BMPCC being withdrawn..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

[Tim Fraser]

I think they jury is still out on 4k adoption rate. For broadcasters, they have a reason to take a cautious approach. If it doesn't bring in more revenue, it's going to greatly increase their expenditures for sure, they potentially have a lot to lose. 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. 

Interesting as it could mean that a greater amount of 4K material becomes available not through modern digital camera acquisition and workflow but scanning of older, already edited celluloid content.  Features, like Gone with the Wind 4K, Dr Zhivago 4K  :-) and older TV content shot on film.  

 

Anyone want to see The Walton's in 4K?

[leafcutter]

re 4k broadcast I just read something today about the BBC doing a public trial of 4k and 100fps streams for the Commonwealth games (after they did non public streams for the world cup).  

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28440076

 

Maybe by the time of the Rio Olympics you'll be able to watch it all in 4k...

[Tim Fraser]

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.

I tried for a wee while, about 24hrs, not to order this camera and failed :-)

 

The dealer's website did not report "awaiting stock" until after their order confirmation email was sent to me accepting my order.  I will be disappointed if they were not to fulfil the contract which I understand to be a legal agreement, but perhaps not as no money has been taken yet.

 

If they wanted to change any order details, they had that opportunity when confirming the order.

 

I'm hoping Blackmagic will honor any orders taken during the promotion period including mine.

[sunyata]

Interesting as it could mean that a greater amount of 4K material becomes available not through modern digital camera acquisition and workflow but scanning of older, already edited celluloid content.  Features, like Gone with the Wind 4K, Dr Zhivago 4K  :-) and older TV content shot on film.  

 

Anyone want to see The Walton's in 4K?

 

For sure, you will see re-releases of old material, but they won't start with Citizen Kane, it'll be Xmen, Fantastic 4, Spiderman, Thor, Iron Man, Batman, or anyone in colored tights. 

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

The people that I know that work in broadcast have no desire to start working in 4k, .

100% true. 4K for broadcast is 5 to 10 years away from now for most of the world.

Last time I shot a commercial for Pepsi, for broadcast on national TV, they wanted Epic so we shot Epic in 5K r3d raw.

The station reported back to me saying, the "video" files were not "working".

It went to SD.

90% of broadcast in the world is still years away from going full HD. (USA, UK, and a few others being the 10%)

Before around 2020, pushing 4K on these guys will be a very hard sell! :D

[sunyata]

100% true. 4K for broadcast is 5 to 10 years away from now for most of the world.

Last time I shot a commercial for Pepsi, for broadcast on national TV, they wanted Epic so we shot Epic in 5K r3d raw.

The station reported back to me saying, the "video" files were not "working".

It went to SD.

90% of broadcast in the world is still years away from going full HD. (USA, UK, and a few others being the 10%)

Before around 2020, pushing 4K on these guys will be a very hard sell! :D

 

Ouch, not even HD.. not surprising. 

[Damphousse]

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!

 

 

People on this forum are shooting 4k to downsample to gorgeous 1080p.  It's been covered numerous times in multiple threads.

 

 

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.

 

 

 

There will be a ton of these things on ebay in a few months.  You would be a fool to pay $995 for this in September.  The price on ebay has already dropped by hundreds of dollars and many people haven't even received their cameras from B&H, et al yet.

 

 

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.

 

 

If true there will be a lid on prices.  Everyone that wants one is buying one now.  And with this price cut a lot of weak hands picked this camera up.  When those weak hands get frustrated with it or jump to the next toy the bmpcc will end up on ebay.

 

I don't know how many have been purchased and how many of those orders are going to be honored but if it is as you say then I see the used market being depressed.  Just my humble opinion.

[Axel]

Could you point me to that report?

 

I read this (or s.th. like this) too, I think it was in the german magazine Der Kameramann (like The Cinematographer). They said that because UHD needed - at least - 10-bit anyway (see rec_2020 description) and because none of the now-available 4k-TV-sets featured this, it was still a long way to go (from, basically HDready, the de-facto standard, in germany as 720 50p or 1080 25i).

 

The Fifa championship in Brazil was recorded in 4k by Sony (slogan: See more detail - be moved). There was a peculiar issue with high contrasts that caused speculations as to whether the responsible technicians actually saw something in the overexposed and underexposed areas the images were composed of - because the millions at home could see shit!

[Bioskop.Inc]

People on this forum are shooting 4k to downsample to gorgeous 1080p.  It's been covered numerous times in multiple threads.

Really?!

I'd never have guessed that's what people would do - downscale you say?!

Come on kid, stop trying to be such a smart arse, of course i know that!

 

The White Paper i read talked about improving 1080p & yes, downscaling from 4K is an option.

However, in terms of the Pocket it does all shades of ProRes in 1080p - so you've got all the resolution & DR you need right out of the box.

I'll start talking about 4K when Arri update the Alexa to shoot 4K, not when Panasonic or Sony say so.

 

There is a long way to go on the 4K journey & there's no point claiming that those 2 new cameras are the best thing out there.

Anyways, we'll find out what BM are planning very soon...

[Guest]

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..

 

Looks like there was some truth to this - the Pocket has been returned to normal price at CVP UK.

[Germy1979]

So weird. Seems like you guys get the shaft across the pond quite often.. B&H has it still for $495 (u.s), granted it's roughly a month out at this point, but at least you'll be on the list. I had a bad experience with bmd and my 2.5k. I got 3 from support that each had excessive noise problems in separate color channels, it was weird.. But they verified it each time. I chocked it up to bad Q.A. In the sensor department especially when I'd read about everyone else's problems online. It seemed like they rushed them out in high demand and there was no consistency to quality among them, you either got a good one or you didn't. Too random for me.. Now it seems like they've tackled it though and are addressing these issues with weekly firmware updates. Point is, the odds of getting a good camera are better now than they were!!

[Quirky]

Looks like there was some truth to this - the Pocket has been returned to normal price at CVP UK.

 

Apparently that's just CVP in the old Blighty, for now. Some other major distributors in Europe, like A.F. Marcotec and some others haven't jacked up their discounted prices yet. Only the estimated delivery times seem to get longer, 15 to 20 days or so. But if there continues to be clearly more demand than supply, everybody will end up rising their prices, eventually. 

 

 

There is a long way to go on the 4K journey & there's no point claiming that those 2 new cameras are the best thing out there.

Anyways, we'll find out what BM are planning very soon...

 

Not disagreeing, not arguing, no comment on the two new cameras, just making loosely related observations: WSJ Going 4K

 

To get back on topic, though, I tend to believe that the BMPCC and good quality 1080 HD are far from becoming totally obsolete. Nor do I think BM will discontinue it yet. Unless they're totally out of stock, and there's an all new model ready to be launched somewhere between Fotokina and CES.

[jpfilmz]

The price will probably rise on the distributors sites...it's back to the $995 on the blackmagic site.  I'm glad I pulled the trigger on one.

[Damphousse]

Really?!

I'd never have guessed that's what people would do - downscale you say?!

Come on kid, stop trying to be such a smart arse, of course i know that!

 

The White Paper i read talked about improving 1080p & yes, downscaling from 4K is an option.

However, in terms of the Pocket it does all shades of ProRes in 1080p - so you've got all the resolution & DR you need right out of the box.

I'll start talking about 4K when Arri update the Alexa to shoot 4K, not when Panasonic or Sony say so.

 

There is a long way to go on the 4K journey & there's no point claiming that those 2 new cameras are the best thing out there.

Anyways, we'll find out what BM are planning very soon...

 

Sorry I didn't understand your posts.  The basic thinking on this site has been 4k is an alternative way to get superior video for less capable cameras.  The Alexa doesn't fall into this category so it has no need for 4k at this time.  That has no relevance to the cameras most of us on this site are buying.

 

As far as the BMPCC... BMPCC≠Alexa.  I think you will get a fair amount of argument if you are claiming the BMPCC captures more detail than the GH4 or has better low light capability than the Sony a7s.  The BMPCC is no slouch.  I just ordered one, so I am not here to bash.  I just think all these lower end cameras are compromises.  TV networks moving slowly to implement 4k has no influence on my buying habits.  For $495 the BMPCC is the bag of trade offs that I think works for me.  To be honest with you I was actually waiting to see if a Lumix lx8 would be in the offing in a few weeks... but then this sale came along.

 

I can see networks slowing down their network strategy regarding 4k affecting high end camera.  I just don't think in the under $1,000 category that is much of a driver.

 

Anyway here in the US Netflix has taken off like a moon shot and they are already "broadcasting" in 4k.

 

 

Netflix Now The Largest Single Source of Internet Traffic In North America

 

http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/17/netflix-largest-internet-traffic/

 

 

But Netflix sees an opportunity to take a leadership position in Ultra HD. The strategy makes Netflix a more valuable partner for consumer-electronics manufacturers like Samsung, Sony and LG, which need 4K content to sell pricier Ultra HD TVs. Moreover, cable and satellite TV operators aren’t equipped to deliver 4K video over their existing infrastructure.

 

http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/netflix-4k-ultra-hd-queue-adds-breaking-bad-smurfs-2-ghostbusters-1201221824/

 

For what it is worth.  Still no effect on my camera buying strategy as a hobbyist.  But I wouldn't necessarily look at cable and satellite for innovative leadership in this area.

[Guest]

I ordered my BMPCC from CVP before they put the prices back up, and they said they had about 150 on back order at the low price. CVP is probably the top video retailer here in the UK, so perhaps they put the price back up to slow down the orders in fear they couldn't fulfil them all.

[Bioskop.Inc]

Sorry I didn't understand your posts.  The basic thinking on this site has been 4k is an alternative way to get superior video for less capable cameras.  The Alexa doesn't fall into this category so it has no need for 4k at this time.  That has no relevance to the cameras most of us on this site are buying.

 

As far as the BMPCC... BMPCC≠Alexa.  I think you will get a fair amount of argument if you are claiming the BMPCC captures more detail than the GH4 or has better low light capability than the Sony a7s.  The BMPCC is no slouch.  I just ordered one, so I am not here to bash.  I just think all these lower end cameras are compromises.  TV networks moving slowly to implement 4k has no influence on my buying habits.  For $495 the BMPCC is the bag of trade offs that I think works for me.  To be honest with you I was actually waiting to see if a Lumix lx8 would be in the offing in a few weeks... but then this sale came along.

I suppose its each to his own really - the GH4/A7s don't really excite me.

Also, they are the first of their kind, so would rather wait.

Don't want/need more detail & low light is really a non-issue for me.

Just wait till you see what you can do with the Pocket (ProRes or RAW) & you'll see what i mean - the images just look creamy.

 

Well, on the good news, BM didn't announce a new camera @ the LA meet.

So, the cut in price is either a clever marketing ploy or........?

 

My only thoughts are: if you didn't buy one, you should have & don't get dragged into making it a hole for your money.

[Quirky]

The price will probably rise on the distributors sites...it's back to the $995 on the blackmagic site.  I'm glad I pulled the trigger on one.

 

 

I ordered my BMPCC from CVP before they put the prices back up, and they said they had about 150 on back order at the low price. CVP is probably the top video retailer here in the UK, so perhaps they put the price back up to slow down the orders in fear they couldn't fulfil them all.

 

Blackmagic Pocket Camera $495 Promotion based on dealer stock levels

[Guest]

Blackmagic Pocket Camera $495 Promotion based on dealer stock levels

Ah ha! Finally all makes sense ...

 

I've been told I could wait up to a month for my cut-price camera, but I will definitely get it at some point.

[Damphousse]

 

Well, on the good news, BM didn't announce a new camera @ the LA meet.

So, the cut in price is either a clever marketing ploy or........?

 

My only thoughts are: if you didn't buy one, you should have & don't get dragged into making it a hole for your money.

 

Oh I bought one.  It's a no brainer at that price.  Not sure why it happened but I'm glad it did.