NAB 2018: Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

[Savannah Miller]

And a bare minimum a camera targeted at vloggers should have a screen that flips towards you.

I vlog sometimes with my BMPCC, bit tricky when I can't see myself!! For that alone I'd have got the BMPCC4K if I could get it facing me.

A lot of vloggers do seem to use sony mirrorless an not care about the flip screen. They do have decent face tracking autofocus so that might be more important to them. Casey Neistat would use Sony for his studio videos and Panasonic for vlogging because of the flip screen. He switched back to Canon though because Panasonic's contrast detection autofocus is limited.

Blackmagic's idea is that you grip the camera and use the thumb button to record. And with your index and middle finger you can press the exposure button and the focus button located on the back. That doesn't seem like a great solution.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I'll be getting one. At that price it's a no brainer. I liked what I saw at NAB. Really goofy industrial design though. But at least they're consistent with that.

Thanks Bob! I too feel at that price it is a nobrainer. I have been looking for a small camera for discreet shooting. The BMPCC 4k fits the bill. I just hope that it doesn't have any quality control issues.

[Emanuel A.]

Round X. You must have stopped reading somewhere. It's always the ones that stop reading and start acting. Go back and read the 3nd of my replay at least.

Now, those people actually did stuff revolutionary, not incremental advancements off the backs of others, more important people like them, and for followers to call others revolutionary instead. If you know about ambarella, you will know they changed the camera landscape and led to a major jump in image quality below the less significant cinema cameras. To question that, is not to know that. You would know, that they had the most advanced chip technology designed in by a team of leaders in the field. Frsbkyz if you wanted to do a cinema camera ASIC better, I 2oyls say hire them. It probably will be more compact and use a lot less power.

Now, I stated about everybody working together. But if you want to be a real revolutionary, bring down the evil leaders of the industry. But nobody has done that, but could have. So what is revolutionary $2000 airfares verses $3000 airfares on a $300 flight. Of $300 anti gravity shuttle flight that takes a tenth the time, maybe even a taxi that turns up on your door step and flys you to my doorstep in 20 minutes for $300. That's truely revolutionary. You are arguing about $2000 airfares.

OK, no objection : ) Still revolutionary when you cut to that price range here something you only had a few steps above. US$1299 4K 12-bit RAW is truly revolutionary, no matter who advanced first when who did it couldn't do it then :-)

(...)

So I thought it worth listing some of other companies you didn't mention that do IBIS that works really well, namely Olympus who have long done it best and now Fuji.

(...)

Let's not forget Panasonic... better than Fuji's and Sony's IBIS BTW ;-)

[Hrvoje Simic]

I'll be getting one. At that price it's a no brainer. I liked what I saw at NAB. Really goofy industrial design though. But at least they're consistent with that.

Ursa Minors depart from that trend.
Last Micro is also a refreshing design approach to serious imaging unlike cubes with a lens mount.

If it had a serious video-centric design and selfie rec button the universe might implode.

[Hrvoje Simic]

What does that have to do with BMPCC 4K NOT having it?

Your lack of context.

This product is coming from a small company which started making cameras yesterday.

And those you use for comparisons have IP, R&D, product lines, N factories and departments, supply chains, heritage, experience, customer base, income and tech background built over many decades.
Those same ones which some folks like to crap on for not giving it all for pennies, so one would gain most value with least effort invested, served directly in the armchair and regardless of anything or anyone else. Because universe owes them a favour as a reward for inertia. Loud bunch in the Age of self-absorbed Entitlement.

I foresee a new potential drama: "Why are these CFast cards which they also use on Alexa so darn expensive for my 12 bit 4K raw selfies, they cost more than my camera, these card manufacturers suck".

For those who have for years had to wait hours to capture tapes in order to get a 720x576 6 stop image, online dramas like these every five minutes a new improved camera comes out, around whose desires from personal fantasy land haven't been met for summer job tips figures, may easily seem like a bizarre episode from Twilight Zone.

[Brian Pascale]

I'd buy one, but I don't think they will ship till September, is that correct?

[Wayne Morellini]

You know, I'm still pissed becsuse years ago Z-cam was showing off a $699 or so c1 raw cinema camera which never shipped. I was hoping I could talk him into increasing the quality of the e1 output at least when it didn't come. I forget if it was 4k. But looking at m4/3rds the Yi mirrorless goes on special for $299 with lenses I think. If only it had clean pre-compression processing hdmi image output, or a usb3 to SSD disk. Much poorer than the pocket 4k sensor, but for $299+.

[Wayne Morellini]

Seems that yi sells slowly so it's firmware is still improving (has a lot) but still unbelievably limits 4k to around 7 and a half minutes, and no clean hdmi. I've been waiting for a second version for years with 4kp60. But seems a camera that doesn't sell well is not worthy of the attention to make it sell well. A shame. I still may get one.

[Mike P.]

I'll be getting one. At that price it's a no brainer. I liked what I saw at NAB. Really goofy industrial design though. But at least they're consistent with that.

Goofy as in "chunky, but totally functional", or goofy as in, "it's a stupid design that's not very production-friendly... but hey, $1300 for 4k/60p raw with a copy of resolve, so I'm still down"? :D

Honestly, if they have as good QC as the BUMP, and the rolling shutter isn't a6300 horrendous, I'm not sure how much more people could want in that price range. (And to me it seriously points to a sub-$10k FF35 Ursa in the near future...)

[Karim D. Ghantous]

I'd buy one, but I don't think they will ship till September, is that correct?

Yes. But I suspect that they will drop it early. The psychological effect of that will help generate more excitement for the product.