Snowfun

I do wonder how many consumers in reality will actually find themselves thinking GH5/GH5s or Blackmagic (“who?”) Pocket 4k when making a camera purchase. Yes, enthusiasts reading this and other fora might well have that debate but in the real world of consumer electronics I doubt whether the two cameras do compete. We might tend to highlight and compare similarities and features but for most people the two cameras are worlds apart?

Don’t get me worried! I preordered a Hydrogen... But, I agree, the worship on those fora is fascinating - I could be wrong but I’ve always assumed that hardcore professional RED users don’t bother with reduser as they'll have direct access to those who count. It’s the aspirational types desperate to impress who lead the kneeling rituals. I still think that a photo of using the Hydrogen running the BM app to control the Pocket 4K will go down a storm on That site...

Yes, the Hydrogen is delayed but they have (apparently) improved the hardware and software in the interim (doing away with the need for an additional >$700 module for the 3d stuff). Later in that thread Jannard admits to a certain naivety regarding the carrier certification process so there is some transparency in the delay. For my own 2018 preorders it’s a two horse race - Hydrogen vs Pocket...

I’m looking at a Samsung 500Gb SSD drive but will wait for advice as to whether this is preferable to cFast cards. Fortunately I’ve got several batteries (micro and VAs use them) so that’s one less thing. Presumably a cage of some sort will emerge. Yes it possibly defeats the purpose but it’ll look good. (And possibly prevent the camera rotating on a quick release as it’s only got the single screw hole I think?)

The Bluetooth feature... I so want to post a picture on reduser of me controlling the Pocket 4K using a Hydrogen... On a more serious note, what sort of remote control might we anticipate?

Does it matter if the Pocket 4K is better (or, indeed, worse) than any other camera on the market? If it does what you want it to do then isn’t that sufficient? I ordered one because I like the BM image - I don’t care if it’s better than a Panasonic, or Sony, or RED, or a barbie cam. Nor does it matter to me if a C200, A7S3, RED Hydrogen etc etc are “better”. Mine might be bigger (sorry, better) but that’s irrelevant? Other cameras are inevitably better at some things and not so good at others. But if we are playing that game, then I think for the majority of consumers then no, the GH5 is the ”better” buy if only for stabilisation and auto-focus. Convenience is a massive advantage for a lot of people. In my opinion, the Pocket 4K is better IFF the priority is the image. But I can’t wait to see if 25k ISO is even remotely useable...

I found my Pocket refused to work in the cold but the Micro was fine. Both -20 and below (northern Finland).

Has any other camera ever attracted this level of attention? (except on reduser obviously)

CVP I googled “CVP Blackmagic pocket 4K preorder” because I couldn’t locate the page. edit - it’s on their main page now.

£49 paid for preorder. Yippee! Wonder where I am in the queue...

How can I preorder? This is astonishing!

Or the Red Hydrogen with... wait... not sure what it has...

So to repeat the question... how do you preserve the detail? What’s the best work flow to get from the raw to the Blu-ray? I have 2 micros and shoot a lot of raw (which looks good on my Mac screen). But I don’t have the knowledge of how to optimise the distribution - either for Vimeo or Blu-ray. Hence the question. No - I don’t think the result will be the same if footages (sic) had been captured at the same bitrate.

Something I’ve never understood - how do you preserve that additional “detail” in the deliverable format?

@kayleeDid you manage to shoot the “drone” scene you asked about a while ago? If so, how did it go?

Why don’t we try to do a “festival” here on eoshd? Someone suggest a theme and give everyone a week or whatever. We link our offerings, sit back and enjoy... we’d have to agree to do the beer/weed thing remotely. Big question - how many would participate? Liam - organise it!!!

Not sure what our respective other halves might think if we ended up sending each other 3d cats... On the preorder list yet?

No - Friday (sorry!) Jannard: “We are finalizing the carrier rollout plan for the launch of HYDROGEN. At this time we need to take down the preorder option... effective this Friday.” (Reduser) Tempted? If it works then it’ll be fun to have been there at the start. If it doesn’t, well it’s a ‘phone. At least that was my reasoning.

In terms of making it popular even something like the Hydrogen faces significant obstacles. Let’s assume it works as “advertised” (and to be fair it hasn’t been subject of hyperbole except for certain people on reduser) and is capable of capturing and displaying stunning 3d images. Without glasses. But who can watch it? Only - as far as I know - other Hydrogen users. How do they break into the consumer (rather than producer) market? I failed to persuade my wife to order one (preorders end today) so I will have precisely no one to send my stuff to. Gather round folks... squeeze closer... closer... it’s my 3d cat! Good news - the 3d works only in landscape (or only in portrait for the selfie mode)

Latest from Jannard: “We are also developing a line of prosumer and professional 3D to 4V cameras to support the system.” (REDuser 15/3/18) RED. Prosumer... Interesting.

Cloakroommedia have a good demonstration of the C200 at high ISO in low light. There’s also some useful stuff on Matthew Allard’s MZed “course”.

I like the use of the word “persuade” in that sentence...

Genius. (But hopefully not the display used by the Hydrogen!)

At least you have a piece of art you can enjoy for your 1400! It’s interesting isn’t it - we discuss image quality from capture devices and how “we” can manipulate it to “our” preferences. It sort of forgets that once it’s in the living room of the consumer who knows what travesties are being applied.

As someone who preordered a Hydrogen and is genuinely quite excited about what it might be able to do, I registered with reduser for a source of information. It is quite astonishing just how poor the quality of discussion over there is (at least compared to here). The only information - other than that from RED itself - consists of wild speculation, absurd hyperbole and seems to be totally dominated by one or two individuals... Not a great public face for a great company producing great products. There is no doubt (in my opinion) that Hydrogen will be something special. But only relative to what phones currently offer. And not necessarily “useful” or “game changing” or even, given time, “unique”. But goodness, anyone naively reading the Hydrogen threads in The Other Place must be totally baffled (one of the latest themes is that you really need 4 - or is it 64? - Hydrogens to really optimise the 3D capabilities - or is that just to feed the world...) Looking forward to seeing what it’ll do however!