Should I get the BMCC or the Sony FS100?

[Gabe Strong]

Alex,

I'm sure that is a great solution. Unfortunately well out of my budget range. I knew that
cheap hard drives aren't the best idea, because I'd had them fail before (after a year or
two of use). Never had such a new one fail though before this. Blu Rays have worked great
for me though.....when I need footage I just stick in the disc and its a file transfer over to
my work RAID..much faster than RT.

[Alan Ortiz]

Adam - I have owned the FS100 and currently own the BMCC and pocket cinema camera.

Interesting choice between the FS100 and BMCC because while they are both similar in concept (cinema cameras) they have some differences that really stand out:

Here are the major differences:

FS100 - S35 sensor, 8bit AVCHD (but surprisingly robust/filmic for AVCHD), can shoot, convert and edit to older workstation/editing bay, has scopes (really useful and necessary), really long battery life on one small sony L battery (this is awesome), picture profile yourself to death if you want, can be used handheld with its loupe and handgrip in a pinch, onboard audio (XLR - decent pre-amps too), build quality feels like it will fall apart very quickly.

Its a really fun camera and I wish I could have kept it because it has a place in my tool-set.

Shot with FS100:

SOHO - Space of Her Own 2013 - YouTube

BMCC - "Tweener" sensor size (not really an issue), raw/pro-res/DNxHD (pro-res is killer IMHO), requires a hefty upgrade to your GPU or a new workstation if you want to get serious about using Resolve 10, really short battery life, no scopes, no real audio options (don't bother with onboard audio - go dual sound), no way to know how much time left on your SSD, no way to format SSD in camera, no picture profiles (okay lets call them LUTs here), build quality feels like a tank. Its going to cost you more than a new FS100 to get a "film-set ready" BMCC working.

Shot with BMCC:

Art League Promo Final on Vimeo

Both need ND's of some kind.

If image quality is all you care about no matter what under 10 grand then you don't need any more advice - just start saving pennies for the BMCC and everything it needs.

[Glen Vandermolen]

There's also the Digital Bolex to consider. It's being shipped out now.

[Paul Walker]

Funnily enough, I am going through an identical decision-making process and am probably going with the FS100, albeit in the summer.

The reason is the hassle factor (time in post, limited time on the set, needed backup).

In terms of the hassle factor, on the last music vid, we had a mini datacentre in the background as we needed to constantly swap SSD cards over and additionally, the battery life was ridiculous. Sure, we can be a lot more versatile in post with RAW (halfway, very low quality unfinished version without VFX) -

Dream Rough - YouTube

- and that's handy for a music vid but for us, versatility is significantly more important.

To give you an idea of the issues:

1. Low, low, low, ridiculously low battery life. We had five, external batteries which we were using to charge the internal battery.
2. Need a runner to deal with batteries, cards etc...
3. Time in post. RAW takes a lot more time.

At the moment, we are really in-and-out shooters in that we have limited time, limited budget, need to act fast and have limited resources. A good, low-light, highly versatile camera with good battery life, good on-board storage is more important to me than the better dynamic range and post-trickery which RAW brings. The FS100 is a natural choice and for music vids, we can always rent.

In terms of DoF etc..., the BMCC's a great little camera and if I would go with it for more 'static' shooting, good backup, a bit more time in post etc... It's a great camera, just my needs are different.

[Daniel Weber]

OK, I'm going to throw a wrench into the works and suggest the Canon C100. I own the C100 and the Sony FS700. I love both cameras, but purchased the C100 to shoot documentaries with. Recently though, I hired a friend to Direct a project that I am serving as the Executive Producer on. He then brought on board a wonderful DP from LA who normally works with an Arri Alexa. We ended up shooting on the C100 because we needed a B camera for a few scenes and we were going to use my Canon 5DM3. I felt that the C100 would match better in post than the FS700.

What we were able to accomplish with the C100 was amazing. Here is a link to one scene that we shot with a Rokinon 35mm 1.4 lens.

The Blowup on Vimeo

Daniel Weber

[Thomas Wong]

I agree with daniel, C100 is a pretty good choice... BMCC seems pretty good deal with a $2k body.
I have the EF mount, and i thought all i need is just a SSD... end up the accessories i throw into the BMCC already match the price of a C100. These are the stuff i bought after the BMCC body...

- Sandisk extreme 480GB ($300 already discounted)
- a Switronix external battery (i tried an IKAN battery plate, it doesn't work very well) ($325)
- a Samurai, when i read other people saying how bad the screen under the sunlight, it's true, you can't see a thing. You will then want to get a Samurai or SmallHD) $900
- I thought i can use my 24-70mm, you can mount it on, but it doesn't support iris control, the lens stay at F2.8 all the time, and i am planning to get a Sigma 18-35mm) $800
- unlike DSLR, you cannot use shutter speed to trick the sensor when you shoot under daylight You can only use ND filter, screw on or mattebox ($300-600)
- audio is sucks, you will probably need to invest a shotgun or Zoom H6 ($400)
- after you add these stuffs, you will then need a cage/rig to mount them on


For C100, you can use it out of the box with your existing EF lenses. A 64G SD card can give you hours of video. Maybe an extra battery, and that's it... and Canon is a reliable brand, you will have very small chance to recieve a defective camera out of the box...

You will really need to have a lot of patience if you go with BMCC, or maybe wait for Canon's next Cinema EOS announcement, probably 4K cinema EOS is coming

[Craig Marshall]

The 8 bit AVCHD codec is remarkably robust but I would never edit or grade natively. Although I generally shoot 50P, I immediately transcode to 10bit ProRes444 for edit and grade with final NLE Export to a 10bit .DPX image sequence. Working in the 10 bit domain offers more 'headroom' even though the source is 8bit. A single 16GB SD card was all I needed for a recent two week shoot in Taiwan and Japan.

I shot 'Good To See You' on a 'pimped' APS-C format NEX VG20 using Carl Zeiss prime lenses and the Metabones 'Speed Booster'. If picture quality of this standard can be achieved on a 'toy' Handycam, (taking into account Vimeo's 720P, 10Mbps compression requirements) then I would imagine a significant improvement would result from the FS100's Super 35 sensor.

'Good To See You' - seven minutes of cinema! on Vimeo