An honest discussion about BM Camera reliability?

Hi All,

How have you found the reliability of your Blackmagic Cameras?
I'm writing as someone who has been a very vocal supporter of Blackmagic for a long time, I've owned quite a few of their cameras and love that an Australian company is being a bit of a disruptor.

I run a micro-business doing video production - mainly corporate and some advertising, so buying an Ursa Pro g2 and BMPCC6k pro were a big outlay.

My Ursa died completely the night before a corporate event, meaning I had to rush out and luckily get a hire camera to cover the three days (this cost me $1000)

The camera is 3.5 years old, and sat unused due to covid for almost two of those.

I've appealed to the Australian Distributor New Magic Australia to come to the party with a repair under Australian Consumer Guarantees (essentially you'd expect a camera that's $8k to last longer than 3.5 years) and they offered to inspect it.

They've now quoted $3000 to replace the main board, and won't send me the old one to have a look at myself even if I pay for the new one.

I've also got a sticky button on the BMPCC6k Pro which is brand new.
So - given all of that, what have your experiences been?
Is it worth sticking to these guys, spending almost half the cost of the camera to repair it, or should I jump ship to a Sony.

Cheers

Years ago we had a very expensive Sony camera, an early 'Cine' model, die on us when on shoot in a remote location.
OTOH, our UMP 4.6K (first gen) has lasted all those years in the hands of students. Only the cheap plastic knobs for adjusting the mic levels fell apart. BM supplied new ones for free. When these broke again, I glued them.

IMHO, it will be difficult to get a serious survey here. Normally, only those folks who experience issues come here to complain, the rest is happily shooting. Yes, you can't expect the level of service you get from Arri. But then, any electronic tools can die on you from one moment to the other.

I'll be honest my original 2.5K BMCC is still working after 10-years. Yeah, the internal battery doesn't hold a charge, but powering it with V-Mount it still works. One dead pixel on it, but that happens over the course of a life of sensors. The camera works however.

My original URSA Mini 4.6K EF worked all the way up to when I sold it. And, I would have to contact the person I sold it to for me to know if it is still working, but I assume it is.

My URSA Mini Pro G2 is still working after 4-years.

The only camera not working properly is the Pocket 6K Pro, and it took a fall during a rental last year. I need to send it in for repairs still, but finally after a long fight finally got the repair money from the renters who damaged it. So this week I'll be sending it in to BMD for repairs. Literally took 9-months to get those renters to pay up. Worst and most annoying fight ever. I don't rent gear out at all anymore. Partly because I found my insurance didn't even cover renting gear, and I had to find that out the hard way. Most insurance companies don't want to cover rentals. They only cover theft to a degree.

Either way, I've had a great experience so far in my 10-year journey with Blackmagic Cameras.

When Red was still far cheaper than the only competition (Sony/Panavision) and had a bad reputation for reliability, the best advice was taking two bodies to any important gig.

Not wanting to say that BM has a bad reputation, but for the prices I'd say it's still a good advice to take a spare body to any really important job. If you have a UMP 12K with EF mount, even a BMPCC can cover your back. But it should be a body that fits the same lenses, which very rarely break down if not thrown around. So for PL you'd need another UMP.

BTW, my original BMPCC is still alive, but has some deterioration of the filter over the sensor. I was using it a lot in a tropical climate, though. Now I own two dry cabinets for cameras and lenses.

The dishonest person and the honest person have the same thing in common. If you ask them to be honest they give the same answer.

Beyond a small number of brand fans, people who are satisfied with any product, may talk about it favourably within their circle of friends and colleagues but not widely propagate their happy experience.

After all, the product is performing as it should as expected. When a product lays down, natural passions of betrayal, bitterness, frustration and resentment are aroused and there is more widespread airplay.

How many survivors versus how many moribund carcasses of cameras are out there? BM could probably determine the ratio of failed products to workers from sales records and returns for warranty or post-warranty repair.

Whether BM would want to disclose the numbers is another matter. Price/reward value, compared to how much you would have paid for a new Sony PD150 or JVC GY-HD*** in their heyday is very, very favourable. Those cameras also had their serious challenges.

Both were good with product support but there was no cheap way out with the JVC when the firewire circuit got fried or the blue sensor fell off the prism.

Mine has been a mixed bag.
First Ursa Mini 4k I owned had worse-than-normal FPN. Like, almost unusable.
My Ursa Mini 4.6k experience was rough. Three bad issues (sensor, monitor, SDI port) out of four cameras, BUT all were fixable and under warranty.
My UMP G1 is still going strong in the hands of a live production unit that use it several times a week.
My UMP G2 was flawless.
I went through three 12k cameras before finally getting a solid one. All were sensor issues (lines under heat-induced scenarios.
My Pocket 6k Pro is starting to have NDs ceasing up intermittently.

AND yet, i still want to use BMD cameras. I love their image quality and the features they offer. Plus, I use Davinci Resolve as my editor/color suite, so the workflow is seamless.

Hello Everyone
Of my two BMCC 2.5 , one is still perfectly working , the other one shows ten per cent of battery , whatever voltage is input , and accepts only an old firmware , but it works .
Of my three BMPCC OG , the Three all work perfectly and never had any issue . I took the precaution to make aluminum clamps to secure both the micro Hdmi and the Power jack on cages ,
My Micro Cinema Camera works perfectly .
My Big Ursa still works perfectly
My 4.6K Ef sometimes had a freeze , but it works very well .
My UMP 4.6K G1 perfectly works

A very Good Solution would be to provide a Service Manual .. I have been and am still involved in Ham Radio .. and for almost any equipment you have a Service Manual .. with a Mechanical " éclaté " , the schematics , the boards schematics , and all the Test Points , with the voltages , frequencies , levels , that you should check , provided you own the lab tools .. Of course , maybe the Company does not want to reveal " secrets " about the camera.. but , given today's technology , is there really any usable secret ? I don't know .. Of course , not the same Market ..

A smart , and maybe modular design , and all the tools to repair would be a Safety , really interesting .. They is no mystery , nothing magic .. If the camera fails , there is a reason , and we should be able to repair ..

Just my Two Euros ...

Adam you are making me nervous about the 12k OLPF I just preordered. 'Spose I better not jump the gun on offloading my G2.

For me it's been OK between a G1 and G2 Ursa Mini Pro — I don't feel great about the reliability but it hasn't been terrible either.

My OG G1 had worse than normal FPN and a flickering side LCD and got RMA'd. It worked great until about 3 years in when it would sometimes not power up and the LCD started misbehaving again. Around that time the G2 came out and I preordered.

The G2 had no problems out of the gates, but has started to have an intermittent issue where on startup it'll get pink-ish, colorful static from the sensor on startup. Usually a restart clears it, but I'm not sure I can trust it anymore and Blackmagic support said that kind of issue is usually unrepairable

Both cameras had their volume pots crack but I had leftover spares from the first one so NBD.

Lensrentals has a big warning on their Ursa Mini Pro rental listing not to rent the cameras for professional work because they aren't reliable enough. I think that's kinda telling that they're perhaps more delicate internally than competitors.

All that said, my issues have never been showstoppers during a shoot and they've survived my use on location fine. I'm not babying them either — very little of my work is in studio and I spend a lot of time in industrial settings, on heavy construction sites, out in the rain under a rain fly, etc.

With both cameras it felt like at about 3 years I was starting to not trust them anymore and was ready to jump ship to another mfg. But I love the image I get out of em, and already having the accessories makes it like half the cost of anything else I'm interested in. So just sticking with Blackmagic for the time being feels like it makes sense.

Lensrentals has a big warning on their Ursa Mini Pro rental listing not to rent the cameras for professional work because they aren't reliable enough.

Can you share a link to that?

JB

Here: https://www.lensrentals.com/rent/blackm ... 4.6k-g2-ef

It's been on there for years and was on the G1 too — I remember from renting a backup when my G1 was on the fritz. Looks like the warning hasn't made it to the 12k pages though.

edit: I'll say, it's in the Q&A now and I vaguely remember it being a bigger warning before.

It's a bit complicated for me to speak because although I have used BMD cameras throughly for years, many of the versions I have are often hand made prototypes or very early pre-production line versions.

But I will just say that as someone that is in constant production, I've seen almost every camera fail at some point.

Arri, Sony and RED. They've all stopped working with me on set. I haven't YET lost a shot from a BMD camera. I'm sure it will happen someday.

Anytime you're doing a paid gig, you should always have a backup plan. I have been lucky enough that I've always had multiple bodies on my shows so when something does fail, it doesn't stop the show entirely.

That said, here's some examples.

This is an Alexa Mini. Shooting on a feature film I did. While shooting car to car, The camera just stopped with this message. The take was corrupted and lost forever.

IMG_7095.jpeg (443.03 KiB) Viewed 7825 times

I just grabbed this off a Facebook group. It's an Arri.

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And another from a RED Facebook group.

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Gear will fail. At some point stuff isn't going to work. It's pretty normal. I know it doesn't help that the OP feels they didn't get much use out of the camera and I can only sympathise. But it's not exclusive to BMD.

JB

And three more expensive repair examples from a quick look on Facebook groups for blown SDI and HDMI ports.

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IMG_2833.jpeg (139.84 KiB) Viewed 7824 times

IMG_2028.jpeg (231.38 KiB) Viewed 7824 times

JB

Well, the last example (Red) was from a beta firmware, so I wouldn't count that.
But the Red One was very unreliable even with official firmware. And I could tell quite a few stories about the ill-fated Arri D20/21.

All our human technology can and will fail one day, whatever the effort. That's why I'm scared about nuclear power plants and now AI. The consequences might be much bigger than a lost day of shooting. A backup plan will not always save you, but definitely with cameras. Even for Apollo 13 the engineers developed a backup plan during flight and saved their lives.

IMG_1081.jpeg (169.71 KiB) Viewed 7804 times

Well, the last example (Red) was from a beta firmware, so I wouldn't count that.

Here you go. Happy?

JB

We gave up on Red after one Epic Dragon and two Scarlets.
They were less reliable in student hands than three UMP 4.6K G1 (not speaking of volume knobs).

Very true.

Almost all my volume knobs are broken. I don’t even use them and am not touching them. It’s clearly a problem.

And viewfinder eyecups. They always come off.

JB

I got one of the first BMPCC4K's released in 2018. I have yet to have any problem with it. I am still using an early version of Firmware (I can go back to DNG RAW if I wish) so have not had to face any of the glitches I've read about in the Forum. I do intend to update at some time as I'm more than happy with BRAW; just waiting for the time when I can face any possible problem with the installation. I'm not into hardware problems in my old age; it tends to lower my vocabulary into words that rarely exceed four letters.

I haven't used the camera as much as many would. I only do a small amount of filming in Australia. It does get an extensive - and sometimes rough - workout 3 months of the year in Italy. Obviously, more use means more wear so my experience is probably not typical. Having worked with (and taught) video since 1972, I am a very happy BM camera owner, so far.

I am very impressed with the developments in videography and the BM range of products. I wish I had some genuine excuse for going upmarket from the BMPCC4K but I don't. I would love to have had this sort of equipment when I did more serious work some decades ago. I may yet find and excuse for an ATEM mini and a studio camara or two.

Lensrentals stopped carrying the OG Pocket altogether because the micro HDMI was so fragile. All cameras will fail, some sooner rather than later. How that failure is handled is critical to brand loyalty.

I think Red is probably the least reliable overall, I don’t know enough about Zcam or Kinefinity to have an educated opinion. BM is probably a little better than Red but in my experience Red’s after sales support was excellent. My Komodo shipped with a bad rec button, how do you miss that in QC? However the rma was painless and I was given regular updates on the repair process. When I requested a Red Control demo I thought I’d get a trial or youtube link, instead I got a Zoom call with the project manager. An out of warranty Komodo with a failed main board is still repairable.

When an HVX had both a failed main board and stuck tape transport the camera was turned around in a week, no BS, door to door in 6 days.

With BM products they are largely disposable with probably the worst post sales support in the industry. There are only a handful of repairs they’ll undertake out of warranty. Something’s got to give, they are an incredible value, you could buy 2 P6Ks for the price of the failed Komodo main board repair.

Good Luck

That! So, get a backup for serious work.

Their lineup supports that very well, like an UMP 4.6K as a backup for a 12K with the same mount. All your peripherals will fit and the media too, if fast enough.

When buying (or usually renting) an Arri you pay the price for an excellent worldwide support, which is second to none. But depending on where you are shooting, you might still not be able to continue on the day it let you down.

P.S. Yes, the original BMPCC was very fragile, I fully understand nobody would like to offer it for rent. But in it's time it was such a nice successor to 16mm, working with all the S-16 lenses out there (and some 16mm ones too). Look at the sad story of the Digital Bolex and you'll understand that it already was quite an achievement by BM, even will its shortcomings.

John Brawley.

I wonder if BM has ever considered something like the arrangement used with stove knobs? It would require an added part and added assembly step for each knob. Stove knobs used to have added compression retainers which were split sprung sleeves. They slid onto the shanks of the knobs and the pressure kept the shanks from splitting.

My personal anecdotal experience:

• BMCC 2013 - still working
• UM46k 2017 - still working (only headphone jack got broken due to accident)
• UMP G1 2018 - still working (volume knobs cracked but glued them back together)
• PCC4k 2018 - still working and my most used camera to date
• PCC4k 2020 - still working
• PCC6k Pro 2021 - bought second hand in 2022 - still working

Call me lucky - I only had to have got repaired a Canon XH-A1 (which was still in warranty).

• Canon XM-2 (2002) - still working but retired
• Canon XH-A1 (2008) - still working after repair in 2009 but retired
• Canon XH-A1s (2010) - second hand (2016) - still working but retired
• Canon XF-305 (2011) - second hand (2017) - still working

• Sony EX-3 (2009) - still working but mostly retired

But to be honest - without BMD offering an extra 3 to 5 years BMD Extended Care for their cameras I don't know if I will ever invest in one of their more expensive cameras again.

ATM - if they run out of spare parts anytime soon - you even can't get your camera repaired regardless of the amount of cash you would be willing to pay. This needs to change.

Robert Neissner.

In regards parts support, there seem to be fewer "for parts" BM cameras populating eBay nowadays with only one each of Mini Pro, Ursa Mini 4.6K and a big Ursa offered.

That hints that most camera which were destined to lay down have done so. They are either dead sensor failures or there is too much of an asking price for me to contemplate.

I sometimes wonder how many of these affordable cameras have been infant mortalities which were given little use by owners.

They appear to have timed their warranty periods out before failure and would have otherwise been scooped up in the normal case of warranty returns and broken fewer hearts.

I've been buying and using all kinds of video cameras over the last twenty years.
I take really good and careful care of my gear. Over twenty years of shooting almost daily, have not had an issue with any specific brand. They are all pretty darn good, but things do happen. Power spikes, heat, moisture, tapes and now cards - and electronic failure are all part of the stressful game we play.

I have two BM 12Ks, and so far after two years of light use, they have been totally reliable.

I agree that it is always wise, but not always possible, to have a second camera on hand if the shoot is a big one. If it is that big, the budget should account for this kind of safety factor. OTOH, always say your prayers to the video gods before a shoot as they, not you, are in control of what can go wrong.

I would offer one last opinion, as always, your mileage may vary

Jacques

Long ago , I purchased one BMPCC OG , loved it , bought a second one , and when BM sold them half the price , bought a third one .. Installed in cages , built aluminum clamps for hdmi and power connectors , and Never had any Issue .. all still working fine .. Today we can " Up Rez " .. wonderful ..

Two BMCC 2.5 .. One perfectly working , the other one partially working , only accepts old firmwares , if I install a recent firmware , seems to work , but when I press any button , shuts down .. frustrating , but works with an old firmware ..

One Micro Cinema Camera , with the DB15 Connector , perfect for remote ..

One " Big " Ursa , still working perfectly . A bit heavy , but a beautiful design , and pleasant to use ..

One 4.6K EF , still working well , despite , in rare occasions , a camera freezing .

One UMP First Gen. perfectly working . I installed a Rawlite Olpf .

And , hopefully , soon , an UMP 12K Olpf . I hope I'll be able to render all the Beauty of Nature , and of Life . we'll see

All those cameras represent " Some " investment .. and yes , a serious solution for a long warranty and the ability to repair would be much appreciated .. A Service Manual , with everything indicated to repair , would be really useful .. Everything can be repaired , as long as the Components are available .

I really think Black Magic does a fantastic job .. they have a very Nice Spirit .. and their last cameras are " Top Level " ..
Remain some reliability issues and a long warranty would be much appreciated . Those problems should be adressed , Black Magic deserves it .


My Best Regards from France .. // Mike ..

I've had two BMD cameras.

#1 - Pocket 6K, the original, no problems. It's been everywhere with me, multiple weddings, travel, solid and reliable.

#2 - Ursa 12K, It's been good too overall. One of the volume knobs split cleanly, was able to glue the halves together, has been fine since. There was a problem with the BMD accessory viewfinder, repaired under warranty. Lastly, the threaded holes use stainless inserts. If you overtighten one as I did, the insert begins to pull away and you can't reseat it. I purchased heli-coil inserts and replaced the affected holes.

My URSA Mini 4.6K has been used for more than 7 years as of last week’s shoot and I haven’t managed to break those audio knobs yet… knock on plastic.

BMPCC4K also continues to perform very well but of course the extensive firmware updates have made it seem like a new camera.

I've bought four BMD cameras over the years, from the first Pocket to an Ursa Mini 4.6K. All of them had to be sent in to BMD at least once when under warranty, except the latest BMD camera I bought, the Pocket 6K Pro. It's had no issues at all which I hope is a sign that not only has reliability improved but also the manufacturing/QA process.

My URSA Mini 4.6K has been used for more than 7 years as of last week’s shoot and I haven’t managed to break those audio knobs yet… knock on plastic.

No wonder you haven’t managed to break them Rick, because the UM46k has none

The audio knobs on he upper right of this photo do alter the audio levels as shown on the monitor displayed on the left.

But to be honest - without BMD offering an extra 3 to 5 years BMD Extended Care for their cameras I don't know if I will ever invest in one of their more expensive cameras again.

If someone is buying for a US based business the Square Trade protection plan is 4 years for about $270 on the URSA 12K which I think is a bargain if there is an issue and they hold up their end of the deal.

A separate company like Allstate offering those plans makes a lot of sense because they can create a larger pool from buyers of many different manufacturers and offer the insurance at a lower price than I expect Blackmagic would be able to. When I bought a new truck from Ford they wanted about 15% of the purchase price for a 6 year extended warranty.

If someone is buying for a US based business the Square Trade protection plan is 4 years for about $270 on the URSA 12K which I think is a bargain if there is an issue and they hold up their end of the deal.

The best insurance plan doesn't help if BMD has no spare parts in stock anymore and does not repair your damaged camera. When BMD would offer an extended warranty they would also have to have a larger stock of spare parts for a longer period which would benefit all customers.

but for the prices I'd say it's still a good advice to take a spare body to any really important job.

The prices are irrelevant. Any piece of equipment and any accessory by any brand and with any price tag has the potential to fail at an inopportune time and there may not be any obvious reason for it. It is always best to have a backup plan in place and ready to go for anything which is mission-critical to the job. A camera is obviously mission-critical.

Absolutely correct, but this thread is about cameras.
Batteries and media would normally be more than one piece anyway and lenses, at least the mechanical ones I tend to use, don't fail very often. My oldest ones are from nearly half a century ago…

One day , in a Beautiful Place in Center France , along Sioule River , I left my small Hotel , took my UMP 4.6 Gen1 , my car , and went away ..

On location , I discovered my EyeCup was gone ... I managed to work without it .. When back at the Hotel , I jump from the car and what do I see ? My EyeCup on the ground .. Lucky , on that Day ..

I have found a simple but efficient Solution .. I use three Small pieces of Adhesive Velcro , placed at 120 degrees , on the Viewfinder , and on the EyeCup .. Not that bad a solution , no problem Anymore .. it works very well ..

For the Knobs , not normal at all , if a Third Party Company , like Smallrig , Tilta , or other , could make anodized metal replacements , it would be a good idea ..

Just my Two Euros ..

Regards from France / Mike ...

My experience? I was lucky with Blackmagic Design cameras from 2012, from the first bmcc.
I had used bmcc, I bought bmpc4k, pocket4k,pocket 6k, umpG1, atem mini pro, intensity 4K, speed editor, no problem.

I founded problem hardware in a redOne, Alexa first batch, Jvc cams, many Panasonic cams from 1991 to 2015, on Sony mirrorless and two canon cam.
I was lucky on Sony (cam not on mirrorless) and Fuji mirrorless and reflex.
I think is a matter of fortune, and be gentle with our tools.


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I think there's no reliability issue compared to other industry standard cameras.

BM cameras are very affordable for what they do and thus built quality might be more 'cost efficient' than say Arri but they're not less reliable in my experience.

My bmpcc OG and 10 year old BMCC still working great, will be using them both on the next $40k project shoot in July to mix with ALEXA, they ll be doing 50% of the work. Ursa mini 4.6k is now 7 years old works great, using it for virtual set thing and green screen mainly.

It comes down to abuse, if you take care of gear, it will last, with that in mind BMCC is tank.

I still wish though that BMD produced rugged camera body like their first original BMCC.

My personal anecdotal experience:

• BMCC 2013 - still working
• UM46k 2017 - still working (only headphone jack got broken due to accident)
• UMP G1 2018 - still working (volume knobs cracked but glued them back together)
• PCC4k 2018 - still working and my most used camera to date
• PCC4k 2020 - still working
• PCC6k Pro 2021 - bought second hand in 2022 - still working

Call me lucky - I only had to have got repaired a Canon XH-A1 (which was still in warranty).

• Canon XM-2 (2002) - still working but retired
• Canon XH-A1 (2008) - still working after repair in 2009 but retired
• Canon XH-A1s (2010) - second hand (2016) - still working but retired
• Canon XF-305 (2011) - second hand (2017) - still working

• Sony EX-3 (2009) - still working but mostly retired

But to be honest - without BMD offering an extra 3 to 5 years BMD Extended Care for their cameras I don't know if I will ever invest in one of their more expensive cameras again.

ATM - if they run out of spare parts anytime soon - you even can't get your camera repaired regardless of the amount of cash you would be willing to pay. This needs to change.

I remember XM-2 very well, had XL1 at the time and was looking into B cam GL 1/2...scary how time flies...I wanted XF 305 so badly but could not afford it /justify at the same time HVX P2 came along and from there, then 5D2 came...

My business A cam is an Ursa Mini Pro G2, in use for 5 years. I am generally not gentle with my gear, and I modify nearly everything (3rd party add ons, lens mount changes, OLPF instillation etc).

Only repair I've had is the front SDI went bad. Sent to BMD and repaired, I guess it's a common issue.

Zero problems otherwise. Has made me exponentially more money than the price tag. If it ever died, I'd just buy another one without thinking twice. Hard to do that once you enter 5 digit territory for the body alone.

Most of my business peers use the Pocket series. I know one guy that uses the OG Ursa Mini. All no issues as far as I know of.

The best insurance plan doesn't help if BMD has no spare parts in stock anymore and does not repair your damaged camera.

I've had TVs replaced under the outside extended warranty. They didn't repair them but allowed me to trade for a TV for the price I paid for the original. It ended up being a slightly better TV because the features had improved and the cost went down.

So I imagine (hope) it would work the same way with my URSA 12K if something went wrong within the extended warranty period and they couldn't repair it.

Just got my 12k OLPF and it immediately has to go back to Blackmagic due to a sensor issue — odd fixed vertical noise / lines. Takes a while to back and forth with Blackmagic support so they didn't get me an RMA# and I won't be able to ship it back till next week, then if previous experience holds true it'll be a month before I get the thing back. Little frustrating.

Just got my 12k OLPF and it immediately has to go back to Blackmagic due to a sensor issue — odd fixed vertical noise / lines. Takes a while to back and forth with Blackmagic support so they didn't get me an RMA# and I won't be able to ship it back till next week, then if previous experience holds true it'll be a month before I get the thing back. Little frustrating.

Sorry to hear that. Our 12K came back from the OLPF upgrade a couple of weeks ago (took them less than a week to do the work), and I just got back from an intense 5-day doc shoot and the camera performed flawlessly in all kinds of challenging situations (environmental and otherwise).

Hope you get it sorted out soon.

Thanks Fabián, good to hear they turned that around quickly. I'm curious with mine if they'll actually repair it or just ship back a different one after evaluation.

Presumably the camera serial number will tell the story.

Yeah, for sure. I'll find out I suppose.

Got the RMA today and shipped out, it won't get there till Friday and then they're saying 10-15 day turnaround. Fun times. So that's one month from preorder to receiving product, a week to get the RMA from support, a week to get the camera there, and then a couple weeks to get it back (hopefully shorter though.) Plus I have to pay shipping of the brand new camera back to Blackmagic to get it repaired.

I get that things happen with every manufacturer, but it's still annoying to pay to ship back a new product that's defective out of the box and have the whole thing become a two month process. Thinking back, it's similar to my experience with the G1 Ursa Mini Pro so I suppose I should have expected it.

Ideally you go through the vendor with new units. They have more clout with the distributor and you can have the new camera shipped immediately. When I had a DOA micro4k delivered I could get a new camera in 2 days. I’m all about small/local business until it affects my business.

Good Luck

Our first 4.6k was one of the bad ones. (You can read the threads on this forum). It had all kinds of problems. BM took it seriously, and we worked closely with support to get it sorted. Since then, we have had many BM cameras and no problems.

On the other hand, we have been through a few Teslas. Great design and engineering in their products, but terrible customer support. If you ever want to see live action "Keystone Kops", watch Tesla customer service in action.

I didn't go through the vendor for a couple reasons: 1, since it took them a month to get the unit when in the meantime B&H wound up with stock on the shelves I figured I'd be looking at another month to get a replacement, and 2 at the end of that month seems possible, even likely, that I'd wind up with another defective camera and have to do the whole thing again.

I had to return a UMP 4.6 G1 for a dead SDI from the day I received it new. It was great when I got it back (they sent a new one under warranty and didn’t fix the one I bought new) I sold it to buy a 12k which had a broken audio knob (they sent new ones) and it’s been great ever since. Pocket 4K has had no problems.

What burned me about the entire process of returning the 4.6, was the cost of shipping from Canada to California. BM should cover this under warranty. My camera was new. The almost $400 to ship insured from Nova Scotia was insane and was a real piss off


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