Blackmagic NAB 2025 Preview - 4th April 2025 4pm BST

[BTM_Pix]

OK, so we have until Friday to indulge in baseless wild speculation about what the new products will be.

Watch along live here.

 

[eatstoomuchjam]

I don't know if the 16TB media module for the Ursa Cine series has been officially announced yet.  If not, I'm sure it will be there.  Though I'm not completely sure who the target market is - people who really want to cry when they 15 hours of footage to a media failure?

Along those lines, a hope is that they'll announce a smaller media module reader for an individual module - one that costs less than like $1k.  Right now, when using the media module, offload options are USB to the camera, 10gE to the camera, or the expensive rack-mounted media module reader.

I think a lot of people are hoping that they'll announce a 6K or 8K camera using a cheaper variant of the UC 12K sensor.

[MrSMW]

I'm really only interested in 2 specific things and I doubt either of them will be announced there or any time soon.

A longer sibling to the Sigma 28-45mm f1.8 such as a 45-90mm f1.8

A cracking high megapixel, fast lens fixed or interchangeable (I don't care which) rangefinderesque full frame camera. Something to succeed the Sony RX1R that is not the Fuji GFX 100 RF.

I don't think I'll get either...

[BTM_Pix]

22 minutes ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

I think a lot of people are hoping that they'll announce a 6K or 8K camera using a cheaper variant of the UC 12K sensor.

One that would be interesting is if they took the original UMP12K Super35 sensor and put it in the Pocket 6K Pro body.

Though I suspect they would need to add too much power to make it viable.

I’m hopeful that they have a firmware upgrade for the Micro Studio 4K G2 that allows the use of the USB-C monitor they make for the PYXIS.

Or at least one that switches on the Bluetooth module we all know that’s in it but they inexplicably won’t let us use!

[BTM_Pix]

6 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

I don't think I'll get either...

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you definitely won’t get either in that Blackmagic presentation 😀

[eatstoomuchjam]

1 hour ago, BTM_Pix said:

One that would be interesting is if they took the original UMP12K Super35 sensor and put it in the Pocket 6K Pro body.

Though I suspect they would need to add too much power to make it viable.

It would be interesting.  One thing that I got from the Shane Hurlbut video was that one of the reasons that they built their own media module for the UC12K is that with the UMP, especially in 12K mode, they got lots of complaints about dropped frames due to media not keeping up.  It's a little surprising since the data rate at 8:1 isn't all that crazy and in my testing so far, my pretty basic Sabrent CFE cards kept up just fine, but I don't know if I'd have that confidence when shooting for a full day.

Anyway.  The 9K mode on the UC12K is fantastic.  Instead of the 12K UMP sensor, I wonder if they'd do a 9K S35 cut-down UC sensor for it.  If they did that with a mirrorless mount (and ideally built-in ND's), then Black Magic would have their second camera I was interested in after the original BMPCC.

[Chrille]

Might also be that they dropped the 4k Cinema price so they can sell them off.

A OG Pocket siced 4K o 6K cam would be fun.

 

 

[MrSMW]

5 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you definitely won’t get either in that Blackmagic presentation 😀

Oh, it’s a Black Magic voodoo bollocks event. I thought it was a trade show jobbie. My bad 🙈

I still would like those objects though!

[zerocool22]

I hope proress gets released on the newer cameras again + internal ND on the full frame cinema 6k sensor.

[Andrew Reid]

I'd like a consumer camera from them, under $1k.

They've done enough pro stuff now, big and heavy stuff, sensor in a box, you name it.

But there's no small camera with autofocus and IBIS.

Blackmagic could add in their unique features and it would rule.

Internal BRAW + ND + their image quality all in a consumer friendly mirrorless camera form factor with similar build quality to Fuji.

I also think they should do a modern spin on the original BMCC 2.5K. The Cinema DNG image from that was cinema on a stick. If only they'd do a new version with the same or similar sensor, with autofocus, IBIS, and an EVF, plus small, interchangeable battery + CFexpress slot all for under $2k.

We'd finally have that next Digital Bolex type camera.

[eatstoomuchjam]

Does any Black Magic camera have autofocus other than single AF?  At some point, they'll probably need to implement it, but even their flagship only has single as far as I know (I'd be very pleasantly surprised if someone told me I just hadn't been able to find it - but there's not really anything in the menus and if I press the AF button on the body, it does a really basic single AF - one of the reasons that I rigged mine with a DJI Focus Pro).

I wouldn't even care that much if they did full AF - if they just did like Canon's cinema OS and gave little arrow indicators for whether the thing under the focus point was in focus, that'd already be a big improvement). 

Otherwise, I think a new pocket camera from them under $1k is a longshot.  It's not impossible, but they made a big deal about lowering the price of the micro 4/3 BMPCC 4K to $995 in December.

[zerocool22]

Seems to be the pyxis 12k. (Doesnt seem to have internal ND, and only braw. No prores) just saw the banner on the NAB windows.

[eatstoomuchjam]

1 hour ago, zerocool22 said:

Seems to be the pyxis 12k. (Doesnt seem to have internal ND, and only braw. No prores) just saw the banner on the NAB windows.

Oh!  Sure enough, lookings like it's using the UC 12K sensor.

UC 12K body is $7k, current Pyxis is $3k so...  probably somewhere between those numbers.

Lack of internal ND is a bummer, but I'm guessing that means it'll have a mirrorless mount available.  If the weight is closer to existing Pyxis (1.5kg) vs UC 12K (4kg), it could be a real winner - especially if it's closer to $4k than to $5k.