Replay: We originally published this feature in 2020, but with cameras such as the Sigma BF pushing the design envelope it's worth remembering what made the original BMPCC camera so special. It had terrible battery life, a fragile DC socket, and no slow motion, yet it remains one of the most beloved cinema cameras ever made.
The original Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera was a study in contradictions. When it arrived in 2013 it drew criticism for its form factor and battery life — Rodney Charters, the veteran cinematographer, can be seen in one early video dismissing it as largely pointless. That makes his eventual conversion all the more telling. Charters became one of the camera's most vocal advocates, happily intercutting BMPCC footage with Alexas and Amiras. Like many who gave it a proper chance, he discovered the Pocket Cinema Camera was a wolf in sheep's clothing.
What persuaded filmmakers to overlook its quirks was straightforwardly its picture quality. For around £800, this tiny camera could record 13 stops of raw Cinema DNG video with a colorimetry that sat comfortably alongside the Alexa. Unlike GoPros, editors could linger on a BMPCC shot without worrying about it betraying itself.
So good is the picture from the BMPCC that many people started using it instead of larger and more expensive alternatives, despite the need to rig it up extensively.
The camera's reputation was part of its appeal. Owners and prospective buyers had often heard about how it could intercut with far more expensive cameras. It started to gain a reputation as a 'micro Alexa'. Now, whether or not you agree with the assertion behind that reputation is neither here nor there. The fact is that it gave owners an aspirational view of their ownership of the camera. Most of them would never touch an Alexa in their lives. But when they went out filming with the BMPCC they did so with that little voice in the back of their head saying "hey, I'm using a mini-sized Alexa here", and that made them feel good!
Clearly, the BMPCC isn't really an Alexa Lite. But as I mentioned earlier, it was good enough to cut in with that camera in many ways, and as Rodney Charters has pointed out in interviews, if you hand a colorist footage from the BMPCC they won't freak out like they would if you'd handed over something from a GoPro or an H.264 Rec.709 based camera. They know they can make the cameras match up very closely.
In fact, the BMPCC's reputation is one reason why its price went up on the used market rather than down as the years went on. It is still a desirable camera to own now even as 4K starts to take over.
The BMPCC was not without its faults and limitations. Battery life from the standard batteries was shall we say, wanting. In real world use you would be lucky to get 30 minutes out of one. This meant that in order to use the BMPCC seriously you needed an external battery system. This was something that was made difficult to do due to the non-standard DC pin size. Speaking of which, the DC socket was notoriously fragile. Breaking it meant a camera replacement, so a lot of care had to be taken. The best way to protect it was to use a cage that featured a locking power cable.
The rear LCD was difficult to see in daylight, so it was essential to use an external monitor. Audio too, was not exactly stellar. To record audio decently required a good external pre-amp, but ideally off-camera sound recording was the best way to go.
All of this meant that a fully rigged-up BMPCC was no longer pocket sized, and could be quite unwieldy to use. And yet people still used it, including myself, and loved it for the simple reason that no other camera in its price range, or indeed many times above it, could come close to the type of organic film like picture that it produced. I do not think I ever came back from a shoot disappointed with the footage taken with the BMPCC. In fact, even on some of the duller corporate videos I shot using it I actually looked forward to seeing what I had filmed!
True, it had moiré issues, but in most situations this didn’t cause any issues. In any case, if it really was a problem there were two very good third party OLPF filters available for it. Rolling shutter? Some people claimed this as an issue, but, frankly it never caused me any problems whatsoever.
Another factor was the sensor size, which although the camera was designed with an MFT lens mount, the sensor was closer to Super 16 in dimensions. As a result, even MFT lenses suffered from a crop factor. I opted to get a Metabones Speed Booster for mine, which allowed me to use EF lenses and obtain a wider field of view. But this sensor size also allowed some users to reinvigorate their S16mm lens collections, enabling the use of a number of classic lenses.
Love is a strong word, but that’s exactly how a lot of users felt about their BMPCCs. It stirs up a similar emotional response to the way that photographers remember their old film cameras fondly.
With the design of the BMPCC body resembling something Dieter Rams (chief of design at Braun) would be proud of, the camera took on a very minimalist, yet classic look. The BMPCC had a very identifiable, almost iconic look. This is not something you could say about many other video cameras.
The Pocket Cinema Camera had soul. Many classic designs that are beloved of people have their Achilles heels, their imperfections. The BMPCC is no exception to this. It could be awkward to work with, had terrible battery life, had no slow motion abilities, and had noisy audio. And yet it is possibly one of the most brilliant video cameras ever designed.
The incredibly low price of the BMPCC meant that professional level cinematic ProRes and Cinema DNG recordings were available to everybody. For £800 and some fiddling you could obtain imagery that was every bit as good as, if not better than many cameras costing more than four times as much. The BMPCC was an enabler that opened up doors to budding DPs who couldn’t afford to buy a ‘proper’ cinema camera. It was an eye opener to experienced video people who sometimes bought one on a punt and then found themselves using it more than their ‘main’ camera! I know because I did just this!