses are arguably more important. A set of high quality fast primes can cost thousands. At the end of the day a camera is just a tool, its the person wielding it that creates imagery that "speaks" to you. "feeling" what the camera wants to see and how it wants to see it; that's the brass ring. So rather than recommend a specific camera, I would say learn the artistry, get to know some shooters in your area and see if they are willing to let you learn from them and learn various rigs and gear. Then you can make an informed decision about what you need. Also take a look here http://www.hollywoodcamerawork.us/mc_index.html it is a great resource for cinematography and more. I highly recommend it.

Thanks for your recommendations, Dave! :)

Alle, great spot on analysis!

Thanks so much, Alle! Very helpful.

Regardless of the camera, you need a lens that has a perspective that matches your mental image when you think of things. Many pictures have been made with one lens shooting all or almost all of the picture. What that lens is, is up to you and your imagination and your bank account. A more generalized approach will be to have a normal lens, a wide angle lens and a telephoto lens or a zoom that covers all of those options and doesn’t give up too much in quality. While different lenses have different characteristics, there is no one lens that is the “best” one to buy. The Blackmagic Cinema Camera is a rather odd product, with an odd sensor size. At this point the BlackMagic 4K would seem to make more sense in almost every consideration, particularly longevity as a viable camera at just a little more cost. If you have not used one of these, then do so before you buy. The DSLR inspired layout and ergonomics are annoying and there may still be unaddressed image issues to work around. Make sure that the additional equipment you will have to buy is broadly interchangeable with other cameras. Not just lenses, where PL mount is the industry standard, but EVF’s recorders, monitors, support gear etc. BlackMagic cameras are quite inexpensive and they show it in some areas. Absolutely buy it if you have projects to use it on and the rate you will get or assign as rental for the duration of the projects plus a LOW resale value when you are done is greater than the cost of the camera. If you cannot make the numbers work in your favor then you and only you can decide whether owning a camera is a good choice for you. Too often the current crop of “film-makers” seem to be looking for a camera they read about on the web and a warm body who can turn it on. If you own that camera then you are in a good position to make some money from their combination of lack of knowledge + ego . If you are buying the camera only as an investment and not to use yourself, without a few guaranteed projects, you will be hard pressed to make the investment pay off.

Thanks to all for your comments. I've gotten in touch with someone who's talked to me about this. If not for Stage 32, I wouldn't have known about him. So, this social forum is awesome! :)

If your after budget solutions I can highly recommend the rokinon lenses. As for the cameras. Well the pocket is a 16mm frame so think of old super 16 film stock ( Films like Black Swan, The hurt locker etc). Getting shallow depths of field will be very hard to achieve though. It is possible., Theres also the speed booster which will make the frame act like s35 with a nikon mount that will give you the larger frame and shalloweer DOF possibilities. The 2.5k camera is brilliant. I love it. If you want to see some examples of whats possible look at Frank Glencairns work. People go on about crop factors and the like yet the sensor is the same size as the Panasonic AF100 which was used to shoot The Raid and the BMCC is a far better camera in terms of image and rolling shutter. I am now using a 4K with the global shutter. I think the image out of the 2.5k is better but I have to do some live event run and gun reporting and having the global shutter is brilliant. Don't just think of them as a raw camera only the pro res codecs are incredible and having used an Alexa in Pro Res I was blown away by the quality of the lower cost cameras. There is some FPN in the 4K when recording at 800 iso and it starts heating up. I've also seen FPN in RED mysteriums and Alexas as well. The one thing to remember though is, these are not low light monsters like the dslrs. You will have a camera that is better in lowlight then many Digital cameras that were used in the past but it is one that Cinematography craft should really be invested in. The dynamic range allows you to pull so much detail out and matched with a good color grading software (which comes free with it) the results are stunning.

Thanks! I appreciate your thoughts.

I'm interested in all types of filmmaking, but I meant "indie" as in non-studio films.