Best Cinema Camera for Only $1,500!

This is my in-depth review of my new B-Cam & quite possibly my favorite camera EVER. With amazing specs, mind blowing color science, & SUPER affordable!

Now offering 1:1 Cinematography Sessions!
Whether you need help creating a look book for a director, building shot designs, tackling a tough location to light, or just want general work feedback!

CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Intro
01:13 - World's Smallest Large Format Cinema Camera
02:21 - fp vs P4K
05:07 - Real RAW
06:14 - The Fastest Mirrorless Camera
06:46 - fp vs RED Monstro
07:08 - Why Bit rate Matters
08:05 - Color Accuracy
10:04 - Picture Profiles
10:47 - Latitude Test / Dynamic Range
12:08 - Resolution & Frame Rates
14:08 - fp vs fp L
15:11 - Heat Sink
16:05 - Ergonomics
16:29 - Stills Mode
17:09 - Menus & Custom Functions
18:41 - Notable Features
19:04 - Anamorphic Hack
20:05 - GIFs!
20:14 - Battery & Power Solutions
21:19 - Best Add On
22:56 - Bonus Feature
23:23 - Pre amps
24:02 - External Recording
24:53 - Gimbal Control
25:05 - Last Words

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[leedeleon]

I'm primarily a stills photographer but I literally didn't pause this video because it was so engaging and well-made. Love the no bs approach and easy to understand explanations about bitrate and resolution. Loved it all, Justin. Looking forward to watching and learning more!

[andreas.mischok]

Great overview of the camera though I have multiple issues with how the data was presented.
Now before I get into things, let me clarify that I still think that this is a perfectly good camera and I'd be happy to add it to my equipment. That said, some things were presented in a biased way.

First of all. Color accuracy:
While you did show the chromaticty plots at 9:29 you didn't explain them in full detail.
You were happy to mention how the Sigma beats the Venice in regards to the greens, but completely ignored the fact that the Venice wins in regards to blues.
If you look at the diagram you can tell that the Sigma FP doesn't even seem to fully cover the blue range of the sRGB colourspace.
And depending on the display that you are creating content for, this might actually be more important.
If you are creating content for Rec.2020 (the large triangle in the diagram/ used by typical HDR displays), then yes... the gain in the greens is probably the more important factor. But if the content you create is for sRGB monitors (the smaller triangle / what most people on the internet have.) Then all the benefits in the greens are clipped away anyway... and you will only be left with the poor performance in regards to blue.
This is made worse by the fact that the 1931 version of the CIE diagram (the one used in the video) is biased and allocates a larger area to the green tones, exaggerating the importance of the difference in green, while undermining the importance of blue... The 1976 version of the diagram is much less biased and should be the one used in such a case.
I understand however that both the type of diagram used and omitting the blues were dictated by the source material, so I can't really blame you for that ^^
While this isn't perfect, it's not a huge deal either, since highly saturated blues are kind of rare in nature anyway. So unless you set out to capture maybe kingfishers or one of those crazy blue butterflies, the lack of extremely saturated blues won't come into play.


Bitrates / DNG RAW:
Now don't get me wrong, I think DNG raw is great, but the importance is definitely exaggerated in the video. Comparing Youtube compression to RAW compression is basically pointless.... You can't compare top end to bottom end....
It's like comparing the difference between 720p and 1080p to the difference between 6K and 8K. Like sure the former is worse than the latter (assuming all other quality determining factors remain the same) but there is a point of diminishing returns.... 8K might be more useful than 6K in extreme cases and the same is true for DNG raw, but in most cases, the extra storage needed outways the benefits. If many of Hollywood's professionals don't even bother to use the least aggressive version of the lossy compression methods but instead opt for one of medium strength (e.g. 5:1 on the Hobbit) then surely that's good enough for most of us too?

Another thing that bothers me with the bitrate comparison is that it's not clear whether the data was gathered in an unbiased way.
If you just compare filesizes in relation to clip length, then you are taking a biased approach.
Lossy RAW compression typically combines multiple algorithms, some lossy and some lossless. So the filesize does not represent the information contained in the file.
(Example for lossless algorithm.: Grouping repeated pixels can save storage without losing any information...
What needs more storage:
8x "green"
or
"green" "green" "green" "green" "green" "green" "green" "green"?)
Less abstract / real life example: The Nikon D810 can stores images as NEF-Raw or as uncompressed TIF files. (And of course JPG, but that's the bottom end, so let's ignore that.)
The NEF files need ~20mb per image while the TIF files need ~200mb.... And yet the quality of the NEF files is higher... The only reason to ever use TIFF would be edge case scenarios where you need the files to be immediately readable by any software, without having any time to manually convert the RAW files. (Maybe for the usage in the press, where time is more important than maximising quality?)
So don't estimate the bitrate of the video based on the filesize. A better method to make such comparisons, would be to first convert both source files (BRAW and DNG RAW) to uncompressed OpenEXR image sequences and compare the size of those in relation to the number of frames.

At the same time another advantage of using an uncompressed DNG Raw is overlooked in the video.
AFAIK image/video compression is actually quite a computationally heavy task, which in turn leads to a noticable hit in battery performance. I can only assume that this is at least partially the reason why the batteries of the Sony FP seem to last so much longer than those of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, despite having a smaller capacity.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Hope you enjoyed the read... 😄

[milchpulverkakao]

What i learned from watching so many videos about cameras is that it doesn’t matter what camera you have ( if it‘s somewhat good) its you who makes it

[weekendgamer]

You made me buy the camera man....got a brand new body only for just $1226 ... and an extra battery for around $30.. Awesome deal.

[colingregg]

I bought this camera the day it was released and never understood the hammering it received. It is a tremendous camera and makes shooting a pure joy. Thank you for recognising that.

[TiagoNugentComposer]

1:25 fun fact: the original name for the piano (instrument) was the fortepiano because it had much better dynamic range capability than the harpsichord, the primary keyboard instrument at the time.

[Edisonwatts]

Watching this sent me down a big rabbithole! I love watching your videos because you have so much passion and general excitement for what you do, and learning from your experiences saves me a lot of money in my decision making. Thanks for doing what you do!

[SEANLIGHTZTV]

i bought a sigma FP because of this video... a week later i got the smallrig cage.. completely rigged it out and just got a ronin SC... i'm bout to make a narrative mini series about bank fraud & the dark web. xD

[griffithtvr]

Did you forget to mention? The fp L is a little difficult to compare to anything else. Without a mechanical shutter its high resolution but slow readout sensor ends up being a little limiting in terms of what you can shoot with it (artificial lighting risks banding and any significant movement will be distorted by the rolling shutter effect). These same factors also count against it in terms of its video, even relative to its 24MP sibling

[vaylx]

Can’t believe I watched all of this. So well made, good job friend!

[mcgreevs]

This was a super fun video. Love all the care and thoughtful insights you included. You rock my friend.

[PatrickHaole]

Your knowledge/depth and amusing presentation dripping with truth wrapped sarcasm is nice. Thank you!

[Joyful-Yarn]

I think this might be one of the best videos I’ve ever watched on YouTube.

[hellopsp]

Daaaang the amount of information is insane. I love your passion for this camera. Clearly you really like it a lot

[technicolourmyles]

I definitely understand your enthusiasm and love for this camera, I get very enthusiastic about gear and topics that I love and enjoy as well, but your reasoning for why the lp "obliterates" the BMPCC4K is not completely based in reality.

BRAW is not "highly compressed" RAW. It is very lightly partially debeyared in-camera/recorder, but it's not *lossy* compression; it's lossless compression, meaning it's just a more effective way of storing the same raw bits. The only actual real-world difference coming from that partial debayering is a difference in the noise detail that is retained. The difference in detail retained is so minuscule that it simply does not matter in the real world, because it is not going to affect your colour grading even a little bit, it's not going to affect your dynamic range even a little bit, and you will not be limited in compositing the footage for heavy VFX use, either. The only scenario where this would make a difference is if all you're shooting RAW for is keeping the noise (digital noise, keep in mind) as true to the sensor data as possible. Otherwise, moot point; you're going to denoise (and regrain at the end for VFX) for final delivery and noise detail affects none of the signal integrity in the chain apart for the noise itself (again – digital, colourful noise – not film grain), and the difference will never be discernible in the slightest before punching in to 600% or above.

ProResRAW is closer to uncompressed RAW, as there is no partial debayering happening in-camera/recorder. You still get smaller file sizes, but even the noise detail is perfectly retained. There is not a single reason to shoot in CDNG over something like ProResRAW unless filling up storage drives as quickly as possible is your kink. Oh, perhaps software compatibility, but that's a different story.

So, no, BRAW is not "highly compressed", and for the rest of the video you talked about video codecs like H.265, which does not apply to the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema cameras when you have BRAW available.

And I don't think you're thinking about bitrates in a logical way, either. Your comparison image between 0.19Mbps-9.00Mbps is completely detached from your actual argument, to the point where it's arguing in bad faith, in my eyes. Like with every other technical number in the world, you run into diminishing returns at a certain point. A higher bitrate does NOT always equal a higher image quality. Lossless compressed RAW like ProResRAW is not worse quality compared to uncompressed RAW, even if the bitrate is lower.

I also don't know why you kept referring to it as "speed", as speed has nothing to do with image quality. The only speed in question here is the speed in which you'll be filling up your storage.

You brought up "lamenting CDNG over Discord" as an argument against BRAW. What? BRAW is most certainly not a "little, tiny bitrate", and anyone will tell you that no matter how much you punch in, you will not see a difference between the bitrate of true lossless compressed RAW and uncompressed RAW at this level. You may see a difference in noise patterns in BRAW, as I've mentioned earlier, but other lossless compressed RAW formats? No. And did you really just imply YouTube compressing video to 10Mbps is equivalent to the Pocket 4K recording at 1088Mbps as a cause for compression artefacts? Again, if this is not misunderstanding compression on your end, this is a bad faith argument, and the furthest thing possible from #FACTS.

Your argument about sensor sizes is valid. The only thing I'd bring up here is the Pocket 6K having a larger sensor, equivalent to a Super 35. It's still smaller than a full-frame, but whichever format is more "cinematic" is completely up to taste. The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2 is currently being sold for $1, 995, so I think it's still a fair comparison here.

That's all I had to point out. Again, I understand your enthusiasm (look at how much I just rambled on about the stuff *I'm* passionate about), and I agree with a lot of your other points, I just had to address the few that I felt were either misguided or misleading.

[jerryeisner]

Loved this video tutorial and Loved the Out Takes too!!! Lots of info and some fun.

[ahoyhere]

This was very helpful to me as an fp owner — I bought it exclusively for stills, because it can adapt even very vintage ultra wide angles and offers in-body flat frame correction for them (!!). I LOVE it for photography. Never been into video but now I have a cinema camera, I’ve been thinking I should learn, if only to capture short clips of the gentle movements of the nature I’m out photographing. Your video is tremendously helpful, and informative, even for a total newbie — thank you!

[ClaudioDesideriFilms]

Ahaha epic outro🤣 This video was so cool Justin and seeing how much love this camera gives you is so entertaining. Thanks and I'll have a think about this cinema camera 😊

[ScreenFiends]

Dude, this video is making waves! You've really made me reconsider this camera 🤩

[thedexterbros]

Dude. I just bought an a7iv and am now seeing this and in love with it😂