Andrew Reid

I wonder what percentage of $3000 these licensing deals actually would cost the Japanese camera makers. Just pass the cost onto the customer and they will gladly pay. Who would turn down Alexa colour science and ProRes RAW for $300 extra? We are talking top end cutting edge mirrorless cameras not consumer low-end. Or do a patent swap. The main challenge will be getting Arri and Apple to agree, me thinks.

X-T4 "dead to me" A7S III has to "step over FX line" Yep, it's not looking good for the competition. The brand name Canon and lure of 8K will be too much for many people, but the best thing for me about Canon's great awakening is that hopefully they will get all the basics right... Like full frame 10bit 4K with no crop, great colour science, the classic cinematic 1D C look in C-LOG, Dual Pixel AF and very good IBIS, all in a nice mirrorless body which has a much better and more "pro" control layout compared to the silly toy one that came before it.

"EOSHD" all capitals. They are not more inventive. They just understand the appeal to filmmakers, enthusiasts and videographers, of the phrase "Cinema Camera" and the codec options "ProRes and RAW", for cheap. Things that so far completely allude the Japanese!

It's not so much the form factor, as in the overall shape and I love small cameras It is more so aspects of handling within the body - such as the lack of good screen visibility in daylight, lack of articulated screen without Chinese DIY mod & voiding warranty, lack of EVF and IBIS, you know, the kind of stuff we get for under $1000 on mirrorless cameras as standard and have done for 6+ years. A bit lazy of them if you ask me. OK, some just want a sensor and cinematic in a box. Some charm to that. Simplicity is good and AF/IBIS makes me lazy / less disciplined in terms of shooting style. Still, I have to compare it to the mirrorless cameras in terms of how much of a "shot getter" it is and how comfortable it is to use. Glorious image on the LCD and great menus do redeem it somewhat.

The toughest competition in 2020 will come from the surprise Canon EOS R5 with 8K video. Although 8K is an attention grabbing technical achievement, most people will use this camera in 4K mode. The competition now has an 'image problem' delivering cameras at 4K and 6K resolution to customers obsessed with resolution. I therefore expect the Sony A7S III to shoot 8K and for the GH6 / GH8 to also shoot 8K but really it is all a distraction. What matters isn't 8K, it's the following... https://www.eoshd.com/cameras/canon-eos-r5-what-the-competition-must-do-next/

We were all expecting a lot more info than the one page press release that's for sure. Seems Canon is keeping some stuff close to their chest to avoid Sony being able to outgun with A7S III. And why the development announcement 6 months before the camera is launched - the answer is that they want to dampen sales of the Sony A7S III and Fuji X-T4 which are both now imminent. There are signs there was also a bit of a waiting game at Sony. They wanted to see what Canon had planned before pushing the button on the A7S III. I see the EOS R5 as a competitor not just to the A7S III but to the A7R IV and successor too. Sony is in trouble here. They are going to see quite a few ex-Canon users leave and go back home. It will depend on how invested they were in E-mount glass. If they all kept their EF lenses and used adapters, Sony are going to see a big fall off. Panasonic need to raise to the game as well, get autofocus sorted out (and with the MC-21 not just their own lenses) as a matter of urgency.

Now we're moving from rumours to official launch and specs, the discussion continues at main thread here - Cheers!

One topic to discuss the official EOS R5 video / cinema capabilities This page will have the official launch information on it very soon... https://www.eoshd.com/news/canon-eos-r5-8k-video-its-official/

So just digital zoom and no periscope lens on the lower-end models?

Hmm. 6240 x 1170 pixels at 120fps? I doubt it does 6240 pixels per line and downsamples to 1920 at 120fps.

I am 100% biased. I am ok with anyone liking the camera if it works for them. When you have been treated like shit direct by Blackmagic reps and employee, and you read stories from others and certain whistleblowers on GlassDoor, it's a total turn off. I don't think I'll buy another product from them. Separate to that I just think the cameras are overhyped and under-featured compared to mirrorless cameras like the A7 III, X-T3, S1, Fp and many more. Lastly there is the form factor, I don't like to rig my small cameras. I like to keep them small and integrated as a single unit. I don't want to have to add basics like an EVF just to see what I am shooting outdoors, and that screen goes invisible in anything but darkness. So in my opinion a PITA to use, overhyped, from a company who has treated me like shit. So yes I am based, make of that what you will

Olympus seem to be stuck in 2016 at the moment. Still a good camera taken as a whole though. I don't think they are committed to the business, at least not to the extent of buying a new viewfinder OLED panel or ordering the latest sensor from Sony. I think Olympus may pull out of consumer market altogether in fact.

Yes a lot to look forward to... Top of my list would be: Better RAW codecs, all internal, smaller file sizes GFX 100 specs coming down to a lower priced Fuji medium format camera Fuji digital cinema camera Sony Venice colour science... in an A7? Canon catching up with Sony and Panasonic on specs with R5 X-T4 ProRes in more cameras (or will hell freeze over first?!)

Today I am told there is no 6K/60p. Maybe they can do 6K/24p, or most likely it will stick to 4K/60p. However the rest makes it all worth it. Can't wait until the announcement later this month.

Not sure if you noticed yet. I review cameras. I've had a lot of cameras. Every Blackmagic I've ever bought had debris on the sensor and imperfect, unclean cosmetically, or worse... All new, out of the box. Should have kept it all a secret and been a Blackmagic apologist like everybody else....... for all the trouble it has caused me..... but I have a camera review site, and so it does in fact fall to me to mention it, weird as that may seem. It's very productive indeed. Some poor sucker can avoid buying one and encountering the same problems I did. The condition of the cameras out of the shrink wrap has always bothered me and they have had years to improve the situation. I find it insulting as a customer to receive a brand new camera in a used looking state. I am not being pedantic about it. I have not once - in 10 years - had a camera from a Japanese company in anything less than pristine new state new out of the box. The problem is unique to Blackmagic and not a small percentage of shipments. They are cutting corners. It's up to you if it bothers you enough to put you off the company. Most just polish the sensor, dust off the body and go about using the damn thing. Which is what I did. Which brings me to your next point... A few days before I was due to go to Italy, thanks to a tip off on Twitter I had the rare chance to get a P6K in Europe, at a Netherlands dealer called CameraTools, during the time they were all out of stock or unavailable, as per fucking usual with Blackmagic. A chance to grab some great footage and do a review of the Pocket 6K in the field. I don't even know why I have to justify any of this to you, it feels a bit silly, like explaining an egg to a duck. Ah so it's my fault. That's what Blackmagic's head of PR said as well. Well you can both fuck off because you're wrong. Brand new professional cameras are ready for pro work, that is why people buy professional cameras at high prices. The Pocket 6K is nearly $3000. It's a professional camera. The Canon 1D X Mark II is also a professional camera. It does not fail at 50% battery or throw a paddy after every shot with a blank screen like my P6K did. The Panasonic S1H does not let you down... X-T3... And so on... Yet it's ok for a Blackmagic to let you down.... because people see them as the messiah! They are not the messiah. They are arseholes. Explains a lot. You have zero knowledge but of course can't agree with someone who does. We see this a lot in people today and their non-evidence based opinions. Maybe you can enlighten us from your stack of zero knowledge, on what basis you disagree with the guy with the knowledge. Is it the fact your circuit board hasn't fallen out of the battery door yet? If it does, you'll probably still be singing its praises and hiding the dirty laundry from forums. LOL! LOL!

I usually have to watch 9 YouTube videos to get the information I could read in a single paragraph on a blog post... Always remember that the message is the medium. Certain people are good at certain mediums, and some people suit other ones. I prefer to write and shoot. I don't enjoy presenting. So this is a fundamental choice to make if you want to set out on a YouTube adventure. You may be better putting your talents into a written blog instead. The big reason people like Peter McKinnon and Philip Bloom suit YouTube and have made it successfully in that medium, is that they are both big on presentation and charisma. If you add that to the lusted after skills they seem to demonstrate and their glitzy lifestyles with thousands upon thousands of dollars of gear, then you start to see how there is a strong element of showbiz to it all, which allows them to take over so much airtime. The truth is that this is an unrealistic job for 99.9% of the population. Thankfully there are far more paths than just this to getting noticed as a filmmaker.

Good news for us, we can now sell everything and shoot on an iPhone knowing that somebody in 100 years will neural-network the footage to make it look like its shot on an Alexa.

Damn those privileged people not wanting to live in Nigeria.

Interesting... Of course, Innovative products turn into mature ones... But then this ignores all the fringe stuff and steady evolution going on. One day the mould will be broken again. The amazing things about mirrorless cameras is that they are still taking leaps in a very mature market. They are all so different.

Dropping him justifies the hatred, and adds the weight of a famous company behind a barmy army, whose PC philistine views the media seems to love so much. Witch hunt, huh?

Yes my crime was to use the camera. It arrived the day before my flight to Italy, so I had no time to sort out a replacement. At the track in Monza, I used the Pocket 6K for a few shots before the power went kaput at 50% battery meter every 30 seconds. So the next day, I persevered and wanted to try out the slow-mo, but it crashed with a black screen every time I tried. Lost a lot of material. Shot the rest of the time with different camera. So feeling pissed off on the way back from Italy to IBC in Amsterdam, I decided to take my camera to Blackmagic at the show and ask what was going on. I was insulted, fobbed off, patronised, belittled and offered no solution. The next week after a month long trip I finally arrived in Berlin and contacted the dealer to return it. They did the usual quibbling, before partially refunding me after they received the camera back in the state I received it brand-new... Scuffed and used looking, but I may add just to be clear I didn't add to it... Not during my troubled and brief use of the camera at the Grand Prix nor at IBC. No more damage that was already there from the shrink wrap. EOSHD is not a purely unfeeling, fact based endeavour for me, I'm afraid feelings and emotion do come into it. When a company puts out shoddy quality control and fobs me off or insults me, it doesn't make me want to help further the online Blackmagic community for them or put work into Blackmagic related content. I have news for you. I am biased. My strong advise to Blackmagic users is seriously to look at the alternatives and get off the hype train. Canon 1D C used has a more cinematic image than both the Pocket cameras and is as low as £1599 / $1900 now X-T3, and all the new mirrorless cameras. etc. If you enjoy your Blackmagic don't let my experiences stop you... But let they be a lesson for Blackmagic to improve their lot.

What's the best price you've seen one used?

My question for the Blackmagic apologists is this... https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=97337 Are the issues reported here acceptable for a new camera straight out of the packaging? And when mine arrived with a deep gouge in the lens mount under the lens cap, they claimed it was due to rough handling by DHL in Germany... *** "My name is Callum Mclay and I am the head of Technical Supportfor Blackmagic Design in Europe, Middle East and Africa. I was sorry to hear about the condition of your camera out of the box. We always recommend reporting any unexpected behaviour to our Support team as soon as possible so that there is a record of it occurring and so that we can do our best to address it for you. This might be why the reseller was unable to accept that the condition of the camera was out of the box, as an amount of time had passed between receiving the product and reporting the condition to them, and because the product had been in use as detailed on your website. We had seen a very small number of cameras arrive with customers with minor cosmetic damage. We identified the cause of this as extreme rough handling conditions with couriers. These conditions went beyond our own extensive packaging testing, where there became a possibility that the product could have moved inside the packaging and been damaged." *** 😂 It takes the piss doesn't it? No? How do you get damage like this from a camera moving around inside protective packaging? A) the packaging is completely inadequate. or B) it's a cover up. Buy a Z-Cam instead and support a company that actually cares about the customer.

Ah that makes it ok then! Poor little small Blackmagic fighting the evil Japanese giants and their new unused cameras! Blackmagic have had since 2012 and millions of dollars in R&D simply to ship cameras without debris on the sensor and permanent scuffs on the bodies, and they haven't managed it. What does it say about management standards and oversight if they feel this is ok? What does it say about the attitude towards customers, they think we will just suck it up because 2700 euros is "cheap"? A classic misconception. David vs Goliath is no excuse for shitty behaviour. These were the first batch of 6K cameras, straight from the factory. Mine crashed 9 times out of 10 at the Italian Grand Prix. Eventually had to bag it and use something else. Of course this is all my fault and nothing to do with Blackmagic shipping rushed out incomplete hardware and firmware. And if they did, their fanboys would excuse it! Because they are the good little guy fighting the big money suits! LOL. Such nonsense people believe. Get real. The 1.2 million views should mean something because to most companies, customers mean something to the people running them. Sigma is a good example, they really do care about their customers which is why their CEO was mingling with users at the Sigma stand at IBC, and checking out the competition without a single person with him in an entourage. To the management and marketing at Blackmagic you don't mean anything, you are literally just a potential sale or a non-sale. There are good people working at Blackmagic too but the shit they let fly is unreal.