NAB: A Look Back
In recent years NAB has provided much excitement to the budget filmmaker. Two years ago Blackmagic Design surprised all with its cinema camera, the first affordable RAW-shooting camera within the grasp of consumers. Although it took a year to reach consumers and had (and still has) some big flaws, the image quality surely didn't disappoint. Last year Blackmagic shocked everyone again announcing a pocket version of the cinema camera and a 4K production camera, before its original camera was even widely available.
With Panasonic already announcing the GH4, perhaps something new up Blackmagic's sleeve, and hopes that Canon and Sony would serve up some juicy new 4K cameras, NAB 2014 looked to be the most exciting show in years.
Where We Were Before NAB
When we talk about high-end, budget digital cinema the choice of cameras is somewhat limited, especially if we demand more than what most DSLRs have to offer. Up until NAB, here's what we had to choose from:
• Blackmagic Cinema Camera 2.5K: With pricing now under $2,000 the BMCC is still one of the top choices for a truly cinematic image. It's the 13 stops of dynamic range and 12-bit RAW that really makes this camera shine despite it's ergonomic issues, crop sensor, mediocre low-light ability and poor sound options. For a cheap Alexa-like image this camera is still tough to beat.
• Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera: Priced at under $1000, this camera has essentially all of the same advantages and disadvantages as its bigger brother but in a smaller package and with a sensor with an even higher crop factor. It's image, though, is very similar to the BMCC 2.5K.
•Blackmagic Production Camera 4K: At $3000, this camera, announced last year at NAB and promised last July, has just started shipping. Nothing else on the market can shoot RAW 4K for less money. Well, in reality this camera still doesn't show RAW; it's been promised, but the firmware update still hasn't come. I was very excited about this camera when it was announced. With a Super 35 sensor, global shutter, and 4K, this seemed like a huge upgrade from the BMCC on paper. I'm just not that impressed with the image. Sure, it captures detail marginally better, but it is even worse in low light, has fixed pattern noise, loses a stop of dynamic range, and still has the same terrible ergonomics as the original. By the time this camera even gets RAW, it'll probably be obsolete. Sadly I think the original still retains the image quality crown in the Blackmagic family.
• Canon C100: Costing over twice as much as the BMCC 2.5K, the C100 provides a very crisp 1080p image captured from a 4K sensor, performs well in low light, and trounces any Blackmagic offering when it comes to ergonomics and sound. The codec just doesn't hold up to RAW and the image doesn't look nearly as cinematic as what any of the Blackmagic cameras can produce. Even the much more expensive C300 is only slight more cinematic thanks to its more robust codec.
• Sony FS700: Even more expensive than the C100 the FS700 can capture RAW 4K (with prohibitively expensive add-ons), but I feel that the image is the most "digital-looking" of any of the competition. Honestly, I think the C100's 24Mbps AVCHD looks more like film than 4K on the FS700.
• Panasonic GH4: Announced before NAB, but still not shipping, the $1600, 4K-shooting GH4 looks to be quite impressive. Forget 1080p mode on this camera as downscaled 4K blows it away. The GH4 captures 4:2:0 4K, which downscales to 4:2:2 1080p. So far what I've seen looks great and it seems to perform well in low light, but I think dynamic range is lacking a bit. I'm not a big fan of the MFT sensor, but if an EF to MFT SpeedBooster is actually ever announced, it would surely make this camera much more enticing to me, especially with its uncompressed 4:2:2 10-bit 4K over HDMI and the newly announced Atomos Shogun 4K recorder.
• RED Scarlet X: With add-ons necessary to even use this camera, it is much more expensive than the competition, but perhaps still at the very high end of what we can call low-budget cinema. It's Mysterium X sensor is the same used in the RED Epic, a camera which has shot quite a few Hollywood blockbusters. The RED Scarlet's image is quite impressive and detailed and it's sensor's "Hollywood pedigree" it's hard to say that it doesn't look damn cinematic. In reality, only the Alexa can produce a more cinematic image in my opinion.
NAB
Now with NAB in full swing, the waters of this in-between consumer and high-end professional camera market have become more murky, with no clear standouts emerging as in previous years. So far, I haven't been wowed.
• Sony a7s: On paper this camera sounds pretty amazing. A 12-megapixel sensor with 1:1 4K readout and no pixel-binning (leading to huge pixels for unbelievable low light performance and minimal moire/aliasing), self-proclaimed excellent dynamic range (no actual number of stops given yet), and full-frame sensor are some pretty impressive specs. Some of the drawbacks though are that it only records 1080p internally. A 4K HDMI recorder like the Atomos Shogun is required for 4K capture. And the 4K out is only 8-bit unlike the GH4, which is 10-bit. I love full-frame for photos, but I think it is overkill for video. Super 35 allows for wide enough shots with the range of great lenses currently available without too-shallow of a depth of field. Trying to keep things in focus a large apertures on a full frame camera while trying to capture all the detail of 4K is much more difficult as compared to the 1.6X crap factor of Super 35. Only a couple same videos from this camera have been released thus far and to my eyes the results are very digital, much more so than even the FS700. This will be a great, perhaps legendary, camera for documentaries or travel videos, but not for cinematic narrative.
• Kinefinity KineMini: Spec-wise, this camera is similar to the BMPC 4K and priced similarly. Nothing about the image from this camera blows me away or provides any real advantage over Blackmagic's offerings and it needs even more accessories to begin shooting.
• AJA Cion 4K: I have yet to see any images from this $9,000 camera that seems again to have similar specs to the BMPC 4K. It's unclear yet if it will record RAW and some have speculated that it's the same sensor as the BMPC 4K (it's certainly the exact same specs), plus it's only PL mount. This camera is not really on my radar.
• Blackmagic URSA and Studio Camera: The URSA is a more expensive BMPC 4K in a large, unwieldy package, aimed at larger film crews. It has some audio features that would have been nice in the older Blackmagic cameras, but other than that it's useless for the indie filmmaker. The Studio Cameras are for, as the name implies, for studio use...nothing I'm interested in as they are essentially the older cameras repackaged in a form-factor for something like a news program.
Sadly this year I haven't seen anything exciting or anything that can really blow two year old cameras like the BMCC or RED Scarlet out of the water. The BMCC 2.5K would still be the ideal camera, in my opinion, but 4K is the future. The BMCC produces an excellent image, but I wish it were a little more future-proof and that I could grab up some of that additional detail found in 4K.
Here's my current ranking for cinematic "budget" cameras if you're looking for the best film-like image quality (I'll update this article if anything new is announced during NAB):
1. RED Scarlet: + 4K, RAW, great dynamic range. - Expensive, but the real deal.
2. BMCC 2.5K: + RAW, great dynamic range. - All the flaws listed above, annoying crop factor, no 4K.
3. BM Pocket Cam: + RAW, great dynamic range. - All the flaws of the BMCC plus even greater crop factor, poor active EF lens compatibility.
4. GH4: + 10-bit 4:2:2 options, 4K, decent low-light. - Crop factor, mediocre dynamic range, poor active EF lens compatibility.
5. C100: + Built in ND, Super 35 senor, great in low light. - Mediocre dynamic range, digital-looking image, poor codec.
6. BMPC 4K: + 4K, RAW (sometime), Super 35 sensor. - Very poor in low light, fixed pattern noise, all the drawback of BMCC form-factor.
7. Sony a7s: + 4K option, 4:2:2 option, great in low light. - Very digital-looking image, no 10-bit color, full-frame
8. FS700: + 4K option, RAW option. - Too expensive for what you get, digital-looking image
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