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Pocket 4K vs Production 4K


fromdecember
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I don't need 60fps right now, possibly in the future.  But I can buy a Production 4k and good lens for the price of the body of the pocket 4k.  My question is... is the production 4k camera worth it in 2018 compared to the Pocket 4k, Fuji XT-3, etc.?

The last I read about the BM Production was when it had black sun issue, but I haven't read much about it sense those days so I'm not sure if it's fixed.. if it still has aliasing problems etc.

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They have fixed those problems but I don't think they are worth having for 700 dollars, which Adorama has a few used ones for, over the PK4. They suck at low light, the batteries don't last over an hour and they go bad over time. Then you have to take the body apart to replace it, on and on.

If you don't have a copy of Studio Resolve then just go buy the PK4 and be happy. The production cameras are just too old now to be honest for money near the price of the new stuff..

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45 minutes ago, fromdecember said:

I don't need 60fps right now, possibly in the future.  But I can buy a Production 4k and good lens for the price of the body of the pocket 4k.  My question is... is the production 4k camera worth it in 2018 compared to the Pocket 4k, Fuji XT-3, etc.?

The last I read about the BM Production was when it had black sun issue, but I haven't read much about it sense those days so I'm not sure if it's fixed.. if it still has aliasing problems etc.

the p4k camera is in production there were a few units handed out to a few lucky people to play with, a few people on this forum have now received theirs. they seem happy enough, well their not screaming from the forum rooftops anyway.if the the black sun thing was still an issue i think we would of heard about it by now. the only thing i have heard about is non genuine batteries getting hot and jamming inside and sometime a loose battery door. there was some talk about the red channel clipping but that seems to have died down or there is a work around. each camera is unique, pick which features matter to you and buy it. dont know about the fuji or nikon or others dont really care either.

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9 minutes ago, webrunner5 said:

They have fixed those problems but I don't think they are worth having for 700 dollars, which Adorama has a few used ones for, over the PK4. They suck at low light, the batteries don't last over an hour and they go bad over time. Then you have to take the body apart to replace it, on and on.

If you don't have a copy of Studio Resolve then just go buy the PK4 and be happy. The production cameras are just too old now to be honest for money near the price of the new stuff..

 

webrunner raises some good points that i hadn't thought about

although the batteries in the p4k dont last an hour either from what i have heard ?

 

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22 minutes ago, leslie said:

webrunner raises some good points that i hadn't thought about

 

I mean they are tempting don't get me wrong. They can get the job done and in a lovely way. @CaptainHook on here did this video using his LuT using one. It is beautiful.. I would not dismiss one for a great price. But it is hard to pass up a PK4 over one now in this day and age.

 

22 minutes ago, leslie said:

although the batteries in the p4k dont last an hour either from what i have heard ?

 

No they last less time than the Production 4K!  About 30 to 40 minutes. But they are cheap and replaceable. And you can power it external just like the Production 4K one can be. No Cine camera battery last very long unless it is some battery the size of your fist or bigger, and weighs 5 pounds LoL. Pushing 4k 60p internal take s a Lot of horsepower as they say. And they most all have a fan running in them just like the PK4 to do it. That takes power. So unless they come out with a Nuclear Powered one they are going to eat batteries left and right. ?

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9 hours ago, webrunner5 said:

9 hours ago, leslie said:

although the batteries in the p4k dont last an hour either from what i have heard ?

  

 

No they last less time than the Production 4K!  About 30 to 40 minutes. But they are cheap and replaceable. And you can power it external just like the Production 4K one can be. No Cine camera battery last very long unless it is some battery the size of your fist or bigger, and weighs 5 pounds LoL. Pushing 4k 60p internal take s a Lot of horsepower as they say. And they most all have a fan running in them just like the PK4 to do it. That takes power. So unless they come out with a Nuclear Powered one they are going to eat batteries left and right. ?

sorry that was my rather poor attempt at humor, i was being facetious. the smiley face at the end should have given it away. i already knew all that, you took me quite literally it seems.

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  • 1 month later...
On 12/5/2018 at 9:58 AM, webrunner5 said:

They have fixed those problems but I don't think they are worth having for 700 dollars, which Adorama has a few used ones for, over the PK4. They suck at low light, the batteries don't last over an hour and they go bad over time. Then you have to take the body apart to replace it, on and on.

If you don't have a copy of Studio Resolve then just go buy the PK4 and be happy. The production cameras are just too old now to be honest for money near the price of the new stuff..

If you get one of the new P4Ks, be aware that have been reports of the P4K's having "issues." I am hopeful that many of these items will get better with firmware updates. The P4K on my desk *literally* freaked out while I was typing this message.

I have 3 P4Ks and I still haven't decided how I feel about them. I have mine rigged up with Smallrig cages, Samsung T5 1TB drives, XLR mics, and external power (V-mount). I really like the image quality and I have even gotten used to the unusual ergonomics. But, I have experienced many glitches that make me hesitant to use the camera in production. 

Here are a few of the issues that I recall either having personally or seeing mentioned about the P4K:

  1. Sometimes the Samsung T5 SSD isn't recognized by the camera. Rebooting the camera without the drive connected, then connecting the drive seems to help. I haven't personally seen this issue on any of my 3 P4Ks, but I do *not* disconnect the drive while the camera is powered on.
  2. The battery indicator can vary wildly. I have seen a fully charged battery fluctuate from 7.6V down to 6.6V over the span of a few seconds. Low voltage can cause the camera to turn itself off, even while recording. This appears to happen most often with the battery that came with the camera. The Wasabi Power batteries that I bought seem to work better. I typically see 45 minutes or less on a fully charged battery. My camera has gone from 7.6V to 6.7 (34%)-6.4 (13%), sitting on my desk (just turned on, not recording) while I typed this message.
  3. I had a very hard time getting phantom power to work on one of my cameras. Even though I had a mic plugged into the camera via the XLR mini port, the option "Audio > XLR +48V - Mic" wasn't even available in the Audio menu. The XLR Phantom Power option on screen 2 of the Audio menu was greyed out and would not work. I finally managed to get it to work by doing a Factory Reset a couple of times. The first time that I did the reset, the Phantom power worked, then the option disappeared when I switched the audio to internal mics for testing. After another reset, the phantom power seems to be working properly.
  4. On at least two occasions, the camera has completely freaked out with rear display showing menu options flashing on and off (from the live view) and jumping from screen to screen in the menu. The P4K on my desk *literally* freaked out while I was typing this message (with a fully charged battery). I had been viewing my Audio settings, then I turned the menu off, going back to the live view. The camera started showing ghost images of the Channel 1 Level and Channel 2 Level meters in the middle of the live view screen. It then glitched some more and ended up on the AWB screen. After I hit cancel, it hasn't done it since.
  5. My Metabones 0.71X doesn't autofocus the Sigma 18-35. This is, of course, a Metabones issue, but I thought you would want to know.
  6. Autofocus is available, but doesn't work very well. Autofocus is slow and I have had to refocus the camera several times when it didn't focus on the item where I tapped on the screen.

I shoot a lot of live events, so I must have a camera that is completely reliable. I typically use Panasonic GH5 / GH5s and they are completely reliable. I can't recall a single issue while using those cameras, although my GH5s cameras do kill batteries while they are turned off. I have also had great luck with FS5s & LS300s.

I think that the P4K cameras have huge potential. Just be careful in the beginning, as you may have some early adopter issues.

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