Anyone using the L mount Blackmagic cameras?

[texandrews]

Just got the 6K FF after the price drop. All thoughts appreciated.

 

[PJD]

I love my S5iiX, but as a longtime former Blackmagic camera owner, I _really_ miss BRAW. (High quality 12-bit video even at relatively low data rates.) I’m tempted to get a BMD Cinema Camera 6K L-mount at the new lower price (and keep my S5iiX). My wife will kill me if I buy another camera. BTW, the add-on EVF for the CC6K, which I’d love to get also, is $555! Fortunately the camera’s built-in articulated LCD is big & bright. As with my previous BMD cameras, I’d even occasionally use it to capture STILLS using its time lapse mode and highest quality BRAW mode; e.g. infinite burst mode. Thinking …………..

Blackmagic Cinema Camera | Blackmagic Design

 

[texandrews]

I love my S5iiX, but as a longtime former Blackmagic camera owner, I _really_ miss BRAW. (High quality 12-bit video even at relatively low data rates.) I’m tempted to get a BMD Cinema Camera 6K L-mount at the new lower price (and keep my S5iiX). My wife will kill me if I buy another camera. BTW, the add-on EVF for the CC6K, which I’d love to get also, is $555! Fortunately the camera’s built-in articulated LCD is big & bright. As with my previous BMD cameras, I’d even occasionally use it to capture STILLS using its time lapse mode and highest quality BRAW mode; e.g. infinite burst mode. Thinking …………..

Blackmagic Cinema Camera | Blackmagic Design

I got the EVF. Well worth it, IMO. Even helpful with a handheld cage in certain instances---necessary with a shoulder rig. Your comments about time lapse and infinite burst modes have got me thinking....

 

[PJD]

I got the EVF. Well worth it, IMO. Even helpful with a handheld cage in certain instances---necessary with a shoulder rig. Your comments about time lapse and infinite burst modes have got me thinking....

Yes, Blackmagic's EVF for the Cinema Camera 6K is very tempting. Interestingly, it previously sold for $495 US, but now the price is $60 higher. Possibly its components increased in cost (tariffs?), but the camera's components apparently decreased in cost. I like the EVF's small size, easy-to-attach design, and relatively good image for the price. I'll give it further thought.

Meanwhile, concerning using the camera's timelapse mode for shooting individual stills, and bursts of stills:

In previous versions of Blackmagic's camera firmware, when you pressed its STILL button, their cameras would record a 1-frame DNG image (possibly at the camera's current VIDEO resolution settings; I can't remember). In any event, you couldn't "play" (view) the DNG still on the cameras' LCD or external monitor.

In the current firmware, the STILL button records a 1-frame BRAW image (I don't know at what resolution or BRAW compression level). But even though it's a BRAW frame, I don't know if you can view it on the LCD or external monitor. The current user manual isn't clear on this point. What do you see there?

The advantage of using the camera's timelapse mode to record stills is that the timelapse _can_ be played/viewed on the LCD and via an external monitor. (But maybe the current firmware makes this a moot point if its STILL feature can play/view stills. I don't have a camera to test this.)

I created a preset for my cameras named "STILLS" to record in timelapse mode, highest-quality BRAW Constant Quality "Q0", full-resolution, ISO 200, "Shutter Speed" mode, and maybe a default shutter of 1/200th sec and IRIS f5.6 (or whatever), and probably also defaults for WB, AF, etc. These can be changed on the fly before pressing the regular RECORD button to start & stop the timelapse/burst. I also created presets for my most common VIDEO recording modes. A nice thing about Blackmagic cameras is that they can switch between presets pretty fast.

 

[PJD]

You may already know this, but a tip concerning when a Blackmagic camera is in "Shutter Speed" mode (not "Shutter Angle" mode): If you double-tap the value displayed between the "< >" brackets, you can set the Shutter Speed to be as brief as 1/5,000th sec. At least, this is how it worked 2 years ago when I last owned one of their cameras; I don't know about the current firmware. I'm curious to know if this is still possible. Note: This value interacts with the camera's current frame rate setting. The higher the frame rate, the shorter the possible shutter exposure value.

 

[texandrews]

I will check this, thank you.