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

_gl

@andyharris, no idea if it's legit, but they probably meant to say 'will withdraw the Pocket offer'. It's conceivable that BMD UK sold more cameras than expected, and are culling the offer early. That would be poor form though when they officially announced until end of August, so I doubt it.

_gl

VK, the Transcend throughput looks good, but it's not a guarantee that the Pocket will play nicely with it right? Depending on how it writes to it (chunk size, timing etc). Anybody tried it? Might give it a go when my bodies arrive (return if it doesn't work).

Not many people selling it yet in UK:

7dayshop £59: http://www.7dayshop.com/memory-cards-and-usb-flash-drives/sd-cards/64gb-sd-cards/transcend-64gb-sdxc-uhs-i-u3-card-1

Amazon UK: £65 (from Amazon): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Transcend-Ultimate-Performance-UHS-I-Memory/dp/B00J3KA9HC/ref=sr_1_9?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1406064854

Ebay (Hong Kong, no 'fake' feedback) £51: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321410886874

Worldwide lifetime warranty (used it once on an old card, no issue getting it replaced by Transcend UK).

IronFilm

As my plan is to buy just one card for trying out occasional raw recording, and then my other existing fast cards I got for my hacked GH1 ought to be fast enough for using with ProRes on the BMPCC.

My intention for the BMPCC is just for occasional raw recording (to play about with, as in reality I'll likely stick with ProRes HQ for most project) I am wondering if I can get away with the 32gig Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mb/s , as I've heard some reports it won't work. Or if I have to get the 64gig Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mb/s.

http://rubenkremer.nl/.../bmpcc-sd-card-compatibility-list/

Sooo...... 32gig Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mb/s, yes/no?

Django

@Ironfilm I have 4 32GB Sandisk Extreme Pro 95MB/S cards and 1 64GB 95MB/s that I recently shot a feature on. All sot in RAW. With about 3TB of footage there was not a single dropped frame, so the only advantage that I see as far as the 64GB card is concerned is the extra recording time.

IronFilm

Thanks, and wow, five cards! But then again you did shoot a feature! May I ask out of curiosity, how many gigs of footage did you end up with in the end? (and what was your shooting ratio?) How many days of shooting did it take? (ahh... so many questions about using a BMPCC raw for shooting a feature!)

tinyrobot

@Django How long did it take you to backup a full 32gb card? Was it card reader to external or internal hdd through usb 3? Would like to know an aprox time for a full 64gb card through usb 3. Thanks.

Django

We shot about 2700GB in all, shot over the course of 18 days. Most days the five cards were enough, but on some days we had to dump and format during production. The shooting ratio was about 7:1, so fairly conservative. Feel free to ask away as far as shooting a feature on the BMPCC.

matt_gh2

@Django Congrats on completing the feature. I'm curious if you were able to use the screen to judge focus and exposure, or did you rely on an external monitor. We shot recently a feature on GH2 and were able to use LCD for both, so wondering if that's doable on a Pocket camera. Definitely post the trailer when it's ready - I'd love to check it out.

Django

@tinyrobot I think it was about 15 minutes to an external HDD on USB 3.0, although I am not quite sure since someone else was doing the actual transfers/backups.

Django

@matt_gh2 I used an external monitor for just about all of it. For the few handheld shots I was either using a FigRig with an 7" external monitor clamped onto it, or a shoulder mount with a viewfinder that I improvised from some parts that I found on Amazon, since there were no viewfinder loupes available when we started shooting. Focus was fairly easy with the focus peaking when using either, but I would not recommend using the viewfinder to judge exposure, although the zebras do work well enough when set at 85-90% (I don't like clipped highlights if I can help it). Best bet for exposure is always a light meter, and they do not have to cost much...

The difference with the GH2 is that you are recording more or less what you see on the LCD. When shooting in RAW, unless you have some way of applying a LUT at the monitor level, what you see on the LCD is very different from what you can get once graded.

davjd

I'm going to try adapt a 3" loupe to the Bmpcc by using a 35mm slides empty box. I will apply the lens on the back of the box. The box fits perfectly on the Bmpcc lcd. Will let you know how it goes...

arknox

CVP (Creativevideo) in the UK now showing the pocket cam back at normal price. Blackmagic must have completely misjudged demand at the 50% reduction, no surprise! So much for a "summer" sale. 3D Broadcast still showing the 50% off.

_gl

Ouch. ProductionVideo and ESV too. You were right VK, total mismanagement.

The ones I see are still cheap (UK):

(free battery) http://www.jigsaw24.com/blackmagic-design-pocket-cinema-camera/large-sensor/-/fcp-product/19416?gclid=COqX_tOC3r8CFW3JtAod_z8ANw

http://www.ukdigital.co.uk/blackmagic-pocket-cinema-camera.html

http://www.proav.co.uk/blackmagic-design-pocket-cinema-camera "massive demand, stock in about 2 weeks"

(EDIT: 3D broadcast has gone too) - AND CHEAP AGAIN?? http://www.3dbroadcastsales.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=pocket+cinema+camera

_gl

Now that's weird, 3D Broadcast is cheap again. What's going on?

.. ah "We have managed to secure another 10 Pocket cameras at the special price but they will be on a 14 day lead time from the UK distributor (posted 24/07/2014)"

So basically they can't get stock at the reduced price. This will probably keep happening (sigh).

Vitaliy_Kiselev

So basically they can't get stock at the reduced price. This will probably keep happening (sigh).

It is ok, as it seems like BM stock was really low, and it is same for all resellers.

manila57

Just cancelled an order with an Aussie supplier for one at the "reduced" price as it went from "in stock" at time of ordering and paying to 3-7 days before next shipment to 3 weeks plus today. Already have two bodies so no real issue. Guess I will be getting the A7S a little earlier !

A local Aussie store is advertising it at $799 with limited availability from mid August so a lower price level before a new one comes out?

olli66

oh, the new price makes me consider...what do you guys think? would it fit my gh2/gh3/gh4 lineup for multicamera concert shoots? what do I need to record externally to hdd and hook it up to a power socket so I can shoot more than just 1h straight?

peaceonearth

for multicamera concert shoots?

if the concert is in daylight ;-) The BMPCC is no available light camera

tinyrobot

800ASA is not bad and you can push it higher if you denoise. GH2 wasn't much better.

MikeLinn

crowbar

Awhile back I did a shoot with both the GH2 (Moon T7 hack) followed by the BMPCC. The 2nd part includes both ungraded/graded clips back to back. Now that I have the GH4 I will try before long to do another unscientific shoot using it along with the BMPCC for comparison.
I do plan to keep all 3 of those cameras - the BMPCC is way more work, not my grab quick and go camera - it requires external battery solution, external monitor, additional audio support, more difficult to gauge settings in the field and will take me more time to process in post but I do love it's organic/filmic look, most of all for people shots. However, when I am in a hurry, want to worry less and just go for it, the GH2/3/4 is what I grab. Nice to have all of these cameras which work with all my lenses and the combination of which offers opportunities for multi cam shoots - live music productions etc.

crowbar

@oli66, July 25 - I did a dual camera shoot of a live music performance using the hacked GH2 (Apocalypse Now) and the BMPCC and did my best to match them in post - not perfectly but acceptable? If you watch long enough, vocals enter later on...

I think you can get about 70 minutes of ProRes 422 (HQ) on a 128 GB card but with latest firmware, there are lesser ProRes codecs which may be fine for your needs and give you much more time on a card.

I cannot remember if I posted the video on this thread so here just in case not - the BMPCC is locked down on tripod with the Panny 20mm f1.7 and the GH2 is mounted on a Defy gimbal with the Olympus 12mm f2.0