BMD Pocket Camera Shipping Date + Transparency

I recall when I used to pay huge sums of money to Flying Spot in Seattle who had a telecine to transfer our filmed source to digital tape to edit. I love that Blackmagic now gives away a free version of DaVinci. I really support their desire as a private company to empower everyone to have access to quality products. As a company entering into the camera market with such lofty goals it seemed reasonable that last year there was such a delay in shipping the cameras. This year, with the Pocket camera I would have thought they learned lessons and not make promises that they were not able to deliver on. I almost feel like I am funding a Kickstarter campaign for this camera but no one let me in on that secret. When I went to this website and then B+H and pre-purchased my camera it was with the expectation that what I was being told was true. Shipping a few small runs of units to a few vendors in late July is not the same as Shipping July 25th or whatever the exact date was. I called B+H yesterday and was told they have not received any pocket cameras yet. Nor did they know when they would. First part I can understand it is only 8/7 but the second part I do not. Every professional video pro would be fired by their client if we said sorry no idea when I can delivery your video. I love this company. All I want is transparency. I made commitments to use this camera on Sept 15th. If the real shipping date was end of July then that I should not have to worry. However now I am. I will continue to support this company and I am looking forward to getting the camera. That said you need to work harder at being more accurate or transparent.

As long as they can get away with being this way and still getting everyone's money, they have no motivation to change. Sad but true.

... I love this company. All I want is transparency. I made commitments to use this camera on Sept 15th. If the real shipping date was end of July then that I should not have to worry. However now I am. I will continue to support this company and I am looking forward to getting the camera. That said you need to work harder at being more accurate or transparent.

They will start with a small release of a new camera, verify everything seems to be fine and listen to the feedback from those few early recipients, and then ramp up to do a larger production run due to ship late August (still not full volume) to see how the suppliers and the production line cope with the increased numbers, and if all looks good, continue to move to full production as able in September.

The difficulty is they are almost a victim of their success. If the early feedback indicates the new camera is considered a flop, you will have no problem finding one in time. But it is likely to be a roaring success and they will be stressed to fill demand for at least a few months. They really have no clue about demand. Some people (most people?) have ordered multiple cameras from different vendors, just to see who delivers their camera first, which can inflate BMD demand expectations and could lead to financial ruin when they try to meet those numbers, if the cameras are not well received. Other people are conservative and have waited to see what the cameras do when they are in customers hands or were feeling burned by the delays on the BMCC and won't preorder or buy until it is on a dealer shelf. So it is not easy to predict but you really want to have a contingency if you do not receive your camera in that late August shipment.

Rick Lang
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Additionally, manufacturing complex, electronic physical goods in other countries is much more complicated than delivering a video. This type of delay isn't too uncommon, except other manufacturers tend to be more opaque. I waited for months for my Canon EOS M, and the recently announced Panasonic GX7 has only a guess of a release date - and those are behemoths. Not to mention RED, the wait on Nikon/Canon DSLR updates, Digital Bolex, etc etc. Which of their competitors is doing leagues better? This stuff is HARD.

I'm a big fan of Blackmagic for the way they've upended industry - multiple times. (I remember when a digital voodoo card was the cheap option at $5K...) They're also so good to their customers, it's amazing. Davinci 7 -> 10 with no upgrade fees? Yes please. New firmware with new features at no charge? I think I will!

If this camera delivers like it appears to, I have no problem waiting. They're getting beat up for being almost too transparent...

I believe Blackmagic is filled with smart people doing their best. I want them to succeed. I agree there are a lot of complexities that were explained well in a prior post. They seem reasonable to me.

Keeping that in mind, I would have preferred the marketing department to have been more detailed in their customer facing communications. For example ads/copy that said "Blackmagic Pocket Camera will be shipping from the factory between end of Q3 and last month of Q4. Keep in mind this date does not reflect time for customs and/or shipping time from the supplier you pre-purchased the camera from". I'm not a copy writer (obviously) but hopefully the gist is there.

I realize most organizations and marketing folks don't want to put out messages like that. Even so, I think many (not most; can't please everyone) clients, consumers, and people in general would rather hear the most accurate version of potential risks and outcomes than a firm date that has a high risk of not being achieved despite best efforts. Projects of all shapes and sizes face disaster if people are afraid of failure or speaking up if something went wrong. No one is perfect. We can't read the future. Just up front accurate as possible communications would be awesome. It does seem Blackmagic's communications are moving in that direction. Please continue doing so.

The customers who purchased the production camera getting 1K off should like that.

My 2 cents thanks for reading. Cheers, Mike Kroesen

Austin, good points.
If BMD are getting beat up for being too transparent
I suspect/hope that is a loud minority.
Cheers,

Mike Kroesen

Rick thank you for the info.
If my order isn't in the late Aug shipment then
executing on plan b will be the way to go.
Cheers, Mike Kroesen