Pro large sensor, interchangeable lens Sony NEX-EA50 shoulder mount camcorder now costs less than a Handycam!

You can now pick up a sale-priced Sony NEX-EA50UH professional APS-C interchangeable lens camcorder with a shoulder mount, a 18-200mm power zoom lens and XLR mic inputs for $2299 - less than the cost of the NEX-VG30 Handycam with the same lens and a 3.5mm consumer mic input.

These cameras may be limited to 1080p 4:2:0 recording in a 4K 4:2:2 world - but NEX-EA50 shooters such as Henry D.C. Williams nevertheless continue to produce some very good work:






If you're an NEX shooter who wants to upgrade to a professional large sensor camcorder, but who doesn't need 4K, this deal may be for you.

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Price cut - Super 35mm NEX-FS100 camcorder now $2500 w free Metabones adapter!

Sony has slashed the suggested retail price of the body-only NEX-FS100 Super 35 camcorder to $2850 U.S. list price. Retailers have marked it down even further ($2499 at Adorama with a mail-in coupon for a free Metabones EF to NEX Mark II smart adapter).

This is a big deal. As of yesterday, the retail price for this 8-bit 4:2:0 camera was $4999 - about the same price as the 8-bit Canon C100. So Sony has taken about a third off the price of this camera in one day.

In my view, this is a common sense move. Sony is reacting to the marketplace - shooters can buy a $495 Blackmagic Pocket Camera with 10/12-bit internal recording or a $1700 Panasonic GH4 with 4 times the resolution of the FS100 and 10-bit 4K output.  A $5000 price point for this camera was unrealistic (Canon, are you listening?).

That said, this is still an excellent low-light camcorder, except for its ergonomics, where the C100 is clearly better. But if your budget is below $3000, and you really want Super 35 - you may want to seriously consider this deal.

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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Shameless Plug for my Pocket Cinema Camera Group on Vimeo

Shooters such as John Brawley, emm of Cheesycam fame, and others are starting to do some very nice work (and tests) with the Pocket Cinema Camera.  Here are a couple from the last few days that I really liked:

Black Hole Sun is BANISHED from John Brawley:




The Day of America's Downfall from David Dominguez:




Test Footage #3 from moribun:




If you want to see more great Pocket Cinema Camera video, please head over to my Vimeo group.
Pretty impressive for a $995 camera.  To quote David English's review over at Studio Daily:

"We’ve known for years that this camera was coming—or one that would be very similar. Everything was ready to converge for the optimal size, resolution, and price. We might not get a personal jetpack or robot maid, but we would get a pocket-size camera with a cinema-like resolution and broad dynamic range. Now that the $995 Pocket Cinema Camera is here, is it all that we imagined it might be?

On the whole, this is the camera we were looking for..."

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