12-35mm f2.8 Lens on RedShark's Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Test Unit!

Congratulations to RedShark for getting their hands on what appears to be the second Pocket Cinema Camera in the wild.  Hop over to their unboxing post to see some nice pictures of the Pocket mated to the Panasonic 12-35 f2.8 lens:

From RedShark News

This is a great lens, but sadly, it is a little over my budget, so I will break out the trusty old Olympus 11-22mm f2.8-3.5 4/3 lens with the MA1 adapter. This should give me full autoiris and push-to-focus compatibility with the camera. It will be pretty bulky on the Pocket, but should produce some great images.  

That said, the image of the model holding the camera above is really interesting.  We talk a lot about a camera's price/performance ratio on this blog - but the size/performance ratio of this camera is amazing.

With the Pocket Cinema Camera, a filmmaker will be able to shoot a "film" in front of the White House  - or attend an important event - and attract no more attention than someone with a point and shoot or small mirrorless.

This camera will literally be able to go places that larger cameras, with comparable image quality, cannot go.

Where some see a "B" cam or a "crash cam" - I see this camera as great new tool for cinema verité or street filmmaking - combining the urgency and immediacy of cell phone video with projection-quality images.

Yes, we will see a lot of shaky, poorly shot stuff - but we will also see high impact footage shot in newly accessible places - by people who could not have afforded to shoot ProRes before the advent of the Pocket.

The terms "revolution" and "revolutionary" are often overused (I'm certainly guilty of it) - but, if any camera deserves that description,  this one does.

If you're interested in any of the lenses mentioned in this post, please order them here.  It won't cost you anything extra, and it will help me keep the blog running.  Thanks!

Just Bought a Fast SDXC Card for my Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera

Since the cameras seem to be really shipping (!), it is time to buy a memory card.  After all these months of waiting, it would be pretty frustrating to have the camera waiting on my doorstep when I get back from Spaceport America next week - with no memory card to put in it.

Looking at this list of fast cards on blackmagicuser.net, I couldn't bring myself to spring for a 95MB/s $133 Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB - so I bought an ADATA 64GB (95MB/s read, 45MB/s write) for $56 (on sale at Amazon) instead.  ADATA, an established DRAM and NAND flash memory manufacturer from Taiwan, just entered the high speed SD card market a few months ago, so their prices are a little lower than Sandisk's.  On sale, this card is a very good deal.

At 45MB/s write, the ADATA will be good enough for ProRes, but won't cut it for CinemaDNG RAW. When Blackmagic issues the RAW firmware update, I'll buy a faster card, but until then, this will do.

Video from Blackmagic's August 8th NYC Event!

Hat tip to filmmaker David Bates, Jr., who has posted video shot at Blackmagic's event in New York on August 8th.  If you want to skip David's mano a mano challenge to Spielberg, Lucas, et. al to a shootout with the Production camera, you can bail out of the video after about 1:10:

"Filmmakers' Challenge" aside, there is some good information on the Pocket and Production Cameras here.

First, push to autofocus seems to be pretty fast on the Pocket - and, second, the global shutter on the Production Camera seems to be effective in preventing skew.

This is iPhone video, not a studio test under controlled conditions, but it makes me that much more anxious to get my hands on the little Pocket Cinema Cam.

First Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Unboxing Videos

The guys at Wooden Camera have posted a couple of short unboxing videos on Instagram.  I am so jealous:




For those of you who were waiting until the camera actually started shipping to order, you can get on the list here, or by clicking on the Adorama display below.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Boxed & Ready to Ship!

Hat tip to RedShark News

Hope this is mine!  

To whet your appetite even further, here is a new downloadable (and gradeable) ProRes BMPC file from John Brawley (you might have to wait a while - so many people have tried to access the file that Dropbox has temporarily disabled the link).

In the meantime, here is a graded sample from the download via Ruben Kremer on Vimeo:

If you're as impressed as I am, and want to order this incredible little camera, please click here or on the display ad below:

Blackmagic CEO: BMCC Price Drop to $1995, Pocket Camera Now Shipping!

Okay - just one more Blackmagic post.  Grant Petty, CEO at Blackmagic Design, continues to shake up the camera industry.  Here is an excerpt from an email he sent out overnight:

"Camera Update 

The new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera is now shipping and there is a software update for it posted on our web site. 

There are some new features in the software for the Pocket Cinema Camera. You can now focus by pushing the focus button when using an active MFT lens. This makes it very easy to accurately focus. The focus peaking feature is still there and you enable it by double pressing the focus button. The focus zoom feature is enabled by double pressing the OK button. 

There will be an update for the 2.5K Blackmagic Cinema Camera soon that will also add these features, plus new de-bayer processing that will improve the cameras sharpness when shooting non RAW files. 

The Blackmagic Production Camera 4K is not yet shipping as we need some more time. Our first batch of sensors was delivered only this week, so we have not been able to complete the software for the camera.  

We expect to start shipping in about 3 to 4 weeks once the final software work and testing is completed.

Blackmagic Cinema Camera Price Reduction 

We have worked very hard over the last year to be able to build the Blackmagic Cinema Camera at a lower cost so we can reduce the price and allow access to digital filming to a wide range of cinematographers and photographers. 

We have done it and from today the Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF and MFT models will be reduced in price to US$1,995. This is very exciting and is one of the proudest moments of my life to be able to do this! 

I think people will be able to use the savings to invest in some exciting lenses and rigs to really boost the creative possibilities. The Blackmagic Cinema Camera is a fantastic design that's now well proven. The advantage of the 2.5K sensor is it has enough resolution to eliminate the bayer resolution loss of a HD sensor, but when shooting RAW it produces files that are too not to big to store and work with easily. It's a fantastic solution. 

All orders placed that have not yet been filled, can be reduced to the new lower price."

There is lots to digest here, but at least two groups of people should take immediate action - if you are still within the return period for your new BMCC EF or MFT - you should probably send it back.

And, if you have an order in for the BMCC at $2995, you should cancel it and re-order at the new price to make sure your card isn't charged the full $2995.

Although there has been a lot of (understandable) gnashing of teeth and rending of clothing from people who have had their Cinema Cameras for long enough to be outside of the return window - overall, this is great news for the community.

This puts a 2.5K projection quality image in the hands of film schools, high schools and consumers who would otherwise never have had access to a cinema camera.  It will also force the hands of the big manufacturers, who will, I predict, have to include RAW and native ProRes in their next generation of cameras below $5000.

And, lost in the buzz over the price drop, is the great news on the Pocket Cinema Camera firmware upgrade. Now, push-to-autofocus, in addition to auto-aperture, is enabled with system MFT lenses.  This is a critical addition to the camera's feature-set, and will make it much more usable out of the box.

Here are the links to the latest firmware upgrades for Windows and Mac (sorry Linux users, you're out of luck).

Now, back to waiting by the mailbox for my Pocket Camera.  If you haven't ordered yours yet, please use this link.  If you can't wait, and you need a BMCC at the new $1995 price right now, please order the EF from Adorama here (with a free set of handles) or the MFT from Amazon here - or click on one of the display ads below.  Thanks for your support.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera "In Stock" Dates in Australia, NZ, UK - Where's the US?

This is my last post on the elusive Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera until it actually arrives (sure it is) - but I had to comment on this interesting difference between the US and our friends in the rest of the Anglosphere.

While searching for the latest clues on Pocket Cinema Camera shipping and arrival dates, I noticed an interesting pattern. Stores in Australia, New Zealand and the UK are committing to actual dates - or at least to "early August" (sometimes with caveats, but sometimes not) - while US stores, to include Adorama, B&H and Markertek provide no date information at all.

At Video Pro in Australia, they, "...expect to start shipping the initial orders out in early August".  At Rubber Monkey in New Zealand, stock is "arriving 16th August".  At CVP in the UK, the camera is "Expected: 14/08/2013".

The relative silence of the US stores on ship dates is interesting - and a little frustrating.  I'm sure that not going out on a limb and promising something you may not be able to deliver is good business practice, but, it seems to me, it should be possible to provide some information on expected in-stock dates - while including a caveat such as "in-stock date based on information from manufacturer" - or even a lengthier explanation, such as this one from CVP:

At the moment we're not sure when it is scheduled to ship or will actually ship but based on our experience with the existing 2.5K model we expect long delays. Please rest assured that we have already placed a substantial pre-order with Blackmagic Design and orders will be fulfilled in order of placement.

US stores can learn something from CVP here.

As a US customer, it would certainly be nice to have at least some idea where our cameras are and when they will arrive.  The store that steps up to this will differentiate itself from the pack - and earn the loyalty and return business of its customers.