BMPCC4K start shipping

That’s a good approach, but I’m keeping my preorder. Of course I want a camera that works properly and I’m happy to wait for it rather than get in the cycle of returns. There’s another wedding on the horizon and I want to use that ISO 1250-6400 to really see how it handles things. But it’s not the end of the world to continue using the URSA Mini 4.6K camera at ISO 800.


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I ordered on 9/5 from B&H and got my shipping notification today.

The only way to be "fair" is for Blackmagic to direct-sell the pre-orders online themselves. The gripe appears to be that the wait time depends on which store you placed your pre-order with (and even which country) and the whole business feels like a lucky draw.

Obviously, the reseller network would love to partake in the action. Is it worth negatively impacting the relationship with the channel by going with my proposal? Do all the gripes of unfairness cause actual customer dissatisfaction in the long haul, or do they instead create an aura of high demand?

The drizzling out might have been done on purpose. No matter how much testing (in-house and beta) has been done beforehand there is going to be some surprise once it hits the field. Otherwise the major brand cameras wouldn't have had a myriad of issues upon initial release in their history. (Dust, "black dot", "star eater", could be anything, something engineering have had never thought of, despite their best care and effort.) Blackmagic is no exception and I think there have been already issues reported with the battery door. It is far better to have people waiting and crying foul of not getting their cameras soon enough then to actually ship them with minor but irritating issues.

I waited to place my order mostly because i didnt want the fist cameras that came out. Hoping that any kink or bug would be corrected by the time i recieved min

Ricaerdo Marty

Just got my camera today...

Low light performance is jawdropping....

My order from B&H arrives today. I placed the order on September 1st.

Direct sell is also a lot of headaches for BMD. They’re happy to have resellers take on those headaches. Retailers with brick and mortar stores are important.


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Thanks to James Westlake for the Visual Impact tip. I ordered on the 19th of October and picked it up today from their Teddington branch. Cancelled the CVP order at the same time

Ordered September 12, and B&H shipped today. Seems like preorders are ramping up because B&H told me they would receive new shipments December 30th two days ago. Excited to receive my camera!

Update here as well!

Ordered September 11th just got my shipping notice!!!!!

Shoot.. I ordered 18th.. I hope that means mine is coming soon!!

Ordered Sep/20 and B&H shipped yesterday.

I ordere mine on september 14th and I got an email yesterday that it is finally shipping!

I ordered 26 of sept. My camera is in the bh warehouse. Hopefully i should be getting it this week.

Ricardo Marty

Just a minor correction - I actually ordered October 5th from B&H. The "by the end of December" estimation from the rep does seem more and more unlikely as time goes on but I'm still hopeful. I'm thinking the bulk of the preorders were April-May and that things will speed up significantly as production ramps up and the preorders spread out from there on out.

As of this morning "BH" still has the "Available in limited quantity"tag for BMP4K. Unless they forgot to take it out probably means they have sufficient inventory to have them busy shipping for a couple of days.

Ric Marty

Hi all!
This dilemma is commonly happen when you rely on a not so reputable shipping company..
I'm running an E-commerce business and whenever I shipped goods internationally I used Parcelbound international shipping service.

What do you mean it is in warehouse? Mine says backordered and I ordered Sept 18. If you get your ship notice before I do.. BH done forked up royaly.. I will be blasting the hell out of them. I will expect a big discount... for my sake.. I hope that is the case

You need to go to your order on the bh site and click on it it will tell you the status. The orders are under your account so you must log in.

Ricardo

I pre ordered on 30th august from HOTROD and still don't hear anything from them.

Ricardo.. very well aware of the location of my order.. I have it automated to refresh every .01 second for the past 2 months. Mine still shows backordered. Online waiting on chat now.. it is possible it is being readied too.. but that you ordered a week after me and have it in warehouse.. or maybe shipping now? That is a big glaring mistake in my book.

Indeed. Maybe theres a problem with your order. Check as soon as you can.

Ricardo

[]I never recieved the "instock notification" so there are glitches.

Ricardo

I pre ordered on 30th august from HOTROD and still don't hear anything from them.

I pre-ordered mine from hotrod on APRIL 9TH. I just got it about a 1.5 week ago.

I'm preorder in thailand on 22 April, still nothing no word no any thing. Why USA get most of it's, I'm wander.

I pre-ordered mine from CVP (UK) on April 17th. I contacted them many times, they can not estimate a delivery date...

I'm preorder in thailand on 22 April, still nothing no word no any thing. Why USA get most of it's, I'm wander.

Funny how you see it, because in this thread have been lots of complaints that EU and Asia get most of it and US only a few...
Selective seeing

My Camera is at BH but they ca't ship until next week because they've received so many during last weekend that they have a shipping backlog. Go figure.

Ricardo

Ricardo did you talk to someone at BH today? I spoke to a person on chat yesterday.. dude was rather rude. Said that you and others are lying about getting notifications about in warehouse, etc. Said mine is not coming in till Dec 30. Said they got no orders, out of stock.

I am really thinking BH should not be earning our business any more when they have different reps lying about what is going on. I really like the site, details, etc.. but this really pisses me off that people ordering after me are getting notifications of in warehouse, etc. and mine says back ordered. As a software developer... in 2018.. there is no excuse at all for such discrepancies in what 2 customers are seeing on the site. Nor should their support people be assholes and say people are lying, they are out of stock if others are telling people they got a large shipment in.

Not a big big fan of Adorama.. but maybe they should be the place to shop from now on? Or are there better US based sites to find all our electronic needs from?

So I got to BH.. login.. shows my recent views.. the Crane 3 and the BM 4K.. BOTH say in stock. Click on either item, says coming soon. Go to my order.. says back ordered. WTF... how the hell is BH such a huge site if they cant even get their site to show the same status info for the same product in different locations? They should hire me to rewrite their web app... whoever they hired have no idea how to communicate and ensure they are all pulling the same inventory details on different pages. Really pathetic of such a large site to have such discrepancies.

Yah..little pissed.

[quote="Justin Jackson"]Ricardo did you talk to someone at BH today?

Yes I've called 3 times, and they give me the same answer. Your camera is most probably there.

I click and open my account and search for my orders and my bmp4k shows in stock and in warehouse.
Though I never received an in-stock notice.

Ricardo

So they are basically lying to everyone.. why? What benefit does it have in telling you its there, but another person telling me it wont be here till end of year? Do they not communicate at all in the company to their employees that deal with customers and explain how to be consistent in responses? Unbelievable they are this disorganized. I hate that they are the best overall site for this stuff too, because I would take my business elsewhere and ask everyone else to as well with the way they have been handling inquiries and everyone getting different responses, not to mention their site is inaccurate in various places. Reeks of internal problems.

What I meant was that your camera is probably there.

Give them call instead of a chat.

Ricardo

B&H Photo may often have the best prices due to their high volumes and selection and I’ve used them in 2016 when I was beginning to rig the Mini 4.6K. But personally I find it more rewarding to shop around for a vendor that is smaller and interested in your business. And I don’t buy from the world’s two largest online retailers (Amazon and Alibaba) on principle.


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Ricardo, that may be.. if they shipped Sep 12 orders.. and they truly have a large shipment..then there seems to be no reason why they wouldnt get my Sep 18 order out soon. Fingers crossed the chat guy was just an ass.

Rick, I dont disagree.. but I find amazon almost always have better prices.. and despite that I dislike the "couch potato" society we are becoming with everything delivered to us.. I find it incredibly convenient, efficient and that they take returns and pick them up with no hassles is huge. No retail store offered that other than Costco and Nordstroms from my experience. Everywhere else you dealt with someone that hated their job, didnt want to be there, etc.. and usually took way longer to drive, wait in line and get any sort of refund... and now.. refunds are sent out 7 to 21 days later. WTF.. amazon returns it within 2 days, or store credit in hours.

I do feel the pain of the brick/mortar disappearing.. I hate the idea of it.. yet.. they didnt change with the times.. or.. more to the point those that tried didnt do it right, were too late, etc. The way to go.. was offer a slick easy to use site with the ability to order, and do in store pickup or free delivery. There are stores that do this now.. but they cant compete with the scale of Amazon, even Walmart. That is the unfortunate part of these smaller places..the costs and overhead just cant match the scale of a world wide operation like Amazon. I miss radio shack... and I suspect the likes of Frys, Lowes, etc will all dry up sooner than later. Same thing in many industries. I keep telling my kids.. you need to find career that will exist.. anything in software, medics (for now), lawyers, etc.. even acting I suspect will disappear. The advancements they have made in generated actors is unreal. If they can have software that can render realistic life like actors that can do anything without having to pay insurance, salaries, etc.. I would not be surprised to see tv/movies/etc go the way of all generated life like characters. Hell animations may disappear if that is possible. Everything can look like live-action movies but be fully generated.

But I digress.. way off topic.

Lots of good points, Justin. Maybe I’m just being irrational. I want to continue dealing with people that have a moment to interact, that can remember you, that can be themselves, that manage rather than be Micro-Managed. I admit there are lots of counter arguments. My wife swears by Nordstrom’s when we lived in LA. But I look back on the wonderful bookstores that have failed in the last ten to twenty years and Amazon began with books. Sometimes it’s not about money.


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Agreed Rick. I get that nostalgic feeling when I see a small book store.. so rare these days. I love to browse the books even though I almost always buy on kindle now so that I can copy/paste text content (for code and such), plus the ability to bookmark, read wherever, and more so as I am aging, enlarge the fonts on the screen so I can see it! I have a subscription to a couple mags and I can not, for the life of me, read it without using my camera on my phone, zoomed in like a magnifying glass. It is awful!

Anyway.. getting way off topic. Where the heck is my dang camera!!!

Its not only books. Sears&kmart, Recording companies, printers, type setting companies, video stores, record stores, video post houses. And almost anything else.

A strange new world..

Ricardo

I received an update from my Canadian reseller. No change! I’ve put it out of my mind though as I’m busy testing with the new lenses and gear in preparation for the mid-December shoot that I plan to do using the APO primes with the Anamorphot Adapter. Sometimes “better late than never” really means “better later than sooner” if there’s time to get some of the early shortcomings addressed.


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Rick.. any chance anyone else around you can help you with the shoot to make up for the new cam not being in yet? Or maybe you can rent a 2nd cam for this shoot? At least you got jobs paying you money to do shoots.

Justin, I would contact B&H if your camera still says backordered, as I ordered October 5th and my status just changed to “In Stock, Order Sent to Warehouse” as of about 10 minutes ago.

I ordered the last day of August at a small local dealer here in Garland, Tx and just got an email that my camera is in and ready to be picked up. Too bad they are closed right now but I'll swing by and get it tomorrow. Sure hope it was worth the wait. It's been so long I have kinda soured on it a bit and am not even excited about the P4K anymore. I hope that changes when I get it home and open it up! Anyways, I'll let you know my first impressions in a day or two. Hopefully the flood gates have opened any everyone else will start getting their camera soon.

Rick, I lived in Sk. for 20+ years, your camera is probably sitting in the back corner of a post office somewhere in Quebec. No one knows how it got there, but it's there!

Another B&h pre order here.

I ordered the 7th of September, and it was delivered yesterday.

Just charged my CCs.. so I assume that means it is going to warehouse and shipping soon as well. Would be really good if BH sales folk got their stories straight before telling people its 2 months out when its not. Hoping it is truly on its way soon!

I ordered the last day of August... Rick, I lived in Sk. for 20+ years, your camera is probably sitting in the back corner of a post office somewhere in Quebec. No one knows how it got there, but it's there!

There’s a little truth in what you’re saying. It’s just not my camera though. It’s the Sennheiser AVX MKE2 i ordered November 15. I didn’t realize it was being shipped by Canada Post that has been ordered back to work by the government today. Every day or two, my due date became a couple of days later. Now they’re back to work, they added another day anyway! I’ll be lucky to ever see that package!

Rick.. any chance anyone else around you can help you with the shoot to make up for the new cam not being in yet? Or maybe you can rent a 2nd cam for this shoot? At least you got jobs paying you money to do shoots.

Thanks, Justin. I’m sure I’ll have it by early January! You may not realize, but I’m retired and all my client work is pro bono. Actually gives me a lot of control over what I do. And I love doing it.


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Ah wow Rick..now that is cool! I am about 35 years from retirement... unless this BM4K and I shoot something wonderful and it goes big. haha. Actually laughed at that. I dont plan to retire till I am in my 80s though.. love what I do.. just want to do it for myself not for others!

The only way to be "fair" is for Blackmagic to direct-sell the pre-orders online themselves.

No. I think the most logical solution is to have a network of authorised dealers.
It is actually BAD for Blackmagic if people pre-order within 24 hours of a product launch at a large dealer such as CVP or B&H, while people who order from a small outlet in October get their Pocket 4K a week or two later.
It actually makes no business sense.

Firstly, a business needs to have a professional projection on sales figures. I'm in the music business and many small gear manufacturers are capable of delivering electronic goods within a couple of months of product launch. the better ones announce the product and at the same time announce it is immediately available.
Secondly, the bigger music stores receive large stock shipments, where a small store may only receive one or two.
Surely, the major outlets are any business's bread and butter. So they should protect the reputation of their major customers.
CVP for example are losing business of lots of pre-orders are cancelled because it's quicker to get the camera from a much smaller outlet.

I ordered mine on a french website called Miss Numerique on 20th of September.

Apparently on the 15th of November they had approx. 70 orders in total.

I called them back last week and about 30 already shipped. But they have no info on how many/when they recieve their stock from the provider

Chris, that makes sense. Doubt BM will weigh in here, but I suspect they released the cameras as soon as they can, rather than build up a large batch of them then ship them out to everyone. Is that because they are a small outfit or that they were delayed in getting the product ready for scale production that they decided to release as many as they could as soon as enough came off the production line? I suspect the latter... though I dont think BM is very small these days with the large number of products they sell.

What BM should do, I think.. is announce a product but not a launch date.. until the product is well tested (e.g. 100s of units tested for things like audio input volume, durability, battery life, USB-C SSD connections, etc), then announce availability while having 1000's or more unites ready to ship out. They can still ask for pre-orders with the info about no definitive ship date until we are ready. Plenty of people would still pre-order. At least this way, you arent left thinking.. I will have my camera in Sept.. but then the slow trickle of units plus the way orders trickled in from vendors.. e.g. rather than BH ordering 5000 units ahead of time to have them in stock, they only took pre-orders into account and only ordered when they had enough pre-orders... at least that is what I have been putting together. So they waited, like Adorama, etc until they had say 1000 pre-orders, then put in the order to BM at that time. But, that order included pre-orders spanning a month or two possibly. Then they wait till the next batch of enough pre-orders comes in to put in one order again. That too speaks to either how BM requested orders come in (e.g. dont send us 1 pre-order at a time) or how BH and others decided to batch a bunch of pre-order requests together before placing the actual order to BM.

So now you got this send out cameras soon as they come off line coinciding with the BH ordered 1000, then Adaorama, then these 35 small outfits ordered 3 each... oh..then BH has another 1000 orders.. so start to put the next few cameras that come off in to the BH pile because they are next... until we get them full then ship those to BH again.

I may be way off.. but from the various threads here and elsewhere, it seems like this is the way things have gone.

I just pre-ordered from Core Microsystems website. I called and the rep I spoke to said they were shipping out orders from mid November today, and that he expected a shipment of 10 tomorrow and that if I ordered now that I would be in that shipment.

Monthly update on my part, it seems the shop from which I ordered is getting only 5 cameras per month (3,1,1 and 3,2)... so still January/February for my order .