Tone1k

Considering the subject matter and people in this 'film', I'm guessing whoever's 'film' this is is a 13-18year old and in that regard I don't mind it and willing to cut the person some slack. You could say it's lowfi, and I don't love the heavy cyan cast but I remember sitting in cinemas and watching 35mm projections of blockbusters and art house films alike and loved the fact that things were never tack sharp. I loved the softness, and the grain.... These days, more and more people expect images to be clinical, super sharp and noiseless all the time.

Thats what I thought when the camera was first announced too.

A short SDI cable is $20. Panasonic and Sony users will all be used to using autofocus too but this camera doesn't have it (I'm not complaining Damphousse!) . Should BM have included AF because thats what other users are use to? They'll all be use to a flip screen but......yeah you know the deal (Again, I'm not complaining about the lack of flip screen Damphousse! ;-) ). Without a tilting screen, this camera would benefit from an external monitor maybe more than a Sony or Panasonic. Maybe BM should have included Canon, Sony and Nikon lens adaptors as that is what other users switching to this camera might be use to? Look, I know those suggestions are a little ridiculous but why not go for reliability and a superior feature over one that is severely flawed for the sake of what people may or may not be use to when it really doesn't cost much, if anything more? Ultimately, HDMI is on consumer ILC cameras so people can film their kids, get home and plug the camera straight into the TV and watch the footage with the family. It's not there primarily for external monitoring. I Might be wrong, but I just can't see people doing that with this camera. You want to shoot filmic images, in RAW and with a flat Log prfile so you can edit and grade them. Who wants to share flat, dull looking images with their family? Anyway, progress would never be made if we always stuck with what people are use to.

Both worlds benefit from SDI at really no penalty.

Calm down dude. We should "F&*% Off" .....Really? I do think this camera is pretty much perfect and at a great price. I pre-ordered as soon as I could. I never kicked and screamed about anything and have never dismissed this camera as no good, just made a few observations. You, coming in all guns blazing is typical of forum warriors looking for a fight. Chill. SDI could have been done at a similar price point and would have far better suited this camera than HDMI. There are monitors for as little as $250 with SDI and its a far more secure connection and pretty much every other Blackmagic product has SDI. While I understand the Video Assist is much lower in tech that the Pocket4k, it costs $500 and has 2xHDMI and 2xSDI ports. The sdi ports are not bank breaking items and im not asking for more ports, it just would have been nice to see SDI as BNC ports will last longer than HDMI ports especially on a hand held camera thats going to get picked up and put down lots. Is it a deal breaker? No! Am I hating on BM for using HDMI? No. In regard to USB-C, I just made an observation that my phone's USB-C port has not fared well over the last 15 or so months that I have had the phone and that the cable now easily falls out. I mentioned this for the many here who are planning on using the port excusively as the media is cheaper. I was just giving people a heads up in the hope that they look after the port and think about how they use it. Sorry if for some reason this offends you! I couldn't care less about the front button placement as I'm no Vlogger. I will say that I think Blackmagic have crippled this camera to possibly protect their larger, more expensive cameras. How so you might ask, the camera has EVERYTHING! They have crippled it in the marketing of it! This is no Vlogger camera. Sure, you can Vlog with it as Peter McKinnon Vlogs with his 1DX but Canon wouldn't market their 1DX as a Vloggers camera. If you are a Vlogger, go buy a camera with a flip screen, that records to a small 8 bit codec and has continuous autofocus. Thats all you need....you don't need RAW! Maybe BM thought that us pro's couldnt see past the marketing and spend more by getting another UMP as a B-Cam but this camera will get used on higher end work as a B/C Camera and maybe even an A Cam on mid level work provided it lives up to the specs and doesn't have sensor issues. BM should be applauded for what they have done with the Pocket4K! Their marketing team however...........

Haha, they could do a revival and call themeselves US⚡BC Really sorry about that terrible dad joke!

Which little drives are you referring to?

Yes, that's what I'm planning to do.... Record internally. I was just mentioning a possible issue to others who might rely on the usbc connection hence me saying 'for those planning on using the usbc connector' I wouldn't recommend 1tb dives. Too risky to have so much footing on the one drive if the drive where to fail. Unfortunately I've had drives fail on the UMP. I prefer to offload media a few times a day to seperate drives.

The port will theoretically still work, but the mechanism to keep it in place will have worn out meaning it will fall out easily. Not so much an issue when you have a drive sitting on a desk motionless and the desk is supporting the cable but moving around hanging off a camera, that's another story. Haha I was going to joke about that! True, I do charge my phone every night. On a shoot though , I change media at least thee to four times a day. While I don't shoot every day, I would shoot most days so not to dissimilar in use to my phone considering I don't charge my phone 3-4 times a day. I suppose there are a few work arounds and the easiest is to disconnect the drives from the drive end and leave the cable plugged into the camera as much as possible. Just something to be take into consideration.

You got in before I finished my edit. Yep, a lock will definately be needed. A cage for this camera is needed to protect the HDMI and USB-C ports. I'd like a cage that leaves the right hand side hand grip accessable so as not to hinder hand holding the camera.

Pretty sure one of the most famous YouTube Vloggers, Peter McKinnon, uses a Canon 1DC mkII to record his vlogs. No flip out screen and quite large for the task but the images look nice. Still wouldn't use RAW though. Anyway, to those intending to use the USB-C port to record to external drives..... The usbc port on my samsung galaxy s8 used to have a reassuring notch when plugging a usbc cable into it which would hold it in place. Sixteen months later and that notch is gone (worn out) and the usbc cable often falls out easily when plugged in and in my hand. I really don't think it's going to be a great option for recording once you've used the camera for a while. Might seem fine at first... I wonder how BM warranty will deal with the usb c port wearing out. Just wear and tear? Edit: maybe the solution is to never un plug the USB-C cable from the camera and instead unplug from the drive end. Or hopefully someone will soon make a cage that has a lock port device....

Please don't tell me there are Vloggers out there that would shoot 4k60p RAW! We shoot a lot of higher end TVC's / docs on the Alexa Mini and even then shoot ProRes. Don't get me wrong, RAW is great, but no vlogger needs it. ProRes to SD Cards is all a vlogger needs.

FYI, I believe the Samsung T5 has a much faster write speed than the WD USBc drive.

The HDMI spec is pointless on this camera for two reasons. The camera only outputs 1080p via HDMI so you're not getting the HDMI spec benefits anyway. Secondly, even if they did enable 4k RAW out of the HDMI port, why would you choose to record it externally when you have better options in camera that don't rely on a risky connection that HDMI provides. It's not the tech spec of SDI that I want. I only need 1080p for monitoring but a SDI BNC connection is far more secure and I guarantee you that a BNC connection will outlast a flimsy HDMI port.

Fair enough but converters require power and the whole thing just starts to get messy. Maybe they didn't want to canibilise their own micro cameras and Ursa Broadcast. If the Pocket had sdi, people would want sdi control and start using it for multicam as it's an extremely attractive camera. HDMI only means that can't be done. On one hand you have a pocket camera that people think is aimed at Vloggers and amatures because of the price and on the other hand BM have given the Pocket 4k RAW, phantom powered XLR, locking Lemo for power, LTC timecode input, CFast slot plus many other features that clearly a vlogger or amature won't really use. Terrible marketing in their part really as I suppose they do say themselves that it's aimed at those lower end users.

Exactly. Im only interested in the external output for monitoring not recording. I do believe they could have chosen sdi though without adding much at all to the price. HDMI is a dicky system and considering BM have made such a fuss about the Pocket containing 'pro connections' and "locking power and xlr ports" strange to then put a hdmi port on there. In terms of buying external cages with an hdmi port lock, that kind of defeats the reasoning of choosing HDMI for budget reasons as you may as well spend the money on an SDI monitor. As for Epoxy on my camera connections... No thanks!

What I mean by high end is something at least as good as the built in one. Either way, there are plenty of budget sdi option out there.

On the contrary to most views here, I think that if you are going to use an external monitor on the Pocket, you would want one that is fairly high end. I mean the camera already has a 5" 1080p panel. Surely if you want something better, then you don't want to be cheaping out on a 'budget' hdmi panel that's worse than the one the camera already has. I've used many budget panels and none of them are that great outdoors. Considering the price of the camera, you should be looking at something like the smallhd focus sdi as a minimum with all that money you have saved. If you do want to cheap out, there are monitors with sdi for around $300 on B&H. The main thing is though, that an sdi cable won't fall out when you're shooting and won't get damaged nearly as easily as an hdmi port. Please BM, there's still time to swap out that HDMI port for a SDI port..... Please! Edit: actually I'll correct myself, an sdi monitor can be had on B&H for $250 if you're really on a tight budget.

Pretty sure I am correct. The HDMI port is the only way to get an image out of the camera for monitoring. The USB-C output is a data stream, not an image stream.

Yep, but the Pocket4K offers far better alternatives to USB-C so I shouldn't have to use it. HDMI port on the other hand is the only option to get an image out of the camera. I'm not really complaining about the lack of SDI but it would have been nice.

Are you saying that Blackmagic are not in the Pro level of market because of their price or picture quality? We need to change our thinking as to who a camera is aimed at thanks to BM. Are you saying the Pocket 4K is aimed at amateurs because of its price alone? I'd say it's not based on it offering 4K RAW, phantom powered XLR, High level flavours of ProRes etc. Surely an amature doesn't need features like that? Any camera company who is smart will choose SDI over HDMI. SDI is a far superior connection and its locking function is critical for any work in the field. SDI can also be found on small Sony camcorders so not sure you can say it's 'too good' for BM. HDMI is a home media connection, was never designed to be used in the field at all! I agree with John, I would buy the Ninja V if it had SDI, without it, I won't consider it.

Your loss, I'm using the UMP on high end jobs where we would have previously used a Red Epic/ Alexa mini and it has been a joy. The 4k pocket is like a 3rd generation camera from BM, I think they have learnt a lot since the first gen pocket and production cameras. But hey, this is all speculation on a product that is six months out from being a reality. Silly talk really.

It's not set up for discreet shooting. It's actually not out of balance either but in either case, I wouldn't use that handle to pick it up anyway.

Anticompetitive? Haha, now I've read it all. Give people more than what they expect for a steal of a price and some will still complain. Get a grip. Sell the dongle on ebay or buy another 'more competitive' camera for just over a grand that does internal 4k 12bit RAW and 10 Bit ProRes at 60p etc. The only thing ant competitive about BM is that they have just blown the competition out of the water. Argh, that's why I try to avoid forums like this. People always whinging!

Good grief guys! Are people really complaining that they would like to have a cheaper option of the camera without resolve? As if the feature set v price is not good enough!!!??? Get a grip all, how many cameras come with any editing software at all let alone the industry standard colour grading suite! This camera is what it is. For the price, it's Amazing. If you can't make it work for you that's your issue, not the BMPCC4K's.