Using the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K with the Fujinon MK Cinema lenses

If you are coming to NAB I am doing 3 live talks for FUJI on the Monday at 1030 am and 4pm and on Tuesday at 12pm.

I am also doing talks for Atomos on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday all at 230pm, plus a panel at 11am on the Wednesday.

This edit downloadable in ProRes from the Vimeo page (click the title to go there)

Proper mechanics for video is something we have gotten used to coping without since the DSLR and large sensor camcorder revolution. Stills lenses are affordable and many of them give us incredible optics but proper usable manual focus, smooth apertures, parfocal zooms and no lens breathing are all things that I certainly miss when using them. Cinema lenses are the solution but are generally very expensive and very heavy.

Back in late 2016 Fuji asked me to shoot a video for them using their new lightweight (lower cost)cinema zoom lenses designed for E-Mount featured the same optics as their acclaimed Cabrio line. What was also exciting about these were that they had all the things I was missing from my stills lenses, had fantastic optics and had a price tag well below most cinema zooms.

My first video was just with the 18-55mm T2.9, roughly equal to a 24-70mm on a full frame. These lenses are designed for S35 and won’t cover a full frame sensor by the way.

The second video I made for them used both of the zooms, but predominantly the new 50-135mm T2.9, roughly equivalent to 70-200mm full frame FOV. You can see both of these videos at the bottom of the page.

Filming with the Fuji MK cine lens with the Sony FS5 and Atomos Inferno. Photo by Sarah Seal

When I had heard that MTF services were making a micro four thirds mount for them I wasn’t super excited as this was quite a few months ago. After all they didn’t seem like a great fit for my GH5, which I never use, as the 2x crop would give them a full frame FOV of 36mm at the wide end which seemed a bit steep to me.

Then I bought the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K and despite a few issues I have with it (I will do a proper review about the camera one day, a long term use video) the image really impressed plus it was the first Blackmagic camera that can shoot really well in low light.

Now the micro four thirds lens mount suddenly became more interesting, it still would be not quite as wide as I would like on the wide end as it would be about 33mm with the 1.85x crop of that camera’s sensor. But I have never seen this camera as an actuality hand held documentary camera for me due to it’s odd ergonomics so this wasn’t so much of an issue.

Fuji asked me to make a third video explaining how these lenses and this camera work together with the new mount, to introduce Pocket 4K owners to these superb lenses. So that is what I did. Filming in Camber Sands in East Sussex and the Dungeness in Kent a couple of weeks later.

I was really impressed with how well they worked together. I am still going to use these lenses mostly on my E-mount cameras, especially my Kinefinity Mavo LF as in S35 4K mode they are a dream together…but I will swap those mounts over when I want to use them on the Pocket 4K. After all it is just 4 little screws on each lens! Just be careful not to do them around the cats!

The mount is available for £200 plus VAT direct from MTF Services.

Make sure you scroll down to watch the video I made and also to see the other linked videos!