First "4K"/60p footage from the Blackmagic Ursa!

Today, Pro cinematographer and Blackmagic tester John Brawley posted the first UHD/60p footage we've seen from the Ursa PL on his blog. I saw this camera at NAB and it is physically gorgeous - with a huge, bright screen, sound meters you can see from across the room and lots of proper SDI outputs. And from the looks of John's footage, the image quality doesn't disappoint, even at ISO 400 with a T3.7 lens:



At $5995 for the EF mount version and $6495 for PL mount, this camera seems to address many of the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K's limitations (with the exception of the "black sun" problem) at a price point that significantly undercuts 4K cameras from RED, Sony and Canon that cost a lot more.

If Blackmagic were to add DCI standard 12-bit 4K (4096x2160) 4:4:4 RAW to this camera (instead of UHD), and fix the darned black sun, they'd sell a whole lot more of them in Hollywood. Maybe at next year's NAB.

Blackmagic Production Camera 4K vs RED ONE MX - Fight's On!

We've been waiting for this for a long time. The first images from the Blackmagic Production Camera, announced in April 2013 at NAB, are finally here! Yesterday, Blackmagic CEO, Grant Petty, posted a 10GB downloadable sample that he shot personally (if you want to see it and experiment with how it performs in the grade, you can download it here).

This was a very cool thing for him to do, but the community of interest for this camera continued to clamor for images shot by a "real DP".

Well today, we have those images - and the backstory is almost as interesting as the video itself.

Turns out that Captain Hook (of Captain Hook LUT fame) took his test BMPC out on a music video shoot as the "B" cam to a RED MX.

The director liked the early images so much that the BMPC was promoted to the "A" cam:



This camera essentially delivers Hollywood quality 4K motion pictures at an "amateur movie" price of $3995 - which is less than a 1080p Canon 5D Mark III with the 24-70 lens, $1500 less than an 8 bit 1080p Canon C100, $8000 less than a non-RAW capable 4K Canon 1DC, $13,000 less than the 10 bit 1080p Canon C300 and $23,000 (!) less than Canon's 4K C500.

RED and Sony prices for equivalently equipped 4K cinema cameras are also at or above $10K.  The new 2K Arri Amira is $20K.

My guess is that Blackmagic will be able to sell as many Production Cameras as the factory can crank out.  I also predict that we will start to see downward price adjustments from Canon and Sony - and perhaps even RED and Arri.

This may be bad news for the large camera companies, but it is a terrific Christmas gift to photographers and moviemakers everywhere - even those who will never buy a Blackmagic camera.

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Waiting for the new Blackmagic Cameras - a perspective

It's been interesting, and a little entertaining, to read the comment sections on posts and fora discussing the delay in the ship dates for the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema and Production Cameras.  For those who missed it, here is the official statement from Blackmagic (via Andrew Reid at eoshd):

"Blackmagic Design is making significant progress in production of the new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and Blackmagic Production Camera 4K. Full production manufacturing is underway on the Pocket Cinema Camera with first production units in final testing. This is inline with our initial expectations of the end of July and means the camera will start to ship in quantity during August. There are several weeks of work to do on Production Camera 4K before this will enter full production manufacturing, however we expect to ship the first quantities of this model before the end of August."

Andrew added this update later:

"We do our best to show off new products at shows like NAB and provide realistic dates these products will come to market. But a lot goes into getting products such as the new cameras to the stage where we’re completely happy with them and can put them into full production. The good news is that we’re pretty much on the schedule we said we’d be on. We said July for both cameras and we’re really not far behind that."

  "The Pocket Cinema Camera is now in full production. We have the final units in test now and expect it to be a matter of days or, at worst, a week or two before we’re ready to shift the camera out to customers. We’re in full product manufacture with the camera and there are no issues with it whatsoever. We have a considerable number of orders for the camera so it will take a period of time to fulfill all these orders."

As someone who has a Pocket Cinema Camera on pre-order, this does not concern me in the least.  Compared to the gap between promised and actual delivery dates for the RED Scarlet, Digital Bolex, Panasonic G6 (promised last month and just now arriving in quantity in North America) - and my months long waits for the Panasonic GH2 and GH3 - a few days is nothing.

The wait for the Production Camera is a little more substantial, and if I had a paying 4K gig in August I'd planned to use the camera on, I would certainly be a little frustrated.

But let's keep things in perspective.  A few days' wait for the Pocket Camera and a month for the Production Camera is nothing compared to the gap between promised and actual delivery dates for many other camera manufacturers, most notably RED, Panasonic and Digital Bolex.

Panasonic's challenges in getting product to market in North America are legend.  And it's happening again with the new G6, which was promised in June, but is just now (late July) arriving in quantity in North America - at a $50 markup from list.  What's up with that?

And then there's RED.  Does anyone remember the promise of "3K for $3K"?  I do.  I also remember the year+ later rollout of the Scarlet, which is a great camera, but not a $3000 camera by any stretch of the imagination.

I won't pile on the Digital Bolex folks, whom I admire, but there is clearly a huge gap between promise and reality with this camera.

And outside of the camera world, has anyone tried to get a new iOS or Nexus phone or tablet on the rollout date?

All of that said, Blackmagic is a real company with real products and a track record of delivering them (eventually).  All the talk about "deception" and that a delay on the new cameras will "bring down the company" is a little over the top, in my view.

For those who can wait a few weeks, and still need to get on the pre-order list, you can get the $995 Pocket Cinema Camera here, and the Production Camera bundled with handles for $3995 here.

For those who need 2.5K RAW now, you can get the original EF mount Cinema Camera from Amazon - and the MFT mount BMCC with handles from Adorama for $2995.

And a little reminder of what the "old" 2.5K RAW camera can do (Trip to Mexico, from Andrew Julian on Vimeo):

Blackmagic Does It Again!

They were the talk of last year's NAB - and it looks like they're going to do it again. Blackmagic looks set to announce TWO revolutionary new cameras tomorrow:

1. The "Blackmagic Production Camera", a $3995 EF mount, Super 35 4K camera with a global shutter (!), and

2. The "Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera",  a $995 (!!) Micro 4/3 mount (!!) Super 16 camera with 13 stops of dynamic range (!!!) that shoots RAW, and records to SD card (!!!).

The BPCC seriously undercuts the GH3, 5D MkIII and D800 - while the BPC takes clear aim at the F5, the RED Scarlet and others farther up the food chain.

Pic here: https://twitter.com/michaelkammes/status/321082752566964224/photo/1

More info as the official announcement hits the streets.

I'll say it again, these are great times to be a filmmaker!

If you can't wait for Blackmagic to ship these new cameras, you can always get a the "old" 2.5K BMCC for $2995.

Sony F5, BMCC, RED Scarlet Shootout

522 Productions in the DC area just posted this great little shootout between the new Sony F5, the Blackmagic Cinema Camera and the RED Scarlet.

They were able to compare side-by-side video of the BMCC and the RED, but they had to go with screenshots on the F5 because they use Adobe Premiere and the camera is so new it doesn't have an Adobe plugin yet. Nevertheless, they liked the ergonomics, the menus, the manual controls and the overall handling of the F5 most of all.  In part 2 of this shootout, they'll compare workflow in post for all three of these cameras. 

If you need a camera with film-like dynamic range and 2K or greater internal RAW recording, and you don't want to wait for the BMCC, the F5 is pretty much the only game in town.  And, even after the BMCC starts shipping in volume, the F5 will be the only 2K+ RAW camera below $20,000 with 120fps and XLR inputs. They are in stock right now for $16,490 at Adorama.

Canon Goes *Way* Upmarket with 4K C500

It looks like Canon is serious about competing with Arri, RED and Sony for the high end cinematography market.  Rolled out today at a big shindig in Hollywood (hat tip to Creative COW), and priced at $26,000, the new 4K C500, big brother to the $16,000 C300 and $6,500 C100, appears to undercut high resolution RAW cameras such as the Arri Alexa, the RED Epic and the Sony F65 - all of which cost over $50,000.

If you're a Canon shooter with a big budget feature to shoot this Christmas, you can pre-order your EF mount or PL mount C500 at Adorama today for November delivery. Your card won't be charged until it ships!

RED Delivers Epic Convergence

I don't usually repost interviews, but there are several profound insights on the imminent convergence of stills and video in this interview with DSLR pioneer Vincent Laforet at aphotoeditor.com.

Laforet is now shooting with a RED Epic-M, and is able to pull high quality stills from 5K 96fps or 200fps streams.  In the interview, he tells this awesome story:

"For example this morning I was about to leave my home to go to work. I had my Epic with me and my daughter got into her ballerina dress for the first time. And I had a choice between my Leica M9 or the Epic, two very different tools, to very different ways of shooting, and two very different results obviously. One’s noticeably heavier. But with the Epic, I get 5k resolution stills. I’m shooting it at 96 frames a second, at a 200th of a second. And I’m able to get incredibly sharp 14 MP stills from the camera.

I’m most likely not going to print poster images of my daughter- as much as I love her. But I will definitely print 8×10, 11x14s with a 14 megapixel camera, which is what the 5k can do. And it’s going to allow me to pick one of 96 frames every single second. And I also have the benefit of having a video clip to go along with it. Slow motion video that is @6 times the resolution of 1080p content as a result. So why would I choose the Leica other than the form factor, obviously? And the fact that it’s a still image and slightly higher resolution.

You’d choose it for price.

We’re talking about the future here. Not what things cost today. My iphone shoots better pictures than my $20,000 Canon D2000 shot 10 years ago."

In a decade or less, we will be in a world where a 5K camera costs $5K. In that world, there will be a lot more people creating big-screen quality motion pictures -- and pulling high quality still images out of them -- putting a lot of ACs, camera assistants and still-only photographers out of work.

People have been predicting this since Laforet shot Reverie a little less than two years ago -- but the 5DMkII (and even my beloved GH2) were just harbingers of this revolution.  The Epic represents the main force.

Take a look at what revolutionaries Laforet and Bloom are doing with the Epic and tiny crews:


EPIC #308 from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo


Great Wooden Boats: RED EPIC from Philip Bloom on Vimeo

Welcome to the next chapter of the hybrid camera revolution. More power to the people!

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