Blackmagic Design announced today what was leaked last night—two new cameras.
The Blackmagic Production Camera 4K is a “4K for $4K” update to the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. Same not-quite-ideal-but-who-cares form factor, but now with a Super35 4K sensor with a global shutter. It’s priced at $3,995, and is available for pre-order at B&H.
The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera would easily be mistaken for a Sony NEX5 or Panasonic GH1. It’s tiny, solid, and a joy to hold—even before you realize that it has a 1920x1080 Super-16 sensor with 13 stops of dynamic range, an active MFT mount. Also available for preorder at B&H for the is-there-a-zero-missing price of $995.
I’m told that the reason Blackmagic isn’t touting the dynamic range of the 4K camera is that it’s about a stop less than that of the Pocket. Apparently that’s the cost of the global shutter.
Both cameras shoot Cinema DNG (lossy compressed even, in the case of the 4K model), ProRes (which I bet will be the more popular choice), and are said to ship in July.
Will they ship on time? One has to hope that Blackmagic has learned a lot from their production issues with the original BMC. But even late and in short supply, these cameras will shake up the market.
This makes the subject of my SuperMeet talk tomorrow—Digital Cinematography - What do we do now that we’ve won?—all the more appropriate. I’ll be talking about the origins of BulletProof, and how important it is now that camera manufacturers are finally bending over backwards to build exactly what we need, at a price we can afford.