Blackmagic Production vs Phantom 4

[Mapoff]

The Blackmagic Production Cinema Camera 4k has been around awhile. I finally purchased one a few months ago and have been flying and using it on land as well. Ive been annoyed with everything thinking DJI is a professional setup when any kid out there can do it. I'm working on another video showing the differences and will post later. The dynamic range is 12stops, and the picture is just incredible. On the web almost anything looks great, but for shooting professional commercials and film, a real camera is the way to go.

The only thing done was increase the shadows so i could maintain the clouds. I underexposed on purpose to get both the ground and the sky.

Blackmagic and Phantom 4 (1 min 35 sec)

[R_Lefebvre]

Very cool, thanks for doing that! I actually did some air-to-air video the other week, but I was flying both machines:

Two Drones (8 min 15 sec)

There some Octocopter footage in the second half, and some from the Nex5 at 3:55.

Your video highlights something I've noticed too.

Oftentimes the GoPro (or Phantom camera) seems more sharp than my Nex5 which often seems kinda soft. I notice the same thing in your video.

What's behind that?

Is it just sharpness settings in the camera/post? Or is it because the larger sensor has a shallower depth of field, and it not focusing on the scenery vs the GoPro/Phantom with the small sensor and wide angle lens, everything is in focus?

[R_Lefebvre]

Looking at your heli, it reminds me... the heli I've built, the worst thing I did is try too hard to make the frame as compact as possible. I found I have little room to mount stuff. Was a bit of a PITA to wire up the autopilot.

[Mapoff]

The DJI stuff, I believe, and heard through someone else who seemed to know, that DJI performs some kind of software sharping. Its kinda cheap to me. Either the picture is originally sharp, or its not. Anything you do after is just fixing garbage. software sharpening has a fake, cellphone look to me. I was also shooting in HD, and the P4 was in 4k.

As for the frame, I love it. There is loads of room inside..

[TimBaconHeli]

I was beginning to think I was the only one that saw the benefits of using professional gear for aerial work? I liken it back to the mp3 days with music when everything used to be uncompressed and much better quality, then came mp3 and the compression schemes ruining audio quality and dynamic range. Fast forward some years later and it seems there is a resurgence of quality audio and less compression. I'm not a professional video wiz by any stretch of the imagination, but early on In my mind I saw the benefits of using a dslr for its lens options and bypassing the on board compression and going raw via my atomos recorder straight to an ssd drive. I've worked with both internally recorded files from a gopro, my dslr's and raw recorded footage in Premiere Pro and I can say with complete certainty it's easier to achieve a better final product from the raw footage. Let alone getting my hands on a cinema camera such as one by Blackmagic or Red. It seems like every time I get into a conversation with someone regarding aerial work it is always the same thing, why don't you just use a phantom, it's the best there is?...... It's amazing how great marketing can sway public perception even with the lack of any hard evidence. I guess I shouldn't say the Phantom isn't professional, they clearly have the "Phantom Professional" at Best Buy. My mistake.

[Mapoff]

Wait til my other video gets posted. I have a major shoot this weekend but I will go into the inspire vs BMCC. Showing how dynamic range is important as well as compression artifacts.

The full cinema camera was purchased used for $1800. Almost every DSLR out there is more than that. The picture, as seen on a normal monitor looks incredible.

[TimBaconHeli]

Nice! I will be looking forward to it!

[TimBaconHeli]

How the the weekend shoot come out? Also, do you use Premiere Pro? How do you like the Warp post stab if you do? I'm somewhat well versed In Premire and use Lightworks on occasion as well, but have been looking for a better form of post stab for my footage. Sometimes the Warp stab works great, other times, regardless of how stable the original footage is, I get nasty artifacts and tearing. All this technology I'd figured there would be something better? Maybe there is and I just do not know about it ? I am, in my mind still an infant when it comes to this. So much I know, but far..........more to learn.

[Mapoff]

The weekend was very good. Flying a helicopter about 40mph 5 ft off the ground tracking and hugging the corner of a race track.

The software stab is awful. The very best I've seen is the one that is with Grass Valley Edius. I had a 60p back in 2012 that the video was just a blur at 50mm. It came out perfect. It was incredible. With Waor, don't use subspace. I pick position only. I haven't needed it with the brushless stuff. I put a spare Zenmuse gh4 on my second copter. It's freaking rock steady. I'm having trouble with horizon that I need to downgrade the firmware but zero jello or unwanted movement, on a single rotor.