BTM_Pix

When it was dawning on the hard of thinking here that Brexit was a load of old bollocks they just doubled down on the delusion using their weapon of choice, the piss poor home made sign. The weapons of choice for Trump’s disciples when the penny drops might be a bit more problematic for him.

There is a path through this for Blackmagic and other camera manufacturers if this actually carries on which is to separate the hardware and the software elements of the camera. Instead of paying 104% on the value of the whole camera they can bring it in as a dumb unit and pay the tariff on the absolute minimum component cost. They can then establish a bare bones local US operation to put the firmware on after it leaves the docks and before it goes to dealers. They could then import the dumb camera at a value of $1000 (or less) and then control the price increase to a more palatable level of $1040 as the firmware will be a separate US derived product so tariff free instead of the end user having to swallow the $5000 on the whole product. There is precedent here of course with the way Panasonic and Sony etc offer software keys to make a product more powerful and this just takes it to it’s logical conclusion as you can’t get more powerful than actually doing anything at all ! On the upside for Trump this chicanery will create a job for someone local. Just the one of course but, still, a lot of winning there.

Sanity Prevailing Update : Trump has just said he will add an ADDITIONAL 50% if China don’t withdraw their retaliatiory tariff by tomorrow.

Yes, they appear to have exported a Manchurian Candidate to the US completely tariff free. Well it did cost them the price of some new bedsheets sheets, a mop and a couple of MiniDV tapes but still a sweetheart deal. I wonder if there was a 50% tariff on wives whether Trump would have paused for thought as they are the only things he seems to have any practical experience of importing.

Sorry, I was referring more to making the purchasing decisions based on evaluating all the options from the different manufacturers rather than physically buying them there and taking them away. I have been involved in deals being signed at many NAB shows in a previous life which I doubt will be happening this time due to the uncertainty. B&H Photo are, of course, happy to take orders from their booth for shipping from their HQ but, yes, the NAB is by and large a safe space for instant GAS gratification ! They have other outlets in Vegas for that.

I'm wondering what the situation is with the UC12K as it is still listed at the original price on BM's website. Whether that means they have a large amount of existing stock already in the US prior to the tariffs or they are again holding back until the situation is clearer. If it goes the same way as the PYXIS then its all of a sudden going to be a $10K camera. The people holding out to get a $7K 12K BM camera will then have to turn to the PYXIS 12K. Its a complete mess, particularly as it is coinciding with NAB so people are going there to buy a new camera now have no idea what their current budget is going to get them or if they are going to have to up their budget. Its all relative though, of course, as the impact of the price of 12K Cinema cameras pales into insignificance when the impact of whats going on is measured on things that actually really matter 🙂

They must be considering that the expected release date is far enough away for sanity to prevail and the additional tariff is removed by the time they are actually available. Its not beyond the bounds of possibility that BM delay it even beyond the expected date of July for the same reasons.

It’s paid by the importer and then passed directly on to the consumer, though fixed costs such as handling and transport fees after the port of entry mean that the calculation isn’t always a straight addition to the current retail price as those costs don’t include any additional increase. The original $4995 is now $6595. If they’d added the whole 34% directly on (which is on top of an existing 20% by the way) then it would be $6693. The reason for it not being that much is that fixed costs such as US based handling and transportation charges do not carry the tariff.

They have/had a few different plants in Singapore, Malaysia and China. The PYXIS amongst other products is made in China. Of course they might be made in a secret plant in the US and BM are just ramping the price up because it was so well received and they want to make more cash 😂 On a serious note, this is an interesting test case regarding the tariffs as the stated goal of them is to get more American made products to be competitive and the obvious beneficiaries of overseas cinema cameras getting hit would be RED. If you want what the PYXIS 12K offers then RED don’t really have anything like it so you’d have to go higher up their line. The price difference even with the tariffs applied to the 12K is so big that you likely couldn’t be fishing in those waters anyway. So all that happens is RED don’t sell any more cameras and the end user has $1600 less in his pocket. If that is enough to not be able to buy it then it hits the retailers too as they will be selling less which means’s lower tax take all round. 12K cinema cameras of course are a cause celebre for us but this will hit a lot more mainstream products in exactly the same way. RED slashing the KOMODO price last week does look a bit hasty now that the PYXIS 6K has also had a big price increase too. Of course, RED slashed the price to clear the inventory but even so they could’ve made a lot more money by hanging fire.

The US price has now been updated to incorporate the tariffs. A $1600 increase then. If I was in the US, I think I’d be holding off on that pre-order for a while until the presumably inevitable walk back.

It is the S5ii as far as I’m aware. I’ve pulled this from a demo of the new functionality and shows switchable contrast and phase detect in the UI. Full video is here Yeah I think it will become clearer what BM’s intentions actually are for the 12K when they are doing demos and interviews at the show itself.

Mmm…In terms of AF, it was only actually stated to be coming for the Cine 6K and then by extension, when that firmware is out of beta, for the PYXIS 6K. I’m wondering if a misguided conclusion has been leapt to here by me that it will come to the PYXIS 12K. The other two share the same Sony sensor and it’s one we know to have PDAF capabilities because it’s used in a number of other cameras. The 12K sensor though is all their own work so I don’t know if it actually does?

There’s dumb L mount adapters for most legacy mounts so just use electrical tape over the PYXIS end contacts to be on the safe side.

Yes. I’ve only used it as a studio camera with an ATEM so all I can say is that with a P4K on another ATEM channel they look the same ! I find comparisons between the OG and new Pockets a bit moot as you can get them close enough for jazz visually so at that point it’s all about the rest of the deal. The new Pocket trounces the OG in every metric bar form factor. Depending on what you’re doing with a camera on any given day, the form factor of the OG can make all of the rest of the Pocket goodies irrelevant. The Komodo gave pause for thought over the PYXIS and the new PYXIS has given pause over the Komodo. You know how that goes. The bank balance has given pause over all of them though 😂 It remains to be seen what Nikon do as well with a new Cine line too. The Z mount is a great leveller for me because I can put anything on it. L mount is OK but the Z mount smokes it really when you’ve hoarded as many lenses in different mounts as I have.

Yes, it’s full control. I mean it’s not uber cheap but it’s a very convenient non flappy HDMI connected monitor. For anything outside the studio the Micro 4K is a bit of a bust to be honest but now it’s not. For people mad enough to also buy that PYXIS 12K it does double duty. Not that I’m mad enough to buy the new PYXIS 12K of course….

If it doesn’t burst into flames or require a portable power station, that PYXIS 12K is going to be a huge winner for them. The fact that they will finally have AF is the icing on the cake.

Being a diva, I’m still annoyed about the Bluetooth not being switched on ! I’m going to get that monitor ASAP.

Well I did ask ! That is great news that they’ve done that.

Autofocus!

Here we are in hour three then and no end in sight. Grant will have to be helped off stage like James Brown by the time this is over.

Our chippy is so posh it was beloved by royalty.

You would think so with them all being part of the L Mount alliance but the Atomos animosity runs deep.

He’s taking the piss now, doesn’t he know what Friday at 5.30pm means in the UK? I need to be in that queue in the chip shop in the next half an hour at the latest.

Broadcast is his true love so he’s moved it up to take precedence in recent launches. For anyone waiting for the cameras it’s like having to sit through ninety minutes of Sting doing his tantric lute albums before he throws everyone a bone with a Police medley in the encore.

The reach around demo method he uses makes the whole thing painful to watch as well.