Blackmagic Forum

Dear BMD,

Can we all please get an official status update on the 4K camera?

Not looking to start a chain of negative comments, nor am I trying to send a message to BMD about their PR.

I, for one, understand the delays. All people are looking for is an honest update. We really appreciated Grant's post on 9/4 about the delay. He said an additional 3-4 weeks. It has since been just over 5 weeks.

I don't care that it's not ready yet. I'm simply asking for a new status update. Be it another 3-4 weeks, or a year - I don't care, and I don't want BMD to rush it out the door, just to make people happy. You can keep all the update details vague, for all I care. I'm willing to bet that you'll cut the negative comments in half if you release another official statement (at least for a couple of days). Of course we all know that people will complain no matter what.

I understand that this thread is probably going to go unheard, unanswered, and lost within the sea of other similar topics, but I figured I would try.

With good manners you get all

- RED -

Very well put. I agree 100%

100% agree...

Here here.

Indeed sir, Indeed

Some of you might be new here, so let me give you some background.

During the almost 10 month delay of the BMCC, many, many people complained about lack of updates and wrote requests the same as you just did.

Grant has said he believes in communication with purpose. In other words, he won't post an update until he has NEW information to talk about. The fact the last update was 5 weeks ago simply means he has nothing new to tell you.

Once he has information to give, he'll give it. He's shown that during the last 12 months.

(Dont take this in a negative way)

Is this camera actually even coming out? Or is it still in concept phases...

It's most definitely coming out. It's in production but was halted to make adjustments before it shipped. It will not be shipping until December or January.

Good thing is they're fixing and finalizing all the errors they have with the camera currently.... Bad thing is, I just got off the phone with my head rep over at Blackmagic and they were telling me that these cameras are not going to be available till December possibly January.

Looks like I'll have a nice Christmas present!

This is from my sales contact at enhancedviewhd.com as of Monday the 7th.

I'm happy to read this, but why did blackmagic doesn't tell us this "news".
Sometimes I'm late on my job, I tell my client that it could take more time to finish, maybe I tell him 2 or 3 times that there is a problem and even the delivery time is the same, they prefer to be prepared and aware of the problem.
I hope that Grant or anyone else tell us that they are late, or they don't know exactly when the camera could be ready to launch.
A false deadline is not a deadline, it's a mirage.
We all know that we don't have to take a 4K job without the camera in our hands, we all know that we can use a different gear for our shooting (I use my OOOld 5D mmii for a fashion movie in RAW mode and it's fine, limited but fine), but despite this technical "problem" a small production firm has to see clearly what she can do and when.
Before pre ordering my BMPC I've watched lots of footage of the chinese 2K camera, I wait for the NAB to make my decision and I choose the BMPC. I don't regret but I lost some opportunities with this 3 months of "nebulous" waiting.
With a clear answer of blackmagic, I can go further, plan some others projects with others gears before receiving my bmpc. I know I'm not alone in this case and I don't want an answer like "maybe in 3/4 weeks", I prefer an answer like "sure in december"...
I know it's difficult to manage manufacturing processes, But if blackmagic told us at NAB that the camera could arrive at the end of the year... And send it before this deadline.
The good news is that I make lot of progress with resolve, the 5D raw is more difficult to handle in this software and when my workflow will be BMPC4K with resolve 10... I could shoot some terrific things !
Please Blackmagic, tell us the truth, share with the community your difficulties, the differents steps of progress and the community could support you despite telling that you are liars or anything else.

I´m still impressed of Besteady!

Again, look at this:

https://www.facebook.com/besteadyhome

This company had delayed too, but everybody loves the way Besteady handled it and feels like being a part of the process.

LOL : Nothing Negative!!!

So, nobody post any reply on this topics ^^

Negative are just the BlackMagic Answers... ^^

BM should finally have shipped at the end of september or beginning of october (2013)

Grant Perry wrote (Wed Sep 04, 2013 7:29 am)

..."It's taking a bit longer than we expected to do this and we think its going to take about 3 to 4 weeks more to get those changes done and to get the QA process completed before we can start shipping."...

!!!THANKS FOR THE DELAYS AND YOUR INFORMATIONS!!!

Customers may be proud of your communication.

alexvideo23 wrote:LOL : Nothing Negative!!!

So, nobody post any reply on this topics ^^

Negative are just the BlackMagic Answers... ^^

BM should finally have shipped at the end of september or beginning of october (2013)

Grant Perry wrote (Wed Sep 04, 2013 7:29 am)

..."It's taking a bit longer than we expected to do this and we think its going to take about 3 to 4 weeks more to get those changes done and to get the QA process completed before we can start shipping."...

!!!THANKS FOR THE DELAYS AND YOUR INFORMATIONS!!!

Customers may be proud of your communication.

You're the only one on this thread that felt the need to post something negative. Feel good about that? Feel like a rebel for breaking the rules?

I can tell you for a fact that BMD certainly aren't going to respond to people that just complain all day.

I would like to ask you guys something:

Imagine you got a job from a client to make a product film for a tradeshow.
You tell him what you'll gonna do and what he will get when delivered.
You start working on the project and finally start editing. Now you are confronted with all sort of problems that popped up during the shooting, there is a problem with your editing workstation and more.
Long story short: You know you will miss the deadline.
Now - do you think it is a good idea to stay silent and not tell your client about the delay?
What do you think your client will do? If he knew that there is a problem, he could react and find a solution.
Do you think it would be a good idea keeping your client in the dark? I'd definitely say no.
Good communication will keep your client (as long he is not some sort of a neurotic) happy and confident that you'll do your best to finish the job. And he will hire you again and again, because he knows that even if all odds are against you, you do everything possible to deliver.

sean mclennan wrote:Some of you might be new here, so let me give you some background.

Grant has said he believes in communication with purpose. In other words, he won't post an update until he has NEW information to talk about. The fact the last update was 5 weeks ago simply means he has nothing new to tell you.

Once he has information to give, he'll give it. He's shown that during the last 12 months.

But he does have new information that is being withheld.

1) WHY has the 4k camera missed its deadline.
2) WHY is the Pocket camera being delivered in such low amounts.

Are you saying Grant moves in mysterious ways? IE All will be revealed and when we know why we weren't told we'll all kick ourselves about why we didn't see that?

I received this email yesterday:

Hi Justin

Thanks for your reply.

Currently the latest information that we have is that there is still some engineering work left to do on the camera. However, we should have further information in the next couple of weeks if you would like to contact us again then for more details. Once the camera begins shipping we will be clearing our backorders in date priority and will work through these as quickly as possible.

If you require any further information in the meantime please do let me know.

Kind regards

I'm almost positive BlackMagic will be debuting an industry changing camera...but until that time comes, I'm just going to go with the 5D3 with ML for the time being. Good luck you guys! And may you all have patience.

I'm almost positive BlackMagic will be debuting an industry changing camera...but until that time comes, I'm just going to go with the 5D3 with ML for the time being. Good luck you guys! And may you all have patience.

+1 Ordered today ...

Robert Niessner wrote:I would like to ask you guys something:

Imagine you got a job from a client to make a product film for a tradeshow.
You tell him what you'll gonna do and what he will get when delivered.
You start working on the project and finally start editing. Now you are confronted with all sort of problems that popped up during the shooting, there is a problem with your editing workstation and more.
Long story short: You know you will miss the deadline.
Now - do you think it is a good idea to stay silent and not tell your client about the delay?
What do you think your client will do? If he knew that there is a problem, he could react and find a solution.
Do you think it would be a good idea keeping your client in the dark? I'd definitely say no.
Good communication will keep your client (as long he is not some sort of a neurotic) happy and confident that you'll do your best to finish the job. And he will hire you again and again, because he knows that even if all odds are against you, you do everything possible to deliver.

This is, more or less, what I am getting at. I'm not trying to bash BMD or anything - I happen to think their products are essential and ground-breaking. But lack of communication leaves people anxious, irritated, and ignored.

I feel like BMD are afraid to update the status because they don't want to have to deliver "bad news." But I can assure you that no news is worse than bad news.

Oh and btw, people need to stop bashing Tony Rivera. The guy handles web stuff...I really don't think he has much control over the company's products.

"But I can assure you that no news is worse than bad news."

Thanks "idut21", but I think that be honest with an answer after 5 weeks...is better than to let the customers in your lies...

News is better than no news!!!
Waiting until a BAD news...I prefer to know the truth asap!!!

I'm not like you, I don't have too much time too lose on this forum!!!

Best

I have just one question for BlackMagicDesign company webmaster: Would you be so kind to REMOVE "Shipping
September" from your front page of "Blackmagic Production Camera 4K" At list it will looks not as crazy as it looks now

Actually, after a few days of shooting in 4K RAW format with my FS700 and Sony RAW recorder R5 set with AXS 512GB 2.4 Gbps $1800 card I start to think about BMPK claim of be capable to write 4K RAW content to even the best SSD drive on consumer market...
Maximum write speed on SSD is about 500-600Mbps.. so why we believe it possible to store even 30fps 4K RAW data stream with this limitation?

SergeSmArt wrote:I have just one question for BlackMagicDesign company webmaster: Would you be so kind to REMOVE "Shipping
September" from your front page of "Blackmagic Production Camera 4K" At list it will looks not as crazy as it looks now

Actually, after a few days of shooting in 4K RAW format with my FS700 and Sony RAW recorder R5 set with AXS 512GB 2.4 Gbps $1800 card I start to think about BMPK claim of be capable to write 4K RAW content to even the best SSD drive on consumer market...
Maximum write speed on SSD is about 500-600Mbps.. so why we believe it possible to store even 30fps 4K RAW data stream with this limitation?

I believe BMPC4K uses visually lossless compression so affords to have a good compression ratio that has a very similar bit rate as the BMCC RAW. Hence SSDs that work with BMCC's RAW should be fast enough for the BMPC4K.

Jules

alexvideo23 wrote:"But I can assure you that no news is worse than bad news."

Thanks "idut21", but I think that be honest with an answer after 5 weeks...is better than to let the customers in your lies...

News is better than no news!!!
Waiting until a BAD news...I prefer to know the truth asap!!!

That's what I basically said. No news is WORSE than bad news.

alexvideo23 wrote:I'm not like you, I don't have too much time too lose on this forum!!!

Best

I don't understand or believe this statement. You're obviously on the forum now. Also, is reading the forum stopping you from doing things? Why are you reading it then? How is it "loosing time" for you?

Jules Bushell wrote:I believe BMPC4K uses visually lossless compression so affords to have a good compression ratio that has a very similar bit rate as the BMCC RAW. Hence SSDs that work with BMCC's RAW should be fast enough for the BMPC4K.

Jules

Maybe.. but .. as I notice about Odyssey 7Q monitor/recorder able to record even small 2K RAW with 240fps ONLY TO TWO SSD-disks, but NOT to one disk, I don't know what level of compression gonna be good for writing 4K RAW on the standard consumer SSD-disk .. as Samsung 840 Pro, for example...

Sorry idut21, you're right we agree!!!

So, as last year... for the 2,5K, BM promised updates or shipping but never respect them during 8 months.

Congratulation!!!

Thanks BM, great organization.