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2K BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera, active m43, $995
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  • It sounds like in 3-4 days a small amount of people will get their BMPCC's, a lot more will show up in around 2 weeks. BMPC will be delayed until at least September.

  • I was hoping to use this on a shoot first of September. I'm happy with most shots using a GH, but I have several tricky "out the window" shots I really wanted to use this for. Sounds like its time to hack a Canon for the tough dynamic rangshots this time.

  • Jello on pocket cam not nearly as bad as BMCC (I jiggled the hell out of both) the BMCC jello got a nice laugh from those peeping over my shoulder. But the Pocket did really well. It had 7-14mm lumix lens on it. No IS in the lens that I could see unless its always on.

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  • @TheNewDeal: use magic lantern. use BATCHelor. its just great. :)

  • Does the 7-14 distort at all i herd that gh and Olympus cams correct it in camera

  • @shian Thanks for the info! That's good to hear. They can delay the pocket cam for another month if they keep making vast improvements (although I have a feeling most of us won't see our cameras till then anyways).

  • I posted my report from the Blackmagic show over in BmcUser, complete with pictures.

    http://www.bmcuser.com/showthread.php?4790-info-from-bm-even-l-a&p=72956&viewfull=1#post72956

  • Man I hope I can get shooting sooner rather then later xD sounds ace... Heck maybe it's too small for the quality.. For years I've been waiting for a digital sr3 for when I can't afford to shoot film... This is it but maybe too small xD

  • @jbv_cine It did not NOTICEABLY distort. but then again I wasn't looking for it.

    Dynamic Range is awesome - selectable zebras!! Focus peaking. Auto iris is snappy. Autofocus is slow. really slow. But it's still in beta (So I'm told). No touch screen, everything done with d-pad on side. Which takes some getting used to, and is not what I'd call intuitive - very much like the GH2 menu system. You have to tab left to access the menu, then up and down then OK to get into a menu, and OK to get back out. Then tab left again to get back to the menu selector.

    It'll get my money once it's out of beta. Great little camera.

  • from the 4k thread but relevant here

    Asked how they got global shutter on it and yet still rolling shutter on BMCC and BMPCC...

    "We sacrificed the DR"

    How much?

    "It's only got 12 stops."

    I blinked: "It's really that simple? Then why not give users a choice - put both in all the cams, and then let user choose per shot/project whether they want the [full range and rolling Shutter] or [12 stops and Global]?

    • I got a shrug in response.

    So I figure it's possible, and maybe one day coming... Or not. hard to tell with these guys.

    But I will say this. They seem genuinely interested in putting awesome cameras within reach of low budget shooters.

  • Official statement from Blackmagic on new camera shipping:

    Simon Westland of Blackmagic Design EMEA

    "Blackmagic Design is making significant progress in production of the new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and Blackmagic Production Camera 4K. Full production manufacturing is underway on the Pocket Cinema Camera with first production units in final testing. This is inline with our initial expectations of the end of July and means the camera will start to ship in quantity during August. There are several weeks of work to do on Production Camera 4K before this will enter full production manufacturing, however we expect to ship the first quantities of this model before the end of August."

  • I attended a F5/F55 event recently and the numbers a similar: the F55 has about one stop less DR than the F5 and it has global shutter. But technically it's not as simple that they could give you a choice, the readout is very different. I'd say the rep doesn't have too much background info on that matter.

  • First end July. Now end August. Next thing you know end of production line

  • @Ralph_B

    Thanks man!

  • @shian on the DR vs global shutter issue:

    I think it is a hardware thing, there needs to be space for implementing the global shutter. So I kinda doubt at a flick of switch you can simply choose between more DR or having global shutter (but wouldn't that be awesome!).

  • I'm still debating what lenes to get.

    Wish somebody would shoot something with 7-14mm. If that looked good I would probably go for that for my wide shots, either that or keep my gh2 and shoot the wide shots with a 12mm 1.6. Also looking at the 14mm pancake.

    Not sure if I should keep my preorder or sell my gh2.

    The extra crop really throws off my entire lens collection.

    I have around $1200 for a new lens. Maybe more if I sell my Gh2 and 14-140 lens.

    Currently I have the 14-140, the 20mm 1.7 and the Vöightlander 25mm 0.95.

    Blargh.

  • I'd get a speed booster if I were getting a pocket cam. But that's just me.

  • Panasonic GX7 will have the same video quality like GH3 with in body image stabilization. I feel like dropping my pocket preorder and wait for the GX7. Yes I do take video and photo but I only can afford one of these camera. Any thoughts?

  • Speed booster would be cool but all my vintage glass is Minolta MD.

  • @shian

    The Production camera uses an entirely different sensor that is global shutter only. The reduced DR is a downside of having a global shutter generally. Some sensors do have multiple shutter modes and they also have reduced DR (more than a stop) and require a lot more complex backend work to make it all work.

    jb

  • Ah. That was not accurately explained at the event. Thanks, JB.

  • @shian A lot of the BMD guys at these events are sales guys, not engineers. They also are generalists so they have to be across the whole BMD range and lets face it, cameras are still a very new product for them.

    jb

  • @johnbrawley Have you tried the Panasonic 7-14mm with the Pocket? If so, does it distort much?

  • @Chaos123x I shot video of the camera at the event yesterday it had the 7-14 on it I'll upload it when I get home and u can take a look and see if the distortion is too much. Didn't look too bad to me.

  • @Woodybrando Nice let me know when you post it.