Nauticam - BMPCC 4K

Initial observations using the camera body at my desk:

Overall, its a massive step back from all the goodies from the GH series, its quite a different beast - but the more I play with it, the more you can see why these are classed as cinematic cameras, not just in terms of color and picture quality, but also in functionality. Below are my general comments, in no particular order.

1. Buttons

+ Nice feel

- Only one jog wheel

+ dedicated ISO, Shutter and WB buttons

+ Auto IRIS button (a bit like one-touch AE)

- Limited function access using purely hardware buttons and single wheel.

2. Screen

+ very sharp and clear

+ Lovely clean layout, unlike the cluttered GH5

- Not bright (500nits I believe)

+ Touchscreen responsive

+ Focus Assist very response and clean

+ Ability to output different things to HDMI than the builtin screen (very handy)

3. Functions / Features
+ Single press AF, is fast enough and seems reliable

- Auto AE it seems to be using centre weighted.

- Unable to set WB Tint using jog dial

- No Waveform Monitor - only Histrogram

- Live Crop-in - only seems to do 2x

- Takes a few seconds to boot up

- Runs warm

+ Customisable F1,F2,F3 buttons - lots of options

+ Ability to set a Manual WB, but holding down the WB button - takes a reading from a central window.

Hopefully in the water on the 27th April

Richard

What of the following are available

Exposure

Zebra customisable

False colour

Focus

Peaking

Focus zoom 2x 4x etc

Does the housing have a hood? 500 nits is acceptable but are you sure the screen is not even less?

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Richard

 

What of the following are available

 

Exposure

Zebra customisable

False colour

 

Focus

Peaking

Focus zoom 2x 4x etc

 

Does the housing have a hood? 500 nits is acceptable but are you sure the screen is not even less?

Exposure

- Full Manual

- Auto Exposure (using either IRIS and Shutter or a mix of the two, choosing which one to use first)

- NO AutoISO

False Colour - Yes

Zebra (from 75% to 100%)

Focus Zoom - only 2x it seems

Focus Assist - either Sharp Edge Peaking or coloured lines (which you can change the colours)

No Hood comes with the housing - can be purchased extra - same as the NA-SmallHD402 fitting I believe

500nits - is what I'm reading spec wise.

Waveform underwater is extremely hard to read unless on a tripod

False colour is useful if you know how to read it

Focus tools looks great

Hood is a must

No auto ISO is a significant limitation for me as it is what I use for wide angle will this be addressed as firmware update? Did the gh5s have it?

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Exposure

 

- Auto Exposure (using either IRIS and Shutter or a mix of the two, choosing which one to use first)

 

Hi Richard could you elaborate on this?

How does it work?

Thanks

Just looking at the camera manual: 'the camera requires 22W when shooting RAW at full screen brightness on an external media'

4 18650 batteries will give at best 50 Wh so tops 140 minutes. There are no batteries on the market that will give you the 160 minutes that Nauticam declares that I know

And the Canon LP-E6 will give you at best 35 minutes at top power

The manual advices against using the internal battery and an external battery pack which needs to be understood anyway the pack will do 3 dives which should be plenty for most but will take 3 and half hour to charge so if you need more you better get two packs

Just looking at the camera manual: 'the camera requires 22W when shooting RAW at full screen brightness on an external media'

 

4 18650 batteries will give at best 50 Wh so tops 140 minutes. There are no batteries on the market that will give you the 160 minutes that Nauticam declares that I know

 

And the Canon LP-E6 will give you at best 35 minutes at top power

 

The manual advices against using the internal battery and an external battery pack which needs to be understood anyway the pack will do 3 dives which should be plenty for most but will take 3 and half hour to charge so if you need more you better get two packs

By external media you mean external ssd? I would assume less power consumption for internal Cfast or sd right?

Waveform underwater is extremely hard to read unless on a tripod

False colour is useful if you know how to read it

Focus tools looks great

Hood is a must

No auto ISO is a significant limitation for me as it is what I use for wide angle will this be addressed as firmware update? Did the gh5s have it?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Initial observations using the camera body at my desk:

 

Overall, its a massive step back from all the goodies from the GH series, its quite a different beast - but the more I play with it, the more you can see why these are classed as cinematic cameras, not just in terms of color and picture quality, but also in functionality.

 

And with that being said that is why IMHO the GH5/5S is a better option for UW use. UW video is not "cinematic" it is run and gun documentary style shooting. We just swim instead of running so we need all the tools we can get. Now if BRAW makes such a huge difference then I might change my mind but at the moment if you know how to use your GH5/GH5S you are good in terms of colour too. Don't get me wrong it is a fantastic camera, especially for the money it costs but I can't justify the expense associated with putting it UW if you already own a GH5/5S.

By external media you mean external ssd? I would assume less power consumption for internal Cfast or sd right?

That’s what it says on the manual. I presume external media is connected to USB-C that also delivers power through the cable.

Memory card wise it has on SD UHS II and a cfast (weird) i think you can get up to 256+512 while an SSD will get 2TB tops however SSD drives are cheaper than those big cards so really that’s he way to go

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And with that being said that is why IMHO the GH5/5S is a better option for UW use. UW video is not "cinematic" it is run and gun documentary style shooting. We just swim instead of running so we need all the tools we can get. Now if BRAW makes such a huge difference then I might change my mind but at the moment if you know how to use your GH5/GH5S you are good in terms of colour too. Don't get me wrong it is a fantastic camera, especially for the money it costs but I can't justify the expense associated with putting it UW if you already own a GH5/5S.

I actually agree with you, the GH cameras are stunning and it’s going to be hard for (for me) to get the BMPCC4K to beat them - in terms of functionality I can already see it’s not as good - I’m not selling the GH5 as definitely it’s gonna be better for certain situation etc

However I’m really intrigued by RAW, 12bit 4:4:4 color and so on, as it’s my main hobby, something I enjoy, I’m going to give it a go! Could be a complete waste time - stay tuned!

You never know, you might find a BMPCC4K and housing for sale later, as I do come to realise it’s not worth it over the GH5 - however without personally testing it I’m never going to know.

That’s what it says on the manual. I presume external media is connected to USB-C that also delivers power through the cable.

Memory card wise it has on SD UHS II and a cfast (weird) i think you can get up to 256+512 while an SSD will get 2TB tops however SSD drives are cheaper than those big cards so really that’s he way to go

I've gone for the Samsung T5 drives, reasons:

1) Size / Price - I just purchased 2x 1TB drives for £130 each - crazy

2) Ability to use any of the compression ratios at DCI@60p, including Q0.

3) Nauticam built a dedicated T5 holder directly into the housing.

CFast2 cards would be the real way to go, small, ultra fast. However they are extremely expensive - and its seems a dead-end card format, with XQD and CFExpress now here.

Just looking at the camera manual: 'the camera requires 22W when shooting RAW at full screen brightness on an external media'

 

4 18650 batteries will give at best 50 Wh so tops 140 minutes. There are no batteries on the market that will give you the 160 minutes that Nauticam declares that I know

 

And the Canon LP-E6 will give you at best 35 minutes at top power

 

The manual advices against using the internal battery and an external battery pack which needs to be understood anyway the pack will do 3 dives which should be plenty for most but will take 3 and half hour to charge so if you need more you better get two packs

Speaking with BM Support, using the camera with the builtin battery and external power at the same time is fine - as long as the external solution is a true >12v. There seems to be issues with the adaptors that take a 7.2v Sony NP battery and convert it to 14.4v. With a normal external pack, it will draw power from the external source first, then once depleted it will then switch (automatically) to the internal battery.

Screen brightness compared to the GH5

Both set to 100% brightness.

IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190410/56e25bdeb73ccdf7490b1a03e74f4706.jpg[/img]

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I actually agree with you, the GH cameras are stunning and it’s going to be hard for (for me) to get the BMPCC4K to beat them - in terms of functionality I can already see it’s not as good - I’m not selling the GH5 as definitely it’s gonna be better for certain situation etc

However I’m really intrigued by RAW, 12bit 4:4:4 color and so on, as it’s my main hobby, something I enjoy, I’m going to give it a go! Could be a complete waste time - stay tuned!

You never know, you might find a BMPCC4K and housing for sale later, as I do come to realise it’s not worth it over the GH5 - however without personally testing it I’m never going to know.

 

I've gone for the Samsung T5 drives, reasons:

1) Size / Price - I just purchased 2x 1TB drives for £130 each - crazy

2) Ability to use any of the compression ratios at DCI@60p, including Q0.

3) Nauticam built a dedicated T5 holder directly into the housing.

 

CFast2 cards would be the real way to go, small, ultra fast. However they are extremely expensive - and its seems a dead-end card format, with XQD and CFExpress now here.

 

 

Speaking with BM Support, using the camera with the builtin battery and external power at the same time is fine - as long as the external solution is a true >12v. There seems to be issues with the adaptors that take a 7.2v Sony NP battery and convert it to 14.4v. With a normal external pack, it will draw power from the external source first, then once depleted it will then switch (automatically) to the internal battery.

A pack of 18650 is exactly the same of a series of NPV batteries you have 4 3.6V cells in series. Am not sure what true 12V means but I am not sure there are single cells with a 12V output

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A pack of 18650 is exactly the same of a series of NPV batteries you have 4 3.6V cells in series. Am not sure what true 12V means but I am not sure there are single cells with a 12V output

People are using a single NP battery (7.2v) on a converter plate (which takes to to 12v) to power the BMPCC4k (like they did with the original BMPCC)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EFSUK98/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?psc=1

However it seems its not enough, hence the warning in the manual.

OMG NPV new style batteries are pretty good but I think for your rig you need some Samsung or LG 3450 mAh cells

Obviously to avoid destroying them you need to charge them at 1A which means 3 half hour to recharge the pack whilst the combination of battery pack and LP-E6 will make 2h50. Obviously you are not always recording so I think it is safe to say that you can make 3 dives plus with this combination

Overall the things I like the least about this BPMCC 4K are the exposure controls especially lack of Auto ISO and the lack of IBIS. Those two are probably the most useful things underwater where you are not shooting a movie on a tripod or a gymbal. The rest of the camera and housing seems really a good set up.

 

People are using a single NP battery (7.2v) on a converter plate (which takes to to 12v) to power the BMPCC4k (like they did with the original BMPCC)

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EFSUK98/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?psc=1

 

However it seems its not enough, hence the warning in the manual.

 

Hi Richard could you elaborate on this?

How does it work?

 

Thanks

Hi Davide

You can set the camera to auto Shutter Speed and/or auto Iris and with this, you can prioritise one over the other, as per the photo below, it’s set to alter the IRIS and then once runs out of parameters for that (say reaching f3.5 on a 3.5 lens) it will then start adjusting the shutter speed. Or vice versa

You can swap it, turn off one etc

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Dont know if this machine is going to work underwater...

SSD holder with drive in situ. As you can see it’s made specifically for the T5 drive - not sure anything else would fit

SSD holder with drive in situ. As you can see it’s made specifically for the T5 drive - not sure anything else would fit

 

Richard did you get a 2TB drive? sorry just read 2x1TB so it takes one and half hour

Will you process straight of the ssd and swap the other?

 

Richard did you get a 2TB drive?

No, I got 2x the 1TB drives. Thought it would be safer.

Says transfer rates are 540MBs using USB3.1 Gen2

Write / Read speeds according to a quick test are 420MBs write / 430MBs read on my old work MacBookPro (non USB-C only USB3.0) using the BM Drive Speed tester.

Will test with my 2018 MacBookPro (with USB-C) later