Beware Micro Cinema Users

My thread was ripped out during screwing on the camera plate (normal use, no excesive force of anything). Few other people reported this on facebook. Belive me it wasn't an accident.

I now bought a cage, but this is clearly a design flaw. I only had a kit lens and a BM video assist on it.

Blackmagic won't accept warranty. They say I must pay 100$, 30$ for return shipping and cover my own shipping to them (europe to australia I guess?)... And even then they can't say how much more I'd have to pay once it ships

"We would be unable to commit to a cost or course of repair until we have assessed the unit here ourselves."

Nice support there. Good job.

This was in a middle of a paid gig.

What is that? Metallic paint over plastic? How can this be a user fault?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

the blocks are aluminium (not plastic) but I agree not really robust enough if you are just using one 1/4 20 and putting any serious leverage through it

a cage is a must really

Never trust that small mounting plates after first reports about they shake in Pocket camera over time. Seems you overtight screw and that camera mounting plate just failed into too large diameter hole under pressure. But anyway that mounting point may be developed stronger.

Kind of late, but using a cage like the BM Micro cage, where you use the two outside holes in the bottom mounting plate to attach the cage, which then spreads out the pressure from a single mounting point on the cage.

Warranty or repairs are sent to your regional BM Support Office, not Australia, so shipping shouldn't be too much.
Cheers

Also you may get this problem if you have early version of SmallRig cage which don't have third mounting point for the camera. So i always suggest put short 1/4" grub screw into the cage from top and slightly tight it. It will act as small additional support and prevent camera metal mounting plates from shaking in camera body over time. Also it is better to put a thin 0.5mm washer or metal sheet between that grub screw and camera to avoid deep scratches.

The WC Micro cage has the third top mounting point, so the cage becomes one with the camera, no stress in any one point to cause failure.
Cheers

The WC Micro cage has the third top mounting point, so the cage becomes one with the camera, no stress in any one point to cause failure.
Cheers

the updated smallrig one does as well

I was wondering whether using washers to ensure a tighter fit between cage and camer(in order to minimize and gaps) a might be a good idea as well...

The same happened to my BMMCC early on, and BM support gave me this reply:
"After assessing the picture you've sent over, I'm sorry to say that the damage sustained to this unit will not be covered by the warranty due to physical damage.
We will be more than happy to have this unit returned for assessment although we can't guarantee that we can repair it.
Until we assess this unit we won't be able to establish whether there has been further internal damage to the camera and whether this is repairable."

Since the camera was (and still is) otherwise functioning correctly, I opted not to ship it to them and modified a spare Wooden Camera BMPCC cage to attach to the two remaining threads at the bottom as well as the thread on top. Not only did it fix the issue of the flimsy thread block on BMMCC, I also gained a second in-line mounting thread to prevent the camera from twisting on a base plate.

I am not sure whether the weak mounting points on the pocket and micro bodies are a deliberate design choice or an accident but I would say neither of them should ever be mounted without a cage to protect the fragile bodies (well, 99% of the time at least).

image.jpg (792.72 KiB) Viewed 1740 times

18425466_10212766110165869_3587606394441802293_n.jpg (48.22 KiB) Viewed 1740 times

The WC Micro cage has the third top mountin point, so the cage becomes one with the camera, no stress in any one point to cause failure.
Cheers

the updated smallrig one does as well

I was wondering whether using washers to ensure a tighter fit between cage and camer(in order to minimize and gaps) a might be a good idea as well...

If you attach the top and bottom first (snug, not tight) on the Wooden Camera Micro cage first, the attach and align the side plates, then firm up the top and bottom plates to the camera, there is no play or space between the camera and cage, so this type of damagevwill not happen.
Cheers