Andrew Reid

If a camera forum was a real life happening (imagine a big dinner party in a house), there would be a bunch of people cornering the host, shouting and spitting at him, while the major camera companies sat round a table eating all the nice cuts of beef that the host laid out, at the same time as selling cameras to his guests. Afterwards, the host picks up the bill for the dinner, and even has to tidy up! Tidying up as in moderating. Then the fat corporations with their multi-million pound deep pockets and inventory of thousands of cameras leave the table without so much as a thank you for the roast chicken, let alone a look at the camera. Why am I doing this with my life?

Haha. Imagine the stuff I could say after a few gins? Then afterwards I could take a leaf out of a forum sniper's strategy and say "oh sorry blackmagic, I said the camera was a piss soaked turd? Ah I think you must just be seeing a negative meaning to that which isn't there. I didn't mean it, you're great really. I love your camera." Maybe invite Bez and Noel Gallagher as well. By the end of it, the camera will be so soaked in gin it will need an under-the-ocean housing. Maybe they can hold the next event in my BACK GARDEN. Literally in my back garden. I'll provide the BBQ and cook all the sausages. 340,000 sausages.

Hey Mr Motivational. Thank you very much. No I don't know why I bother either. I do though for some reason. Because on this forum 70% of you are great. Not 90% like there would be on a forum of animation, or music, or something which attracts nicer people than the damned video industry but 70 I can live with, despite the Fox News comments and barbs from long-time 5 year members like Cinegain. I really don't mind if some of you think the last few posts of mine have been about me throwing toys out of the pram. I don't have any toys in the pram to throw out. I just think very plainly Blackmagic are using this site for publicity and I expect virtually nothing in return, but to be ignored in my home city, whilst hosting a thread with this much good info in it, was too much... it broke me. They lost a customer there and then in that second. Nothing else to analyse. Nothing more to think. I think if they are going to do that and to the tune of 340k views on one topic, they can maybe think about saying hello next time they drop by Manchester, rather than ignoring me for around the last 2 years. Yep.. Not a peep from them in my inbox for 2 years (since 2016 Photokina). And now, a snub on top.

I might stop the forum. In the end it's about you guys... I tried to set up a decent site for you to get information about cameras. Over the years I haven't wavered. Day in day out, I have spent thousands of pounds on equipment, kept shooting, kept blogging, even when I found it exhausting. For what? For some snide Napoleon remarks and shitty comments like that from Cinegain who has been a member and follower since as far back as 2014. What kind of gratitude level am I dealing with here. Sometimes I spend hours a day reading this forum, and I don't want to read comments like this, quite frankly. So closing it down would lighten my mood. It's not about ego. Would have been a simple courtesy for Blackmagic to keep me in the loop on the Pocket 4K camera, due to the amount of interest in it from you guys on my site, which yes I do appreciate but it goes both ways. They have had months to get in touch. It's not up to me to go chasing like a poodle. I can't support you with a site, if you don't support me. If I had gone to that event to interview Blackmagic and try the camera, It would be to the benefit of of you, you'd have more info about the camera. It would be to the benefit of you, if they got involved, however small, and helped me out here. I will now be the last to shoot with this camera, and I feel very much down and sad about that, after 5 years of buying Blackmagic cameras and all the articles, shoots, Speed Boosters, lenses, c-mount glass, Resolve tips, forum posts, music videos, Berlin stuff, and so on. The way I am thinking right now, in this rather down mood I am in, is why do I even bother, quite honestly. Hours and hours and hours of work is not even worth a message of support from my own followers.

Thanks for the support? LOL It's my order and I can do what I like with it. It'll pay towards the time I spent having to read and moderate shithead comments like yours.

At a gin bar near the northern quarter. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Manchester+Three+Rivers+Gin/@53.4907242,-2.2382819,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x96706c50f7a68b8b?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJ-cbB667dAhWLaFAKHYb9C5MQ_BIwDHoECAgQCw It's not that I want to have a drink foisted on me and charmed into making nice YouTube videos, but the chance to give them some feedback and write an EOSHD hands-on article would have been a simple thank you for 5 years of high profile posts about the cameras. I can assume that after they went away from the Pocket market and focussed on pros with the URSA, they forgot about sites like EOSHD. Now they want in again, and they have 340k views on a single forum post in 4 months, to still not reach out with the chance to try the camera is a real slap in the face. And I am wondering what the real reason is for it. In that article about the camera press growing a pair of balls, I said the danger was that only the people good at networking and furthering their own careers in self promotion would get to review cameras in the future, and I fear I am right. I've received the message from Blackmagic plain as day. EOSHD is not worth inviting to a quite simple event in my home city. Not even in the top 10 of sites in Europe to invite to a hands-on for the camera. 250,000 visits each month to this site and the Pocket 4K / GH5 are the two biggest reasons they visit. To Blackmagic I simply say, you had a loyal customer here, a great fan of what they stood for and where they were going and the cameras they put out there... all that free publicity for them over the years came from a place of truth, a real passion for their gear. All that server bandwidth for a busy forum thread, even a sub-forum, but I am not worth ONE PUNY EMAIL to say "here Andrew, as a thank you, get your hands on the new camera 1 month early"

[Adopts child-like voice] Dear mister black magic i am witing to yo, from mi home in Manc-town. Home of the football teeeems, fancy cars and also Blackmagic pre-production cameras. Please please please can I meet with Mr Blackmagic and his nice camewa. I am willing to write nice things on my blog site. I will tell all the peeeple about raw, raw, raw, and ProRes and raw. Also I will talk about raw. Mr Blackmagic will be veewwwry. veeeeeery pleased! Because all the peeeeeple will give him money. In return, all I ask is for a cup of tea. You don't even have to pay for the fucking car parking. I have many many many dreams of finally meeting your salesman of the year. I would like to dwink cock tails with him and lik him up the bum. I hope you will consider me for your EVENTS in future. So I can bring people INFORMATION about the diddly little cinema camera for poor people. FANK YOU!! Andrew (age 6 and four thirds).

340k views and 188 pages, this thread. I am sure Blackmagic will continue to gobble up the free publicity, at the same time snubbing me for meet-ups in my own city.

True. Unless anyone has a wife planning on a 200 inch TV for decoration? No? I thought not! People are dumb. They see a higher number and think it's better.

Well considering the BM Production Cam had a hole where the sun should be. I'd recommend you do.

Still nobody has answered the question in the OP! Well I've been talking with a contact at Sony about it, and this is what they think... The reasoning is that the $2000 to $3500 range of mirrorless cameras act as second bodies. They don't have the pro-audio or form factor of an A-cam. The FS7 for example has a host of interface features you don't find on a small camera. It is also a more robust form factor for rental. Very easy to scratch the little screen on an A7 or beat it up over time. The FS5 and FS7 have the properties of a workhorse. The small cameras will never seriously replace these workhorse models on the market, especially not on the rental market. So there you have it. An A7 III does not cannibalise an FS7 sale just because it shoots 4K without a crop. An EOS R does not cannibalise a C200 sale. Canon must have another reason for the crippling, either technical (slow CPUs, sensors), or long-term strategy based (sell you the updated models in 1-4 years). Or they are just wrong-headed in their EOS strategy.

I am not buying a camera from a company that shows no courtesy. £1200 of my own money just got redirected elsewhere.

You want to clarify that? I'm not French!? I don't think I am Captain Mainwaring. Am I missing something?

Well it appears Blackmagic would rather the usual shills got hold of the camera before the experts. A bit sad. I thought they were different. Patrick Hussey at Blackmagic knows who I am, did not even think it was worth getting in touch in the 4 months since NAB. I have been back in the UK for almost a year, but yes, still visit Berlin occasionally. Not that it makes a difference where I am based in this case - at the event were Italians and all sorts from around the continent. I don't want lavish dinners. I don't want fancy events in Hawaii. I don't want personal friendships with a range of salesman. I just want a camera on a desk, maybe even as a courtesy, an invite to a meet-up when Blackmagic hold an event in my home city... organised by the Blackmagic UK people themselves based in Knutsford... whom are already familiar with who I am, what I do, and where I do it from, and are 1 hour drive from my home. In fact I have met some of the guys in person several times. That's all I need! It isn't much. Pathetic.

OK man. You've made your point. You don't care who doesn't review it. You don't care if an EOSHD review exists at all. As long as you keep using my forum for free information on the camera, you're happy, and to hell with the site itself and the people working hard to provide it you.

LOL! Just wanted one hand on the camera, and a chat with BM when they are in the city I have clearly stated as "Location" under all 10,000 posts on this place. Not much to ask is it!? Not looking for a flight to Hawaii and twelve beers. Good for you. But a bit more courtesy to your host would be nice. Prick

Well I am cancelling my pre-order, and not because of the AF. I have been snubbed for honest reviews. I can't support a company like that. Panasonic full frame GH5 for me.

Unbelievable. That BM Pocket 4K event was in Manchester. If I had known about this I would have only had travel 30 mins and walk right in. Please keep me in the loop better in future Blackmagic, I have been waiting to get my hands on once for what seems like forever.

They are falling behind on the stills side as well, not just video. They don't have an answer to the low light / high resolution combination of Nikon's 46MP sensor or Sony's 42MP, and at the same time dynamic range is lacking on a number of Canon cameras like the 6D Mark II vs the direct competition at the same price. The others aren't standing still. Even if Canon's R&D suddenly picked up the pace, they would remain years behind the competition.

Nobody really complains about the GH5 screen. All that is needed is a hinge along the top of the articulated screen so it can be flipped out when flat against the camera back. Best of both worlds.

I don't think so. To do that they will have to control 100% every individual providing content on the internet. That is the unrealistic notion, not the other way around. Getting back to the crux of the topic... I am saying camera and tech journalists need to get a spine. They need to resist the PR machine better than they are doing. I say this as a reader not just as a journalist with my EOSHD hat on. I don't want to have to watch and read more and more obviously watered down stuff, until the point where it becomes an inflight magazine or a catalogue editorial. It shouldn't even be a controversial opinion. Nobody wants this to happen. I question how sustainable it is on the motivation side of the creator also... becoming a poodle, unable to speak their mind. It's as boring to create advertorial as it is to read it.

EOS R H.264 4:2:0 is a broadcast codec? Could have fooled me. Compares very poorly to the GH5 codec. That camera isn't tier one 4K either according to Alan Roberts / EBU / BBC, but it is for HD. Respectfully, I suggest you don't really know as much about this stuff as you think you do. Nothing will happen to the FS5 sales when they give us 10bit 60p on the A7S III. Existing FS5 owners might buy one as a second body. Future FS5 customers might buy one as a second body. It is complimentary. In the few cases where it might cannibalise a more expensive sale, I don't think Sony minds anyway - because the biggest profit is from selling E mount lenses for E-mount camera bodies. A7S III owners are just as profitable as FS5 owners in that regards. Plus when you are chasing market share, a sale is a sale. Whether for $3500 or $5000. The FS5's HD-SDI interface, XLR audio, NDs, form factor, big battery, are the main reason for pro video users buying it over the small mirrorless cameras anyway, not the codec. I have rarely met a pro videographer who prioritises absolute image quality over getting the job done. An FS5 also looks more 'standard-pro' on a job, and clients tend to view small cameras as a bit amateur. The 'pro look' is a factor in the sales of pro tools, however superficial you might think that is.

Not true. For example the RX100 1" sensor was used in various Sony cameras as well as by customers. The Canon 1" compact series, Panasonic FZ1000 to name but a few. Industrial sensors are often found in photography and video cameras. To witness, Blackmagic. Name isn't confirmed and anyway, so what. A badge is unrelated to sensor. 31MP sounds more appealing for stills to me.

Sony has been listening to the feedback surrounding the A6300 and A6500, which had quite a severe rolling shutter (30ms+) in 4K. They have just announced a new high resolution 31MP (over 6K) APS-C / Super 35mm sensor with a global shutter. Read the full article

The elephant in the room is still Sony and why they are seeing massive sales success of both A7 series AND pro video cameras, without crippling either. Nobody can answer the conundrum it seems.