Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

[Andrew Reid]

Good post gethin. 100% agreed.

[gethin]

one more thing andrew! Don't forget that all PR execs have an eye on who will spruik their camera regardless of its faults or failings.  I had a mate that used to get invited to weekend freebies by a major manufacturer because he wrote for a national photo mag. Were his reviews 100% impartial? 100% no. How could they be. He's only human. You get schmoozed and fed and watered, are you going to turn round and say their gizmo is a pile of shite?  And then lose advertising revenue and potential for future invites? That's why I think we appreciate this site and the few like it - because you can be totally sure that there's none of that malarky.  And I'm afraid that if we know that, that BM and Panasonic and all do too.  Which means that if you do get invited to a press junket it'll be because whoever invited you is 100% sure you're going to be bedazalled .

 

 

[PannySVHS]

12 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

Good post gethin. 100% agreed.

Yeah, interesting enough, despite a planned out marketing effort by BM,  there does not seem to be much compelling footage out there. So, who knows what the strategy of the marketing team has been. I remember the BMCC footage from John Brawley, that was some launch material to make a camera shine! And Andrews BMCC material in that tunnel in Berlin was tasty as heck! Gonna check his Bolex footage now he shot in Eastberlin. Later:)

[IronFilm]

2 hours ago, wondo said:

so please give less of a shit about what mediocre tv shooters that are on bm`s payroll say and keep up the good work!

 

I can only dream of being one day myself a "mediocre" cinematographer like John Brawley is!

But currently I still fall a long long way short of his abilities and expertise. 

 

[Andrew Reid]

10 minutes ago, gethin said:

one more thing andrew! Don't forget that all PR execs have an eye on who will spruik their camera regardless of its faults or failings.  I had a mate that used to get invited to weekend freebies by a major manufacturer because he wrote for a national photo mag. Were his reviews 100% impartial? 100% no. How could they be. He's only human. You get schmoozed and fed and watered, are you going to turn round and say their gizmo is a pile of shite?  And then lose advertising revenue and potential for future invites? That's why I think we appreciate this site and the few like it - because you can be totally sure that there's none of that malarky.  And I'm afraid that if we know that, that BM and Panasonic and all do too.  Which means that if you do get invited to a press junket it'll be because whoever invited you is 100% sure you're going to be bedazalled .

Yes you are hitting the paradox on the head.

On the one hand, to be a journalist you need access to cameras. This is usually straight forward for me, because I shoot and buy cameras! But when Blackmagic do their usual stupid Nab "release" 8 MONTHS ahead of the actual "release", it makes everybody a poodle. We don't have a choice but to have the agenda controlled entire by Blackmagic. Even their customers with a pre-order. If Blackmagic want a load of Chinese YouTube coverage instead of an EOSHD or Philip Bloom article, they will get that and you, dear customers, will just have to suck it up.

Yes journalists are only human and the aim of the camera companies is the same as it was in the 1960's, wine, dine, schmooze! It is impossible not to water down criticism of a camera however flawed it might turn out to be, and this was fine in decades gone by with TV shows and media organizations, but it goes against the founding principals of how the internet is supposed to function. Individuals on the internet should be able to shrug this personal influence off and stay true to their opinions.

It is not happening.

[IronFilm]

37 minutes ago, Anaconda_ said:

Perhaps its a silly question, but if you're set to shoot in RAW in camera, what kind of signal do you expect to be coming out the hdmi? 

I suppose in the past people might want to record raw to a cheaper external SSD in an separate recorder. 

 

But even that make no sense now that BMD is offering that directly themselves, to record to a cheap large external drive (via USB) .

[deezid]

4 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

If Blackmagic want a load of Chinese YouTube coverage instead of an EOSHD or Philip Bloom article, they will get that and you, dear customers, will just have to suck it up.

Guessing here, that China (maybe India soon as well) already has become a more important market to Blackmagic...
Same happening for phone manufacturers.

[IronFilm]

39 minutes ago, deezid said:

Guessing here, that China (maybe India soon as well) already has become a more important market to Blackmagic...
Same happening for phone manufacturers.

 

Oh maybe Chinese retailers/distributors are just much much more loose in following rules than elsewhere in the Western World. 

BMD might have perhaps put out instructions to only release the camera's say on this coming Monday, so that BMD can coordinate a timed simultaneous world wide release. But some people ignore those instructions?!

[padam]

For some reason, I just can't help seeing a parallel to this scene (around 1:40)

 

[Django]

I'm going to take a wild guess and assume the P4K is made in... PRC.. hence them getting first dibs.. kinda like phones/sneakers.

[Andrew Reid]

Blackmagic should just be honest then. I've no problem Asian camera reviewers having a camera, the problem is Blackmagic and John Brawley claim no camera reviewers were given a unit and it's evidently not true is it!

[leeys]

13 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

I might indeed have to shortly go to the pub and have a stiff drink.

Hope you've had a good drink by now! Looking forward to your next articles.

[IronFilm]

12 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

 I've no problem Asian camera reviewers having a camera, the problem is Blackmagic and John Brawley claim no camera reviewers

 

Did BMD claim that? 

I think it was only JB who said that, and as he isn't actually part of BMD then no surprise if he is out of the loop and he says something slightly inaccurate. Seeing as these Asian unboxing videos did come out merely a handful of hours or so ago. 

[Django]

Right who knows what exactly BMDs global PR/marketing strategy is and more importantly should we care? certainly wouldn't lose any sleep over it. they don't strike me as particularly well organized/alert in that field. 

[Andrew Reid]

Honesty isn't important?

[Emanuel]

They're simply not doing their best. Andrew deserves another treatment. Even now. End of story.

[salim]

@Andrew Reid 

I've said this in the past. If I was the head of the marketing or  PR for a camera company the risk/reward of inviting you and giving you access would not be justifiable. With this post you just made it even a more clear example. 

There is no upside for them to invite someone like you. I think some camera companies do really want honest feedback so they can improve something, but they also want it in a way that does not embarrass them. You come across as a bit of a "loose cannon". Many of these guys, PR and marketing is their job. It's what pays their rent, pays their kids college tuition, medical bills, vacations, etc.  Why should they risk all that so that you and your blog just get more credibility? 

Yes, @John Brawley was a bit curt to you. But I'm not sure how that should impact your purchasing decision. As a professional DP, at the end of the day, you'll pick the best tool for the job that you your budget allows.

I do agree with you, the new Fuji X-T3 is a game changer and at such similar price range, it has advantages, given improved AF (that might actually be useful now), larger sensor and color science. We know X-H2 will probably arrive in another 9-12 months or so, taking X-T3 and adding IBIS on it, making it more useful for some people.

But at the end of the day, pros will look at the entire system and if they're shooting something for netflix, etc. BM might be the obvious system to use given their budget and the hobbyist like myself will choose Nikon, Sony or the new Fuji.

 

I think BM could have done a better job perhaps to be more inclusive, but as someone who supports your product and likes your community and wants to help you, my suggestion is that you could have handled it a lot better. It's probably too late now, you probably burned a lot of bridges and scared off more future marketing people.

IMHO, at this point, maybe your next option is to brand yourself as the ultimate critical reviewer. Basically the place people come to be warned and  see everything they should know about before buying a product. The kind of critical review they do not get on youtube affiliate-marketing driven review business or elsewhere. So market the reason you are not invited is because your reviews are too honest, "too honest to be invited". 

Hope this is constructive. 

 

 

[Andrew Reid]

I don't agree with you.

There is no risk inviting me to a simple hands-on gathering with a camera and I have been to many before.

If you want to read a blog of watered-down PR-lead opinion pieces, there are plenty out there for you to follow instead.

Even the risk (of negative publicity) that comes from not inviting me to a hands-on is very low but here it has added up. It rises if the blog has 1 million views since 1 month ago and a 5 year track record of supporting Blackmagic, yet still gets passed over for a simple demo unit. Do you realize, it is a lot of hard work to keep EOSHD going? Then the risk of having your main camera tester / closest DP advisor use the forum for 2 years without acknowledging the site owner A SINGLE TIME adds a little bit as well (just shows a lack of appreciation). Giving demo units to much less known bloggers with much less expertise increases the risk of a frustrated outburst even more, on top of the above and being teased with a camera that won't ship for months. After all that, having an event in Manchester and then John's insults were the straw that broke the camel's back. So Blackmagic really only have themselves to blame if I don't like them very much as a company any more.

33 minutes ago, salim said:

@Andrew Reid

Yes, @John Brawley was a bit curt to you. But I'm not sure how that should impact your purchasing decision. As a professional DP, at the end of the day, you'll pick the best tool for the job that you your budget allows.

Best tool for the job is not the Pocket 4K for me. I'll wait for RAW from something else. I don't have an urgent need for it.

ProRes is nice.

But as certain pros will tell you, it's not enough to just look at the specs sheet and choose a camera, the support from the company is important too as is reliability and whether or not you actually like how the company treats you.

A big reason I bought a Leica SL was because they were supportive of EOSHD. It counts for a lot. Doesn't mean to say I not going to be critical about it though, because I spent my hard earned own money on it. When I met the Leica product manager in Berlin, he was very helpful and demoed the new firmware with improved LOG. That meeting came from being critical and basically pointing out that their LOG profile was broken.

The same thing applies to Sony, I have been critical of technical aspects of their camera and they listened directly.

See below...

Yes there is an element of PR about all of this, to try and offer a rebuttal to critical articles and to show they are listening.

But there is also an element of truth in it, that they are listening to users and representatives of users, actual shooters, not just "camera reviewers" as John Brawley puts it.

There are people out there at the camera companies that value my feedback and I am not going to stop being critical or pointing out bugs, just to please some fanboys.

[Emanuel]

All this drama could end with a move by BMD side. Where's Petty BTW? He's the leader of this project. As BMD supporter much earlier than their 1st camera had landed, I am just wondering how and why this hasn't stopped yet. What a nonsense.

[Andrew Reid]

I agree, but that boat has sailed. If they wanted to keep me in the loop, the time to act was straight after NAB! How long has it been announced for now? 5 months? I doubt there's much they can do now to change my mind, short of putting a camera on my desk. Even this simple act seems to be beyond them. They could have thousands of sales from the traffic on this site long-term, but they just don't appear to recognize you or I even exist.

Arrogance?