BMPCC being withdrawn.. says distributor.. says 3Dbroadcast

[Nog]

text reads:

 

According to Holdan UK the UK distributor for Blackmagic, BMD are going to withdraw the Blackmagic Pocket Camera within the next 24-48hrs. We currently have 6 Pocket cameras available at this price (Due back in stock end of this week). Once they are gone the price will have to rise back up to £558 ex vat so get yours now whilst we have stock at this price.

 

 

http://www.3dbroadcastsales.com/cameras/cinematic-camcorders/blackmagic-design-cinema-camera/blackmagic-pocket-cinema-camera-7366

 

Marketing ploy? 

 

You decide..

[Andrew Reid]

I don't get it, sorry. If it is being withdrawn by Blackmagic, then how is it going to rise back to £558 after the 6 they have in the warehouse sell out? Kind of contradictory no? Where is that new £558 going to come from exactly?

[Guest]

Urm, yeah, that doesn't make sense. If there is any truth to it I guess we'll find out in the next few days.

 

I have one on order with CVP. I assume they won't turn around and say they couldn't get it now they've taken my money ...

[Nog]

My order is with cvp, and the £295 camera which I hope they will honor..

 

Probably just a cunning stunt..

[Andrew Reid]

I think the low price was to clear stock and if they have more orders than stock, I have no idea how they will handle that.... each dealer probably has their own policy on it. Beyond Blackmagic's control.

[Bruno]

Blackmagic's press release mentioned this sale was only till end of August or while stocks last.
They might have meant the stocks currently in stores, therefore restocking would bring the prices back up again.

[Quirky]

It could also be that whilst most dealers are now offering at least 3 weeks delivery time, as they have no stock at all, and maybe BM has (again) trouble in delivering enough stock for everyone, (hence the "withdrawal"), the dealer in question is trying to lure in orders to themselves with the fact that they do have some stock, and to make sure they'll get rid of it in time.

 

In other words, sounds like a poorly written marketing copy by that one dealer, nothing to do with BM directly.

But we'll find out soon enough, if what they're actually on to something unusual.

 

BTW, looks like some dealers that have no new stock are not advertising the new reduced prices, nor are they willing to sell their existing units for the new half price. Or maybe there are two different 'classes' of dealership. Whatever the case, the pricing confusion and poor availability at the advertised price may end up backfiring on BM, at least in theory. But we'll see.

[HurtinMinorKey]

From their announcement. 

 

Blackmagic Design today announced an exciting Summer Special discount for the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera for the low price of US$495. With a normal recommended retail price of US$995, this Summer Special represents incredible value and is available for a limited time and will end on the 31st of August 2014. This Summer Special price is subject to limited availability, after which the price will return to the usual recommended retail price of US$995.

 

Maybe they were serious about the price going back up after the sale was over. 

[sunyata]

Smells like clearing out inventory for a new product... it's tempting but I want to know what is going to replace it. 

[Rob Bannister]

Once you drop the price that much no one will want to pay full price for that camera ever again.

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

I believe they sold more pocket cameras in the past couple of days than they ever sold since it came out. Everyone I know who's remotely interested in video bought one just for the fun of it. The firmware updates helped closing the deal too.

[Bruno]

Once you drop the price that much no one will want to pay full price for that camera ever again.

Unless you have no other choice. This sale is also going to promote the camera tremendously, there will be loads of all kinds of new Pocket Cinema Camera content coming out in the next few months and more people will want to get the same camera, and if it costs $995 then that's what they'll pay. And if there's a new one, it's likely the price will go back up as well on the new one, so it's still a good deal.

[Axel]

Once you drop the price that much no one will want to pay full price for that camera ever again.

 

Everybody will confirm that the price for the Pocket is a fraction of the whole rig, cards, lenses stuff you need to buy anyway. If there is no attractive successor, people will pay. But perhaps there will be some kind of Pocket2, and then the price will drop further.

[Bioskop.Inc]

It was funny that BM dropped their price of the Pocket about the same time that a TV Report came out talking about dropping 4K Broadcast TV & concentrating more on improving the quality (DR etc...) of the current HD 1080p.

So basically you won't need a 4K TV anytime soon, but what people will need is a small camera that does stunning 1080p on a budget!

Also, never heard of a camera company dropping a great product within a year - really think this might've been a ploy to entice GH4 or A7s buyers.

But i suppose we'll wait & see.

[AaronChicago]

I've never seen a company drop the price in half temporarily. It just seems like that would give ebayers a nice little profit once the list price goes back up.

[sunyata]

New product.

[HurtinMinorKey]

It was funny that BM dropped their price of the Pocket about the same time that a TV Report came out talking about dropping 4K Broadcast TV & concentrating more on improving the quality (DR etc...) of the current HD 1080p.

So basically you won't need a 4K TV anytime soon, but what people will need is a small camera that does stunning 1080p on a budget!

Also, never heard of a camera company dropping a great product within a year - really think this might've been a ploy to entice GH4 or A7s buyers.

But i suppose we'll wait & see.

 

Could you point me to that report?

[Bioskop.Inc]

Could you point me to that report?

Sorry, a friend let me read a print out.

But this has been bantered about for over a year now - Panasonic came out last year saying that no TV Broadcaser, that they spoke to, was remotely interested in 4K Broadcasting since they had only just sorted HD 1080p (& barely at that).

This doesn't mean that 4K TVs won't be all the rage, but you'll be hard pushed to get anything in 4K to actually watch - TV broadcasting is 3-5yrs away for most of us.

I'm not sure if you remember when HD TVs first came out, but it took quite a few years for it really cement & TV has only really just caught up to HD.

 

This is interesting to understand a little bit about the battle that is going on - 1080p/50 or 4K:

https://tech.ebu.ch/docs/techreports/tr014.pdf

 

Might be worth backtracking through the above link for more interesting info!

[Quirky]

Oh man, now I wish I could find (and legally share) a Gary Oliver cartoon published in TPV back in the early or mid 90's, featuring two fellows admiring a big TV set.

 

The other guy staring at the screen with glee and asking something like: "IDTV? HDTV?" and the owner of the TV set sitting in his armchair replying: "Nope, just good old GDTV."  :)

[sunyata]

I think they jury is still out on 4k adoption rate. For broadcasters, they have a reason to take a cautious approach. The people that I know that work in broadcast have no desire to start working in 4k, the budgets aren't going any higher, just the opposite, and the time it will take to capture, render, copy, view work, meet deadlines, there's no pay off for us. It's really the people that sell hardware that are pushing for it. Content providers also are going to take a wait and see attitude, they got a little too excited about 3D.