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Brian Brown got a reaction from Damphousse in Grant Petty reveals origins of Blackmagic cameras (concept was offered to major manufacturers)
I'm going to have to take a contrarian view, here. I believe that Mr. Petty would be much better-off if he focused on his own cameras' quality control, firmware, and supply issues and less on bad-mouthing the big players in the camera and lens markets. It makes perfectly logical sense to me that those manufacturers turned-down his camera ideas precisely because they didn't think that they could make money manufacturing them. And I think that they were RIGHT.
As passionate as a lot of us here may be with these high-dynamic range, raw workflow bodies that BM is making, the lion's share of professional cinematographers will gravitate towards RED, Alexa, and the EOS Cinema line of cameras. Those cameras are low-volume, high-margin products. The stills-centric, DSLR market is conversely high-volume and low-margin. BM (and similar) “bootstrap†digital cinema cameras are arguably low-margin and low-volume... which won't ever attract the major players.
Meanwhile Mr. Petty can sit on his high horse and complain about these money-grubbing big boys that scoffed him and his ideas. But at the end of the day, he still needs to employ HIS tiny workforce of 350 people, by choosing at least SOME products that can make money... such as his excellent high-volume, low-margin post-production equipment that put BlackMagic on the map.
While I admire altruism and passion, unless Mr. Petty has deep pockets like Jim Jannard, he needs to focus on business. And making that evil money... by giving people the products they want, at the price that they're willing to pay, and at the quantities that can support BM's bottom line.
I'm sorry to be a stick-in-the-mud, but that's how I see it.
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Brian Brown reacted to Danyyyel in C100 vs 5D3 Raw as a business investment
Nearly completely shot on the C100, I think that if someone cannot do nice film with the C100, then no matter what technology he uses won't make a difference.
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Brian Brown got a reaction from maxotics in Grant Petty reveals origins of Blackmagic cameras (concept was offered to major manufacturers)
"Apathy and protectionism" aside, let's not forget that a raw workflow does NOT appeal to vast swaths of the professional marketplace because of its demands on post-production and storage (during the edit, and archiving afterwards). Having a small file, edit-friendly codec come right out of the camera, ready to dump and edit, saves time and money. Not everyone can strive for the additional IQ gains, because they have to quickly turn the edit around into a sell-able product. That's the boat I'm in. I have to make money with my gear, production and post. And sometimes "good enough" simply has to be good enough.
So, I'm shooting three hours of talking heads tomorrow with my 5D mk III. How would I ever pull that off with raw (on my camera or one of BM's)? And who really cares, because it's talking heads. How good do they have to look? ENG, corporates, and industrial shooters are all in the same boat I'm in... a huge chunk of the professional marketplace. Good enough shooters.
I truly believe that if any of the majors saw dollar signs in any camera like BM is making or proposing, they would have a usable, working model for sale yesterday, would work better, and would have fewer growing pains and supply issues. That said, I'm very glad that there are some disruptive players like BM and the Digital Bolex in the game, I really am. But until the tech becomes something well-designed, bulletproof, easy-to-use, and quick to edit, I think the big players will stay out, protecting their turf by selling billions of $ worth of cameras and lenses while the sector matures. Why would they do anything else?
The temerity of telling any massive camera company that someone knows their business better than they know their business is mind-blowing. To be specific to one certain 800 pound gorilla: so, when has Canon ever been a get-there-first company? Nothing they've ever produced in the last 20 years has been bleeding or even cutting-edge. But something is clicking for them with this whole Cinema business. I'm certain they were surprised as any of their major-player peers that... "hmmm, people wanna shoot video with these still cameras?!" Translate that into Japanese, of course. And they're scratching their heads all the way to the bank ever since. But my guess is they're not missing-out on much yet.
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Brian Brown reacted to TJB in Panasonic GH3 real-world test (pre-production firmware)
You say-
"I can't have a shot curtailed during a shoot because of an unreliable codec hack."
I say-
I can't have a shot of a curtain during a shoot because of an unreliable sensor."
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Brian Brown reacted to Joetsu in Panasonic GH3 real-world test (pre-production firmware)
QUOTE: I feel that Panasonic need a full frame sensor flagship model because there is a cultural issue with customers who think bigger is always better. No matter how good the GH3, the Lumix brand will always be seen as being lesser than Canon and Nikon without that fabled full frame camera. Even if the margins are very slim and the resources required to develop a whole new lens range significant, a full frame mirrorless camera from Panasonic would have a halo affect on the whole range from top to bottom.
I couldn't disagree more. Panny lost nearly $5b this past financial year, $25b accumulated loss over the past 5 years. The enormous investment to develop a FF camera and lenses from scratch would be financial folly. A far, far better uses of scares resources is to put it into making even better GHx cameras and lenses. Panny is in niche of two and can help take it mainstream. To cut back on investment here in order to compete with Canon, Nikon, Sony etc on their FF turf from scratch for the sake of a debatable halo affect would result in us all losing.
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Brian Brown got a reaction from ScreensPro in Adventures with the 5D Mark III and Canon 135mm F2L in Croatia
I don't spend a lot of time 'pixel-peeping' and 'measure-bating' from one camera make to another. I've made piles of money shooting Canon full-frame video, and it does many things well... namely, headshot interviews, which is where I make most of my money. It's not well-suited for landscapes and deep DOF shots, as Andrew tells us time and time again. Lucky for me, I don't make any money shooting that stuff. There's other makes of cameras for that, though. As to which is 'money better spent' or 'too expensive', just know that less than a half-decade ago, filmmakers would DREAM to have the quality of video at a sub five-figure price point that people trash and deride today as 'over-priced' or 'greedy'. I say, go out and shoot with WHATEVER make of gear you have and work on your craft, lighting, and storytelling. Transcend your gear and its limitations. -
Brian Brown got a reaction from Xiong in Adventures with the 5D Mark III and Canon 135mm F2L in Croatia
I don't spend a lot of time 'pixel-peeping' and 'measure-bating' from one camera make to another. I've made piles of money shooting Canon full-frame video, and it does many things well... namely, headshot interviews, which is where I make most of my money. It's not well-suited for landscapes and deep DOF shots, as Andrew tells us time and time again. Lucky for me, I don't make any money shooting that stuff. There's other makes of cameras for that, though. As to which is 'money better spent' or 'too expensive', just know that less than a half-decade ago, filmmakers would DREAM to have the quality of video at a sub five-figure price point that people trash and deride today as 'over-priced' or 'greedy'. I say, go out and shoot with WHATEVER make of gear you have and work on your craft, lighting, and storytelling. Transcend your gear and its limitations.