@kris Right, understood, however it means that the lens will start at approximately 60mm in 35mm equivalence on the BMPCC instead of 40mm on the GH2....

NM. I guess I have a different definition of working. :)

From Blunty.

Good concise review from Blunty.

But I disagree with him about the orbs. When he first mentions the issue it's in some of his shots, I actually agree it's not a deal breaker in most of them. But just as he starts getting preachy about it, it's all over: 4:12 is exactly the kind of footage I couldn't live with.

It absolutely depends on what you shoot, but I like bright lights, halos, flares, reflections - and I want them to be smooth and have detail. It's my visual style and that's exactly what I want a raw camera for.

Blunty review is interesting. The image quality is really good, but the nagging flaws are just too much of an issue for me. This camera is so pared down to just be about image quality, there's really poor audio, no in camera stabilisation, no formatting of cards, no idea how much footage is going onto the card, no ability to delete from the device. So you are left with something that lives and dies on it's image quality. And although the black spot is very bad in this example, it is an extreme one and is something you just would have to avoid. The highlights are just something you can't avoid because they are everywhere, and there is ample proof of them here. Not as much as I have seen before but they are there and distracting. However the ability to grade this seems excellent and far more malleable than my GH2 which really falls apart with extreme grades. Also I imagine sharpening would be a much more pleasant experience with this camera as it wouldn't be sharpening nasty 4:2:0 artefacts.

I can't believe all the angst about this camera. Yes, it has problems that BMD needs to address, but even with its current flaws I am still going to keep my preorder. Despite the blooming issues, I've seen some damn good looking footage and yes, it is all about the image quality. I'm disappointed in the sound as well, especially from a run n gun perspective, but for me this camera isn't just about being a pocket camera. The quality of the images coming from it make it an A camera and I will continue to use double system sound as always. I will team it up with the GH3 for slow motion and if I need to, let the GH3 handle scenes where the pocket cam might bloom. I was thinking about canceling my order when I saw all the dreaded orbs, but I've seen so much other footage now that is so nice that I'm willing to gamble on an eventual fix in the future and just be careful with my shots in the meantime. Yes, its got a couple of major flaws, but this kind of image quality for under a thousand bucks...still a no brainer.

I'm cautiously optimistic and approaching this from the same GH3 workflow perspective as you @Trumpetman. However, if I get the slightest sense that Blackmagic does not plan to fully address and correct the BMPCC imaging issues, my preorder is toast... just cannot be bothered with products that render unreliably. That is what I love the most about working with the GH3, rock solid reliability and the internal PCM audio capture is usually clean enough for most of my jobs. One of the guys over on BMCuser said that he has successfully used his GH3 to format SD cards in exFAT that work fine with his BMPCC... no need to bring a laptop along for formatting!

official update from BMD about the blooming sensor issue:

As promised, here’s an update on the ‘blooming’ sensor topic.

All sensors, be it CCD or CMOS, will have a ‘blooming’ effect when during severe overexposure, the pixel is over saturated and excessive charges overflow to neighbouring pixels. It just looks different depending on the sensor type.

We are not seeing this on some of our test cameras so it might be something that is calibration related. Please contact your nearest support office and we’ll run another calibration on the camera.

regards

Kristian Lam
Blackmagic Design

And this is just LOL.

I'm sad to say this but you're absolutely right. What a crap. I suppose they still ship those cameras...

In the end they will fix it or they have to take the camera back for refund. "Recalibrating" imho is just another word for "serious problem, send the camera back", see their statement for the 4K. You don't know what they will do in fact but as long as they fix the issue I don't care.

I'm sure BMD have quietly halted production to patch the Pocket, so all this 'recalibration' story is just they don't have to admit the big failure. A week ago I got news from cvp (uk) that they were going to get cameras shortly, but after finding the orb issue that didn't happen. Now expected date shifted to 27.09!