Blackmagic Production Camera 4K price drops to $3k and ships

[Andrew Reid]

Blackmagic have today announced a $1000 price drop on the BMPC 4K.

Read the full article here

[HurtinMinorKey]

I really want to see how the global sensor holds up to a ton of motion.

[OzNimbus]

The imminent release of the GH4 had absolutely nothing to do with this price drop.  None whatsoever.  :)

[matt2491]

Hell yea. That's what I call aggressive marketing! Keeps things interesting. Where/when is it shipping??

[AaronChicago]

Isn't it almost guaranteed that they'll announce a slow-mo cam at NAB? Or pocket 4k.

[Andrew Reid]

I really want to see how the global sensor holds up to a ton of motion.

 

Holds up 100%. A global shutter doesn't just reduce rolling shutter skew and flash strobing, but eliminates it.

[jurgen]

Wow. Pretty crazy! I think it's awesome how quickly this technology is becoming actually viable as a purchasing decision for a small outfit. 

Now if we could just get a full frame stills camera down in the $1000 - $1200 price range ...

[pablogrollan]

What I would like to see is a real world comparison with the BMCC m4/3 with speedbooster.

4K is great, and at $3K better, but given that the "s35" sensor has a x1.85 crop factor vs. the x1.53 of the BMCC m4/3, it would be interesting to see if the pros outweigh the cons...

 

4K vs. 2.5K: no argument here, though 2.5K is already an improvement scaled down to 1080 and allows re-framing.

Global shutter vs. Rolling shutter: global shutter all the way, obviously... although we've learnt to live with rolling shutter

12 stops vs. 13 stops: how noticeable in real situations? better shadow detail? less risk of highlight clipping?

x1.85 vs. x1.53: IMHO the crop of the BM4K is excessive -as was the BMCC before the speedbooster-. Doesn't seem like metabones will release an EF speedbooster, though it was rumored some time ago.

 

It would be interesting to see how both cameras do on the same shoot. One is $2.5K with the speedbooster and the other $3K, so maybe even Blackmagic have seen the need to give an additional incentive -price reduction- to secure sales of the BM4K.

[Kays Alatrakchi]

Things just got a whole lot interesting.

 

Now the question is...shoud I sell my 5D3 with ML raw?

[HurtinMinorKey]

Things just got a whole lot interesting.

 

Now the question is...shoud I sell my 5D3 with ML raw?

 

Probably not, but you should thank BM, because 5D3 Raw probably wouldn't exist without them. :D

[theSUBVERSIVE]

Wow, BlackMagic is bold as always, they really shake things up! Oh, if Canikon - but mainly Canon - had just 10% of their innnovative philosophy...

 

 

 

This makes me wonder what can BlackMagic achieve if they were to charge a bit more, a $5K or even a slightly sub-$10K camera. Improved DR, better low light, cinema aspect ratio, etc.?

 

I know that they were initially trying to capitalize on a different market than those $10K+ cameras and they don't really need to go that far, but by what they offer, they can really suck in people that were going for those cameras PLUS the 5DMKIII, AF100, FS700 market as well. I bet that Panasonic wouldn't push the GH4 like they did if it wasn't for BlackMagic, I really like what they are doing with the video oriented market for enthusiasts/produmers and even pros.

[Julian]

Now if we could just get a full frame stills camera down in the $1000 - $1200 price range ...

 

Sony A7 is getting pretty close already.

[Jeroen de Cloe]

Global shutter, 4K for $3000. Wow! Canon, what is your answer?

[Kays Alatrakchi]

I think many forget that Canon is a much more diversified company with lots of corporate, medical and other specialized fields. Canon could probably be ok on their printer side of the business alone. I don't get the sense that video for Canon is a make-or-break segment. 

 

Blackmagic is equally on good footing here, they have absolutely nothing to lose by shaking up the camera industry. If they could sell the 4K camera for $200 and still make some money, they would because they have absolutely nothing to lose (a bit like GoPro). Look at how they've handled Resolve making a cost-prohibitive product available for free. The rest of their product line is equally aggressive with price points that make their biggest competitor (AJA) seem downright greedy. I don't see the need for Blackmagic to introduce a more expensive camera because they are already competing with the likes of RED and even ARRI at their current price point. What would they gain by pushing a $20k camera? 

 

I think these guys are the smartest group at the table right now, and they're likely going to eat everyone's lunch while the big boys try to figure out a way to react (or ignore) them. 

 

My biggest complaint about the Blackmagic cameras is that their firmwares really need improvement. It would seem to be the easiest thing for them to fix, yet they somehow don't...real head-scratcher.

[HurtinMinorKey]

My biggest complaint about the Blackmagic cameras is that their firmwares really need improvement. It would seem to be the easiest thing for them to fix, yet they somehow don't...real head-scratcher.

 

In their defense, the pathway to seemingly trivial firmware features is laden with a minefield of patents. The less BM has to do to data from the time it leaves the sensor to ending up in storage memory, the less BM has to worry about potential patent holdup.

[Peter Rzazewski]

Moore's law in full swing. 

[Kays Alatrakchi]

In their defense, the pathway to seemingly trivial firmware features is laden with a minefield of patents. The less BM has to do to data from the time it leaves the sensor to ending up in storage memory, the less BM has to worry about potential patent holdup.

 

I'm mostly talking about having working audio meters while recording, accurate displays of remaining battery life and hard drive space. You know...like the basics!

[Kays Alatrakchi]

Oh...and an official and aptly priced external battery add-on wouldn't hurt either!

[Tone13]

Global Shutter is nice but I'm not willing to trade it for DR and lowlight performance. Shooting a lot of action on the GH3 at 50p means rolling shutter not noticed for the most part other than camera flashes or lightning. The GH4 should improve on that even more with its 50% improvement on sensor. If you need 4K raw, this is the camera. For everything else I think the Panasonic is a much better thought out camera.

[HurtinMinorKey]

Global Shutter is nice but I'm not willing to trade it for DR and lowlight performance. Shooting a lot of action on the GH3 at 50p means rolling shutter not noticed for the most part other than camera flashes or lightning. The GH4 should improve on that even more with its 50% improvement on sensor. If you need 4K raw, this is the camera. For everything else I think the Panasonic is a much better thought out camera.

 

We really won't know until the masses get their hands on them.