Vidrios

I will say this, as I'm sure there will be people who are infuriated.  If you look at this as a Kickstarter campaign, you essentially crowdfunded a company's first camera. $2995 would get you a camera before everyone else (yes even with all the shipping problems).  A few friends of mine have received there's.  In truth they said to me, it's a little annoying, but hey, we have our cameras and that's the price of being one of the first owners even if they did come late. Anyway on kickstarter campaigns, as we know, there are great products and when one invests in a product, you will pay the price for it.    This goes with virtually any product on the market.  Apple should make us all very familiar to this process. Heck I paid nearly $6000.00 for their Mac Pro bundle in 2006, and the price steadily dropped to the point where you can have the same specs in a freakin' Macbook Air for $999 today. Back to my Kickstarter campaign analogy.  Many times when a small company tries to get its foot in the door on making a new product we all want and could not afford before, many of us will invest with that company and try to be among the first.  Problems happen.  Some kickstarters never even come to full fruition but many, usually end up delivering later than anticipated.    Let's take Defygimbal or Besteady for example. These two companies are creating the best competition to Freeflysystems ridiculously overpriced (like Canon)MōVI. In order for these companies to get their feet off the ground, sometimes you still have to pay a price to do it that may be pricier than you thought it would be. Defy's $2300 Gimbal only gets you 2 lbs of weight capacity.  But know what? It works and works well!! Once you figure in the cost of materials and what it takes to build it than it becomes understandable.  And then Besteady's first product is priced at $600 more but for that price you get nearly 4lbs of weight capacity.    Maybe in the future when more people buy these products these will drop in price as well. It's the cost we pay of being the first in line.  It's just many of us were used to being so darn upset at Blackmagic that all we can do is get mad.  I still say, if they make us upset, fine but we have a decision on whether or not to purchase products through this company or the next. It's still an uphill battle. They're fighting against Canon, Nikon, Sony, and RED but all these company's are arrogant, and have a right to be. They've had decades of establishing themselves as industry leaders. But tell me this, name any other company that offers 3 cameras who all produce a RAW image, one is 1080p, one is 2.5k and the top of the line is 4k with global shutter and super 35 for $1000, $2000 and $4000 and offer the industry leading color correction program for free with two of those offerings?  I have been rooting for these guys from the beginning and now for $2000.00 you can own a proper 2.5k camera? Could they be improved with aliasing and moire, telling you the battery life, letting you delete your clips in camera, telling you how much ssd room you have left? yes a million times over yes, but if this is their first offering of cameras, I hope they eventually get to the point in the next 2 years of seriously disruping the market.  Canon's C300 is way over priced and so is their 1DC, but hey people will pay for it because it's a sure thing.  Now you can get 4k raw with globaal shutter for $4k.  I hope we can say , TAKE THAT CANON! (maybe a sub $10k C300 price drop in the near future?) We shall see. I love the free market for this reason.  Competition is good.  Let's enjoy it. We who buy these products are investors who want these guys to succeed. There WILL BE moments that anger us. Let it be what it is.  Don't forget even Apple has had huge shipping delays on their products that are unexpected.  I'm not looking to compare the two companies. I'm just saying, this company, Blackmagic Design, is changing the game for us Indy filmmakers and this is an exciting time for us.  We used to have to kill ourselves and go into severe debt to get in the game. Not anymore. 

I made a joke when I heard the announcement in April. "It ships in July? That means it will ship July 31, 2013 at 11:59pm (so they can say it started shipping in July)."  Of course I didn't realize this joke would nearly become reality. Their silence is quite annoying. Even if they begin to ship next week and we see amazing footage, I still don't like how they keep people in the dark. They ship a great camera, then wait let's make an MFT, oh wait let's add a global shutter and 4k, oh wait let's do a pocket camera.  I had an order like Andrew for the MFT and as of today it STILL HAS NOT ARRIVED!!!! So I continue on with my GH2's and Broadcast ENG cams. I truly hope they will be victorious. (over Canon).  Canon's supremacy allows them to sell a C300 for $13,999 and call it a deal and sell a C100 for $5,999.00. If I had it my way a great camera manufacturer would come along and with their amazing sales in cameras would force the C300 to come down to C100 pricing and the C100 wouldn't exist. There I said it. So Blackmagic, I have high hopes for you to severely kick butt. So far, however, you're scaring us like last year again. I've cancelled my MFT and have my deposit on the 4k and pocket cam.

I do not have a strong opinion. My crew and I generally shoot with whatever camera the shoot demands - Alexa all the way down to GH2.  Due to the constant changing of cameras and workflows, 1080p, 2k, RAW, 4k, we've held back on buying any cameras. We simply shoot on our broadcast capable Vipers and I bought the GH2's because of your site back in January of 2012. They've been great and I'm still using them. I am curious what you think about a buying decision and I understand we haven't seen the final images of the pocket cinema camera, nor any from the 4k production camera from Blackmagic. Buying debate: 1. The 5d3 is now a new camera all over again.  14bit raw at 2k resolution and you get an amazing stills camera.   2. Pocket Cinema Camera - 13 stops of dynamic range. Ability to use virtually any lens, log mode, portability and low attention drawing when shooting and you want to remain low key.   3. Blackmagic 4k  - 12bit compressed raw, 12 stops of dynamic range global shutter.   There it is, my first buying debate in quite some time. All three options are definitely tempting. And I'd understand that it's too soon to give an opinion until we've seen the other cameras in final release mode.   It's a tough debate. The other of course is it worth selling the GH2 in favor of a pocket cinema camera? We have 3 Gh2s that's why I ask.   All opinions welcome. --Eduardo

I saw it and I tried to get up and get a glass of water, but I couldn't get my eyes unglued. You are right, this is not something you can pay attention to 90%, but it needs your full attention. I applaud you Andrew for posting this.  My crew and I in DC are very aware of these topics, Ayn Rand, Cato Institute, the warnings of those that have come before us and where we are heading. I will not get into politics as this is not the forum for it. As a documentary filmmaker, this is very interesting.  Ah yes, the 3d goggles and gimmicks, to me I feel these are bread and circus for the audiences around the globe.  I agree with you that they are simply gimmicks.   As for the content, I will say this, I'm extremely impressed that he has found a way to bypass being pigenholed as a "liberal" or a "conservative."  He just calls it like it is without making me feel like he has an agenda. This is EXTREMELY difficult especially when talking about history and world events.  It's to me one of the most difficult things to do when dealing with real world politics and effects on humanity. How do you leave your opinion out while being the filmmaker? How do you narrate the story in such a way that draws the audience in without making them feel like you want to sway their opinion about a particular figure? He lumped big government into one category which is what should be done in today's world, rather than choosing between a two party paradigm created by these very same people to keep the public at bay.    Anyway, thanks again for your breakdown. Loving your blog man! Eduardo

I was talking to the engineer on my team off and on all day yesterday about the sensor. And yes after a whole day of back and forth you've done an excellent job of posting all of the information here.   So then this will be very interesting, the M43 is in beta testing mode, while I await my camera to arrive, I wonder if July comes and it still hasn't gotten to me if I should just cancel it and get a second 4k camera as well. For now keeping my place in line. They better pray they deliver on time otherwise they'll be done in the camera world. I'm just happy to see them kicking the ridiculous 1DC to the curb because I'm sick and tired of seeing Bloom and LaForet constantly shooting on those cameras ONLY now. It's like they're the best thing since sliced bread at $12,000.00 TAKE THAT CANON!

Did get they get rid of the issues - the battery life not being displayed incrementally, but rather by 25%. And also the SSD not telling you how much space left? Lastly will the 4k intercut well with the 2.5k and the pocket camera? I know the 2.5k will intercut well with the Pocket Camera as they use this sensor I think (fairchildimaging.com/files/data_sheet_cis_1910f_0.pdf). Whereas the S35 is this sensor ( I THINK) cmosis.com/products/standard_products/cmv12000. Technically they won't intercut well but maybe BM figured out a way to make it work?   The reason why I ask is I ordered the M43 version and also put a deposit for a 4k camera through a distributor. I'm wondering if it'd be good to have one of each versus two 4ks? (I will get a second 4k down the line regardless) just wondering if owning the 2.5k M43 with an extra stop of dynamic range plus true raw will be a benefit to have as another camera on set?