Come on, folks, there is a difference between a critical attitude towards business practices of a company (like Vitaliy's position) and making an individual fellow filmmaker not feeling welcome to our forum (like some others seem to do).

To me you are very welcome, John, since it's great to have someone on the forum who knows a lot of other cameras in and out to be able to compare once you are allowed to speak up and show more.

I've been in the same situation like you several times (tester under NDA restrictions) and have been treated bad even by people I considered friends – just because they were so curious about the 'next big thing'. But if you give in and start to leak, you'll never be a tester again (other than for public betas). That would be bad for all of us, since testers from the profession can influence the development of the next product (version) and inform us all with a lot more experience before we all can buy into something new (or decide not to do so).

IMHO, John wouldn't do us any service by leaking, but he can serve the whole community by staying!

May I ask for some courtesy and some patience? These are wonderful human virtues…

Hey, I was the first to come out and slam the cam as "not ready", and took a "I'll wait and see" stance. I'm still waiting and seeing, so far so good. Haven't seen a working cam yet, so still waiting. Haven't got my hands on 12bit RAW footage, so still waiting. Graded some JPGs, they look OK. They're not where I would like them to be, but I've already qualified that in my last post.

I've never seen a company do something new like this and get it completely right out of the gate. I still believe it'll be maybe another year before this camera is something worth shooting on with any seriousness. But I could be wrong. I'd love to have a camera that shoots RAW for less than $10,000. I'd love to have one that shoots ProRes in that same category. When I heard about the cam, I very badly wanted to know more, and see it in action. I went to the event in Burbank, and was severely disappointed. To those who have pre-ordered, I hope you get something you love.

I, and others, will wait. Every time I've been an early adopter I've been burned. And so... I'll wait. And If I get handed one of these to shoot on for a project, I'm sure I'll be back here either praising it as being what it was promised to be, or decrying it as being something considerably less. Everything else (And I've been guilty of it myself) is just mental masturbation.

@kazuo an external recorder of the af100 is only 8 bit for starters. Plus the DR of the AF100 is a lot less than the BMCC.

So you could record 10bit HDsdi from the BMCC uncompressed via its HDSDI or 10bit ProRes internally or DNx or 12bit RAW CinemaDNG. Greater bit depth gives a lot more room in the grade to move things around.

You also misunderstand my relationship to BMD. I know them and have known the owner since before he started the company before he had before BMD.

They play their cards close to their chest. There was no leak before NAB. Even now, with cameras out in the wild there is still no footage until BMD want it to be released. This is what they choose. This is their right to choose. You don't have to like it.

I'm a working cinematographer, happy to put my name out there here on this forum and share my own and personal views of the camera. I can offer some insight into BMD thinking because I'm a friend of theirs. I also believe I'm honest in my views about the camera. I'm not looks to protect BMD in any way and I don't have any stakes whatsoever with the company. Where I'm not bound by NDS I try to be as forthright as I can.

I'm not paid by BMD.

I don't have any ads on my blog.

I havent had any deals with accesory makers.

I have a couple of cameras on loan but they are prototypes.

I'm just a DOP who likes new cameras that allow me to do a better job. I get excited by possibility.

I've used RED, EPIC and ALEXA as well as AF100s and 5ds and even hacked GH1s in episodic national TV.

I am surprised, that of all the forums for independent filmmakers out there, this one has the most pessimism, cynicism and hostility towards what should be an awesome thing. An established company making what is for them a brand new product. Something that on paper offers something no one else offers.

Hey maybe they will be late on delivery. But they're not technically late yet. They have a track record for delivery what they say they will.

Yet here, where you would think this camera should almost have a spiritual home amongst those who choose to not play with what the big boys serve up.....

JB.

I think if we are patient, the camera will come out and the image will look great==almost as good as a hacked GH2! In the meantime, I would only ask ppl, hey, this is a low BS forum, if ppl want to post samples, post real samples, which in this case is a nice, ungraded chunk of raw footage. Only reason not to release raw is that they don't want us to see the footage ungraded. JPEGS don't tell us anything, except in this case we now know that the JPEGS have chunky grain in them. There is no reason not to release raw, this is like Romney's tax returns, there shouldn't be any license conflict with raw. And if there is a problem with the release date, ppl in this forum respect transparency and honesty, of course, and they don't don't like heavy waffling. I think most people here have had a project that did not go out the door right on time because it was not quite ready. I'm sorry, but JPEGS? In a video forum? And we spend time making these fake samples look better? We will not get any raw footage in this scenario. I think if we want raw footage we basically should just take whatever fake samples they give us, oversharpen them, add some heavy contrast and maybe some magenta, then we will see some raw. Someone could also shoot a similar model with the GH2 and the Olly 45 and we could grade that and it would look just as good, without the chunky grain (it would have some grain, though). Anyway, when the cam does come out, then we will have all the raw we want, so no big deal. I look forward to comparing it to the GH2, or the GH3 if it is delayed any more, as well as the 4K JVC GY-HMQ10. Also, my high end speakers aren't grainy.

How would AF102/ext recorder compare with BM cam?

Much less DR and softer-720pish image. Sorry to be blunt. But that's about it. AF-100 even with an external recorder only look a tad better than my 7D for detail. I know we haven't seen any real footage yet... but those stills that were just posted really do have that true film aesthetic.

As for releasing video, that could mean two things: One, they are still tweaking the camera; or Two, they just don't want to.

They could also be producing more of a short-film than just test clips. Remember the FS-100 release videos? They gave it to some ass-clown who left in it auto-mode and recorded everything in 60i. So I like to hope they're going for more of a "Mobius" approach with this.

been following the recent developments in this thread. just want to say that I appreciate the way you're keeping things honest and even keeled, Vitaliy.

@kazuo

I'll PM you to discuss since your question is off topic and the AF100 to external recorder was my work flow for the last year.

Prores is 100% the right format for my workflow, fwiw. I think a lot of other people feel the same.

I believe I've read it here, lots of good information. I apologize if its been posted but it's the transcript of the video from a couple of pages back.

http://filmmakeriq.com/2012/07/exclusive-blackmagic-answers-your-questions-about-their-new-cinema-camera/

I believe it was mentioned it was the thunderbolt certification they are waiting on from intel and ProRes certification from Apple. Once those certifications come, they should be able to ship. That is unless they are still tweaking the camera, which could be a bad move. I think a lot of us are waiting until the end of the month. If nothing significant happens there will be a lot of angre people.

Just to keep this straight, this is not a flame message on how good BM is. I just want to point out that they did say they would ship to the distributers in July. It is still July, so as far as we all know they are still on schedule, and there is no delay. As for releasing video, that could mean two things: One, they are still tweaking the camera; or Two, they just don't want to. The fact is you don't need to understand their marketing strategy. Only time will tell if it will work. Come August 1st and the camera's are not on route to the distributers, there is no footage, and/or no word from BM, I will join the nay sayers and agree that BM has made a mistake. Personally I believe we will get at least two of those three, by the end of the month. Remember there is 6 days left in July.

If i were johnbrawley, i would stop participating in this forum cos I clearly have stakes with BM, and my views wd be anything but objective

LOL. Take it easy :-)

John is not working for BM. I doubt that he has anything in common with weird BM behaviour, as it has no voice in this decisions.