If this is anything like as good as it sounds this is a real game changer!

Looks like their web-site is struggling to keep up!

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/uk/products/blackmagiccinemacamera/

From the press release:

"Blackmagic Design today announced Blackmagic Cinema Camera, a revolutionary digital cinema camera design that includes powerful features such as super wide 13 stops of dynamic range, high resolution 2.5K sensor, built in high bandwidth SSD recorder, open file format support, color correction with full version of DaVinci Resolve and a built in LCD with metadata entry, all in an attractive compact design for only US$2,995. "

Ha! - You beat me to the post ;) - This is some killer news! I use other BlackMagic products, and they are awesome. This is a monster!

LCD screen resolution seems to be poor. 800x480.

@TheEngineer @AcmeStudios,

Pair that puppy up with SmallHD's new OLED monitor along with some fast primes ... should make many very very happy ! .... wow is right.

Amazing for the price, and totally out of nowhere. I can't see the Digital Bolex competing with this. The sample videos look a little off (some dead pixels), but I assume that is a preproduction issue. I could be picky and say they should have assignable buttons, but I think the world has embraced touchscreens for the most part.

Actually, it has a LANC connection so that should satisfy those unsatisfied with the touchscreen. I answer my own questions a lot. And how many cameras can record straight to ProRes? The workflow should be really smooth.

What's crazy about this deal from BMD... they say you get a full version of Resolve with it.... wow... that amortizes the cost down even more!

I saw this camera at NAB and got to play with it.
Pretty impressive video output. Full raw at 4.2.2 color space.
Does come with the $1000 software package.
I was told the file size is a out 3 Meg's per frame.
More later as I'm trying to type this in via my iPhone.
Here are some photos.
Camera

A photo I took of the camera you could test with. It had a Canon 70-200 L mounted on it
Blackmagic camera

The camera is going to be released for sale in July.
You can get about 25 minutes on a 380 gig SSC drive.
The drives run about $150 each but can be bought anywhere.

The main thing about this camera and the reason it's pretty cheap for what it does, is that it's a very basic no frills camera.
It's a box with a sensor and lens mount.
If you're looking for 60P or some cool gadget, you'll have to get the Canon C300 for $15K
If you want an uncompressed video that looks great with more detail in the shadows than you can ever imagine, than this is the camera to get.

I also tested the Canon MKIII
At ISO 2000 shooting in a dimly lit room, the video was pretty clean.

Is it rugged enough to be in the field?

I would think so. The body is machined out of a block of aluminum.
Two things I don't like is the touch screen. In cold weather with gloves that would be a problem.
The SDI video out is pretty expensive for an external monitor. I believe there are adaptors but if it had HDMI that would be nice.

That said, I will be pre-ordering one in the next day or so. I'm trying to find out if the supplier I use will be a re-seller for them.

and.... you get the latest software rev of Resolve along with BMD's Ultrascope included !

looking forward to the ship date for this camera

I asked them about rolling shutter or jello and they had no idea of what I was talking about. Anyone else find out if they were able to stabilize the cmos better than Canon?

Those guys were just their for show. They had no idea about the camera. I found I had to ask the same question to three people before I got Answer.

At the booth they had setup I tested for moiire and didn't see any.
I was panning the tripod from side to side pretty fast and only saw a little rolling shutter.

Just remember for the PC world you will need a product called MacDrive so that you can format and read the disks coming from this camera. Other than that, it looks pretty darn good considering the price point. Maybe someday there will be 2K and 4K tv sets.. but I could care less as the human eye really doesn't see the diff from several feet away. But a large format is definitely awesome for working in post.

I read that.
The other thing to remember is the camera dosen't seem to come with a SSD drive.
That will add about an additional $600 to the cost of the camera.

I understand it uses a micro 4/3 chip. Is Panasonic providing the sensor?

No, seems the sensor was from BAE
BAE sensor

The good thing is the sensor is able to do 100fps at 2.5K and 240fps at 720 so maybe the company will have that in the final production camera or an upgrade.

"the image quality benefits of a CCD with the read-out performance of a CMOS"
"global shutter"

Impressive camera. Hopefully it will perform as advertised.

Wow, Vader can use it to film thunderstorms!

What I do not like about this camera is the "internal battery". What will happen 2-3 years in the future when the battery starts loosing its charging capacty? This reminds me of the internal battery problem with mac notebooks a few years ago.

I believe one review mentioned that when the battery requires replacement it would require a service call to swap out the battery via a new battery purchase.

However, that will be a minor issue for those with external battery systems ie: Anton Bauer and the V-Mount systems. This camera will drop in nicely on existing 15mm rodded rigs which already are equipped with this powering approach. The power adapter on the camera will accept a range of voltages.

BUT.... if you don't already have these extra tools then you either deal with a service call down the road...... OR ..... you pass.....

So you buy a new battery after a few years... that's not a huge problem. If this camera delivers what it says it will then it will be on par with $15,000 cameras, so take that $12k and buy batteries :-P

Also remember the camera shown at NAB was a pre-production model. They quickly finished it to get it in the show.
The built in battery may not be in the final model. Probably will but I'm also not worried about that. I'll probably use an external battery when I'm out of the studio anyway.

I was told the menu system will be different in the production camera so there will be some changes.

I'm pretty excited to get it. July won't come soon enough.

@dapoopla - Not everybody lives in continental USA. Not everybody knows how to unsolder and solder a new battery. If it is "electro-soldered" (spot welding) which it probably is then the problem is worse. This is just a very minor issue. After all this camera is meant for sets and the cinema world.

@kk5hy - I bet there is a big line that pre-ordered this camera. I'm looking forward to see your new clips.

Sorry Luxor, I just saw your edit.
I'm not sure if there is a line. No one is saying. I pre-ordered mine from samys.com
Rod at Samys told me they ordered 25 of the cameras. They let me pre-order before it's actually on the site because I've been ordering from them in the past.

But I'm sure the more press that gets out the longer the line will be. Remember the wait when the 5DMKII came out.

Speaking of which here is a press release I just read.
Blackmagic camera wins game changer award

I believe it will be a great studio camera. My biggest doubt is jello or rolling shutter. Canon and Nikon have been working this issue on CMOS sensors for a long time and still have not conquered it yet. In a studio setting it should not be an issue. Like Jake said, the $2995 is the base price, add the memory storage and it goes up rather fast. Hope it's not all hype like RED did.

Yeah that would be a real bummer if they don't deliver by August.
But its not like I don't have a fall back. I would cancel the blackmagic and go with the MKIII

I tested both at NAB for jello and moire. Both cameras didn't have any I could see or at least very small.
The biggest draw for me is the 13 stop latitude. Even the MKIII didn't have that.

Most of our stuff is studio but I don't see why it wouldn't work the same as I do with my DSLR's in the field. Still wouldn't use this camera for run and gun stuff.

Yes, I'm still waiting for them to post which SSD drives are compatible with this camera.
That can run $200-$600 depending on what they say the camera needs.

The product listing from B&H Photo for the Blackmagic Camera has this drive listed as an essential accessory:

OCZ - 240GB Vertex 3 SATA III 2.5" Solid State Drive

Price: $249.95

I saw that, I'm worried that B&H is trying to sell whatever they happen to have in stock.
The official word I got from the Blackmagic rep is they are still testing drive compatibility with the camera and will post that info on their site under the support section when its available.

There is still a lot of time to buy the drive before the camera gets shipped I just don't want to buy the wrong one given the cost of those drives.

@kk5hy Yeah I wondered about that drive as well, I also want to read some reviews on this camera.

I am hoping some other people get a pre-release camera to show some tests and reviews before its shipped.

I will wait and see if how the video looks before I buy. It sounds great, but I want to see the dynamic range. I am not a big fan of touch screens. For that price though I could get over it.

I would be in the same boat if I didn't get to play with it at NAB. The video is pretty amazing.

I didn't like the idea of a touch screen either until it was explained to me that this is one of the reasons the price is so good.
Also they can upgrade the menu system pretty easy with software updates, couldn't do that if the camera had real buttons.

Anyway, I could have waited until it actually started shipping but I didn't want to get caught in some backlog of orders.

About the "touch screen", I saw a Spanish video where the commentator had a lot of trouble with the finger sensitivity of the screen as he changed settings. Some screen hot areas where completely un-sensitive. This issue might have been moisture in the finger tip. I guess the solution is to have one of those screen pencils at hand.

If you look at this video (in Spanish), starting at about 2:08 you will see that sometimes the touch screen is un-responsive. Note that this is a pre-production unit and I think kk5hy stated that the final menu software was going to change. By the way what is "SHUTTER ANGLE"? Never heard that before.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8hRpAM10Qk

Luxor here's your answer to what shutter angle means:

http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/freshdv/story/shutter_speed_vs_shutter_angle/

The only reason he's having a problem with an un-responsive touch screen is that his spanish fingers can't translate english text.

Got it. I guess it needs an additional button for language select.
Interesting that shutter angle stuff. When film no longer exist, it will make no sense. It's just like the term footage in digital stock video; a dinosaur from the past.

The clock is ticking. Soon we will see the first BCC clips in P5.

Not until the end of July....
Patiently waiting for UPS to knock at my door LOL

I'm surprised there isn't more new video from the camera out from the company.

Just 2 more weeks......Jake

is there any video out besides that one guys videos that are HORRIBLE? it has to be a joke with that footage... I dont believe it.

Here is a new post about the camera.
Hands on

Blackmagic is still saying end of July to start shipping but it seems that doesn't mean I'll get it then.... We'll see.

I was going to buy the T4i but decided to buy the T2i and save the rest for this camera which I hope to buy early next year after all the field testing and bugs are fixed. (hopefully it will stay at the same price).

I don't see any benefit to the T4i over the T3i, just the auto focus... but we don't use that as STOCK PEEPS! I did trade up from the T2i to the T3i for the movable screen, and really was glad I did that... but the T2i is a kickbutt camera.

After reading the article I want one, I like the look of it too. At first I really didn't but the more I see it, the more I like it.

So can you sell the Raw footage online, or will you have to do some thing silly with it like compress it down with a codex? Also do you think you will try and tailor some work to the film industry since you will be shooting 4k or will have the ability to shoot 4k? Better stock up on hard drives!

This camera is only 2.5K so just a little larger than 1080.
I don't know about uploading Raw footage, I guess it still has to be compressed just like the people that shoot stock with RED cameras.

This camera will be great on green screen shooting 4.2.2

Doh! Yeah that will be good.

Damn :(
B&H updated the expected delivery to Aug 15
B&H camera

I didn't order mine though B&H but I'm sure it will be the same for all vendors.

On Creative Cow's website:


Hi,

Just an update about the camera's shipping status.

We expect the Blackmagic Cinema Camera to begin shipping within two weeks, with the first shipments getting to our resellers by the third week of August. The camera is nearly ready for manufacturing and shipping now, and is in the process of Thunderbolt certification and final internal testing. Once this is complete, manufacturing and shipments to all worldwide offices will start.

regards

Kristian Lam
Blackmagic Design

Awaiting for Bloom's review:
http://philipbloom.net/2012/08/24/bmd-camera/

No need to wait for Bloom, he's pretty late with testing this camera.

Camera test and blog
operators manual

Exposure brackets

Download DNG RAW files from the camera to play with

There are now about half a dozen people with the camera as testers.
John Brawley has been talking it for about a month now and has given a lot of great detail about it.

An interview with Grant Petty CEO of Blackmagic.
Grant Petty interview

Things to remember about this camera.

The SSD's they recommend for this camera are about $300-$500 each.
256 gig drive will hold about 30 minutes of RAW footage or about 3 hours of compressed footage.

The internal battery will last for about 90 minutes. So an external battery is needed in the field and add to the expense.

The video from this camera is unbelievably gorgeous. Nothing like DSLR or other compressed camera footage that I've seen.
But the trade off is the expense of the things you need to keep the camera rolling.
Actually that isn't any different from people that have been shooting with the RED camera.

Thanks for the links Jake. Loving seeing bits of what this camera can do.

Canon T2i - great starting camera !
Canon T4i - good job Canon !
Canon MK II - magnificent camera to make money with photos and videos
Canon MK III - tremendous camera to make money from both photos and video

Canon C100 - Canon's nemesis. Who would ever buy this AVCHD camera for $8,000 when the BMCC is out there for only $2995. A hacked $800 GH2 might even out perform the C100 in picture quality.

Has very one met Philip Bloom Sr. (aka cinecameratv). LOL!!

Coming to video from being a still photographer, with the Blackmagic camera do you have shutter speeds as we know them from shooting with a DSLR or do you have to learn T4 T6 etc and shutter degrees. I saw in Jake's link that John Brawley was using a 172.8° shutter in his shot settings.

Yes, it has shutter speeds like we all know. But it also has shutter angles which are not something we know exactly how to use but are used on film cameras as well as high end digital cinema cameras.

A "normal" shutter angle is 180 degrees, so for most that will never change.
You can use it from 360 down to 70 degrees. As you increase the angle, it will also let in more light but also increase motion blur.

Oh, as far as that c100
At first glance it just looks pretty over priced for the squished compression but it can record uncompressed to an external recorder.
That and the "C" sensor is much better than that of any DSLR. Sharper and more dynamic range.
So, for $8000 and another grand for a good external recorder you'll have a pretty good kit.

Now, is it worth that much more than the BMC? Time will tell once its out and we can see the difference in the video from both cameras.

But if you were thinking of the C300, this would be a good alternative and save you $6K

@Jason. You can find me here in page 3.
http://www.luxordreamsolutions.com/casa/newsletter/summer_newsletter_casa_2012.pdf

Thanks, I just saw on Blooms blog that someone answered the same question, it seems the angle has a different effect on shutter speed depending on the fps being used, the person answering the question had converted angles to shutter speeds at 24 fps.

Have you seen the posts about this at EOSHD

I'm very close to ordering one of these instead of a Canon 1Dx

This guy is one of the beta testers. He talks a little about shutter angles.
BMC video

I'm investing in Canon lenses and will probably buy the BBCC next summer over the Mkiii. By that time all bugs in the first production batch may be resolved. I wouldn't be surprise if Magic Lantern finds the way to hack the BBCC for slow-mo.

I expect generation 2 of the BBC camera to be more ergonomical and with a better LCD screen.

I do not see how the C100 will compete effectively against the FS700 with its super slow-mo and future 4k capabilities.

I think the C100 should be taken down in price to around $5,000.

Vincent Laforet rewiev:
http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2012/08/31/black-magic-cinema-camera-bmcc-beautiful-befuddling/

He complains about the sensor size and crop factor, but that could be a major plus for wildlife shooters. If only there were some over crank, even 60p. I'll wait for the next incarnation.

I'm afraid the next incarnation will be much more than $3k so you may want to get one of the cameras available now.
They explained that to get 60p wont happen and shoot raw at $3k
When they designed the camera the three things they wanted was, dynamic range,raw and not go above $3,000

Jake, in what format are you going to sell the clips?

If I shoot in RAW I'll upload the 2.5K but I think I'll only use that in the studio and espessially for green screen.
In the field I'll shoot ProRes which is recorded in 1080 by default

It's September 3rd. Did it start shipping?

Yes, but very limited numbers in this first wave.

Curiosity: Has BBC approved the new cameras like the 5D Mk III, the Canon XF150, or the Blackmagic Cine Cam?

Before they had a PDF file. Now they link to this page ("The BBC uses the EBU’s Recommendations for high definition cameras."):
http://tech.ebu.ch/camtest

The Nikon D800 seems to have been rejected (see last sentence).
http://tech.ebu.ch/docs/tech/tech3335_s02.pdf

The Canon C300 was approved this summer.
http://www.canon.co.uk/About_Us/Press_Centre/Press_Releases/Consumer_News/Digital_Cinema/EOS_C300_receives_coveted_broadcaster_approval.aspx

Thanks, LUXOR. This is very important information. I guess I will stay with Canon.

I found more test here. The C300 is the last one in page 3.
Camera Tests

Philip Bloom review:
http://philipbloom.net/2012/09/05/bmd/

Good to know that the included software may need a beast multiprocessor I7 computer. I have a single processor I7 pc.

Everything else (regarding the cons) is no big deal.

I found this page very useful:http://www.personal-view.com/faqs/blackmagic-cinema-camera/workflow

So according to this site "BlackMagic does not care for PC users". It is designed for Macs.

I am a PC user ;-/

Is it true that Canon's Image Stabilization does not work in this camera, so it need to fix to a tripod?

They announced a Passive Micro Four Thirds model of the camera to be shipped in December.
I'm hoping they aren't tinkering with more updates and delaying the shipping of the first model.

Blackmagic Cinema Camera with a passive micro 4/3 mount. Philip Bloom is going to return his BCC. This is one of the things he wanted changed. Passive mount. This means that you have to focus manually and no IS.

BMCC - First Look w/Rick Young BMCC First Look

cinecameratv, the BMC doesn't have auto focus to my understanding... so you still have to focus manually on all the canon lenses.

The passive mount means you have to manually control he iris on the lens. Unlike the canon mount which the camera controls.
But in either case you only have manual focus.
I.S. does not work at this time. May be a firmware update at some point.

The SSD needs to be formatted to a MAC format but there is a piece of software I installed on my pc to do that. Other than that there is no difference if you are using a Mac or pc with this camera.

The new RED ;)

Yeah, too bad they are having problems with the supply of the sensor.
I just don't want to keep being strung along with the promise of next month.....

So, I'll wait until the end of the month, if they don't have a solid answer as to when it's being shipped I'm switching to the C300

What about the BMC2.0, that comes out in 2014.

What about the C100, that comes out the end of this month.

Have you read the specs for the C100? Sucks.....
The BMC 2.0 says it will be released in 2014 but what they mean is it will be released in 3014

Patience kk5hy. It's in the mail. It's coming by "Pony Express".

I would have patience if the company would give a little information. But at the moment they are completely silent and that is pissing off a lot of people including me.
If they said you would have it by November I would wait.
So I just told my dealer that if he didn't hear anything by next week I would cancel the order and go with the C300.

He is going to put his phone off the hook and make more money off you :-P
Contact them direct.

I have been and multiple bmc forums. If anyone is gettIng one of these cameras I would know it.
But I'm sure I'll get the C300 no matter what.

You should be happy, you kept trying to talk Delores into the C300 at NAB :)

I think that the BMCC can be a big problem in a small studio because of the crop factor. You do not want to tear down a wall. Maybe the C300 is better for you. The C300 matches better with your 1911 and sports car.

Lol, yeah the crop factor is huge. -2.3 times right? So even an 18mm lens would be close to a 50mm, and it would need to be very good glass. Guess its good if you are shooting distant stuff with good lenses...

Another BMCC Video --
Comparing the Cinema Camera & 5D Mk III

Sensor manufacturing defects:
http://www.dslrnewsshooter.com/2012/09/25/blackmagic-design-cinema-camera-delays-due-to-blemishes-on-glass-covering-the-sensor/

Saw that last week... looks like the issue has been addressed. :)

Hmmm...like I thought they're already working on a better model. Thats why Im waiting for the real deal.

Revised BMC in 2013

Im sure they will also offer a S35mm model in summer 2013.

looks like they are shipping in 2-4 weeks at bh..current model

BH has changed that date for a while, as the date passes they change their website. I still check the BMC forums and there is nothing but anxiety and anger with the delays and no official word from Blackmagic.

One guy just posted this:
"Just got off the phone with BHphoto and the conversation didn't exactly make me want to join the list of waiters.
I can say the faith of the bmcc shipping soon is fading with the dealers also."

B&H shipping back-orders leaves a lot to be desired. A friend of mine had the Nikon D800E on back order for over a month. He called them ... they had no idea when it would be in. He then ordered a different Nikon somewhere else and within an hour after the original phone call to B&H, they shipped the back-ordered one. Now he has a new D800e, D600 and his older D300 and Canon 60D. He's not selling much yet so I need to get him busy to pay for all of that. ... Yes he kept both the D800e and D600.