- For $1,300, you can have a camera
that shoots 12-bit 4K 60p raw.
(upbeat electronic music)
- [Electronic Voice] Raw files detected.
Color grading initiated.
Uploading destroyer matrix in three, two, one.
(upbeat electric music)
- Hey yo, Josh Yeo.
Today, we are headed to Maui, taking the
soon to be wife on a little vacation trip.
We're gonna test out this camera right here,
the Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K.
They packed a lot of stuff in here
but first we have to make a few modifications
before this can turn into fully automatic beast mode.
The shape of it, it's kind of shaped like a football
so it makes it a little bit hard to balance it on a gimble
but it definitely can be done.
So we got design crane two.
All we have to do is just add a cheese plate
on the bottom to shift over the whole.
This is a $12 cheese plate but now I have all these options
of where I can put design crane or Ronin-S mounting plate.
Let's talk memory cards.
This is an AngelBird 256 Gig cfast two card,
it'll run you about 350 bucks.
Or for $110, you can buy a 500 Gig SSD
and this can record externally via the USB port.
If you record this at the highest bit rate,
4K 60P at 12 bit raw, this will only get you
about 15 seconds of continuous recording
before the buffer overheats and it shuts down.
With this, you can go 26 minutes.
I think what we'll do is we'll just
mount this right into the crane.
Found a shorter USB-C cable.
Don't need this long one.
Canon LP-E6 will give this camera about 35 minutes tops
so how can we fix this?
I can charge the battery using the same USB-C port
but what if I wanna use it at the same time
while I'm recording externally?
They give you this fancy little power plug
so we can actually tap in if we have 12 volt source.
How about a security battery bank?
$22 and it's a 12 volt.
We're gonna have to do some soldering.
If you do this, you void the warranty.
That would just be a stupid idea.
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You can only do this with the 12 volt battery
that's putting out three amps or more.
Alright, so you see, now we still have our wall plug
and we have our newly made camera plug.
They still work together.
But now this guy can also tap in to our little battery.
There's actually not even a battery in it.
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Alright, so next we just gotta figure out
how to mount this battery.
So I got these two little 1/4 inch 20 spacers,
I'm just gonna repurpose these.
These I just had lying around from another build
so what I think I'm gonna do is
just glue it right on the bottom
and then mount it on top of the camera.
Alright, bags are packed, we're ready to go.
Three things I should mention.
Number one, I'm leaving the 1DX2 at home.
We're gonna put this camera through its paces.
Number two, I'm super pumped about 12 bit raw.
I'm stoked to see just how much we push these colors around.
Number three, it's a vacation,
I promised the lady I wasn't gonna work so I'm not.
OTIS, you ready to go?
- [OTIS] All systems online.
- You guys wanna go to Maui?
- [OTIS] Upgrades acquired, battery life increased 428%,
external memory doubled, vehicle outfitted,
1975 VW bus, manual transmission.
- Just like riding a bike.
Just stalled it out.
(electric music)
- [OTIS] Camera is set to 4K 60P raw,
scanning shows 13 stops in latitude,
adding in contrast matrix now.
(electric music)
Learning class one destroyer lut to break apart the image.
Image not breaking apart, additional testing required.
(electric music)
The 12 bit connect is extremely low dust
and will support extreme pelagrading.
Increasing frame rates to 120P.
This will be comparable to 1DX mark two
but this is a window censor mode
so it's not apples to apples here,
however the color depth of 12 bit is a significant advantage
to the eight bit of the 1DX mark two.
It's dazzling, the color depth buffered
at this frame rate at 1/5 the cost.
Weather forecasts heavy cloud cover
and spotted showers approaching.
If you'd like to test more of my capabilities,
you might want to layer up.
Mount Haleakala, elevation 10,000 feet,
increasing ISO to 3200, noise levels low.
To increase the ISO to 6400,
noise values present are acceptable.
Increasing to ISO 12,800, noise values present
in shadow areas, highlights and returns remain clear.
Adding nighttime matrix now.
No change in noise value, adding day noiser.
Noise values acceptable.
The low light capabilities are quite good,
however, manual focus is required.
(electric music)
- What is that (beep) on my lens?
I mean, you have the one touch auto focus
in broad daylight high contrast situations.
It nails it perfectly but the moment you start losing light,
it's gonna have a really really hard time focusing.
And you're gonna have to switch it over to manual
which is fine, I shoot on a lot of manual lenses.
I'm used to this, I'm not really--
- [OTIS] Pardon the interruption Joshua,
but you are no longer in focus.
This camera is not suitable for vlogging.
Without a flip screen or face tracking,
focus cannot be guaranteed.
- How do you auto focus on yourself?
I mean, do you just touch the back?
Take ordinary fishing line, attach it to the camera,
to my big toe then I hit the zoom in, sharp focus.
And then boom, see.
This is a stupid stupid hack but it sure beats
lugging around an extra monitor
just so you can be in focus for your vlog.
Anyway--
[OTIS] That is impressive and disgusting, well done.
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- I shot 700 gigs.
Alright, so after a week of shooting,
my thoughts are this is an incredible camera.
It packed an amazing punch.
I mean, there's no question about it, full on cinema codex.
I'm blown away at the price point and just how much awesome,
beastly stuff you can pack outta this.
This SSD did not connect 100% of the time.
Like seven out of 10 times, it would connect
but then those three out of 10 times, it has to restart.
For run and gun scenarios when you can't afford
to miss a shot, do not rely on that at all.
I think the most robust way to shoot
on this camera is with a cfast two card.
Battery bank worked great and what also worked great
was I had this in my camera bag
and I could just easily tap and do a regular battery bank
in between takes through the USB-C when this thing ran out.
I did this entire shoot with one battery.
Because the price point is so low,
it's actually better that you invest
in some really good glass like this Leica 42.5,
image stabilization, a very fast apature.
And the low light that I got from this camera and this lens
was pretty damn good.
And when you think about this camera,
it includes Davinci resolve studio
and studio has their own denoiser.
It's kinda stupid not to get this camera.
Does this camera compete with my 1DX?
Yeah!
Does it replace it?
No but it's only because the reliability and the auto focus.
This camera is a $6000 work horse.
I use this for professional shoots,
I don't have to worry about it.
This is $1200.
This should be every aspiring film makers
camera for their first film.
For the price and for what it packs,
I don't think there's a better deal out right now.
It's definitely a learning curve but it's amazing.
Anyway, this is Josh Yeo, saying thank you very much,
stay creative and go make your mark.
(upbeat electric music)
- [OTIS] Don't be a wanker, make sure to subscribe.
(upbeat electric music)