Not many people were given early access to the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, and most of the footage has actually come from John Brawley, who is an Australian DP that has been working with Blackmagic to develop the camera. Besides Vincent Laforet, one of the bigger names in the DSLR/camera reviewing world to get an early unit is Philip Bloom. Now, the review many have been waiting for is finally online -- with loads of new footage and a truly in-depth review of all of the positives and negatives of the long-awaited Cinema Camera.
First, here's a bit of footage he posted online before the review. If you already know all of the positives and negatives of the camera, checking out this bit of ProRes footage first might be right up your alley. Be sure to download it for the best quality:
Here is the review. You might want to grab a coffee (or two), as it weighs in at almost 45 minutes. This one is also available for download, and I would recommend going that route as you'll get a better sense of the quality of the footage contained in the review:
Well, if you do watch the whole review -- and it's certainly worth it -- he details literally everything about using the camera. The big issues that need to be addressed for me are the f-stop readings and the fact that you can't delete clips or format the SSD. I would love phantom power, but those two issues are really huge and they actually impede your shooting in a lot of ways. We've literally discussed all of the other things about the camera, from the wide lens selection, to the design, to the external power issue, but not knowing your f-stop is a bit of an issue (even though I'll be using mostly manual Nikon lenses with the camera).
As for the other things that aren't implemented in the first firmware, DNxHD and image stabilization are both absent. These aren't crucial for me, but I know for some they will be very important. Now that we've said all of that, this is still an amazing deal at $3,000 for the image quality coming out of this camera (plus the expensive software included). It cannot be stressed enough that a RAW file from this camera will blow away all video DSLRs in existence. It's just a fact of having high dynamic range with a proper recording format.
I personally have been waiting for a camera like this to give me this kind of image quality sub-$5,000. I'm willing to deal with the issues considering the cost, and I feel like it's going to be a very similar situation to RED owners: deal without a few features now and they will all come in future firmware upgrades or future models.
What do you guys think?
Link: Video review of the BlackMagic Cinema Camera!! -- Philip Bloom
