Blackmagic Forum

As an update for anyone looking for info, I pre-ordered on B&H on April 10th and mine has not shipped. B&H customer service couldn't (or wouldn't) provide any information in regards to whether they have already received some, when they expect a shipment to arrive, or how far down the line my order was.

To all of us living on the whispers of hope that a new dawn of cinematography will arrive, just know that you are not alone! Solidarity.

Hopefully someone can get a statement from BM at NAB NY today.

Hugh Antonio wrote:I did contact them last week, and they said they had a very small batch, but that was obviously a lot less than 50. They said they had no word from Blackmagic on when more would be delivered.

How do you know you were in the first 50. The folks I’ve been talking to say CVP were not telling anyone where they were in the queue. Just as I wasn’t told and Inordered on the 9th April 20:53[/quote]

I contacted them ages ago before they started shipping, and was the reply. I guess it depends on who you talk to, also now they are shipping and people are becoming “impatient” they have more reason to not say directly maybe.

Spoke to someone today at CVP, they still have no idea when they'll be getting anymore... no word from BM

William Allum wrote:Spoke to someone today at CVP, they still have no idea when they'll be getting anymore... no word from BM

More or less what I got from them the other day too, and regarding queue numbering they told me:

"Unfortunately we don't have any information as to when shipments will arrive or quantities within each shipment. Blackmagic will be trickling small batches of units to us over the coming weeks.
We have been taking pre-orders from 9th April and will be allocating on a first-come-first-served basis. We will not be issuing queue numbers.
As soon as we have a unit allocated to you we will be in touch to advise. Apologies for the delay and thank you for your patience."

Sam Biddle wrote:

William Allum wrote:Spoke to someone today at CVP, they still have no idea when they'll be getting anymore... no word from BM

More or less what I got from them the other day too, and regarding queue numbering they told me:

"Unfortunately we don't have any information as to when shipments will arrive or quantities within each shipment. Blackmagic will be trickling small batches of units to us over the coming weeks.
We have been taking pre-orders from 9th April and will be allocating on a first-come-first-served basis. We will not be issuing queue numbers.
As soon as we have a unit allocated to you we will be in touch to advise. Apologies for the delay and thank you for your patience."

Hopefully the wait will soon be over, just frustrating to not have any info.

I placed an order today which shipped today for delivery tomorrow from Visual Impact Northern (not their London branch), so I think smaller shops are certainly the best bet in the UK.

The Blackmagic site says the Pocket 4k camera is available NOW, but no one seems to have any stock, has the camera actually been released?

James_Westlake wrote:I placed an order today which shipped today for delivery tomorrow from Visual Impact Northern (not their London branch), so I think smaller shops are certainly the best bet in the UK.

This. I called a shop that i normally get BMD stuff from on Sept 10 or something like that and got on a waiting list. Got my camera on Monday 10/15.

James_Westlake wrote:I placed an order today which shipped today for delivery tomorrow from Visual Impact Northern (not their London branch), so I think smaller shops are certainly the best bet in the UK.

Good shout, I called them today and they'd just sold the last of their stock. However they expect a delivery next week, and only have a few pre-orders, so I put my name down. Fingers crossed.

alidadg wrote:The Blackmagic site says the Pocket 4k camera is available NOW, but no one seems to have any stock, has the camera actually been released?

Yes, the camera is out. Just look for unboxing on YouTube.

alidadg wrote:The Blackmagic site says the Pocket 4k camera is available NOW, but no one seems to have any stock, has the camera actually been released?

Blackmagic seems to be releasing very small numbers of these cameras. I spoke with a B&H rep at a show I was at this week. He said they got very few and all of those went out in order of when people purchased them. Apparently B&H is also frustrated with Blackmagic at the moment.

BM initial shipments with a new camera when first released, starts in smaller numbers, then is increased as they ramp up production, if not issues arise with the initial smaller quantity release. This is not what big dealers like B&H are used to, with Sony, Canon and Nikon, who are ready to ship large quantities of popular cameras when first released.
Cheers

I think the problem though is communication. If they could definitively say that BM would be shipping out 3/5/10/15/20, etc units a week to all authorized resellers then they'd have some idea how to organize the release. It's technically not "available now" even though on their site it is listed that way. Most people who understand the way BM operates understand that "shipping in september" was meant to be a reseller facing release date and not to consumers. The reality is that until the preorders are filled and the product reaches some kind of homeostasis it's not "available" it's an owed pre-order. They should have left it to resellers to determine what constitutes availability rather than publish a release on the site.

Ordered 4/16

Emailed B&H this morning...
Thank you for contacting the Customer Service Department at B&H Photo Video and Pro Audio.

I'm sorry about this but although these started coming in slowly, we don't have a date for the next shipments and for when your order will be filled. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Please let us know if you require any further assistance.

Thank you, we appreciate your business.

I just talked with B&H (again) and got what seems like a definite ETA on their next expected shipment: November 30th. No joke. I love Blackmagic cameras but watching all kinds of people opening their cameras and making test videos / reviews on YouTube when I preordered nearly six months ago and I'm still waiting is a little ... well, disheartening.

I'm wondering what the ballpark figure is for total pre-orders for this camera. Can it be more than 5,000? Is the universe for first adopters of niche cinema cameras really that large?

nathan1001 wrote:I'm wondering what the ballpark figure is for total pre-orders for this camera. Can it be more than 5,000? Is the universe for first adopters of niche cinema cameras really that large?

At the price point and quality of BMD cameras, it could be.

I'm usually a "wait for it, it will come" person...but it would be nice if BMD would share a little more information for the coming availability of the cameras with their adoring fans....

At the risk of sounding a bit cynical here, I do have to wonder if some of this limited availability is built-into BMD's marketing angle. It's a bit like when a new game console is released, and there is such a frenzy for everyone to get one, and that frenzy just goes through the roof the harder the availability becomes.

I think if anyone of us could casually walk into our preferred camera store right now and find their shelves well stocked with the 4K Pocket, would we be a bit less excited about it? I think many would be a bit more hesitant to buy one right away, opting instead to read more reviews from magazines, or even wait until someone they know has one. Instead, here we are, all feverishly excited to get our hands on one of these cameras, willing to pre-order sight unseen, in some cases willing to pay above retail for one.

Think about it…

Kays Alatrakchi wrote:I think if anyone of us could casually walk into our preferred camera store right now and find their shelves well stocked with the 4K Pocket, would we be a bit less excited about it?

I, for one, would not be less excited about it - I'd prefer to have the camera in-hand right now.

I'm starting to feel guilty about having mine.

Jim, enjoy, shoot, enjoy!

As for the speculation about 5,000 Pocket4K, do you mean 5,000 preorders at B&H Photo? This new camera may exceed the sales of the original Pocket which was their best selling camera. Total sales will exceed 5,000!

In my opinion, it does take time to ramp up production as they verify there are no ‘gotchas’ that slipped through beta testing or are a new consequence of being built on the retooled assembly line. Alpha and Beta test cameras don’t come off the assembly line. You’re the Delta testers likely until everything settles down in November. The slow build out is one of the consequences of receiving a new camera almost every year so each camera is hot off the press.

I imagine the big boys are building cameras six months before they’re released for sale with technology they perfected the year before.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

^^^

Pretty much that. But It would be nice to have a bit more information about the ramp-up and growth of the production send-out.

I imagine that the production is a bit of a bell curve - smaller production run to start and get the final kinks out, big ramp-up for preorders, then slowing down once supply levels in stores reach a reasonable level.

As a potential delta tester for about two weeks I can pretty much say: All systems go.

Aside from the stuck battery issue, which I'm owing to a specific, poorly made knock-off, everything is working perfectly having shot in a bunch of different environments.

So I dont understand, in 2018, with all the fancy fast internet, web technology, etc.. that we have today, why there is such a secret behind sharing info like this. I mean, I pre-ordered (though I canceled my April pre order dammit, then re-ordered in mid September).. if they have 500, 1000 etc pre-orders, what is the harm in saying "we have 1000 out there now, and by end of November we anticipate all pre-orders will be met" or even better.. "we got all the pre-order info from everyone of our retailers.. what is your name/info and we will tell you where/when to expect it". It really isnt that hard to figure these things out these days.

That said, I totally get the ramp up thing. As an early adopter to some mechanical keyboards, I watched dozens of people get their keyboard months before I did.. mostly because they were slowly ramping up and they were a new company and product. However, it was VERY well communicated, weekly what was going on. We knew what supply company of key caps, switches, enclosures, etc was going on.

I think this camera is going to be huge.. no joke with all the footage coming out so far, and the price point and especially once BRAW is added, I seriously would bet this camera will compete with the big boys. That it has better low light than the Ursa Mini (and on par with Ursa Mini Pro)... that alone I bet is going to see 100's if not 1000s of wedding videographers and others flock to it. You will see tons more with Ursa Mini/Pros buy 1 or more of these for b-roll for the simplicity in matching color. And.. 4K60 in BRAW on what essentially amounts to a "throw-a-way" b camera for many productions.. no brainer.

This is my opinion, but I think BM is in for some rough times for the next few months with all the backlash many of us are giving over having to wait so long.

I am positive the next camera they make will have tons of people saying the same thing many of us said about this one.. it will be months late. Only this time we may simply say "a few will arrive on time, the rest will take months".

Here is to hoping they communicate a bit more about what is going on, share a little info if there are any bumps in the production process.. or if they were simply waiting to see how well the first batch was received before ramping up.. which may take a few weeks or more to crank out lots more.

Justin, I guess you understand that there is a big difference between a kickstarter financed start-up owing his supporters/investors detailed informations and an established company who wouldn't disclose details because this would give competitors an advantage.

That could be true I guess. Regardless I dont see any reason for BM to hide information regarding the number of units being shipped and when.. but I dont know that it would help everyone everywhere. BH might decide (or they already have probably) not to disclose how many they have on hand. Plenty of companies have fulfilled other deals while leaving back orders waiting. I dont think BH is like that, but others may be.

No major camera manufacturer discloses actual shipping info. Expecting BM to do this is very unrealistic:!:
Cheers

Justin Jackson wrote:I dont see any reason for BM to hide information regarding the number of units being shipped and when..

It might be because it's embarrassingly low. I suspect that if people actually knew how little units have actually shipped, they'd be even more mad.

I just hope they ramp up the production quickly and make up for lost time. I remain optimistic (perhaps naively so) that by late November/early December most of the pre-orders will have been fulfilled, but I'm just speculating.

I was an original Pocket customer, and that initial shipping caused a storm of protest.
I've never once criticised Blackmagic, but it seems odd to publicise 'September' shipping, and here we are getting close to November and so few people actually have their Pocket 4K.
What I find even more frustrating is that many of the customers who have received their new Pocket 4K are mostly using it to make BMPCC4K vs GH5 videos. (sigh)

William Allum wrote:Spoke to someone today at CVP, they still have no idea when they'll be getting anymore... no word from BM

To give you some kind of hope. My UK supplier was saying exactly the same thing, right up until they said we have allocated stock for your order, shipping today for delivery tomorrow. They went from no idea when they're coming to stock arriving in a matter of a few days.

I think they're just coming though in very small numbers, and these are being spread across all the resellers, and the resellers don't seem to know the ETA for shipments.

I created a pool in FB (Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k (BMP4K) Usergroup) and from 70 answers I found they haven’t even filled ~23% of the preorders in B&H... If fact the last pre-order date filled according to what people has reported i think is April 10th, so I suppose we haven’t reach even 10% of the orders.

PreOrdered Qty % State Accumulado
April 16 23% Filling orders 23%
May 4 6% 29%
June 3 4% 33%
July 3 4% 37%
August 18 26% 63%
September 20 29% 91%
October 6 9% 100%

I wish there was some news regarding shipment of pre orders. It does seem strange that neither Blackmagic nor any Reseller (certainly in the UK anyway) can give any official update or good estimate of when pre orders will be met.....

Chris Whitten wrote:I was an original Pocket customer, and that initial shipping caused a storm of protest.
I've never once criticised Blackmagic, but it seems odd to publicise 'September' shipping, and here we are getting close to November and so few people actually have their Pocket 4K.
What I find even more frustrating is that many of the customers who have received their new Pocket 4K are mostly using it to make BMPCC4K vs GH5 videos. (sigh)

Chris, when I get my camera back (had to send it in because buttons were installed incorrectly), I promise to upload some shots of my dogs and some of the plants outside my house for you, and I won't mention the GH5 more than twice.

My pre-order's in. Just as I'm out of the house for a week. Mwap.

Dean Fisher wrote:What I find even more frustrating is that many of the customers who have received their new Pocket 4K are mostly using it to make BMPCC4K vs GH5 videos. (sigh)

We've been using ours to make films from the first week.

Unfortunately they're just being presented to clients so I can't show them as of yet but I can tell you is that the camera makes beautiful next gen images in HD and UHD/4K. And it's a joy to work with.

Well worth the wait.

Just to give you an impression on the numbers:

I am living in the second largest city (286.000 inhabitants) of Austria (8.8 Mio inhabitants).
AFAIK I was the first one from my supplier to receive the PCC4K three weeks ago. Yesterday I was there to get my Metabones Speedbooster and they had a huge pile of maybe 40 Metabones adapters, all for customers with pre-ordered PCC4Ks. They weren't disclosing any pre-order numbers, but I can add one and one. And they told me they received the second PCC4K yesterday.

So I'd estimate in my town alone with this supplier there must be 50 pre-orders. They also do business in our capital city Vienna (1.9 Mio inhabitants) - so pre-orders there could be 3-4 times higher than in my city. That makes 200-250 pre-orders for that supplier alone, and Vienna has around 5 big suppliers - so maybe a thousand pre-orders in my country alone. Scale that up to 9 times larger Germany, 7 times larger France and so on... I think in the EU alone there could be around 40,000 pre-orders.

Hi there,
i thought I write in here because some of the viewers already have the pocket 4k.
I also have my Pocket 4k. Did anyone notice that if trying to record raw in 1920x1080 ( to Full Sensor) it automatically uses the cropped sensor instead of downscaling from 4k to 2k?
Or am I doing something wrong? And i dont mean the 120fps .. just the normal 25p.

Best Regards

Anyone heard from CVP again?

Andreas Kaufmann1 wrote:Hi there,
i thought I write in here because some of the viewers already have the pocket 4k.
I also have my Pocket 4k. Did anyone notice that if trying to record raw in 1920x1080 ( to Full Sensor) it automatically uses the cropped sensor instead of downscaling from 4k to 2k?
Or am I doing something wrong? And i dont mean the 120fps .. just the normal 25p.

Best Regards

By definition, downscaled isn't raw. If you want to downscale you have to use prores.

Iain Bason wrote:

Andreas Kaufmann1 wrote:Hi there,
i thought I write in here because some of the viewers already have the pocket 4k.
I also have my Pocket 4k. Did anyone notice that if trying to record raw in 1920x1080 ( to Full Sensor) it automatically uses the cropped sensor instead of downscaling from 4k to 2k?
Or am I doing something wrong? And i dont mean the 120fps .. just the normal 25p.

Best Regards

By definition, downscaled isn't raw. If you want to downscale you have to use prores.

Iain is right, if you want to film in 1080 and use the full sensor, you need to shoot in Prores. This was known about the camera and isn't an issue. It'd be true on any camera shooting RAW. RAW means "un-messed-with" sensor data. Using the full sensor and downscaling to 1080 is messing with the sensor data.

Months ago I pre-ordered from the cheapest authorized reseller in Finland, they seem to have received 4 cameras total starting October, three at the start of the month and then one 16 days later, and they had 25 orders total. At this rate it takes 4+ months for my order to arrive.

Cooper, it’s always a bell curve with BMD cameras, we are still on the very gentle slope at the lip of the bell so filling preorders seems to take forever. The steep slope has yet to begin, but it might happen in a month or so that we see many of the preorders filled.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just chatted with B&H customer service. Here is what he said:

"I have looked into this for you and currently your order is estimated to arrive at our warehouse by 12/3. As soon as we receive it in stock we will ship your order to you, and e-mail you with the tracking information. I apologize for this delay and any inconvenience it may have caused you."

Anyone know of any North American resellers that may have them sooner?

When did you order? Gees.. that makes it 3 months after release.. and that probably wont come close to fulfilling back orders. I was really really hoping to be using this for potential business soon. I hope we are not waiting until mid December to get our pre-orders fulfilled.

I was just told Nov 30 by B&H. I ordered on April 12.

I pre-ordered on April 10th, so I expected to be among the first to get it. Apparently I underestimated how many people beat me to the punch.

Cameron Porter wrote:Just chatted with B&H customer service. Here is what he said:

"I have looked into this for you and currently your order is estimated to arrive at our warehouse by 12/3. As soon as we receive it in stock we will ship your order to you, and e-mail you with the tracking information. I apologize for this delay and any inconvenience it may have caused you."

Anyone know of any North American resellers that may have them sooner?

I had a late pre-order at B&H that I cancelled after pre-ordering from Safe Harbor a couple of weeks ago. So far they shipped a few cameras and I'm next! If BMD follows their onsie-twosie-per-week-per-reseller behavior then mine should ship this week. I'm not sure how many are behind me but I have reached out to them and will report back ASAP.

I did have to pay for shipping, but was willing to fork out the $35 for 2-day "most-likely this week" instead of free shipping "sometime next year" from BH.

Some UK info – Placed an order with UK Digital on 25th Sept, just had an email saying they've received stock and it's been dispatched for delivery tomorrow. Not sure how much stock or how many pre-orders they have to fulfil, but worth a call maybe?

Paid a bit over the RRP however it came with a 5yr warrantee (important for me as a first time BMD buyer) and my thinking at the time was, as I was joining the party late, I'd go with a smaller retailer in the hope that the queue would be smaller too. This seems to have worked for other people on here too - Visual Impact etc. Definitely worth checking round the smaller players.

CVP in the UK have allocated a camera to me ! Ordered 19:30 on April 9th.
Fingers crossed for before the weekend.

Good luck to all for speedy delivery of your cameras.