Sports Broadcasters are apparently the only ones buying Blackmagic Design gear these days.

[eatstoomuchjam]

If you'd like to spend about 2 hours learning about a bunch of expensive, high-end broadcast gear, the latest Blackmagic NAB update was made for you!

BEHOLD million bazillion port VIDEO SWITCHING DEVICES

STARE IN AWE at a first-party mount to use 2/3" camera lenses on your FULL FRAME CINEMA CAMERA

GASP WITH AMAZEMENT as instead of making the smaller, cheaper media module reader that everybody wants, they make one BIGGER AND MORE EXPENSIVE!

YOU MAY HAVE PAID FOR THE WHOLE SEAT, BUT YOU WILL ONLY NEED THE EDGE

 

-------------

Resolve 21 looks nice.

Otherwise, 0 new consumer products.  Every single thing that they announced today was for broadcast and specifically seemed targeted at sports broadcasters, the only people who are trying to multiplex 50+ 4K+ input streams to 50+ output devices all at the same time.

 

I suspect that rampocalypse pricing for components has basically obliterated profit margins on any consumer gear that Petty was going to announce.  Maybe in 3-6 months, we'll get an out-of-cycle product release livestream.

[Andrew - EOSHD]

The reason Blackmagic are out of the consumer / prosumer market now, is that the Japanese cameras are too good and too cheap.

Blackmagic can't compete with an X-H2 shooting ProRes 422 8K for under $1500.

Also the profit margins in the broadcast stuff is massive.

It's funny isn't it, how the industry has pivoted back to where everything was before 2010, pre DSLR!

The only thing missing now are new small chip ENG shoulder cams! Then we can truly party like it's 2008!

[maxJ4380]

here you go 🙂

[Emanuel]

Yes, indeed. Andrew is right.

EU has paid a lot, straight to the schools and into their reps' pockets.

Millions so to speak.

 

Or literally to be more direct:

Only from RRP in Portugal, a €2-billion program.

Yes, a 10-digit figure!

The numbers speak volumes...

And as of last month of February, a mere half, yet : X 

[Anaconda_]

They invented, solved the problems of and instantly became a leader in a whole new industry. Live, multi-cam immersive production. That's the closest thing to teleportation you can get without the risks of becoming half man half fly.

Imagine BBC's yearly Glastonbury coverage being shot and broadcast live with this immersive workflow. You'll have the whole festival in your living room, with clean toilets just through the door.

Arri and RED have film, Panasonic and Sony have indie and YouTube, Blackmagic stands alone on the forefront of a sci-fi world where the competition aren't even looking.

[Andrew - EOSHD]

5 hours ago, Anaconda_ said:

They invented, solved the problems of and instantly became a leader in a whole new industry. Live, multi-cam immersive production. That's the closest thing to teleportation you can get without the risks of becoming half man half fly.

Imagine BBC's yearly Glastonbury coverage being shot and broadcast live with this immersive workflow. You'll have the whole festival in your living room, with clean toilets just through the door.

Arri and RED have film, Panasonic and Sony have indie and YouTube, Blackmagic stands alone on the forefront of a sci-fi world where the competition aren't even looking.

I don't care about any of that, just want a new Pocket cam

[zerocool22]

Ah just installed dr21, looks like rw2 is not supported yet. Bummer but it will prolly be fixed in the next update.

[Andrew - EOSHD]

Pros in 2026...

[eatstoomuchjam]

6 hours ago, Anaconda_ said:

They invented, solved the problems of and instantly became a leader in a whole new industry. Live, multi-cam immersive production. That's the closest thing to teleportation you can get without the risks of becoming half man half fly.

 

Invented is a real stretch there.  As soon as VR headsets were a thing, it was obvious that people would eventually want to do it live.  Adding multiple cameras into the mix, with the associated awful jarring jumps between places, is hardly a revolution.  Plus there's the dystopia of standing amidst the futbol players after a goal is scored celebrating with them... only to a second later be standing in the midst of an immersive ad for erectile dysfunction pills.

6 hours ago, Anaconda_ said:

Blackmagic stands alone on the forefront of a sci-fi world where the competition aren't even looking.

That's fine, but for me as a filmmaker, I really just don't give even a nugget of a shit about any of that stuff.  I would have really wanted some sort of bridge between the $5,000 and up gear with their fantastic RGBW sensors and the $3,500 and below gear which mostly uses 5+ year-old Sony sensors (such as the Pyxis 6K which uses an IMX410 from 2018, old enough to be in grade school).  IMX410 is a great sensor, but as Andrew pointed out, I can go buy a cheaper Fuji with a newer/better sensor.  An X-H2s costs less and has half the readout time and better dynamic range - and with the money saved, I can add raw and a second monitor with a Video Assist 12G.  Bonus: the video assist won't be locked in place awkwardly on the side of the goddamn camera.

[Anaconda_]

'I can't believe a company would release broadcast equipment and try to get ahead in a new broadcasting industry at the National Association of Broadcasters.'

I work in video and it's annoyed me that Canon keep releasing new printers! What do you mean Panasonic has a new microwave, I need faster AF! I don't need a PS5 for God's sake, why won't Sony give me better menus! At the very least, BMD is keeping within the same field and pushing the boundaries throughout the whole workflow as much as they're able to. Parts of this technology will eventually come to the more 'interesting' products and while we're waiting there's plenty of choice from other brands.

It feels like I'm defending the brand, which I don't mean to do, but damn. Complaining that groundbreaking products don't fit your own expectations is pretty wild to me. If it's not for you, it's not for you. No need to get upset. My intial point remains, the amount of times Grant says things like 'but there's a problem with this process, so we've also created this solution' is very promising. I don't see many other companies thinking so far ahead and getting around problems that don't even exist yet.

[Anaconda_]

57 minutes ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

Invented is a real stretch there.  As soon as VR headsets were a thing, it was obvious that people would eventually want to do it live. 

We went to the moon in 1969 and it's obvious that people would eventually want to build a base there. So there's no need to get excited about the company that makes that possible. Even with the associated motion sickness and jarring take-off.

[FHDcrew]

16 hours ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

If you'd like to spend about 2 hours learning about a bunch of expensive, high-end broadcast gear, the latest Blackmagic NAB update was made for you!

Pretty funny because I actually am very involved in the broadcast scene as well so it does appeal to me.  I'm super 50/50 split between cinematography/video/editing & pro broadcast work.  But I can understand there are products we wish they introduced that they did not.

[MurtlandPhoto]

To be fair it is a conference for broadcasters by name...  

But for real are we surprised? BMD is a much larger company than just consumer/prosumer/pro cine cameras. Everything is in the vertical integration for them – it's been that way for a long time. Hence the 2 hours of introducing a new product segment and then the oodles of support equipment necessary to make it work.

[eatstoomuchjam]

3 hours ago, Anaconda_ said:

'I can't believe a company would release broadcast equipment and try to get ahead in a new broadcasting industry at the National Association of Broadcasters.'

This is an intensely stupid take.  For the last several years, BMD have been announcing their entire line of new cameras/gear in their NAB update, regardless of whether they were directly aimed at broadcast.  Having been to NAB, I can tell you that a majority of vendors there aren't selling things directly aimed at broadcast.  But please don't let any of that get in the way of your dumb pedantry.  If Petty had started the stream by saying "Hey, everybody.  We're focusing on broadcast for NAB this year, but we'll have another product announcement ahead of (other camera show)," I think that a lot of their owner-operators, including me, would have shrugged, tuned out, and not cared much.

3 hours ago, Anaconda_ said:

I work in video and it's annoyed me that Canon keep releasing new printers! What do you mean Panasonic has a new microwave, I need faster AF! I don't need a PS5 for God's sake, why won't Sony give me better menus! At the very least, BMD is keeping within the same field and pushing the boundaries throughout the whole workflow as much as they're able to. Parts of this technology will eventually come to the more 'interesting' products and while we're waiting there's plenty of choice from other brands.

It feels like I'm defending the brand, which I don't mean to do, but damn. Complaining that groundbreaking products don't fit your own expectations is pretty wild to me. If it's not for you, it's not for you. No need to get upset. My intial point remains, the amount of times Grant says things like 'but there's a problem with this process, so we've also created this solution' is very promising. I don't see many other companies thinking so far ahead and getting around problems that don't even exist yet.

Derp derp derp.  BMD have been aggressively pursuing the consumer/prosumer market since 2018 when they released the BMPCC 4K.  It is not crazy to be irritated that in what has generally been their yearly new products update, they seemingly abandoned that entire market... 

"Multicamera livestream, but with two square streams instead of one rectangular one" is not a revolution.  It's tedious evolution.  "We needed more data so we upgraded to 100gE" is also not a revolution.  And almost no product that they announced was revolutionary, it was "our old product but newer" and/or "a box to convert things."

[MurtlandPhoto]

17 minutes ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

This is an intensely stupid take.  For the last several years, BMD have been announcing their entire line of new cameras/gear in their NAB update, regardless of whether they were directly aimed at broadcast.  Having been to NAB, I can tell you that a majority of vendors there aren't selling things directly aimed at broadcast.  But please don't let any of that get in the way of your dumb pedantry.  If Petty had started the stream by saying "Hey, everybody.  We're focusing on broadcast for NAB this year, but we'll have another product announcement ahead of (other camera show)," I think that a lot of their owner-operators, including me, would have shrugged, tuned out, and not cared much.

Derp derp derp.  BMD have been aggressively pursuing the consumer/prosumer market since 2018 when they released the BMPCC 4K.  It is not crazy to be irritated that in what has generally been their yearly new products update, they seemingly abandoned that entire market... 

"Multicamera livestream, but with two square streams instead of one rectangular one" is not a revolution.  It's tedious evolution.  "We needed more data so we upgraded to 100gE" is also not a revolution.  And almost no product that they announced was revolutionary, it was "our old product but newer" and/or "a box to convert things."

C'mon now. No one is saying that they only should announce broadcast stuff at NAB. At the same time NAB is precisely when they should announce broadcast stuff. Right?

They pretty clearly stated this would be a broadcast oriented announcement. Folks reading the tea leaves a different way is their own prerogative. I mean no one forced you to watch the full livestream lol.

[eatstoomuchjam]

45 minutes ago, MurtlandPhoto said:

C'mon now. No one is saying that they only should announce broadcast stuff at NAB. At the same time NAB is precisely when they should announce broadcast stuff. Right?

And similarly, nobody is saying that they shouldn't also announce broadcast stuff at NAB.  They certainly have done so in every other year in recent memory.  It's just that after sitting through an hour of tedious broadcast gear updates, in every other year, the non-broadcaster viewer was rewarded with the updates on the gear they were interested in.

45 minutes ago, MurtlandPhoto said:

They pretty clearly stated this would be a broadcast oriented announcement. Folks reading the tea leaves a different way is their own prerogative. I mean no one forced you to watch the full livestream lol.

Again, as they usually are, but broadcast-oriented is not synonymous with broadcast-only.  And no, nobody forced anybody to do anything.  I watched because I was interested to see what new products I might be interested in owning.  I was irritated that the entire product segment that interests me was almost completely ignored, outside of the software that I use to edit.

Again, stop trying to make it some idiotic meh meh meh it says broadcast, they didn't mention consumer cameras thing.  Other people, including me, are allowed to be annoyed by something, even if it doesn't bother you.

[PPNS]

i would think that not releasing a new or slightly improved product every year exudes some kind of confidence over the stuff that they make.

sure the cameras they make with sony sensors, their sensors are older than some of the other ones available on the market. but compare the user experience between a fuji when you’re shooting moving images to a BM, and suddenly those 0.3 extra stops or whatever aren’t that interesting to me. Especially when you’re comparing the extra color lattitude of a good 12 bit codec and a decent 10 bit one. 

Even on the pyxis 6k, with its old ass sensor, like basically the only other camera that has FF open gate and a 12 bit codec are kinefinities and those are significantly more expensive. 

[eatstoomuchjam]

57 minutes ago, PPNS said:

Even on the pyxis 6k, with its old ass sensor, like basically the only other camera that has FF open gate and a 12 bit codec are kinefinities and those are significantly more expensive. 

The Z Cam E2-F6 does open gate 12 bit raw by HDMI to external recorders in 3:2 open gate IIRC.  It uses the same IMX410 sensor from 2018 - which was about when that camera was released.  The X-H2S also does 3:2 open gate 12-bit raw over HDMI, though it isn't full frame.  Heck, even the X-M5 which costs like $900 brand new can do 3:2 open gate 12-bit raw over HDMI - again, not full frame, but given the existence of high-quality focal reducers, beautiful vintage glass made for S35, and beautiful Fujinon glass, I'm not really sure that matters too much.

The Canon R6 III does full frame 3:2 open gate raw and costs less than Pyxis.  The Canon C50 barely costs more (and is about equal if you buy a Pyxis monitor to fix the side screen ergonomics problem) and has full frame 3:2 open gate raw.

Also, I'm pretty sure the S1 II and GH7 support open gate (3:2 and 4:3 respectively) in ProRes RAW for internal recording.  I can't remember if the S1R II or the S1 IIe or whatever the "lite" version is called do.  The S1 II is a bit cheaper than the Pyxis and doesn't have the poor ergonomics of a non-moveable screen stuck on the left side of the camera - and I'm pretty sure it's also using a newer sensor.

And back to S35, a used Pyxis and a used OG Komodo are pretty close to the same price now.  Of course, open gate on the Komodo is 17:9 so it's not a dream camera for people trying to double-frame for single take social media stuff, but it is also a global shutter and at least claims to be using a 16-bit raw codec (some users believe OG Komodo is only sampling 12-bit data from the sensor - FWIW, dynamic range seems pretty similar to what I remember from my E2-F6 which was IMX410 so it's probably similar to Pyxis 6K).

And FWIW, in terms of "the user experience," I'd gladly take the ergonomics of the tilty screen of my GFX 100 II shooting video (which means, probably any of the Fuji APS-C cameras too) over trying to navigate menus on a touchscreen on the side of my camera, especially if on a high hat or similar.  I've considered Pyxis 12K despite the ergonomics problems (partially mitigated by Pyxis monitor), but for the price, the C80 with internal ND and triple native ISO becomes a lot more tempting to me.