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Anyone who has used Sony cameras since the Sony EX1 will be familiar with Alister Chapman. If not, you've just been introduced. As he is somewhat of an authority on XDCAM™ I tend to reference his web and blog sites fairly regularly.
A recent experience I had with a client led me to recall one of Alister's blogs "the cost of being a freelancer". As a mere upstart to the great man I cannot compare. What I took from the post is that it happens to the best and their reactions are no different than how we would feel. Most important though was that he did not embarrass his client by naming them but used the piece as an educational tool to inform that his time is equally as valuable as any organisation's.
In my spectrum of the industry I work with a fair share of new 'starts-ups' across various professions and services. Variations and amendments in service requests occur frequently. It's part of the business. Would some advance notice not be the minimum one should expect to allow diaries and travel arrangements to be reorganised?
Back in April '15 we acquired an original Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera (BMCC).
Despite all the advice to the contrary - not suitable for run and gun, dodgy reflective monitor screen, black spot, poor battery life, etc. ... we brought one! Why? The discounted new price to £1k plus VAT and the full Davinci Resolve 11 software packaged with it. A 'no brainer' really.
This video is the first test of the camera back in April. To say I was rather pleased and pleasantly surprised by the results would be an understatement. This camera rocked! So much so that when I saw the 4k version in June with a similar price point I nabbed me a bargain too. Albeit that Resolve™ wasn't enclosed in the "customer returned goods" package. (Never mind the guys at Proav did good and sent version 10 which I stuck to a promise and presented the software and dongle to a collab colleague).
The clip you see here s only processed with the native BM rec709 LUT and some additional exposure curve in Resolve™.
We shot a budget music video with the 4k using the 422 (HQ) setting. In comparison I must say that the 'creaminess' of the 2.5k's footage and being able to readily use the raw files with current hardware tips the balance in its favour for me.
Both cameras are the EF mount versions and work well with all the lenses I have. Canon 24mm and 35mm primes work well with the cropped sensor 2.5k as do the the Tokina 11-16mm and Canon 16-35 and 24-70 zooms. Love the 50mm 1.4 on the full frame 4k and the 85mm gives the most amazing DoF. All lenses work well with the focus assist.
Tip for these cameras - external monitor, external battery adapter and ND filters make these good to go and all accessories anyone who rigged out their Canons should have to hand.
The Ursa mini seems to be a major improvement over both. Watch this space.
Davinci Resolve itself is amazing and I am not sure why I've taken this long to adopt it. That being said as soon as I get to grips with v11 out comes v12 upgrade and some of the familiarity has been lost. But I'll stick with the learning curve as it's well worth it.
