I did it
I sold my fs5 mark to my item is
recorder and I bought a Blackmagic
pocket Cinema Camera I didn't even want
to talk about it until I got at least
one or two shoots under my belt but now
it's time to give you guys the truth do
I regret it stay tuned...
what's going on guys if this is your
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let's just get right into it let's talk
about the reasons as to why I purchased
the fs5 we have a company where we do a
lot of corporate video we do mostly
corporate video mostly Talking Heads
b-roll every now and then we do some
running gun stuff we may do some car
videos or things like that but we bought
fs5 we had a mark 1 and a mark 2 for its
portability for its handheld miss and
quality that's why we bought it really
cheap inexpensive media decent picture
you know pretty decent picture the fs5
is good at a lot of things but it's not
great at nothing it's not the smallest
camera it's not the best image quality
it's not the best codec it's not the you
know most compact it's just not great at
nothing other than an indie filter but
we'll get to that later but we bought it
because they were inexpensive we can put
three or four of them in a box over on
our cases we can travel with it we can
get fairly decent images but there were
some things that were starting to bother
me about the fs5 one I will tell you I
used to have a a 6500 that image quality
was just as good if not better when we
purchase a 7 RS for the photography side
that image quality was better now
there's a lot of reasons for that and
when I say better I mean straight out of
the camera better I don't mean tweak and
pull and punch dealing with data however
straight out of the camera great it was
better it was night and day difference
low-light a 7r and the a 6500 kind of
whooped on the FS 5 I mean it did whup
on emphasize not even kind it waxed the
FS 5 in low light autofocus things like
that things you wouldn't think a $12.99
you know a 6500 should even be able to
do however to me when I see those things
it's kind of the writing on the wall
that is time to move on
two different equipment it's time to
upgrade and I am a firm believer of
moving bodies while they're still
relevant
I learned this by moving a fs700 as soon
as the fs5 was announced and thank God
because I still got five six thousand
for it and as soon as the fs5 drops the
prices went down to three thousand so I
end up making an extra two thousand and
at that time I went and bought two 4k
Blackmagic production camera we'll get
to that in a minute because that
experience almost prevented me from
going back to black magic we'll talk
about that in a minute for me to get
quality in the video production world it
is a arms race at time for quality and
not just a super great image but a
specific type of image corporate clients
are starting to look for more cinematic
images and that's great what a DSLR you
can work hard to achieve this with the
right camera you can point and just
capture it and then tweak it and make it
better and do what you need to do so our
goal was how can we get more cinematic
images without giving up what we love
about the fs5 the small size the
handheld nosov it though we have plans
on purchasing a Ursa mini g2 right now a
couple of Blackmagic pocket Cinema
cameras may do for what we need on paper
there were some things that we really
liked about as far as the raw capability
as far as the size still getting 120
frames and HD you're still getting 4k
you're getting 12 bit raw without a
clunky atomist recorder Ling the top of
your supposedly little camera down so
it's just a pain when you're dealing
with the fs5 and you've got this huge
7-inch adamant recorder with a cage
that's heavy
it's a power hungry beast you got to
find a way to power it you know you got
it pretty much as V mount the whole
setup because the camera can run on a
day off a sony battery however the the
recorder is huge and they didn't and up
until recently come out with a 5-inch
version and you still have to
by an adapter to get SDI connections so
those things were a pain when using the
FS 5 and still when you use it with that
you you're not getting 12 bit unless
you're doing cinema DNG pro res raw is
good I have nothing against it other
than it's only available in Final Cut
Pro and for serious color grading we're
dumping to differential resolved and
we'll get into that later however that
was a deciding factor for whether or not
I wanted to continue to move with the FS
5 and let's be very clear and honest if
you're holding on to a FS 5 it's a
moment the a7 s3 drop the value of your
camera is going to die simply because I
can guarantee you that that camera will
happy 10-bit internal maybe 12 bit maybe
14 bit external and because the FS 5 is
only 8-bit internal and 4k and Tim bit
and 1080p it's nothing to think about
it's not even close yeah you can say oh
the audio features are great and that's
one thing I do love about the cameras
the XLR is the great audio features but
the autofocus can't keep up with a 7-3
right now the low-light can't keep up
with a 7-3 right now as soon as the a7
s3 drop the FS 5 is dead listen to me
you're gonna cut what you can get for
the the value of the camera completely
in half when that camera drops and I
don't want to be holding on to old
technology when that happens I you know
you pay good money for these cameras you
get good money using these cameras and
they pay for themselves you still want
to get a reasonable offer for the
cameras go search for fs700 right now
they're for sale for crazy prices and
people don't want them yeah you can put
an adapter and get great 4k but for what
when I can get an a 6500 and get 4k out
of it you're right it's almost not the
same that you're talking about 8-bit
versus you know 12 bit however to most
people who are doing simple head shots
they don't care smaller cameras are
always better because you can do more
with them you can accessorize and more
Jumbo's are cheaper
lenses are cheaper things are cheaper
for smaller camera it's just where the
market is going for a large chunk of
people not everybody specifically for
what we do we were looking for something
different so again why the Blackmagic
pocket Cinema Camera why not the g h5
why not other cameras there's a few
reasons the big reasons is Blackmagic
Raw that's a huge factor the look of the
camera 12 bit internally without no
bulky recorder a monitor is fine I'm
okay with that if you rig it right you
may not need a monitor a majority of
what we do is on tripod so we have
monitors but the monitor on the back of
it is excellent but I can strip all that
out and still do it I can't strip a fs5
down to the complete box with the lens
and still capture 12 bit raw footage
only 8-bit 4k and it's just not
acceptable anymore the cinematic look of
the camera the color of the camera the
color science with the camera how
aggressive black magic is for updates
with their newer cameras I'm sorry uh
Ursa 4k for 0.6 K owners you guys are
getting no love right now hopefully
they'll do something to change it but
dual native is old things like that
phantom power XLR now it is a downgrade
so to speak for audio but not that much
of a downgrade there's things you can do
to over compensate or compensate or make
these cameras even in that area but for
me the price allowed me to sell it FS 5
for around 3 grand by a Blackmagic
pocket for $12.99 and spend the rest of
that money accessorizing it adding the
things that we need to make it more than
functional so it was a no-brainer to go
with that particular camera over other
particular cameras and we looked at X
cams and 10 affinities and things like
that that were I just I'm not gonna say
I need to see more from them before make
a decision but I felt like especially
talking to the companies at NAB and
owning a Blackmagic before I felt like
Blackmagic pocket Cinema Camera
were the way to go now I own a 4k
production camera back in the day and
there were things I loved about it there
were things I hated about it but 50% of
the issue that I had with the camera
looking back was myself not
understanding what a cinema camera is
comparing it to a video camera not being
ready to get my hands dirty enough in my
craft to deal with flat log data rich
footage a lot of people see the end
result from cinema cameras and they want
that instantly and they don't understand
it's not a video camera
you're not going to point drag your file
to a timeline and it's gonna look like
that no it is up to the artist to create
the image based off the canvas the
cinema camera job is to provide you with
a data rich canvas in order to do your
thing and if you're not ready to learn
how to do your thing if you think you're
going to slap some let's on it these
cameras are not for you just because
it's in your price range
these cameras are not for you if you're
mad about the fact that you've got to
add a battery solution an don't got no
autofocus these cameras are not for you
there isn't a cinema camera on the
market that doesn't require a whole lot
of stuff they're just giving you the
brain you're getting a lot for your
money especially with this and if you
think it's going to compare with the a
6500 a 7s o 5d this camera is not for
you
again this camera is for those who want
to spend a little more time at the
computer pulling out Reds popping
skylines doing things like that to
create a stellar image you have to think
like that before you purchase this
camera the camera is not going to
straight out give you a great image when
I bought the 4k production cameras I
didn't get that I was coming from video
cameras rec.709 it looks fine you know
we can edit it you notice that the other
eye was not prepared for that you know
those things like really bad low-light
it was black sun issues was things like
that that turned me off from the camera
and I sold them and went got a 6,500
and was happy to go lucky however I've
grown a lot since then I understand what
I want and this camera is now perfect
for where I am in my life cycle or video
production maturity level that's
something that's extremely important
that you don't jump into this thinking
oh we're gonna have great images we're
gonna compete with a read all the
footage normally looks good from Ridge
not because of just the camera but
people who are willing to invest 10 20
30 40 50 thousand dollars into that
equipment have had the training and
education to be able to maximize that
equipment if you're coming from a 5d
mark ii you're not there yet not all the
time but normally you're not there yet
so let's talk about the pros and cons of
each camera and one thing I'm going to
be honest with you off rip that I'm
going to miss about the fs5 the number
one thing is the electronic ND filter
man I cannot tell you how much I love
that thing because you could slap on any
lens get shallow depth of field and the
way they worked it out where it was Auto
you can go indoor that is I don't
understand why I hadn't made it to the
fs7 mark 2 3 whatever that will probably
be in a 7 s especially if it's on all
the time let's say it's on and it's at
0.1 the a7 s is so good and low-light
you probably wouldn't notice unlike some
cameras that really need the direct
light on the sensor the a7 s so probably
you you wouldn't even notice it so that
is a major feature that I will miss but
there's things you can do to get around
that you can get adapters that go from
micro four-thirds to EF that have
built-in ND filters you can slap an ND
filter on the front of your lens what
we're doing is we're going matte box
just to get rid of glare all together
because we've had some issues with glare
in the past the form factor for the FS 5
was perfect that handheld approach that
you can just hold it here and get good
shots the audio was excellent in the FS
5 not onboard audio you know connecting
to XLR mic to it the built-in apps and
things like that were great with the FS
5 never complained about audio ever the
cons with the FS 5 what's the codecs 8
bit it was great in the beginning but it
sucked n bit 1080p and a lot of people
say I don't use you need all that for I
want the data because I want to tweak
the image I want to customize the image
I want to pull and shift colors and
things like that
the data it's important to me now the
Sony's were having an issue with skin
tone you can get the skin tones right on
a Sony I'm not taking that in a way they
just took more work than with other
cameras if you have a Sony don't sit
here and think oh my colors all jacked
up caning better color science whatever
that's bull because you can edit and
change all the color you want within the
camera and that's what we did to get the
look that we want but it just took work
it's difficult to do that work on an
8-bit coda compared to the 12 bit code
in so I'm not going to get into our
setup here today because I have a
special video coming that talks about
what we did to set up our Blackmagic
pocket Cinema Camera but I was able to
use it on a shoot last weekend in
Houston I was even able to stop in
Galveston and get some great shots of
the beach just a test dynamic range and
I'm gonna be very blunt and honest with
you I love it I love the Blackmagic
pocket Cinema Camera I love you I love
the color I love the dynamic range
I love the functionality I love the menu
I love the camera itself now you have to
add stuff to it to get it the way you
want it and that's fine with me I got a
bunch of accessories I like customizing
and tweaking things to work better for
the jobs that I have and I don't miss my
offense five at all I don't miss it I
miss the nd filters that's it getting
used to going to micro four-thirds is
different if you don't have a speed
booster it is a super cropped image
however it's not that bad
where you gonna be like oh I gotta put
the camera way back the camera now is
not even armed Lintz away and I got a
pretty decent lens on it
getting a pretty decent shot that was
the biggest thing for me and I am ok
with it after working with an on-the-job
micro four-thirds is not as bad as you
think it is coming from full frame
uniform full frame I was shooting a
7-iron I bought a different a few
different adapters filtrexx
metal bones a non speed boosted adapter
I had a chance to play around with it
I'm familiar with using metal bones
adapters I like you I still got a lot of
EF glass that's cinema like broken ons
and things like that so those are the
lenses that I plan on using on this body
I like it I think the image is beautiful
like some of the things you
do it I just couldn't do with my fs5
even using my adamance recorder it was
difficult to do and like I said you're
limited so much with this big old 7-inch
thing just yanking on your little you
know quarter inch screw that's on top of
your your FS father's already little and
you got this big O's it was just a lot
and it was just a lot and I got tired of
it I got tired of running through
batteries I got tired of running through
hard drives and things like the fact
that I can record onto a solid-state
drive using the USB see like that is as
mind-blowing people don't often talk
about the fact that you can record them
to an SD card and still capture raw like
ten to one or something eight the one
raw that is mind-blowing that those
little things that Blackmagic thought
about when they made this camera it's
just a 2019 camera and I felt like the
FS 5 is a 2014 13 2012 camera the sensor
is old it was just time to move on I am
100% happy that I'm moving on if you're
holding on to it FS 5 and you're
thinking about it do it flip it look at
about 3000 buy you a Blackmagic pocket
Cinema Camera buy your cage buy your
handle do what you got to do you will be
happy with the image that you get out of
it the onboard audio that I'm using now
it's pretty freakin decent you can run
one power XLR port which is cool cuz I
mean if you're running a powered
microphone how often are you running too
rarely are you running - I'm usually
running a shotgun mic and that's it for
two laugh mics that are powered what's
dope about it is you can run a laugh mic
to the XLR or you can get a three and a
half jacks splitter which makes it left
and right and run to left mics into that
and still be able to control each one
still record to each separate channel on
the camera that is dope don't these guys
at Blackmagic are thinking they're
thinkers and they're giving it to you
fast they're giving it to you with
updates I am extremely happy with my
purchase I'm extremely happy with the
image I'm extremely happy with the fact
that I can capture stereo sound onboard
if I'm doing some b-roll or something
I'm extremely happy with the onboard
News I love this camera and it has
become my favorite video camera I have
no regrets whatsoever
I love DaVinci Resolve and it's
something that I'm forcing myself to use
and it's been hard because a lot of
pre-made title effects and transitions
are in Final Cut Pro but if I want to
keep using Final Cut Pro I can just
shoot in pro res however I love
Blackmagic raw
I love the multiple different flavors
that give you I love what you can do
with it how I can pull it into DaVinci
Resolve and change my ISO and I'm
starting to develop a bigger and better
relationship with DaVinci Resolve
because I believe inevitably you're
gonna be on in DaVinci Resolve I think
Apple needs to do more with its color
grading part and they need to do more
with motion to even compete with what
DaVinci Resolve is giving you for free
with this camera fair light is awesome
things like image stabilization and
noise reduction to be able to gray color
and everything right in the same
application just does it for me and the
fact that they give it to you for free
I'm just waiting on the support from
other companies to start making titles
and transitions and things like that all
the open effects plugins that are to
come when more of the outside companies
start making plug-ins for it then I
think it will blow up and take off but
fusion is so new to a lot of people I
want to learn more about it so I can do
more with it and the fact that I don't
have to leave an application I'm so used
to going to After Effects I'm a Final
Cut Pro guy I use premiere sometime it's
not my suite of choice however I love
After Effects and I use After Effects a
lot to have to jump through different
applications so it sucks let's just be
real let's just be real with each other
it sucks
to eliminate that there's a lot for me
and they've given me everything else I
could want and their updates are
bringing it all the freaking time
they're bringing it bro they're not like
when are we getting updates from Final
Cut Pro Man one a year to a year forget
to a year one of them is just like bug
fixes and the ability to turn a knob
without the mouse icon disappearing
there's always some little fix like that
there's no major updates if you look at
DaVinci Resolve 16 beta-1 and beta-2
it's completely different you wake up
one morning BAM beta
three out I'm like oh snap let me get it
so they're just making changes like
they're bringing it like they got a
bunch of guys sitting in a room bringing
it and that's I want to be with the
disrupter it's a little bit of a gamble
I want to be with the disrupter because
those guys get it they're listening
that's why I switch to Sony and that's
why I switch to black magic so Sony is
still my photography camera of choice
for video I had to go with black magic
and like I said if you have an F s5 if
you got you're thinking about it man do
it
so that way you can still get something
for that camera because as soon as they
drop the fs5 mark 3 and it's 4k 10-bit
internal or the a7 s mark 3 and it's 4k
timbre and you know internal that $5,000
camera that you can now get about 3
grand for you're gonna be begging to get
2 for it kind of like a 4k production
camera right now you just can't it's
just not the market isn't great for it
but I tell you last video mariya lenses
date the bodies sometimes they don't
work out with the body sometimes you
have fun with the bodies play around
with it a few nights and you've like
alright you gotta go so it happens
sometimes you just got a pretty got a
breakup anyway if you like this video
man hit the thumbs up button if you
don't hit the thumbs down button twice
tell me what you think are you on the
fence about this camera do you think
it's just hype I know it's a ton of
videos on YouTube talking about this
camera but it's a beast man they did
their thing and at the price point it's
a no brainer to no brainer but I would
love to hear what you guys have to think
about it but for me for a daily talking
head corporate video on the move use I
love it skin tones look so good on it we
shot some stuff that it was just cloudy
and dark and it was just the weight
captured the clouds it's beautiful
beautiful I love this camera I've
nothing bad to say about it people cry
about battery life but I never the only
reason I used the battery is so that I
can switch out v-mount batteries I don't
that's the only reason for that battery
or a gimbal so but we'll have more
videos talking about the camera talking
about the setup what we really really
really like about so stay tuned guys and
I will see you in the next video
