Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Captures Breathtaking Video from Space

Keisuke Iwaya is an amateur Japanese astrophysicist. On July 20th, 2014, he sent a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera into the Earth’s stratosphere from Obihiro, Japan for the first time ever. The video captures a time-lapse view of the amazing voyage into the heavens as well as some behind-the-scenes views of the lift off and finding it after its free fall back down. If you've ever day dreamed of flying around the planet like Superman as a kid, this video will rekindle that fantastic flame from your youth! – check it out!

The BMPCC was sent up inside a special housing attached to a weather balloon and the mission was dubbed the Fusen Ucyu Project which translates to the Balloon Space Project. The camera recorded everything to an Atomos Ninja Star equipped with a 128GB CFAST card on its 2 hour journey up over 28,500 meters into the sky – that's over 17.7 miles!

From the filmmaker's (Raitank) notes:

Fusen Ucyu Project - BMPCC Goes to Space -

"Fusen Ucyu (Baloon Space) Project" is a young ambitious amateur astrophysicist, Keisuke Iwaya's private mission to send various cameras up to space beyond the earth's atmosphere with Meteorological balloons to shoot beautiful images of our blue planet.

On 20th of July, 2014, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera was sent up for the first time with Atomos NinjaStar, with 128GB CFast card, to capture the whole two-hour-long journey from the ground to 28.5km (17.7mile) peak at stratosphere, and free-fall back to the Mother Earth.

Shot with Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera
at 24fps ProRes 422HQ on Atomos NinjaStar (128GB CFast)
Lens: Panasonic Lumix G Vario 7-14mm f/4.0
Filter: Kenko Pro1 Digital ND16 Wide
Edited with Final Cut Pro X, Graded with DaVinci Resolve 11

FUSEN UCYU PROJECT – BMPCC GOES TO SPACE –
Produced by Keisuke Iwaya
Creative Direction by Masaru Ishiura (TGB LAB.)
Shot and Edited by Raitank
Music by One Hundred MontBlanc (Ex MontBlanc)
Still Photo by Tsubasa Fujikura
Special Thanks to System5, Atomos Japan

fusenucyu.com/?p=5846
raitank.jp/archives/18184

© 2014 Fusen Ucyu Project, All rights reserved.

 

[via News Shooter]

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14 Comments

PROTIP: If you can go there with a baloon, it's not space

Yup, the much too usual clickbait..

Space is click bait? Lol. Some of you are really ridiculous.

"Space" is a clickbait when what you're talking about is _not_ space.
It's the kind of headline you find on buzzfeed and the like; pardon me for hoping better from this website.

So yes, that's being picky, but this kind of thing contributes to making more people confused about what we call "space" in Earth's close neighbourhood, how to get there, why it is a challenge to get there, etc.
All in all that's a disservice, and the only practical purpose is style (and thus appeal) : that's clickbait in my book.

Hey Pierre, thanks for checking the video out. I didn't title this with the word "Space" with a click-bait strategy in mind. It's more of a misnomer than anything as the video's title was still in my head when I was writing (it uses the word space) but I also used it because the view from the camera's journey ends with a nice glimpse out into space. Sorry to see you seem disappointed in what Fstoppers is delivering these days.

You make these comments sound more dramatic than they are really.
My point is that it's extremely common in all sorts of media to use "Space !" as an attention attractor even in situations where it doesn't apply, and it is detrimental to the general public understanding.

I'm sure you weren't actually at your desk thinking "Yeah, screw that, I just want this headline to pack more punch !", so I apologize if my comment really sounds like it was a malicious action.
But yeah, that's not a good headline in my opinion. I did say I was being picky, but this kind of imprecision really does not do any good in the general picture, so if you can, I think it's better to avoid it.

OK so it's not space, but can't we just celebrate his project with him? Being able to launch AND recover that balloon after a 28.5km ascent is pretty cool. Who knows where this inspiration will take a young mind? Good job Keisuke, keep pushing your boundaries - and find a way to go higher next time!

It's not a new thing to do, I remember reading years ago about a pentax being in space using the same sort of setup.

It's still pretty awesome though.

PROTIP: you're occupying space right now. #mindblown
You're being a bit picky aren't you? The video is from the stratosphere and is capturing a view of outer space. Don't be that guy. That guy is a d-bag.

Interesting project. Well done!

Try doing that with your DJI Orbiter Drone ;-) 30 minutes to free-fall back to the ground! The whole thing was pretty impressive IMHO, and he was brave to risk his BMPCC, even if it did have a GPS homing thingie. I guess we can tell how serious Mr Iwaya is from those smart blue overalls, with the Mad Scientist badges, he was wearing.

I'm calling shenanigans. 2 hours up and 30 minute free fall. Everyone knows the BMPCC battery only lasts 15-20 minutes :)

We did that 2 years ago with 2 GoPros

http://little-astronaut.com/

Well, that was nothing.