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2K BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera, active m43, $995
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  • so at this point, it's just clearing out inventory to work out the product's balance sheet. ;)

    I wish some big Japanese monsters wanted to work out balance sheet. :-) For now ProRes in m43 cameras for them is something similar to second coming.

  • It's still overpriced, if you ask me.

    Well, the beta testers have already paid full price - so at this point, it's just clearing out inventory to work out the product's balance sheet. ;)

  • Personally, I just went ahead and ordered a second one, and a third one. At that price, it's ridiculous. These shortcomings are minor. Not the ideal run & gun camera for sure, but I'm not using it for that. In proper setups, the camera shines.

  • I'd say external mics are always a must for serious work, but I have cameras with internal audio recording from external mics that is more than sufficient for a lot of tasks, with clean inputs, level meters, and gain adjustment.

    I absolutely disagree that an external monitor is required for serious work. There are millions of examples of serious work done without external monitors.

  • It can, but only if used expertly and with a lot of supporting equipment like an external monitor with a histogram, external audio, and a painful workflow. It's a toy, for people with more time than sense.

    It is clearly not ideal, but proper external monitor, proper external audio is the things you need anyway with any camera for any serious work.

  • "Don't you think the catch is that they will announce a newer version at the IBC tradeshow in Amsterdam in early September ? Just a guess...

    Even if they will, it is not a catch, You still have same camera for the price you could not dream about."

    Agreed - and I would guess the significant feature of the new one is that it will do 4K rez (another guess) while I personally would have no problem being limited to 2K for the lower price if I needed another camera right now (which I do not)

  • It's still overpriced, if you ask me.

    Here's my ranting review:

    The BMPCC records 14 stops, but the bottom few stops are noisy, noisy, noisy. You're not getting anything close to 14 usable stops. No histagram and a washed-out display means it's very hard to get the exposure right, and if you don't get it within a narrow range, you can't get realistic looking colors from the camera. The sensor's ISO is fixed at 800, meaning low light performance is pretty terrible. Raw workflow is nasty: you need to develop your DNGs in something like Lightroom, or round trip through Resolve. The BMDFilm (log) color space is worthless because Blackmagic doesn't provide the formulas to map that back to linear. They only provide a LUT to map it to rec.709, and it only works if the footage is exposed a certain way. You can't properly shift exposure or adjust color balance on log footage like you can on raw footage and other scene-referenced linear footage. The rec.709 output of the BMPCC looks not so great and is really only useful for a quick preview. Battery life is poor, the controls are clunky, peaking is not as good as it should be, and the range of shutter speeds is very limiting.

    I had high hopes for the BMPCC, but in the end it was a half-baked product that was more frustration than anything.

    I bought the BMPCC because I expected it to be able to deliver the same quality as the BMCC. It can, but only if used expertly and with a lot of supporting equipment like an external monitor with a histogram, external audio, and a painful workflow. It's a toy, for people with more time than sense. You'd better love to do color correction in Resolve, because that's what you'll have to do on every single shot to try to get something close to natural color. That's not how a camera should be. A good camera starts with good and natural color, and gives you the freedom to alter it and create the look you want.

  • Don't you think the catch is that they will announce a newer version at the IBC tradeshow in Amsterdam in early September ? Just a guess...

    Even if they will, it is not a catch, You still have same camera for the price you could not dream about.

  • The new model seems obvious. Except according to the press release, the price will go back up to the $995 after August. If a new model comes out, that wouldn't make sense.

    Well realistically, they will announce a new model but only ship it months later. So they can return the price to normal for a while, giving everyone an incentive to jump now.

  • "Soooo, what's the catch? No catch, just smaller firm use vacations time and lack of announcements of big guys. Good timing."

    Don't you think the catch is that they will announce a newer version at the IBC tradeshow in Amsterdam in early September ? Just a guess...

  • I'm buying just for the heck of it I think. Hopefully they give it away for free soon just like Resolve Lite.

  • Just a quick note for UK readers: the price has now also been reduced to 295GBP+VAT at cvp.com as well as at proav

  • @HillTop1

    About firmware - just check previous pages.

  • I am gonna buy this now cuz this price is just way too good. @kurth, where is the new firmware, I don't seem to find anything about it. I have not been following black magic cameras but can someone advice me on what additional add one I should definitely consider with the BMCC?

  • Literally just chose the Gh3 over the bmpcc because of the price difference last week! Now this happens, my luck.

  • bh is on board .... with the new firmware and af upgraded , this is a steal !

  • @roly

    Just look at post above.

  • @glopro

    Could you tell us which the UK source was? Thanks!

  • Just bought one from UK source - what the hell - gotta be worth it at that price!

  • Yeah, sucks if you recently bought one. But it's a limited offer (end of August) so they should recover a bit.

  • Resale value dropped to zero, grr ...

  • Had a reply from Proactive in the UK, they don't know why the price was dropped, so not discontinued officially yet (well if they want to sell out before a new model, they wouldn't announce it).

  • Certainly a good deal for anyone who has already got the kit set up to deal with one pocket cam (a very cheap B cam :)

  • Ah, thanks @Vitaliy_Kiselev

    I'm guessing it's the same for Oly M43 lenses too.

    @tinyrobot Hobbyist who is looking for a good price, that's me. :)

  • I know it's tempting but it takes a lot of accessories to make it work. Then what are you gonna do when these accessories don't work on v2? I would only buy it if you can make money with it now or you are a hobbyist who is looking for a good price.