He's also quick to let people know that there is Jello, as soon as someone touches the camera and starts panning. Haha. That made me laugh, quietly though.

And this is having sensor that is perfectly capable for images without any jello as it has global shutter mode.
It is hard to me to understand some BM decisions.

This camera will be a 16mm Alexa. You can quote me on that ;) Okay, so what if the sensor area is around 22mm actually.

Hitting near-to-13 stops is one of the goals they're putting on a pedestal, made sure to ask that question.

Yep, but we can't be sure about it, as this sensor, as I said use quite complicated approaches :-)

I think we can be 99% sure that it is sCMOS sensor, as all the specs match.

@shian You're killing my buzz, man! Don't let your disappointment with other cameras release carry over to this one. :) It's the magic cam. (But anyone who is ahead of me in the pre-order line, feel free to drop out. ;) If the DR is as good or better than what has been shown in the test videos then I'm a happy camper for 3 grand.

I want to hear opinions on using the screen to focus. Is it big enough? Sharp enough? I can focus pretty good on the GH2 screen so if it's significantly better than that at least I can wait on the SDI monitor a while.

It's funny how everywhere on the web this camera is getting a positive response except here. Hell I remember Vitaliy was super optimistic at first, but now he seems to find any chance to knock it down. Too bad it doesn't get a fare rap on this site. I used to love this site and what it had to offer the low budget indie guys. Now its starting to feel like a communist plot to take over the camera world by pushing hacked GH2's with high bitrate 420 with a ton of caveats, no clean HDMI, and baked in colors. This site has become a GH2 fanboy site headed up by their fearless leader Vitaliy. Don't get me wrong I love the GH2, and I am grateful for the work Vitaliy and others have put into the projects.

I still use my GH2 all the time as a second camera, but it is no Scarlet, no Epic, no RED ONE, no F3, no C300, no Alexa, no FS100, hell in my opinion it's not even the AF100. I can tell you this Blackmagic Cinema Camera will be better than around half of those cameras I just mentioned, so lets just talk about what Blackmagic is trying to do, which is make professional high quality cinema camera available to the masses. Is the Blackmagic Cinema Camera perfect, no, but most of the limitations can be solved by a third party. Plus many people coming from the DSLR world might already have a lot of the needed third party gear. If anyone wants an honest and accurate recollection of the showing, just look around the web and base the info on a few sites not just this one.

Looks like Black Magic giveth with one hand and taketh with the other... Yay RAW!!! Nay everything else! :-(

Another thing to consider ---

Remember when the Red first came out and had problems? What did you do, you had to call the rental house and get another body, if they didn't have one (and they usually didn't) they would call other houses to see if they did. If they couldn't find one PRODUCTION STOPPED. Days were lost, producers started hating on the RED. NOW it's not a problem, we take it into account. The rental houses have plenty of bodies on standby and can get one out to you within the hour....you take lunch early, or shoot with B-cam only while you wait.

When this cam comes out it will likely have limited availability as well. What happens if this is your primary cam, and you go into production with it, and it starts having problems, what are your options???

I'm not in the "fuck this cam" camp, I'm in the "wait and see cuz its definitely not there yet" camp.

RAW is awesome! ProRes is awesome! anything NOT 4:2:0 is awesome! 13 stops (if it actually has it) is awesome! Everything else....not so much, and how long will it take them to get it right? Remember when The Epic was supposed to be ready? And when was it finally ready? Same with the Scarlet. I will not be an early adopter for this exact reason.

My reaction is due to my expectation that BMD would not repeat the mistakes of other camera companies which is promise more than they could deliver.

EDIT- also, I know that at some point some dunderheaded producer, high on the hype, is going to force me to shoot with one. Like I've been forced to shoot with the 7D and 5D, and if it starts giving me shit, I'm going to want to drop kick it out a 3rd story window in frustration.

@shian .. I actually appreciate 'Devil's Advocate' debates.

My reaction is due to my expectation that BMD would not repeat the mistakes of other camera companies which is promise more than they could deliver.

I do not know who else has BMD products .. I do .. 7 of them .. and they all perform up to the declared specifications, and not one product has had even the slightest hiccup.

Two of the products I pre-ordered, and they were delivered within a week of the 'we are shipping date'

Personally I am not a BMD fanboy because I am attracted to the cinema camera, but because I have experience with their products, and their dealership betwork in Australia.

They don't to my knowledge provide direct support .. I deal with NewMagic in Australia (which I suspect is linked to BMD) .. the support here in Australia is awesome.

I know from the local distributor, that our two local hire companies have also ordered the cameras. I think he said the larger company has ordered two .. and Perth is a small town.

Having said all that, they could stuff it up, there is always a first time .. also I don't own a mac.

Note also that Ultrascope does run on windows, there is also a pci version .. which I haven't bought as I am going to wait for thunderbolt on a laptop.

(I am rendering a clip at the moment with ColorGear, I love it thank you)

@Shian- what you're saying is perfectly valid in terms of having a reliable camera for big productions, but to call this camera a "piece of crap" when you haven't used it, and it's not even out yet, or finished, is really unfair. Sometimes you pay a price for being an early adopter. It's like gambling, and you've obviously been burned before, but it doesn't mean this camera will turn out the same way.

There are no guarantees with anything in this business, but I believe BM will do their best to deliver a solid product. And for $3k I'm willing to put up with a few problems initially to have this kind of imagining. I've been working around dlsr limitations for years now and it will surely be a major step up.

@shian

I think that extras are required goes with out needing to be stated ... you can't just buy a GH2 or a 5D and not need all the same extras.

Most of us here I think have, or aspire to own all the items required. I see that point as moot, and ovious to anybody who is contemplating purchase.

In my case, I will purchase the Tokina 11-16, and I am up and running.

I imagine most can attach it to what ever rig they are currently using .. remove 5D or remove GH2 .. and attach BMD. What else do you need apart from a bigger battery and an SSD to get started?

The largest shoots I've been on were about 30 .. and as bestboy or camera assistant (and not for almost 20 years) These days I shoot talking heads by myself .. and music videos with a crew of 4 or 5 .. and multicam with 10.

So keep in mind, for the hobbyist, or someone shooting landscapes, or cityscapes, my standards don't apply.

I think that's key to our debate .. I don't think this camera is aimed at the production scale you work in,

SDI EVF

I am glad it's SDI output, I see HDMI as dodgy, and having difficulty with light outdoors is an issue with all LCD's.

you wanna bet, your current handheld rig won't line up properly for your follow focus

John Brawley has stated it conforms to the 15mm Lightweight Standard

SDI monitor, or a SDI to HDMI converter box.

I think that everybody who is contemplating purchase is aware of that.

How much footage is gonna fit on your SSD? How much for spares?

The math eludes me it's late here .. I do get just over an hour of DNxHD on a 120G.

How many 64G cards do you need to work with GH2

How many drive for the RED

.. 120G SSD $220 locally .. 64G card at BH $180 .. Red drives .. I don't know .. shit loads of money

And....there is no bigger battery...the battery doesn't come out

Yes we all know that .. I feel you need bigger capacity .. everyone knows it's internal.

You are a far better DP than me

I demand you take that statement back :) Your work is awesome

I hire people with skills similar to yours when the job is beyond my abilities,

The 11-16 will get me going .. I have some L glass (bit long for this) I can hire canon glass easily.

But the cam I saw yesterday, isn't even close to being ready for what I do.

Agreed, it's not aimed at your production levels.

Can you see how it's close to perfect for me .. music video clips.

I have an EX1 for talking heads .. and I hire in more for multicam jobs.

Oh yeah and guess how much I had to spend on SxS cards when I bought the EX1

Remember how amazing FCP X

Never really looked at it, the first time I did I think it was version 6 it seemed like a toy .. AVID since 1996

Too soon to tell.

I agree let's wait and see. I'll give you my report when mine arrives.

I prbably missed a few points

@kavadni Nice common sense post.

@Shian Having just read through this debate, seems to me you make some valid points, but your choice of words is a bit harsh for something that hasn't shipped yet and there are some generalizations that are far reaching. I agree with @kavadni that your logic of 100 people on set is not the primary goal for this camera unless it's a 2nd.. Much smaller IMO.

BM does have a history of delivering working products and I wouldn't compare them to Apple in regards to launching new products. Zillion dollar company that pushing their will people to small company trying to help film & video peeps.

In a perfect world, we all would wait. I ordered one and am keeping my fingers crossed that it will work out for me. I have no intentions of spending 6k to make it work. I have a smalldp monitor and lots of storage. I'm guessing I"ll spend $400-$800 on storage cards for the camera, make use of my many batteries or possible add to them. I'm also one of those guys that aren't mainstream and don't use a MAC. Don't think it's a concern. My PC programs run any files I throw at them. Slightest concern is Quick Time performance on PC's if I don't use DNG, which will happen often.

This debate seems to fit my friends definition of a what he calls "mental masturbation". All in all, points have been made, maybe it's time to move on and sit tight till the camera comes out.