Comparing the Cinema Camera & 5D Mark III

Marco Solorio Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Editorials, Reviews 12 Comments

Our latest video, “Comparing the Cinema Camera and 5D Mk III” was uploaded  to Vimeo on September 20, 2012. Even at full 1080HD streaming quality, it’s quick to see the difference in quality between the two cameras. You’re hearing it here first… expect a follow-up to this video that explains why we shot some of the shots we did, as well as answering some questions regarding 5D shooting and post workflow, Cinema Camera processing, lens choices, and more!


Share this post


About the Author

Marco Solorio

Facebook Twitter

Marco Solorio is an award-winning feature filmmaker, published author, and international speaker as a 30-year veteran in the industry with many industry awards to his name. As owner of OneRiver Media, he has produced, directed, and lensed content spanning from commercial to feature film works. As a credited thought-leader in the industry, Marco has consulted for the likes of Pixar, Apple, and Google to name a few. Along with published books to his credit, Marco has also been featured in... Read Marco's full bio here.

FCC Disclaimer - Links from this article might go to affiliate links to B&H and/or Amazon (not much different than the ads you see in YouTube ads, but more focused). Visiting these links (or buying products from the links) cost you nothing additional and may in turn help us pay for the cost of hosting these free articles we write. These articles take an enormous amount of time (in most cases, weeks and months) to research, draft, write, edit, rewrite, and shoot custom photography/video for. In no way do these affiliate links cover the cost of all of that, so any help these links can provide is a huge help to us to continue to offer free content to our readers.


RECENT BLOG POSTS

Comments 12

    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
  1. Thank you so much for this. I have watched it like 20 times. haha 🙂 LOVE IT!! Any chance we can see a comparison between the ProRes on the BMCC to the 5d mark ii?? I will most likely use ProRes the most since it will take MUCH less space on my SSD. ????? 🙂 YOU ROCK!!! Even a short little clip would be AWESOME!!!

    1. Post
      Author

      Hi Melissa, thank you very much for the generous comment and glad you enjoy the video! Time is the biggest hurdle when doing comparison tests, but at some point I hope to upload something. I can say though that in comparison between the BMCC’s 10-bit ProRes HQ format, and the 5D’s 8-bit H.264 format, there is really no comparison; the BMCC destroys the 5D’s quality, plain and simple. It’s just better all around; detail, latitude, workflow speed, sanity, you name it! Cheers!

  2. Hello Marco,

    Thanks for doing this test! You can really see the strengths of the BMCC, very impressive! I am looking forward to shooting with this camera myself.

    However, with regards to your test…I think you gave the Mark III an unfair disadvantage. When you set up the Mark III with the “Tried and True Canon Flat Profile” with the Sharpness at 0, it puts the Canon out of competition. Did you “Sharpen” the image in post?? My guess is “no”…cause I imported you footage into Premiere CS6 and did a little comparison myself and the Mark III stands up a bit better. I’m not saying it now has more dynamic range, or anything, but the sharpness comes back! Yes, I know you must shoot with the Sharpness at 0, but I found you must also sharpen the footage in post.

    Here is my link…it is set to private, cause it is your footage.

    http://youtu.be/qLbNpZK4t-I

    What are your thoughts??

    Best,
    Jack

    1. Post
      Author

      Hi Jack, thanks for the kind words. Regarding the 5D, sharpness and detail are two very different things. I delve into this in great detail in the follow-up video here: http://vimeo.com/52269416

      No amount of sharpness will get anywhere near the quality of detail the Cinema Camera provides, especially at full 1080 HD resolution. Hopefully the follow-up video makes this clear (no pun!). BTW, I can’t watch your YouTube video as it’s set to private.

      Thanks

      1. ya…while you were posting your comment, I downloaded and watched your followup!!!

        thanks,
        I feel like a heel…ya, that’s right, a real heel!!

        I have since deleted the video…

        Thanks again!

        1. Post
          Author
  3. Hi i have a BMCC 2.5k MFT mount camera.I am looking to shoot mainly music videos but do intend to dabble into short films and event coverage. can you advise on the best lenses to get. so far am for a great wide angle lense, a prime and a standard lense with any two more lenses Keeping in mind that i want to shoot music videos for will the ok for short films and event coverage as well. I have a tight budget so not looking to go all out. Looking for good quality for decent prices.

    also is reasonable/possible to use a MFT-EF adaptor so i can used canon lenses, if so got any good adapters in mind?

    1. Post
      Author

      “The best lens to get” is a very open ended question! But because you mentioned you were on a budget, I’d recommend the Rokinon cine prime lenses. They’re very affordable and offer many advantages due to their cinema style design. And because they’re manual, they’ll work on just about any camera (with adapter if needed). You can check out our blog post where we compare the Rokinon 35mm T1.5 cine lens and the Canon 35mm f/1.4L photo lenses. The new Rokinon DS cine lineup is quite nice for the price!

      As for an MFT to EF adapter, that’s another question with a lot of options. I’d get two adapters actually (if you can afford it), on that contains no optics (low cost) and other that contains an optical speed booster (high cost). The latter allows the camera’s sensor to use full capacity of the optical transmission from the lens. In other words, you’ll get faster/sharper/wider results by using a quality optical booster (like that of Metabones).

Leave a Reply