Choppy Motion on Black Magic Pocket Cinema

[Drench]

I'm fairly new so let me know if I'm not giving enough information! I recently shot some video on a BMPCC at 1080p, ProRes. It was a simple enough shoot for a promo vid for my friends company. Some of the shots were great but I noticed that when there was camera movement (particularly handheld) I was getting some choppy motion that I can't seem to get rid of! Here's the video on Vimeo http://vimeo.com/95801813 (extremely noticeable around 0:50). I'm trying to figure out if it was something to do with the way I shot the video, the camera, the format etc. All I remember about the lens was it was Lumix 14-45mm f3.5 – 5.6 with O.I.S, which was switched on. Can anybody help please?

 

Thanks,

 

D.

[slamecka]

I have the BMPCC and experience the same with my Panasonic 12 -35mm lens with OIS.  From my experience you get more choppy motion than you would expect with this camera even with OIS.  Perhaps it's because of the native 2.9x crop factor.

 

My two suggestions…

 

1) buy a handheld rig that allow you to hold the camera with two hands as this gives you more stability or….

 

2) buy a stabilizer like a GlideCam which will absolutely eliminate the choppiness if you have it properly balanced / stabilized.  You will need to add an external cage to the BMPCC to give it enough weight for the stabilizer to be effective.

 

One final thought… if your experiencing choppines while panning you can reformat the SD Card and it's always best to use the fastest rated SD card that BM recommend.

[brunerww]

Hi Drench,

 

What were your frame rate and shutter angle?  I shoot at 30fps if I'm going to be moving the camera around a lot – and, no matter what your frame rate is, your shutter angle should be at 180.

 

That said, this camera is not made for handholding or walking without some sort of support – at least a pistol grip (as seen below):

 

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-YBkVwvFSo38/UsvM_wublNI/AAAAAAAAIXM/bVP1GgPP0uA/w724-h543-no/P1120305.JPG

 

Or a rig:

 

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-QW78g2jQbeU/U2mZ-aV32NI/AAAAAAAAIv0/KiXULxFgzWg/w963-h543-no/P1080600.JPG

 

I started with a pistol grip similar to this one and built my rig around it:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001NLN066/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B001NLN066&linkCode=as2&tag=videomaker22forum-20

 

EDIT: I just watched the video a few times, and I wanted to commend you on it.  Well shot and edited.  Makes me want to buy the product!

 

Cheers,

 

Bill

Hybrid Camera Revolution

[Drench]

Thanks guys! I'm looking into getting some sort of grip/rig together for the future.

 

Slamecka, I think you're right about the SD Cards. I need something as fast as possible. The motion is quite choppy but hopefully the grip and fast card will assist.

 

Bill – the shutter angle! of course! I think it was down at around 45. I was shooting at 30fps so I should have had at least 180. Cheers for the compliment by the way!

 

I think a combination of all the factors mentioned has contributed to the issue. Thanks again for the advice, you've really helped a lot.

 

D.

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