By now Blackmagic Design are shipping the Pocket Cinema Camera. At least, in limited quantities. From this video posted by Dan Chung - I've gathered no more than a couple of hundred have shipped, but more are being shipped daily.
This means that reviewers have also been getting their units and are gettings around to posting their findings. There are two I'd like to share with you: the review by Emm from CheesyCam, and the epic one by Philip Bloom.
The CheesyCam review
This one came online first. And his findings are -let's just say- a heads-up for everyone who's expecting this little cam. Emm comes to the conclusion that the camera drains the battery quite quickly, and is quite picky when it comes to it choice of SD cards.
Emm has made a number of posts reviewing the Pocket Cinema Camera:
- BlackMagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera – A Few Tips
- ProRes Sample + Test Card Speed for BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera
- Internal Noise from BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera
- BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera + Rode VideoMic Pro + Captured on Atomos Ninja 2
- Field of View 5D Mark II vs. GH3 vs. BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera
- BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera – My Final Thoughts
Below is the video from the first part of the series.
Epic review by Philip Bloom
For the highest level in quality when it comes to camera reviews, I turn to Philip Bloom. Suffice to say the good man by now is one of the authorities when it comes to camera reviews. His review of the Pocket Cinema Camera is starting to become one to match his review of the original Blackmagic Cinema Camera - an epic 45-minute video review.
This time around the review will be split into three parts, of which the first is 'live' as I write. I'm not going to spoil it by revealing too much of his findings, I leave that for you to read and see for yourself.
I've embedded the first part below, head over to Philip's site to see and read all details and other parts.
General Concensus
A final conclusion cannot be drawn without actually working with the camera yourself I presume. Also I´m not going to pre-digest everything for you - I'm just hoping to stimulate you to read/watch the other reviews yourself, and take home what you think is relevant to your situation/point of view. But there are a couple of 'general warnings' that we can take home from these first-hour users:
- It drains batteries awefully quick
- Very picky when it comes to SD cards
- No in-camera ability to format a card, nor delete clips
- No audio-meters
Blackmagic Design's response
Well that was quick. The first reviewers were complaining that the camera was way too picky when it came to SD cards and right after that Firmware 1.4.1 was released. This new update fixes the pickyness, and increases functionality with a number of active lenses - mostly from Olympus.
Fingers crossed that BMD will also release their (I suspect) 1.5 update with CinemaDNG as well, and if they're listening closely to the reviewers - perhaps a couple of other new functionalities (audio meters, please!)