I've been covering this for nearly a year; and it's finally been released as a public stable firmware release for both the PYXIS 6K and now the BMCC 6K FF!

Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K

• Adds phase detect auto focus (PDAF) support.
• Adds continuous autofocus support.
• Adds face detect autofocus support.
• Adds object detect auto focus support.
• Adds support for autofocus transition speed settings.
• Adds support for assigning autofocus mode toggle to shortcut keys.
• Adds support for pausing continuous autofocus when holding down the focus button.
• Adds support for Blackmagic Cloud Streaming.
• Adds support for 4 channel audio recording.
• Adds support for pre-recording.

He was a supporter of environmental preservation, and an incredible artist.

His work and his performances have impacted my life from an extremely young age (Dr. Grant must have been my first on-screen role model, and an early portrayal of what it means to "be a man" and do the right thing, be a leader, and protect others).

Today while paying my respects, I learned more about his life and his involvement in preserving nature in his home country of New Zealand.

I know it's just his stage name, but it is the one I know him as and it is the name under which he has had a profound impact on my life, so I stand by saying: Goodbye Sam, and thank you for everything. Wherever you are now, they're lucky as hell to have you.

Camera friends with L-Mount cameras! I have been testing this lens (feel free to jump around the chapters): https://www.youtube.com/live/9yCvpYO_ofw...

And in case anyone is into it, there is a 20% off that ends tomorrow: https://viltrox.com/products/af-16mm-f1-8-l...

My notes on the lens (the good):

- Autofocus motor is *deadsilent*

- Full frame 16mm f/1.8 is insanely wide and insanely fast

- Very aspherical for little to no barrel distortion

- Ridiculously close minimum focus

- Beautiful natural subtle fall-off wide-open at 16mm when shooting open gate 3:2 (perfectly matches the subtle vignette I add to all of my footage)

- Crazy sharp (especially for the price)

- Optically it's just superb

- Flaring is super controlled and an absolute stunner for back-lit subjects

- Appears to work really well on Panasonic L-Mount cameras

- *Can* be controlled electronically with the Blackmagic L Mount cinema cameras, but it has some caveats (which brings us to...)

My notes on the lens (the wonky):

- Real-time Autofocus on the Blackmagic PYXIS 6K and BMCC6K FF (with the not-yet-stable in-development PDAF firmware I've been covering for the past 7 months) is a bit hit-or-miss

- Iris control is currently SLOW: you can change the setting on the physical lens, and then you have to wait *several seconds* for the iris to slowly change to the setting you put it to...

- If you WANT to flair this lens for vibes... good luck (you have to really ping the lens with a hard light projecting into it; the sun was not enough to create the milky flairs I was expecting when I did our little golden hour shoot!)

I'm in direct contact with the guys at Viltrox, and basically they just recently joined the L Mount alliance (and it is my understanding that they are working on fixes / a firmware update already).

TL;DR:

Is the lens worth owning based on optics? Hell yes.

Is the lens worth owning based on functionality / ease of use? Not yet.

It *is* on sale until tomorrow, July 27th, and they're supposedly working on the functionality, so do with that what you will.

If anyone would like to pop in during tomorrow's live rigging demo starting at 9AM PST; I'll be getting into the weeds on a bunch of ways to rig up the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K Full Frame.

Handheld, shoulder rig, tripod/dolly/crane, overhead, etc. (and in the meantime: let me know if you have any questions / requests!)

Hey all, DP based in LA (narratives, feature docs, commercials, and music videos) started a streaming series answering questions from creators, videographers, and indie filmmakers and doing demos when possible.

Have carved out an hour of time each morning 9AM PST (for any day without an early call time, of course)!

Today: chatted with a hiking content creator (Sony mirrorless shooter) through some settings for dealing with the harsh contrast of direct daylight shooting: which you can watch here.

Assuming this doesn't get downvoted to oblivion... Would love to hear from y'all here on topics you'd be interested in as a discussion point on the lives; and it'd be even cooler if ya just popped in and drop a line in the comments tomorrow!

Hopefully offering a resource and real-time advice for those seeking info doesn't count as self-promotion... (not selling anything, here)!