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Blackmagic Design, an Australia-based digital cinematography camera company, was gearing up to start making products in the United States before the Trump administration blew a tariff-shaped hole in its plans. Now, not only is Blackmagic having to increase prices in the US to mitigate some of the levies on imported goods, but those same tariffs are also making it difficult to justify opening a US production line. “We were planning to build a new factory in Dallas, Texas, to streamline our supply chain and allow us to work more directly with US semiconductor companies,” Blackmagic Design spokesperson Patrick Hussey told The Verge. The introduction and ever-shifting confusion around President Donald Trump’s blanket global tariffs have since complicated things according to Hussey, because while the semiconductor parts and PCBs used in Blackmagic’s cameras are sourced from US companies, those companies are importing them from overseas. “If we proceed with the US factory, we’d incur tariffs on those parts, increasing costs and negating the savings we anticipated,” said Hussey. It’s a no-win situation that many other businesses in and outside of the US are facing if they deal with global suppliers. While Trump has brazenly declared that tariffs will incentivize companies to bring manufacturing to the US to remain competitive, if these manufacturers use foreign equipment or materials in their supply chain, they may — directly or indirectly — still get hit with hefty import fees. (That’s leaving aside the cost of doing business when the fees change dramatically from day to day.) A supply chain survey conducted by CNBC found that 61 percent of respondents from unspecified businesses would be financially better off moving from high-tariff countries to lower-tariffed countries instead of the US, and 81 percent said if they did relocate to the US, they would automate production instead of hiring human workers, failing to deliver the manufacturing jobs Trump promised. 61 percent of the companies also warned they would raise prices for products coming in under the new tariff rates. Blackmagic Design customers have already noticed a price hike has been applied to all products sold in the US, with the new Pyxis 12K briefly listed at $6,600 after initially being marketed at $5,000. This has since fallen to $5,500 after Blackmagic announced it had moved Pyxis production to lessen the tariff impact, but prices in every country besides the US have remained completely unscathed. “Due to new government tariffs, price increases in the US have been unavoidable,” said Hussey. “That said, we operate factories in several countries, so production of some product lines has been relocated to reduce the impact on our customers.” Hussey told The Verge that Blackmagic is now planning to “wait a few months” to see if the supply chain for the components it needs will move to the US. “If it does, we could still achieve the supply chain benefits we were aiming for.” The Trump Administration added “smartphones, computers, and other electronics” to its list of tariff exemptions last week — a list with no clear carveout for cameras or camera-specific manufacturing equipment — but then swiftly warned that companies shouldn’t get comfy. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said these are not “a permanent sort of exemption,” and that these goods will be hit with the same unspecified tariff rules that Trump is expected to apply to the semiconductor industry in “a month or two.” https://www.theverge.com/news/649225/blackmagic-design-trump-us-tariffs-price-hike

I suspect i got caught up in some of that " instability " last week when the aus dollar did a pretty good impression of that last ship scene from the titanic... I had decided to purchase the reaper software that allows one to make music on a computer. I had been evaluating it for 360 days +. I just picked a bad day to buy it lol. US $66 went to $113 Australian, that's a nasty unexpected jolt to the system. It also makes me question further purchases when the US $ becomes involved. I haven't bought anything out of the US for the last few years as postage from the US is just astronomical and i have happy enough to source items from japan mostly. From now on, i personally will be thinking quite hard about any further purchases from abroad and that's lose / lose situation for everyone, i guess. On the upside i did find two smc takumars in an old camera bag up in the shed today. Which did brighten up my day a little.

I'm running the camera and 7" Hollyland monitor off one V-mount, recording internally to a Lexar 512 silver CFexpress card. The camera battery is in the grip but fully charged. Camera is powered via usb-c and we are indoors so far about 20-21 C. The clips/takes are about 30 - 45 minutes each per interview. I *THINK* the overheating would be at extreme use, ( I have never had to shoot anything at 6k 60p or 120p in Pro Res HQ for 2 hours + in one take.....) but no issue so far with anything that I think is "normal" use!

Surely the gymfluencers will be flocking to the S1Rii after that recent magnum opus ?

I agree it's all bonkers, added to which the fact that America leads the entire world in services, especially tech and financial services, which more than make up any so-called trade deficit in terms of physical goods production, and a lot of these services are highly subsidised by cheap manufacturing of products abroad. Take the iPhone for example. The hardware is imported, but the services are an export to the entire world, in terms of the App Store, iCloud, Apple Studios and so on. So if the hardware is no longer to be made affordably thanks to Chinese wages and factories the size of cities, the revenue goes down for ALL of Apple's services. The US is 90% a services economy, so it stands to lose an incredible amount of money and high quality jobs if such products are undermined. Apple is only one example, there's also Microsoft, Google, Amazon who have highly profitable service exports built off the back of Chinese made hardware. And the geo-political side of this is very dangerous for the US. Europe especially and the rest of the world have massive leverage over US services, if they wanted to boot out VISA, Mastercard, PayPal, eBay, Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft or tax their digital services at 25%, that would destroy the US economy and there would be massive unemployment. Trump doesn't know his arse from his elbow and it's why his businesses all failed.

This is reassuring! What was your setup - external power? external or internal recording? if internal, CFExpress or SD or both? HDMI monitoring? environment? All of this seems to conspire variably but I cannot bear to watch anymore on the interweb about this camera.

I'm going to keep this short as it's still early days. So far I've been very happy with my S1rii, the files (stills + Video) are really great, the C1 tethering (FINALLY) is great. It cuts with my two S5iix footage very nicely, and I haven't had a hint of overheating shooting 2+ hour talking head stuff, (4K 24 MOV) Battery hasn't been that bad or great for me! The RS is there if you move the camera very fast but nothing that I shoot requires that (YMMV). I can also report that the Sigma 24-70 L mount works perfectly on it, this is the first non brand L-mount on the Lumix for me and I had some concerns from reading some reports, but knock on wood, so far it's been fine! Overall, very happy so far.....

I opened my box. I'm keeping mine & here's why: perhaps 80% of my income comes from clients that want a mix of still (heavy on the stills) and short video content. In this use case, the camera excels. It is very fast to use. A Panasonic that finally tethers to Capture One. Gorgeous, robust stills. Very good AF (although I am awaiting that first dimly-lit event). Fantastic IBIS in cropless mode - no more need to bring a gimbal for 60-90 second clips and walking shots (this was a serious knock against the Z8 for me). Nicely implimented, mid-range codec and the CineA2 is my new Eterna (when I don't want a Vlog workflow). Slightly better ergos and good in its own right mechanical shutter. I do not think I would keep this as a video-first camera body, which I think will doom it to irrelevance in this forum. I've had no issues in my limited time but the overheating that I am also reading about leaves a bad taste - more so than the rollign shutter concerns. I will experiment but for now, I wouldn't trust it filming 10-25 minute takes continuously over 2+ hours in a warm environment. Maybe 4k/24p would be ok and maybe all would be ok recording to an external SSD? A lot of variables would need to align. I also note the "crunchiness" from the S5II/x in the video - slight and I need to spend more time with it. @ita149 Any further insights re reducing NR in Vlog? Regardless, for client work, it will NOT be an issue and for flimmaking primarily, I'm keeping my S1. Some bitchy posters in other places were droning on and on about how it should have been named the S5RII. Well, bitchers be right. It's a good-feeling camera but it takes more from the S5 line that the S1 series for sure. Rather than an S-Pro lens, it feels more like the 20-60. @MrSMW The shutter is not that wonderfully damped shutter of the S1 but it is a significant improvement over the horrid clatch of the S5. I don't love it, but I'm comfortable with it. I greatly disliked the S5's ergos and the S5II/x was better. This is better still. Other than the weight, I love the S1 and the best feeling small body to me is the X-H2s. But this new camera is good, and I may get the grip to help that pitiful battery and for better support with larger lenses. But again, once I started working with the stills from yesterday's product shoot, no looking back.

Wide range of reports from folks in wedding videography forums especially. The overheating issue varies camera body to camera body and isn't always predictable. Not a good combination for wedding shooters. I don't shoot weddings anymore personally, but my gear needs closely align with wedding needs. Most importantly, I need to know I can hit record and walk away without fear of problems.

Biggest lessons I learned… Figure out the story you are trying to tell before shooting. How is the image helping you tell that story? Massage/manipulate the image before shooting… wear complimentary clothes, move things around… turn an image that would’ve been great with normal clothes and current setup to something more epic. Last one is controlling light. Yes. We all know to adjust shutter angle and iso in camera, we also know to bring a couple ND filters, pro mist filters… and even lights for late night shooting… but there is a thing and its really magical if you know (again about controlling light)… for example - the golden hour (specific hours in the day where the sun works with you instead of against you). Filming on rainy days….Throwing water on concrete (day or night) helps a lot, something to do with how much light is absorbed vs reflected. Adding smoke (smoke machine) or filming on foggy days (fog machine), it adds layers to the image but it also limits the light entering the camera.

Yes this week.

Anyone geeking out over the gorgeous lens choices of Season 3 of White Lotus? Season 3 shot on Sony Venice with DP Ben Kutchins. From what I can find out they used a lot of custom vintage Leica M glass from Zero Optik this season with maybe a handful of OMs as well. Last couple of seasons featured Zeiss Superspeeds, Cooke S4s, Baltars, Angénieux, Panavision Primos and Canon EF Zooms. Quite the buffet... A lot of people complain about the overuse of shallow DOF but it's creatively used in my opinion and only extreme in a handful of shots. Plus those shots are justified as a narrative tool in those instances. Tons of other shots with deep focus and the series always does a great job of establishing the exotic locale. I'm actually working a press event with HBO and the cast of season 3 next week here in Los Angeles and really looking forward to it.

Personally, I’d say that a lot of ‘TV’ productions are simply just feature films on steroids ie far too long for anyone to watch in a single viewing (well for normal people anyway) so are broken down into 45 minute episodes. In fact I’d go as far and say some are more cinematic than many of their big screen siblings. And then there is this nostalgia for older movies. My teenage years were the 80’s so those are the most memorable and iconic movies for me, but other than a few exceptions (mostly Spielberg), they look like shit next to even your average Netflix series today. I guess it’s like anything and there is good and bad… There is old stuff that looks great that will never be and probably cannot be, ever replicated due to the use of the tools of the time and then there is stuff today that was not possible even just a few years back. Something I have never prescribed to is the rose-tinted spectacle that everything was just better in the good old days. However, give me back the 80’s 😜

I don't see how Blackmagic or anyone else can trust the US enough to make decisions a few months from now. Trump's handling of tariffs where they come on and off at random intervals, means the required level of stability in economics and tax just isn't there for companies like Blackmagic to be making major decisions like relocating production. Added to that the Trump government's blatant undermining of the law, undermining judges, illegal deportations and arrest of European tourists at the border, just shows that the USA is now officially a lawless country or on the way to being one. Investors hate chaos. Lawless behaviour from the government is a recipe for total chaos and if I were Blackmagic or any other camera company right now I wouldn't be waiting a few months to see how it all pans out, I'd be waiting for 5 years and a new government. Which means the US is probably going to have a recession and a massive downturn in foreign investment.