Archive for the ‘Blackmagic’ Category

DaVinci Resolve 11: Now also an NLE…

Tuesday, April 8th, 2014

http://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/277/29561

  • <<<
    • The update to DaVinci Resolve 11 will be available in June for download from the Blackmagic Design web site free of charge for all current DaVinci Resolve customers.
    • now it’s a fantastic full featured online editor
    • DaVinci Resolve 11 also features a unique and powerful automatic color chart color balancing tool that works on all types of footage including video, RAW and even film. The new color match tool automatically gives a primary base grade by analyzing shots containing standard color chip charts even if they were shot in different lighting conditions with different exposure and color temperatures.
  • >>>

Posted in Blackmagic, Color, DaVinci Resolve | No Comments »

RAW CinemaDNG (from BMCC) to CIneformRAW for DaVinci Resolve via RAW4Pro+CIneform

Saturday, March 22nd, 2014

Suppose you have some RAW footage, in CinemaDNG format (a number-sequenced set of [.dng] files), for example shot on a Blackmagic Cinema Camera (BMCC).  Compared to “visually lossless” say ProRes or DNxHD (let alone H264 etc.), CinemaDNG occupies an awful lot of disk space, primarily because it is mathematically lossless.  The GoPro-CineformRAW encoding format offers significant reductions in file size (and hence data rate) at the cost of a practically negligible loss of visual information (and a purchase price).  This codec can be purchased as part of the GoPro Studio Premium product.  A comparison-grid of the various GoPro Studio products is here.

CineformRAW is an attractive compression-format, but unless care is applied to some very technical-level encoding options/settings, compatibility problems can arise when importing to DaVinci Resolve.  The latter is in widespread use but is especially relevant to BMCC owners because it is supplied as free software with that camera.  I experienced such problems myself: one version of Resolve (v.10.0) interpreted CineformRAW clips as green-tinted, while another (v.10.1) just gave black frames.

Happily, a simple solution existed: RAW4Pro, which is essentially a front-end to CineformRAW (and also to DNxHD, useful e.g. if you want HD proxies).

Summary:

  • Install
    • A product incorporating the GoPro-Cineform RAW codec.
    • The RAW4Pro utility
      • Essentially a front-end to generate CineformRAW and also to generate HD (e.g. as proxies) as DNxHD, in each case in either MOV or AVI container-formats.
  • Run RAW4Pro
    • Select (Browse-to) input-folder, output folder.
    • Select:
      • Sound: Audio-Merge
        • Initially, extract audio from source file to a WAV file, then merge this audio in with the generated file.  The WAV file remains, regardless.
        • The alternative (if not enabled) is no audio in the generated file (and no WAV file).
      • Processing: Convert-Only
      • Quality: Fine
        • Clicking the [?] button reveals that this creates 10-bit Log (colour-channel resolution).
      • Video Format:
        • Cineform RAW (encoding format)
        • MOV (container format)
        • LUT: NoneClick the [Process Clip] button.
  • Result:
    • A movie file with name prefixed by :R4P_” and suffixed by “_sound”, incorporating both video (10-bit Log) and audio tracks.
    • An audio WAV file, similarly prefixed,  generated as a “side effect”, may or may not be useful to you, can be deleted.

(more…)

Posted in Blackmagic, camera, Cineform, codec, Compressor, DaVinci Resolve, DNxHD, Encoding, Formats, GoPro, RAW, Uncategorized | No Comments »

SSD Format Details for BlackMagic Cinema Camera

Thursday, March 20th, 2014

For SSDs for the BlackMagic Cinema Camera (BMCC), the following partition/format scheme works fine, and was found in more than one person’s own such SSDs.   I think in each case they were formatted from Windows, hence the “NTFS”.

  • Device:
    • Partition Scheme Map: MBR (FDisk)
    • Device Block Size: 128 Bytes
      • User manual recommends 128 Bytes
        • Default of Command [format <diskletter>: /q /fs:exfat] itself reports “131,072 bytes in each allocation unit”
        • Default of [Windows7 > Windows Explorer]: [aFile >RtClk> Format…] is instead 512 Bytes, but I have not noticed any problem with that.
  • Partition/Volume:
    • Partition Type: NTFS
    • Format: exFAT

How to reformat from Windows 7: http://blog.davidesp.com/archives/1000

Posted in Blackmagic, Formats, SSD | No Comments »

Blackmagic Cinema Camera – Accoutrements

Thursday, September 20th, 2012

 Some accessories, lenses and grip, from reviews and adverts I came across (or that came across me):

Having a mid-sized sensor, people tend to be concerned over its wide-angle and depth-of-field aspects.  Hence a lot of focus on lenses.

  • http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagiccinemacamera
    • The camera itself – official site.
  • http://www.fstopacademy.com/blog/new-gear-at-ibc-2012/
    • Lenses recommended for the Micro 4/3rds Mount variant of the Black Magic Cinema Camera :
      • Can take a $50 vintage lens up to a $30K Cine Lens
    • For wide-angle:
      • £600 Sigma 8 to 16 lens (Den bought one of these)
      • Tokina 11 to 16 lens, is faster (f2.8)
      • Canon 10 to 22, is slower but very low-cost
    • Micro- 4/3rds lenses:
      • 12mm HyperPrime, is f1.6, ie very fast.
      • 8mm Sigma lenses
  • My links:
    • http://www.sigma-imaging-uk.com/
      • Lenses and more…
    • http://nofilmschool.com/2012/09/wide-angle-lenses-compared-blackmagic-cinema-camera/
      • Mentions in text:
        <<<
        The one lens that has been talked about the most as a possible fast wide for the Cinema Camera is the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, which is almost two stops faster at its minimum. For those worried about shooting in lower light, RAW is going to give you a lot of range to work with, and a lens like the Tokina is going to be plenty fast enough for a lot of situations.After image quality and design quirks, the most discussed topic regarding the new Blackmagic Cinema Camera is lenses. Specifically, the issue regarding wide lenses. Since the BMCC‘s sensor is slightly smaller than Micro Four-Thirds, but uses a Canon mount, one of the complaints has been that it won’t be possible to get a sufficiently wide image with the available lenses in that mount. The team over at OneRiver Media set out to prove exactly what was possible with current wide lenses, and they’ve also created one of the first short projects shot completely on the Cinema Camera (besides everything that John Brawley has done so far, of course).

        Personally, I really like the Sigma 8-16mm f/4.5-5.6 HSM lens so far. It doesn’t have any barrel distortion at all and the edges stay straight throughout. Sharpness isn’t bad either, even wide open. The Canon 8-15mm f/4L is clearly the widest, but has obvious barrel distortion. Zoom in to 15mm and the distortion goes away for the most part. It’s a sharp lens throughout. And the solid build-quality is typical of all Canon L lenses; very nice. The Rokinon 8mm T3.8 cinema prime lens is just a shy less wide than the Canon 8-15mm lens, and has its own share of barrel distortion, albeit less than the Canon. Fully wide open, this lens is soft. To get decent sharpness, you need to stop down to about T5.6.
        >>>

    • Cam etc. Mounting Systems for it:

Posted in Blackmagic, grip, lens | No Comments »