For a limited time, we’re making an offer that will undoubtedly set off creative explosions: the chance to rent our top-of-the-range equipment for a week at the cost of just ONE day’s rental!

That’s right – starting this week, you can get your hands on our wide range of premium cameras, lenses, lighting equipment, and more, for seven days of uninterrupted use, while only paying for a single day. This deal offers creatives colossal savings, allowing you to channel more of your budget into other crucial areas of your film project.

Whether you’re shooting a suspenseful drama, an action-packed blockbuster, or a poignant documentary, our Oppenheimer Deal provides you with the means to realize your most ambitious visions without having to worry about high equipment costs.

With Stray Angel Films, we are more than just a production rental house; we’re a partner in your journey of storytelling, and we can’t wait to see the amazing projects you’ll create with the help of our Oppenheimer Deals! Shoot us an email at rentals@strayangel.com with your rental dates and we’ll make this Summer Deal happen for your production.

Here’s to a week up to a whopping six months of creative explosions and cinematic breakthroughs!

The post Summer Deals Dropping at Stray Angel appeared first on Stray Angel Films.

The Pocket Cinema Camera 4K features a 4/3″ sensor for capturing up to 4096 x 2160 DCI 4K images at rates up to 60 fps in a variety of codecs including Blackmagic Raw at several bit rates and various ProRes 422 options. Slow-motion rates up to 120 fps are available in cropped Full HD. Its Micro Four Thirds lens mount accommodates the original, lightweight Pocket Cinema Camera lenses, and can be used with PL, C, EF, and other lenses with the use of separately available adapters. A dual-native ISO up to 25,600 is featured for low-light capture, and 13 stops of dynamic range provide rich HDR images.

Full Features:

• Full-size 4/3-sized sensor with native 4096 x 2160 resolution-sized sensor.
• Compatible with extremely high-quality micro four-thirds lenses.
• Super-wide 13 stops of dynamic range allow capture for a high-end feature film look.
• Up to 25600 ISO for incredible low-light performance.
• Carbon fiber polycarbonate composite body, which makes it lightweight, portable, and durable.
• Multi-function grip for quick access to recording start/stop, still photos, ISO, shutter, aperture, white balance, power and more.
• Built-in SD, UHS-II, and CFast card recorders.
• USB-C expansion port allows longer duration recording directly to an external SSD or flash disk.
• Standard open file formats are compatible with popular NLE software such as 10-bit ProRes and 12 bit RAW.
• Features full-size HDMI output for monitoring with camera status graphic overlay.
• Professional mini XLR input with 48 volts of phantom power for connecting to pro microphones.
• 3.5mm audio jack, headphone jack, and locking DC 12 volt power connection.
• Built-in 5” LCD touchscreen allows accurate focus when shooting 4K.
• LCD supports on-screen overlays, including status, histogram, focus peaking, and transport controls.
• Records 4K images at up to 60 frames per second and windowed HD at up to 120 frames per second.
• 3D LUTs can be applied for both monitoring and recording.
• Blackmagic OS as used in URSA Mini and URSA Broadcast cameras.
• 4th-generation Blackmagic color science.
• Supports remote camera control via Bluetooth.
• Includes full license for DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, color, visual effects, and audio post-production.

For more information on how to rent the Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera, email rentals@strayangel.com, give us a call or stop in for a demo. We’d love to see you!

DSLR Video Shooter covers the Blackmagic Pocket Camera:

The post Introducing: Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 4K appeared first on Stray Angel Films.

Check out the Blackmagic URSA 4.6K HD-422HQ test footage in the video:

This video was shot with the 4.6K Blackmagic URSA, Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 & Sigma 50mm f/1.4 ART lenses, and it was graded in Davinci Resolve.

It was shot by Blackmagic Shooter, Captain Hook. Here’s what he had to say about shooting with the new URSA:

“Couple of things about the URSA 4.6k footage for some ‘background’. I shot this on a prototype so things were still in development and changing.

This was also just me shooting solo with the URSA like previously and is “home movie” type stuff intended to be a quick first look. In fact, last time with my URSA beta video I had Danelle helping me to carry some gear but this time it was just me shooting some friends and around the city – definitely no crew or anything like that.

For the kitchen shots and the drumming I set up some lights, everything else is 100% natural light, not even bounce. Grading on this video is purposely VERY simple. It’s really just a quick setting of white balance, then contrast and saturation. I didn’t tweak individual colours or even shift colours with Lift/Gamma/Gain because I wanted to show the great natural colour “out of the box”.

This part is my personal opinion and obviously now that I work for BMD people will take it with a grain of salt (to be expected), but personally I think we’ve made a BIG improvement on colour – colour that I already really liked which led me to first purchase the BMCC as a customer.

I think the improvement in colour is just as big as the improvement on dynamic range. With DR, so far in my experience I think it’s safe to say that whatever you rate the Pocket Camera to be, add roughly 2 stops. 1 stop in the highlights, and another stop in the shadows.

I can’t wait for people to get this and go shoot some incredible footage with it!”

For more information on how to rent the Blackmagic Cinema Cameras, email rentals@strayangel.com, give us a call or stop in for a demo. We’d love to see you!

The post Blackmagic Releases 4.6K URSA Footage appeared first on Stray Angel Films.

The new URSA Mini sensor will offer 4.6K resolution and 15 stops of dynamic range.

We got a chance to chat with Kendall Eckman of Blackmagic Design about the new URSA Mini:

Here is the Mini URSA Specs we currently know:

• 4.6K Super 35mm Sensor  (4608 x 2592)
• 15 Stops Dynamic Range in Rolling Shutter Mode, -1 or 2 stops in Global Shutter mode
• Switchable Between Rolling Shutter and Global Shutter
• 4K RAW up to 60fps in Rolling, 4K RAW Up to 30 fps in Global
• Windowed HD up to 160fps
• 4K RAW 4:1 Compression, Uncompressed, ProRes XQ to Proxy in all Resolutions
• Dual CFast 2.0 slots
• Dual XLR Input
• 12V to 30V 4 pin XLR
• Weighs Under 7 Pounds

If you are planning on purchasing, it should be noted that the sensor is in the mini not upgradeable like the original URSA. Not necessarily a deal-breaker, but the fact that it was “upgradable” was a heavily emphasized feature of the big URSA.

At the time of writing, the URSA Mini will supposedly ship Summer/Fall of 2015. It is available in either an EF or PL mount. URSA Mini will cost $3,000 with the original URSA sensor, $5,000 for the new 4.6K sensor. The PL Mount will cost $500 more for each version.

If you’re interested in more information on how to rent the lastest Blackmagic Cinema Cameras, email rentals@strayangel.com, give us a call or stop in for a demo. We’d love to see you!

The post New Blackmagic URSA Mini Half The Weight Of Original appeared first on Stray Angel Films.

The URSA has a lot of cool features, including the 10″ HD flip-out LCD screen. The screen is big enough to ensure that most productions won’t need to rent an on-camera monitor as the camera was truly built with production in mind. Improvements from previous Blackmagic cameras include an ergonomic body and audio monitoring along with that massive screen: all things that will make professional production much easier.

For reference, here are the Blackmagic URSA’s notable specs:

• 3840 x 2160p Global Shutter CMOS Sensor
• 12 Stops of Dynamic Range
• 10.1″, 1080p Flip-Out LCD Screen
• Dual 5″ Touchscreens for Menu Access
• Records CinemaDNG RAW and ProRes 422 HQ
• 12G-SDI Output for 10-Bit 4:2:2 4K
• 2x XLR Audio Inputs with Phantom Power
• Aluminum Frame with 3/8″-16 Mounting
• LANC Port for START/STOP, Iris, Focus
• Dual CFast 2.0 Card Slots

For more information on how to rent a camera from Blackmagic Design, email rentals@strayangel.com, give us a call or stop in for a demo. We’d love to see you!

Watch B&H cover the Blackmagic URSA at NAB2014:

The post Now Renting: Blackmagic URSA appeared first on Stray Angel Films.

Blackmagic explains that the new in-camera formatting has some advantages from formatting on a computer because the cameras can optimize and format disks for high-performance video use. The company also claims that as new disks are released in the future, new software can be released “to take advantage of unique features of disks for maximum performance when recording high data RAW 4K images.”

You’ll have the choice between ExFAT and HFS+ when formatting cards internally. HFS+ should be used if you’re working with Mac systems, but if you’re using Windows or a combination of both, you should use the ExFAT format instead.

If you haven’t updated your Blackmagic Camera yet, what are you waiting for? Firmware version 1.9.7 is available to download now! You’ll find the latest support updates right here at Blackmagic Support.

The post Filmmakers Rejoice! You Can Now Format SSD & SD Cards in Blackmagic Cameras appeared first on Stray Angel Films.

As we said, this firmware is leaked. Blackmagic warns that it is not the final version and you should not update your camera. Hopefully, this means the official version is almost ready to go!

Here’s what’s new for each camera (thanks to Andrew over at EOSHD):

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera

• Updated user interface
• Improved performance when recording using internal microphones
• Improved instances where a grid-like pattern may occur in some flare highlights
• General improvements in autofocus with active MFT lenses
• Adds supports for stabilization in MFT lenses without physical O.I.S switches
• Improved support for Sigma MFT lenses
• Improved support for Lumix 12-42mm PZ lens
• Improved support for Olympus 60mm f/2.8 MFT lens
• Iris setting is retained when switching between camera recording and clip playback

Blackmagic Production Camera 4K

• Updated user interface
• Losslessly compressed RAW DNG recording support
• Addresses an issue where pixel artifacts are seen in edges with strong highlights while shooting in 1080 mode
• Adds autofocus support for compatible EF lenses

Blackmagic Cinema Camera

• Updated user interface
• Adds autofocus support for compatible EF lenses
• Improved debayering when shooting to ProRes or DNxHD
• Improved focus peaking display
• Improved ISO handling when shooting at ISO 1600
• Improved general audio performance
• Iris setting is retained when switching between camera recording and clip playback

Blackmagic Studio Camera

• Improved phantom power compatibility
• Addresses an issue with interlace video being output as progressive video

For more information on how to rent the latest Blackmagic Cinema Cameras, email rentals@strayangel.com, give us a call or stop in for a demo. We’d love to see you!

The post Blackmagic 4K RAW Update Leaked! appeared first on Stray Angel Films.

Check out the “Gangsta Waitress” video, and you’ll find Sean’s candid thoughts below:

“We used the 4K Blackmagic Production Camera for several reasons. First off, it shoots at 4K with a S35 sensor, so we didn’t need to worry about crop factor the way we did with the original 2.5K camera. This was especially important because we decided to crop the image to 2.40 to give everything a more cinematic feel, which was important for the ‘glammy’ style we were going for. The reason we chose the Blackmagic camera over another S35 4K option is more ergonomic than anything else. The camera is small and lightweight, which makes it very easy to move around set with. On top of that we were able to shoot full 12 hour days on only 3 V-Lock batteries. Less battery switches made for more time spent getting extra angles, doing extra takes, etc. It sounds like a little detail but it makes a big difference when you have a small crew and you spend a lot of your time chasing daylight.

The camera performed well despite its ergonomic drawbacks. There are some definite negative sides to shooting on the BMPC 4K, but if you anticipate them then you won’t have too much trouble. The first bummer was that Blackmagic didn’t have 4K RAW functionality ready with the cameras on release. Some of our shots were daytime exterior, and being able to shoot RAW would have saved some clouds and white shirts. The other downsides are similar to those with the original BMCC; the camera doesn’t have a signal generator or audio level meter, you can’t format cards in the camera, and there’s no timecode input. Luckily I use a light meter, this was an MOS shoot, we had a DIT on hand, and we used the internal microphone to record the playback for syncing. As long as you are aware of the potential difficulties you can mitigate them with forethought and appropriate planning.

As for the image itself, I was impressed! I have shot some pretty stuff with the 2.5K, but the 4K really popped for me. The colors were spot on, the highlights rolled off as reasonably as one could expect on ProRes, and the sharpness in the image was frankly surprising. I had always thought of the CP2 lenses as less sharp than its bigger brothers, but I was pleasantly surprised on this shoot. The camera definitely lands up there with the RED and Alexa crowd. An Alexa would have been sharper and cleaner, but for the price difference between the two systems it is shocking how close they are in quality. One annoyance with the image came in overexposed superhighlights. The sensor has the same CMOS black sun effect you see on other cameras. When lights were pointed directly into the lens we’d often get black holes in the highlight portion. We managed to paint them out in the video, but it was still annoying to have to deal with them. I had thought Blackmagic had fixed this issue with a firmware update in 2013, but the BMPC 4K was showing these artifacts out of the box.

Overall it was a great shooting experience! I’m pleased with the images and the camera was easy to work with, so what more could we want? Well, maybe some SMPTE bars…”

We hope you enjoyed watching and reading about “Gangsta Waitress” shot with Blackmagic cameras.

For more information on how to rent the latest Blackmagic Cinema Cameras, email rentals@strayangel.com, give us a call or stop in for a demo. We’d love to see you!

The post 4K Blackmagic Music Video: Gangsta Waitress appeared first on Stray Angel Films.

Here’s what we currently know about the Blackmagic URSA specs:

• Super 24 Global Shutter 4K CMOS Sensor
• Up to 60fps in HD and 4K
• 12 Stops Of Dynamic Range
• Comes in 3 mounts – EF, PL, or no mount for use as a recorder
• Records to CFast Cards
• 3 Screens – (1) Fold-out 10″ monitor and (2) smaller 5″ Monitors
• SDI Video Output: 1 x 12G-SDI 10-bit 4:2:2. 1 x 3G-SDI down converted for external monitoring
• Ship Date: July (so says Blackmagic, but if so it would be the first camera they were on time with)
• Price: Starting at $5,995

The Blackmagic Studio camera comes in two versions, HD and 4K. They both feature a Micro Four Thirds mount, 10” full HD viewfinders, built-in fiber optic connections, as well as built-in talkback for studio communication. The Blackmagic Studio cameras are designed to be used for any type of live event, such as broadcasts, concerts, church services, etc.

Both cameras are said to begin shipping this July.

*With the cameras officially released, if you’re interested in more information on how to rent the latest Blackmagic Cameras, email rentals@strayangel.com, give us a call or stop in for a demo. We’d love to see you!

If you weren’t able to attend NAB and want to learn more about the new Blackmagic cameras, watch our videos below!

The post NAB 2014: First Look At Blackmagic URSA and Studio Cameras appeared first on Stray Angel Films.

Not satisfied with just taking a piece of the indie film community, Blackmagic wants this camera to become the low-budget go-to for live productions. Currently, we know the Blackmagic Studio Camera is available in two models: HD and Ultra HD (4K). They both feature a Micro Four Thirds mount, 10” full HD viewfinders, built-in fiber optic connections, as well as built-in talkback for studio communication.

At the time of writing, the price on the cameras is impressive. The Blackmagic Studio HD Camera will be priced at $1,995 and the 4K Studio camera at $2995.

Blackmagic’s website says that the 4K Studio camera will be shipping in June (but hey, it’s Blackmagic, that could easily turn into December). The HD version of the camera currently has a “buy now” button on the site, but is not yet listed on B&H.

*With the cameras officially released, if you’re interested in more information on how to rent the latest Blackmagic Cameras, email rentals@strayangel.com, give us a call or stop in for a demo. We’d love to see you!

UPDATE: Watch Our Video About The Blackmagic Studio Camera at NAB!

The post NAB 2014: Blackmagic Announces New HD & UHD Broadcast Studio Cameras appeared first on Stray Angel Films.

The URSA has a massive 10-inch fold-out monitor built into the side of the camera as well as two 5” touch screens. The Super 35 4K sensor offers a global shutter and 12 stops of dynamic range. URSA records 12-bit lossless Cinema DNG RAW or Apple ProRes.

At the time of writing,  you can order the Blackmagic URSA in EF or PL mount.  The camera is expected to start shipping in July. The EF Mount URSA is priced at $5995 and the PL Mount URSA slightly higher at $6495.

We’re looking forward to stopping by the Blackmagic NAB booth and getting a demo of the URSA as well as the Studio Cameras!

*With the camera officially released, if you’re interested in more information on how to rent the latest from Blackmagic Design, email rentals@strayangel.com, give us a call or stop in for a demo. We’d love to see you!

UPDATE: Watch Our Video With The URSA AT NAB!

The post NAB 2014: New Blackmagic 4K URSA Interchangeable Sensor Camera, Priced At $6K appeared first on Stray Angel Films.

Here’s what Scott had to say about the test:

“We had a 30-minute window with an Arri Alexa before the camera Dept. had to take it away from us. In that time we mounted an Angenieux 17-80 Zoom to both cameras and tried to match settings as closely as possible. The only difference between the two camera setups was an adjustment to the zoom length to match framing. The BMPC was using a 50mm and the Alexa needed to go to 58mm.. Go Figure..

The goal of the test was to check general compatibility between the two cameras for ‘B” unit camera consideration. The considerations were: Skin Tone, Aliasing, Black Noise Levels and Dynamic Range as well as possible VFX Capture.

The BMPC is extremely sharp and yet has a minimum of aliasing issues (The jacket was chosen to be a nightmare scenario clothing choice..) We also found the skin tones to be accurate and pleasing. The Blackmagic Production Camera doesn’t have a very flat log look, but it took to grading well. You’ve just got to watch the highlights.

The Alexa, naturally, has a more “buttery-clean” look and has gobs of DR. But for 3k, my god! The BMPC did extremely well.

We also shot some green screen of the same scenes for testing next week. We’ll post it when ready. I’m also looking into a better solution to post the original footage.

We’re PC based and a bit ProRes Challenged..”

Here is the original 4K Blackmagic vs ALEXA video:

Scott also uploaded some RAW footage of both the ALEXA and 4K Blackmagic:

Our Equipment Manager, Sean, gave us his reaction after watching the 4K Blackmagic vs ALEXA Comparison:

“The Blackmagic 4K Production Camera comes closer to matching the quality of Arri’s Alexa than most people had ever hoped for. The dynamic range on the Alexa still exceeds that of the Blackmagic, and so the Alexa has better overall performance in highlight retention and shadow detail. In terms of overall quality and detail in the image, the two cameras side-by-side are, for an average observer, hard to tell apart once graded. Aliasing doesn’t seem to be noticeably worse on one camera versus the other, though the Alexa has a distinct smoothness to the image that makes the Blackmagic seem just a tad oversharp in comparison. All in all, however, the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K does a great job in competing with one of the world’s best cameras at a tiny fraction of the cost.”

For more information on how to rent the latest Cinema Cameras from Blackmagic and ARRI, email rentals@strayangel.com, give us a call or stop in for a demo. We’d love to see you!

The post 4K Blackmagic Camera VS ARRI ALEXA appeared first on Stray Angel Films.