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2K BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera, active m43, $995
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  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Or maybe some other camera release blackmagic got wind of, like possibly also shooting raw and internal prores.

    According to my limited and uncertain info it is the case.

  • AzsimovAzsimov

    A BlackMagic Pocket short film. Shot with Sigma 18-35 lens and Speed Booster.

  • IronFilmIronFilm

    For anybody waiting around for a BMPCC mk2 or a BMPCC 4K or whatever. Well,I doubt it. When the BMMCC dropped in price, we all thought there is a coming a BMCC mk2. But nope, there isn't a mk2 yet.

    So I would not wait around for a BMPCC mk2, and instead just pounce on this deal!

    Additionally, I doubt we will see it cheaper in the near future. It looks like they're clearing out stock?

  • IronFilmIronFilm

    http://www.videocraft.com.au/blackmagic-pocket-cinema-camera @j_r , as a kiwi that is very tempting! But I'm afraid I think ordering from the USA to NZ will still make marginally more sense for me :-/

  • ntsanntsan

    Rubbber monkey also halved their price to NZD$695

  • last_SHIFTlast_SHIFT

    500$ is a great deal for this cam, I liked it a lot - but owning a GH4 and A7s is more than enough personal cameras for me.

  • brakebrake

    Just a heads up, the latest version of the firmware (1.8) has a glitch for some people were the screen skips/freezes a bit during playback/recording/viewing (I thought it was dropped frames initially)

    I contacted Blackmagic about this and was told that for some people the glitch also carries over to recording, and to roll back to 1.7 firmware until an update is released (their words: soon).

    luckily it's not in the actual recording for me because it happened during a shoot and we shot the whole short film on it without an issue with the files.

  • belfrymanbelfryman

    Thanks for the heads up PV. What a bargain, glad I held off before, bish bosh bought!

  • brianlbrianl

    HillTop1 You need extra batteries (don't worry, they're cheap) and I feel a loop of some sort is necessary for focusing. I feel a cage is also necessary, the cam's paper thin body won't mount solidly onto a tripod or rig, so the cage will give you the required two point contact to give a rock solid mount. The other thing is I think a handheld light meter is wise since the camera provides nothing to gauge exposure other than some sketchy zebras. You could go with a monitor, but the connection is only hdmi which I don't trust and is totally gay. In general, this is a badass motherfracking little camera, ideal for narrative work. It was stupid good at $999, for $500? Fogetta about it. It's extremely organic and filmic. Ooops...I retract that, the image is most excellent though. Less aliasing than a GH2 and moire issues are overblown, I've only seen mine moire once and not that bad. Easy work around especially in that this camera is suited to controlled environments.

  • mdagohoymdagohoy

    too late. Amazon increased the price to 809.69 dollars.

    http://www.amazon.com/Blackmagic-Pocket-Cinema-Camera-Thirds/dp/B00CWLSHUK/

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @mdagohoy

    No need to start panic :-) It is just Adorama that got out of stock (as they were seller on Amazon also).

    And Price you see on Amazon is now from different seller, no one increased it.

    It is still available at B&H.

  • charlesJcharlesJ

    442 € in France via different stores...

  • lmackreathlmackreath

    Really glad I sold mine two months ago for £700!

    To be honest I hated it...it cost me nearly 2 grand in extras to get it into a workable state and it really was overkill for the kind of work I do...which I blame myself for ...not the camera...

    Given the right conditions I think it can produce great stuff but I really thing it should not be in the hands of any novice or even enthusiasts...the gh3s, gh4s and g6s of this world offer more than enough in terms of image quality and flexibility over the pocket. Believe me I didnt want to hate it but I just dont have enough time in life to setup shots for candid run and gun stuff and also to grade every single thing I shoot..

  • rolyroly

    …aaaaand it's just gone up in the UK: 325GBP + VAT at both cvp and proav.

  • Craig_RCraig_R

    Uk Price went up over night with http://www.proav.co.uk/blackmagic-design-pocket-cinema-camera from £354 to £390

  • Illusionist_FilmsIllusionist_Films

    New 1.82 firmware is out there... adds ProRes 422 LT and 422 Proxy to all cameras.

    Blackmagic Design today announced announced the immediate availability of Camera 1.8.2 software which adds three new Apple ProRes™ file formats for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and Blackmagic Production Camera 4K. Camera 1.8.2 update is available now free of charge from the Blackmagic Design website.

    Blackmagic Design camera customers have always been able to record in both CinemaDNG RAW or compressed ProRes 422 HQ formats, however now this new software update adds three additional Apple ProRes™ file formats, ProRes 422, ProRes 422 LT and ProRes 422 Proxy. This means customers using Blackmagic Design cameras will be able to get significantly smaller video file sizes allowing much longer recording durations on the same media card, all while preserving full frame 10-bit 4:2:2 quality.

    Because this update is available to our camera customers free of charge, they simply need to download it, and install the update from their Mac or Windows machine using a simple USB cable connection to the camera. Once the update is complete, customers will see these new formats available in the camera menus.

    Because this update reduces the data rate of recording, it means customers can now choose lower cost SSD or SD cards while still recording high quality video in SD, HD and Ultra HD resolutions. Using ProRes 422 Proxy it is possible to record 230 minutes of 1080HD video on a single 64GB SD drive. Selecting the type of ProRes format for recording can be set via the on screen menus and all ProRes types can be played back instantly.

    The Apple ProRes 422 formats are designed specifically for multi-stream non linear editing, minimal generation loss and fast export, making them very popular video file formats for post production and broadcast. All ProRes files recorded with Blackmagic Cinema Cameras and Blackmagic Production Camera 4K can be opened directly in DaVinci Resolve 11 and Apple Final Cut Pro X™ for immediate color correction, editing and finishing

    http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/supp..._Utility_1.8.2

  • mattherematthere

    The longer record times are a nice option :)
    Could this possibly allow a frame rate increase via firmware later?

  • GMCGMC

    As the discussion is on again on the BMPCC, I thought I should share my experience here:

    I am using the BMPCC for more than 9 months now, and I am still totally amazed by the IQ. I use it a lot for run and gun, and I find the rolling shutter quite OK, much better than my other cam, the GH2. Add a speedbooster to that (giving you effectively APS-C sized sensor), a Varavon cage, a Zoom H2 via "line in" for the audio plus a Neway 7" monitor for 200USD, and you have a very professional rig.

    Iso 1600 (if you do a chroma noise reduction - which removes moire also in many instances) is totally usable, together with the speedbooster (which boosts it to almost 6000 equivalent ISO) I have not seen an instance where I needed more lowlight capability.

    I many times use ISO 1600 also in harsh sunlight conditions to lift shadows. Exposure is a simple as it gets - put your Zebra's to 100%, and decide what you want to blow out (e.g. the sun, or streetlights). Typicall this leads to ETTR (= overexposing by about 2 stops), which helps (or even eliminates) shadow noise.

    BUT: you HAVE to shoot RAW. RAW is totally fine for me, as it is just 50% more data heavy than ProRes. If you shoot ProRes, you run into a lot of other issues, e.g. judging exposure, etc...

    Two weeks ago I did a commercial shoot together with the C300 in C-log, and the dynamic range was clearly better of the BMPCC, sharpness matched nicely. C300 is super clean overall, BMPCC more grainy which I like a lot.

    Here is a recent film, all handheld:

    All in all, hands down the best image quality for the price! Not shure any cam below 10k can match it. Now at that price? A no brainer!

    best regards, Gunther

  • HillTop1HillTop1

    @GMC, thanks for the post. I am considering the BMPCC after this crazy good price. Nice video bay the way. In that video did you added some film grain to it or just grain from BMPCC? Do you mind sharing your workflow with raw?

  • umlaumla

    shit ... i could not resist. now i m just broke ... hope the rolling shutter is better than my GX1 :)

  • OedipaxOedipax

    @GMC, nice observations on working with the camera. I've never really done much in 1600 but I will give it a go when I feel like I need the extra stop now.

    I'm very much in agreement about RAW vs Prores. When I shoot RAW on this camera, I feel very confident I'm going to end up with images I like. In prores, which I only pick when production circumstances dictate it (such as needing to record for a longer period without changing cards, so live events, speakers, etc) I find it very hit and miss, particularly in regards to white balance. I've reverted to the GH2 for most of these instances.

    I hope Blackmagic will add more WB increments eventually, or a way to do a custom WB in-camera. Even if people say there ought to be enough information in the prores files to adjust WB in post, I haven't always found that to be the case. The combination of locking in the wrong WB and not being able to judge it very well off the LCD can be deadly!

  • tinyrobottinyrobot

    @GMC Did you have to deal with hot pixels when shooting at 1600ASA?

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

  • GMCGMC

    @HillTop1 on the film above I did not add grain, it's just the "natural" grain from the BMPCC. On the workflow, if I am travelling (which is almost 50% of the time) I use Lightroom to debayer the image sequences (because on my notebook unfortunately Resolve does not work), but at home on my desktop I run Resolve, which I am still learning - I find that the Lightroom RAW converter gives more details in highlights and shadows than I can get with Resolve, but of course the workflow in Resolve is butter - smooth and easy. Hoping for the new Resolve 11. Life's all about compromise, right ;-)?

  • GMCGMC

    @Oedipax I totally agree on your observations, in ProRes I feel insecure whereas in RAW I know that I nailed it after hitting the "record" button. Same like you, on live events I still use my GH2 with Vitaliy's hack ;-). @tinyrobot no, I do not have hot pixels.

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