BlackMagic Cinema Camera – PreOrder Available Now

• • 43 Comments

From our survey of the people this week in Vegas, the new BlackMagic Cinema Camera was the biggest thing at NAB2012 this year. The first commercially available video camera to shoot RAW for under $3K. It will be interesting to see what people think about the camera once it starts shipping. If you plan on getting one leave a commment, i'm taking a poll on what the interest is out there. Today it's available for Pre-Order via B&H (click here).

blackmagic_cinema-cameraScreen shot 2012-04-18 at 7.13.35 AM
find-price-button Black Magic Cinema Camera RAW or Prores Video

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43 thoughts on “BlackMagic Cinema Camera – PreOrder Available Now”

  2. Joe

    How about the jello effect or moire? The samples in vimeo didn't really challenge the camera enough to see the magnitude of either effect.

  4.

    Put my pre-order in as soon I found someone taking orders. I was down for a D800, but it never got here 🙂 Now I think I can spend 3K and get a better cine image. I will forgo having a great still camera for the best moving picture image I can get. I agree that the Blackmagic footage available thus far is not enough to sell me, but I'll keep my preorder. Everything about the camera looks like a dream for a digital filmmaker. But I'd like to see some more test footage for resolution and noise. I hope more will be forthcoming in the near future.

  5.

    this camera looks amazing! Finally a camera that is fit for us low budget filmmakers! The people at Black magic are geniuses!

  6.

    I'm a little bummed about the lens mount. I wish they used either some kind of very basic srew mount, micro 4/3 or even their own very shallow flange depth mirror-less style mount that could be adapted to anything inluding EF. This camera would be great with lenses like the Voigtlander 25mm .95 or the 17 .95 and a 16mm PL mount and C mount lenses. It feels really limiting with the EF lens especially for finding ANYTHING wide angle. I had a hard time finding wide angle lenses to adapt to 4/3.

  7.

    @ Emm - great point, I think after reading all this I am liking the camera as a long term future option. What it boiles down to is that 2K 3K or 4K is not just for the big guys anymore, it's for the masses and this is just the beginning. Image how amazing the features and cameras are going to be in a year from now or even in the next six months.

  8. Emm

     Post author

    @Austin - These cameras are fun, but you can always budget for a higher end camera as a 'rental'. There is always a way to get access to high end gear, and if you have a big job, just make sure to add the cost of rental into the budget.

  9. Austin

    IF I could afford this baby I would so pick it up but college needs to be payed for and I still need a decent light kit (Probably a 3x 650 as Arri kit) before I touch this camera. Oh well I'll stick with the T2I and maybe pick up BlackMagics next camera?

  10.

    I noticed that the quality is very sharp on vimeo HD. I previous watched it in SD and on an ipad 3 (new ipad) in HD

    Very soft on the new iPad. Weird...I would think on the new ipad would have the video being very sharp on that screen.

    I was really hoping to get this type of sharpness or clarity in the 5dmk3 httpss://vimeo.com/5103572

    Even though this was done on a red camera I was hoping that the latest dslr camera under $5k would be close to the clarity.

    Finally, looking at the HD version of this new camera's footage looks promising! At least for what I am wanting done.

    Hoping for the day that I can shoot video and take one of the still frames and it be as good as a traditional still shoot with a camera under $5K.

  11.

    I'm going to get one of these, I love the fact that it can shoot raw, and straight prores, no more transcoding, plus free davanici resolve and ultrascope, ssd recording, EF, and ZF lens mount. This is a great steal, the only down size it doesn't do 60p and it can't shoot stills, then again it's not a dslr.

    Thanks

  12. Emm

     Post author

    @Gordo - I don't think this new BlackMagic Cinema camera is an end to all other cameras. Of course we should all be familiar with the best tools to do the job. For things that need a fast turn around, I will always own a small point and shoot, camcorder, or even DSLR video camera. For times when I want the best and have the ability to sit and play with post processing, this camera can help fill in some of that area. I don't think i'll ever give up my smaller cameras though.

  13. mark london

    Also, I own Canon, Nikon and Panasonic cameras. I have no brand loyalty. I just want access to as many creative tools as possible, and the BMDCC seems a terrific concept. You should WANT us all buying them - that means they will make new perhaps better versions, and all the other brands will develop similar products at much lower prices that currently.

  14. life4va

    @Gordo if you have done ANY post work with RAW then you would know your statement is COMPLETELY FALSE. Color Correcting & Grading in your NLE can actually take you more time as you have to render and can't view your effects in real time unless you do so.

    Also working in RAW unless you to pull so much information out of your footage it is truly amazing. You only do this with your final sequence and adjust your clips accordingly.

    I love Raw workflow, the only time consuming process is exporting or converting high res files to smaller ones.

  15. mark london

    Gordo, you do realise it can shoot in two edit friendly formats as well right? so for a drama/music video/tvc shoot RAW. For a corporate/doco etc, shoot ProRes or Avid compressed. That's what I'll be doing.
    I also think this camera really asks the question: are you a filmmaker or a jobbing cameraman? There are much MUCH better solutions for event guys, or news, just as two examples. If you want to make 'cinema' then the BMDCC (and DigiBolex) seem to have been made in that direction from minute one.

  16.

    canon is going to deeply regret the day they crippled the 5DIII's video. all the other companies are aggressively pursuing the market that canon wants more money from. this blackmagic camera is tailor made for indie film makers.

  17. Gordo

    If you have not worked with raw, it is incredibly slow and tedious. You can pretty much pull anything out of a shot and it's completely noise free. Great for commercials or where you have huge budget. For most things I don't think I could deal with the workflow demands.

  18. Jed Darlington-Roberts

    i really like that softness, im not really a big fan of super sharp images, it doesnt look as filmic

  19. Achie

    The overall package when you look at 2995$ seems a steal to me, its something like what red promised - a 2.5K for 2.5K and then additional goodies for 495$ only.
    What excites me most is I can finally learn what RAW does. Tired of reading (yes it all makes sense and we have all played with RAW still images) now I can actually learn hands on how RAW helps. I was excited with the 5D Mark III because it meant a price drop for the Mark II :-). But now, fingers crossed for few more months of savings.

  20. Jermz

    I was going to buy the 5D MARK III, but the Black Magic Cinema Camera is film markers. 13 stops of Dymanic range, 2.5k and shoots RAW. For 3k. When the DSLR revolution dropped we had way work arounds and rigging by far. This is first camera Black Magic released and they did outstanding job giving us the people what we need. If your pockets are deep. RED and Canon made wonderful Hollywood cams. I live in Miami.

  22. mike_tee_vee

    While raw gives you additional flexibility, the added workflow must also be considered when doing post work.

    The ergonomics and battery life aren't conducive to run and gun or event style shooting.

  23. Tom

    I think some people confuse "softness" with a loss of detail. It is far worse to have an oversharpened video from the camera, that leads to loss of information due to halos messing up detail close to edges etc. A "soft" neutral raw stream can be manipulated to pretty much whatever look you like.

  24. MV

    I like this camera. As far as the internal battery goes, no big deal to me. Don't care for the touch screen, but once again, not a big deal. The dynamic range and the ability to shoot Raw is awesome for this price. My only concern, which is a big deal to me, it doesn't shoot 60 fps. At least from the specs I found on it. How could they leave that out?

  26. Emm

     Post author

    Sharpness is one thing, but also the dynamic range of maintaining highlight information, shadow details, color, and saturation. Just the ability to work with RAW video to help some imperfections with exposure in post. Personally i'm ok with a bit of softness if the trade off is having all the other features.

  28. mark london

    I'm with Tyler. You want super sharp under $10k buy a pure video camera. I loved the 'softness' with clarity of the footage. I also think there's a bit of cultural difference going on - that softer 16mm film look is very powerful for us Antipodeans, and is also a big look in the UK. We usually call it the 'Scandi grade'.
    I'm sure you could shoot more contrasty with it, especially with a different lens.
    I use that lens often, but only when I want a very naturalistic, organic look.
    At that price, I'm sold. Ordered mine an hour ago.

  29.

    @Treye

    I found the video to appear really clear - especially for vimeo.

    If you want sharper footage look at the FS-700 and notice how much it looks like "video". I prefer the footage to be on the soft side so that it has a more film-like look to it.

  30.

    @ Ruben ~ Yeah thanks man for clarifying that because that was what I meant to say. I mean I like the potencial of this camera but like you said until you really play with it and get some in depth reviews it's like anything you should just let the dust settle a bit.

  32. Matthew

    If I were considering the MK3 just for video I would definitely be conflicted. Looking at the specs on paper the Black Magic is dominant. On the other hand its new and has not stood any test of time. The main thing I question is how sturdy the build quality is.

    I'm happy with the 5D MK2 I just got for under $1500 in the recent Canon direct store deal.

  33.

    Every video that I have seen seems soft. Is there an uncompressed video out there or a still shoot to show sharpness?

  35.

    @Tristan - Not sure what you mean with "The fact that you can’t use Sata drives which is obviously cheeper is also a downer." ... SATA is a connection-type, not a HDD type. The SSD port in the BMCC is a SATA-SSD port. Though, I guess you mean that's a bummer that it won't record on standard 2,5" HDD's (spinning-disc-type). Reason for that is simple: write-speeds of those HDD's aren't high enough to write the RAW data, you need the SSD-speed for that.

    For me - I'm going to wait for IBC to get it in my hands, feel and see the this in real life first.

    Let's hope some CinemaDNG footage of this cam finds its way onto the web some time soon!

  36. Emm

     Post author

    @Nikita Pavlov - One thing that I find interesting is that BlackMagic is not marketing this as a 'Beta' camera, unlike some of the other affordable RAW cameras out there. I wonder how long they've been developing for it.

  40. Emm

     Post author

    @Alex - There are some videos out there. I also saw what it could do over at NAB2012. Amazing how they got it under the price of a Canon 5D Mark III, but then again it is only a dedicated video camera.

  41.

    I haven't been able to find a video from this camera....is anyone going to spend 3000$ for a camera without looking at the video?

  42.

    To be honest man, although I really like what I see when it comes to this camera I still do have some questions.

    Like the functionality of the screen in real world situations and what happens if the screen craps out? Does it become a glorified paper weight or are there ways to work around this if it were to come up.

    The battery is only two hours and although I am grateful for a built in one I just don't see me walking around with a gas generator for every shoot.

    The fact that you can't use Sata drives which is obviously cheeper is also a downer.

    Lastly, I have never really been one to pick up the first of anything just because the company never puts everything they could into the product and secondly there are always kinks that need time to be ironed out.

    I do really like the 2.5K image, the lens ability, the size, and the idea of the screen and drive as a all in one solution but I think that I will wait it out a bit and let the hype subside a bit. Just being honest and I really love to hear your take on this cam because you actually had a chance to see it.

    One other thing that really stood out to me was the Ninja 2 + D800 updated features...I mean I am a Canon guy through and through but these two devices together is amazing and very temping.

    Like always you keep up the good work man!

  43.

    Done and done. At $3k, this is a very good value. But with DaVinci Resolve included?! That's a steal. It's going to be a long 3 months of waiting for this bad boy. I can't wait to see what it can do!

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