https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/family/davinci-resolve-and-fusion

You can check out AJA #TRYCION program here.

“The piece goes on to say, “In 2013, Samsung announced a new way of approaching flash storage manufacturing. Rather than place the cells along a single layer, as had been standard practice since NAND flash was invented in the 1980s, it would stack them vertically. That allows for much greater density, which gives you much more storage space.”

This could radically transform post-production. As cameras get more and more data rate intensive with HDR, UHD, 4K or higher resolutions our ability to access that data quickly for realtime playback becomes an ever increasing challenge. This could provide both speed and size flexibility for post professionals.

Read more here or here.

I think Canon Rumors is overestimating the demand for this product!

Unfortunately, I think this is completely accurate. While the C300 Mark II should only cost $8K, like the Sony FS7, I'm guessing it'll cost closer to $10K or even $12K (or $16K as announced on April 8). Reason being: I don't think Canon believes the FS7 to be a competitor to this camera. I can see why Canon would believe this, but in the marketplace the consumer sees these two cameras as in the same class, even if the manufacturers do not.

I think this line of reasoning is further supported if you look at Canon's current price breakdown pyramid for their Cinema EOS lineup (current mark down pricing is listed below):

Canon C100 Mark 1 - $2,999 (link)

Canon C100 Mark II - $5,499 (link)

Canon C300 Mark I - $6,999 (link)

Canon C300 Mark II - $15,999 (link) - updated after Canon announcement

Canon C500 Mark I - $15,999 (link)

Canon C500 Mark II - $19,999 or $24,999 (speculative)

I also wouldn't be surprised for Canon to pull a page out of Apple's iPhone playbook and continue to sell the previous version of their Cinema EOS camera at a reduced price. That would allow Canon to sell a Cinema EOS camera at nearly every price point. And if there's one thing that Canon (and Apple) is good at it's providing a product offering at nearly every conceivable price point (specs are different story!). If the product pyramid that I've outlined above holds that would allow Canon to sell a camera as inexpensively as $3K and as premium as $25K.

Additionally, if you're in the market for a great 1080p camera the original C100's and C300's are absolute steals at those prices. Since 98% of projects today (2015) are finished and presented in HD 1080i/p, those cameras will still get the job done well for the next several years. I have no intention of giving my EOS cameras up at this point, and may even add an additional one soon!

I'll continue to say it: all modern NLE's are capable of producing high-quality content for broadcast television or film. Apple Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Pro CC, and Avid Media Composer all have the ability to cut your story and cut it well. The difference is in the user and which product makes the most sense for a given workflow. Stop the nonsense about whether not NLE is faster than that NLE, or if <fill in the blank> NLE is "pro"...they are all capable choices in the hands of the right person.

I run both at my shop and they each have distinct advantages (the 5K Retina screen is gorgeous). It's always a trade-off between speed and cost. The faster you want to go, the more money it's going to cost. For many of today's task an iMac is a great machine. But if you need the horsepower for transcoding you're not going to beat a Mac Pro.

This story got buried in my notes. Amazon announced this back in January, and if you take a look at Prime Instant Video you can see they've started to make up ground on their competitors for recent content.

If true, I find that very interesting, particularly that the "Mark III sales are still good." While many people bag on Canon's lack of "innovation" (I'm looking at you EOSHD.com) their products sell well to many segments - photo, video, news, cinema, etc. While I also hope Canon releases some face-melting cameras this year, they are a business. And if their products are selling well it's understandable that they may delay an announcement for a replacement product to avoid the Osborne effect.

It's a MacBook. Not a MacBook Pro. This machine is for general, simple computing tasks - Word Processing, Facebook, Twitter, online shopping, etc. It is not meant for heavy computational tasks, like photo/video editing, color grading, compositing, or audio production - it has an Intel Core M processor and integrated Intel HD Graphics 5300 GPU for crying out loud. Those aren't powerful chipsets. If you need a lightweight, ultra portable machine that lasts all day and has an absolutely gorgeous screen...this is your machine!

Also a very smooth move by Apple to secure exclusive rights to host the HBO Now app for the first 3 months. Very savvy way to push product for Apple (and no coincidence that they lowered the Apple TV price to $69 USD).

UPDATE (3/15): For additional discussion surrounding HBO Now check out the March 11th episode of the always insightful KCRW podcast The Spin-off.

This camera from Arri will finish off what was left of RED in Hollywood. The previous case for RED was the ability to fly their camera body on a variety of drones, jibs, and rigs. Now if a director is shooting on Alexas or Amiras (and who isn't in Hollywood?) and need to get a mobile shot or into a tight space they're going to grab the Mini, not the RED.

Further irony that this Arri announcement came on the heels of RED's Weapon camera upgrade announcement. I doubt that's a coincidence.

TIP: ShotOnWhat is a great resource if you're curious about what camera was used on a given movie.

Sounds good right...not so fast. ProTools First offers no compatibility for AAX plugins, sessions are limited to Avid's Cloud storage, and it has no mp3 export option. You can find more information about ProTools First in this article.

I hope that Frame can move from vaporware to an actual shipping product because their take on review and approval looks excellent. But if you need something today, their solution isn't going to get the job done. If you need a review and approval solution today then check out Scott Simmons' post from May 2014. There are quite a few good options out there already.

I especially miss the keyboard shortcut editor and the ability to open multiple projects side-by-side. FCP7 had those features exactly right! Here's to hoping FCPX, Avid, and Adobe work those in better in future releases...

Well if that isn't a shot at Blackmagic, specifically, and RED more generically then I don't know what is! Though I appreciate them taking the time to perfect the firmware...whether or not they achieve that remains to be seen.

While many can, and do, quibble with Adobe's subscription model it seems hard to deny the speed at which Adobe now moves to update and bug fix their software. That has ripple effects across the market - Avid, Apple, Autodesk have to respond to that development speed or risk losing ground. I've not hidden my support and daily use of Adobe's Creative Cloud for my post-production team, but what I support even more is the overall competition. If Adobe pushes Apple, and Apple pushes Avid, and Avid pushes Apple, that's just fine by me. We're the ones who benefit from that competition.

I can only imagine the outrage that will ensue the day that FCP 7 no longer runs on the newest Mac OS. Never mind the fact that FCP 7 is now 3.5 years (and counting) beyond its supported shelf life. It was EOL'ed June 2011. As a corollary, if you're still using FCP 7 it's time to move on - Avid, Adobe, Autodesk, and Apple all have excellent software options.

In case anybody thought my previous post from Philip Hodgetts about Twitch being something that is competing for eyeballs was a joke...it's also competing for serious advertiser dollars!

There's some good tips in here that can probably help you unwind at the end of the day - the most important one, ironically, setting a hard bedtime for yourself. I guess my mother was right about that!

I think this concept stretches to many different mediums now. Your Xbox, iPhone, AppleTV, Roku, traditional broadcast TV, cinema, Redbox, YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook...they are all competing for your most valuable resource - your time. We all have the same amount of hours in a week and how we chose to spend them means we're choosing one medium/format over another.

Having been through a few job interviews in my day, I can say that this is one of the most challenging questions to answer. How much should I say? What should I include? Most importantly, what should I exclude?

As an interviewer now screening candidates, I can say that I don't put that much weight on the question as this piece implies. But I do still ask it, usually as a way to relax the candidate. In fact, I'm usually more concerned with how a person carries them self in the interview - how they act, their demeanor, and most importantly their sense of humor (or lack thereof). Most skills can be taught, but personality is a priceless intangible.

I think you could also say how well designed, both ergonomically and technologically, the C300 is, that even after 3 years of being on the market it still sells/rents so well. As a corporate video pro the C300 is my preferred camera for shoots. I can shoot outside in bright daylight, inside in a dimly lit environments with minimal extra gear (rigs, recorders, XLR packs, screens, etc.). Everything I need to pull of a quick shot is onboard the C300 from Day 1. Even today in the growing world of 4k this and 4k that, the C300 still creates a crisp 1080p image that I turn to time and again for my day-to-day work.

That said, there are more and more cameras that are starting to look appealing to me (none of which are DSLR based cameras). Specifically, the Sony FS7, when it ships, looks like another winner for cinema, corporate, or event shooters. The XAVC codec continues to get praise from every corner of the industry. Sony may have finally produced a camera "for the rest of us" in the FS7 for around $8K according to pre-order pages.

The question intensifies: Can HBO become like Netflix sooner than Netflix can become like HBO? Netflix pushed into HBO's territory with original series like House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Hemlock Grove, Lilyhammer, and others. HBO now responds to Netflix by going direct to customers with a subscription (read: Netflix) plan.

I still wonder if they charge $15/month will they restrict access to older content, thereby giving the traditional HBO subscription through a telco some legitimacy for existence. Color me disappointed if they charge $15/month for just new releases or "some" of HBO's content.

More information regarding HBO's announcement from Re/code

The second paragraph is the key to me (I'm assuming the first paragraph to be true, that it's hard to tell HD from 4K when only resolution is changed). I'm not so concerned with higher frame rates, but better color space, bit depth, and dynamic range are areas that need some iteration. I would be more than happy with 24fps (or 30) at HD with better color, and dynamic range than the current craze of bigger resolutions that we can't actually deliver. The press to 4K seems like little more than marketing at this point to me (save for the rare benefit that you can (1) show it in its original resolution on a screen that benefits from it, (2) do pan & scan in post for mastering to HD).

For why 4K still doesn't matter in your home, see here.

I think after 2019 is a good guess for when h.265 starts to become ubiquitous (though the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus will feature h.265 encode/decode for FaceTime, see tech specs under "Video Calling"). The software for content creators has to begin incorporating it, and then consumer devices have to incorporate a h.265 decoder processor on their devices - TV, cell phone, tablet, game console, etc. And until HEVC gains significant consumer-level device traction you can bet there will be minimal consumer-level adoption of 4K/UHD. 

While hyperbolic there's still a nugget of truth contained in here. Broadcast viewership tends to be declining, but this trend isn't linear, meaning it can change. The cries about broadcast or cable dying seem reminiscent of pundits decrying the end of cinema because TV was invented. Cinema didn't dye or fade to black, it adapted to the culture and became something different. I fully expect broadcast and cable TV to do the same in the face of mobile users and incumbent Internet giants—Netflix, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, Apple.

This is what Canon built the 7DII for - sports and event photography. It's not your next video camera. It's not your 4K monster. It's not your lowlight video king. It's not your super cheap, Super35 high-end codec camera. It's a DSLR! Period. Remember those....the ones that take pictures? And it takes pictures of fast moving objects while tracking them and keeping them in focus!

Take a look at some of the specs: 65 point AF, built in intrevalometer, 10fps (31 RAW and over 1,000 JPEG as long as your card is fast enough to write the data), automatic lens distortion correction in-camera, GPS, weather-sealed aluminum body, and a completely revamped and upgraded metering system. These are features video guys/gals don't care about. Action photographers do. This camera makes a legitimate swipe at the Canon 1D X and Nikon D4S for a third of the price (yet, there are still reasons why a photographer might want a 1D X or D4S over a 7DII).

If Canon wanted to announce a new video camera, DSLR or not, it had NAB in April or IBC last weekend in Amsterdam. But they didn't. They announced the 7DII at Photokina, a photography show. That should say a significant something about where they intend to position this camera in their lineup.

Read the specs and press release for Canon's 7D Mark II here.

I'm curious to see if Canon announces any C-series products this weekend. Given how well the series is selling I'm guessing Canon doesn't feel a whole lot of pressure to do so. And they'll also want to avoid the Osborne effect with any announcement they do make.

Photokina officially starts next Tuesday (September 16). Much like NAB though, announcements tend to start coming out the weekend before.

iPod Classic was such a great piece of tech in so many ways and brought with it the beginnings of the juggernaut we now know as Apple Inc. Not to mention the iconic advertising that came along with it - silhouettes dancing against a solid colored background with the white ear buds - helped shape the ad industry during the early-to-mid 00's. It also brought music lovers a little bit closer to their music collections as you could take the thing nearly anywhere! RIP iPod Classic.

Since they unified the code base of the BMD cameras it does seem that we've been getting firmware updates faster and more regularly. Strange thing is that these features are so long in coming in the first place. And why do firmware updates come to the BMPC4K first? Does BMD consider that their flagship camera?

You can hear Emery Wells (@EmeryWells), the co-founder of frame.io, talk with Chris Fenwick (@chrisfenwicand Alex MacLean (@alexm13) on Episode 053 of the Digital Cinema Cafe.

And therein lies the rub. We want bugs squashed, but we don't want to pay any money for it (historically we've never had to pay for bug fixes). However, as this digital age continues to "grow up" business models have to adapt.

While Larry's post isn't directly aimed at Adobe's CC model it certainly has that in view. Subscription based software is actually moving through all the major media players, save for Apple who doesn't need to move to that model because their money is made from hardware sales (iPhone, iPad, Mac, etc).** But Adobe, Avid, Autodesk, Red Giant, and the Foundry have all moved towards subscription plans for either outright use or maintenance packages.

** You could also make a case that Blackmagic Design won't move towards subscriptions because they also generate a substantial portion of their income from hardware sales. With their ever broadening line of cameras, routers, converters, and switchers software just becomes an add-on that is used to entice a consumer (licensed version of DaVinci Resolve given out with any camera purchase). 

Saying "No" to work is one of the hardest things to do. It can also be one of the most rewarding.

There's always quite a debate when any new camera is announced about how big the sensor size is. Terms like full frame, crop sensor, Super 35, Micro 4/3, or Super16 get tossed around on blogs (like this one) and forums. Having shot many of the formats above sensor size does make a difference, but I don't think it makes as big of a difference as the pixel peepers would like to make it out to be. I think Zack has some good illustrative pictures on his post that support his claim that sensor size just doesn't matter that much. Nearly, all of the movies shot digitally are technically shot on a crop sensor camera, Super 35 (i.e. not full frame) - Skyfall, Gravity, Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Zero Dark Thirty, Captain America, World War Z, Guardians of the Galaxy (and that list is just the Arri Alexa, not counting RED or Canon C cameras). I don't remember thinking in any of those movies about how bad the falloff looked due to a Super 35 sensor....!

1. On Screen Histogram
2. Time Remaining indicator for storage space
3. Audio level indicators

More information is available here on the BMD update here. Initial testing on my BMPC4K is stable so far.

Nino of Cinema5d makes a great point:

Head over to Blackmagic and download the latest firmware for your camera.

Robin's right. Killing Aereo doesn't stop their problem. In the same way that shutting down Napster didn't help the RIAA. The problem is that technology is moving faster than these companies. And the companies want to continue to sit on their profit margins more than serve their customer base. It's only a matter of time until a company, product, or service crops up that really addresses how customers consume media (anytime, anywhere, on any device) and forces the main telcos to adapt. Or if it plays out like the RIAA, until an Apple like company throws the telcos a lifeline via an iTunes-esque software/service and then begins to shift the balance of power.

http://ispspeedindex.netflix.com/usa

This is welcomed news for vfx pros in a ProRes-centric workflow. However, I would imagine most doing work at this level are in a DPX sequence workflow. But having the additional option may prove to be helpful for some shops.

See also Larry Jordan's article on the new ProRes XQ codec.

As I mentioned earlier, if you're not an Adobe Creative Cloud user for Lightroom/Photoshop there's never been a better time to start.

You can add this to the growing line of professional apps that Apple has killed off without warning for users - Shake, Final Cut Server, Final Cut Pro 7, DVD Studio Pro, etc. It's one of the reasons that I am not a skeptical Apple software users. Any Apple software I use I do so with the intent of not marrying myself to it because inevitably Apple will pull the rug out from under you.

At least this time it appears that Apple will give users a way to migrate their libraries from Aperture to the new Photos app. Something I wish would've been allowed when FCP X was released in 2011.

This is also a great time to add, if you're not a Lightroom CC user there's no better time to join up!

I think this completely sums up why Canon didn't announce anything at NAB this year. It's also the reason why they've tended to slowly update their DSLR cameras. If the product is selling well you should continue to make your profit before introducing the next product. If the C100/300 weren't selling well, I'd bet that Canon would've teased their next release at NAB 2014. Since those cameras are working great for many, many people (myself included) they'll hold off until 2015 or 2016 with their next Cinema update. And it's not like Canon has been sitting on their hands with Cinema EOS series. They've added some great firmware upgrades recently to extend the usability of the cameras.

This is a great story and worth your 5 minutes!

He also said listening over data is not a sustainable model in a world where data is increasingly metered. An FM chip uses no data, of course, so it is free to use and uses up battery life at only one-third the rate of streaming. Additionally 100 percent of radio's profit still comes from broadcasting over the air. "Every major company in this industry is supporting the FM chip initiative," he said, even while acknowledging that stations must stream.

Yes, the telecom world is increasingly ruled by data caps. But that is an argument of economics (how much the end-user pays), not necessarily convenience. As an avid music listener, I'm more concerned about getting what I want when I want it then I am over how much data I consume. Not to mention the annoying commercials, DJ's, and the same 40 songs looped in various order all day long. With more of the carriers moving towards a "bucket of data" approach I imagine many people (not all) fit their monthly data use into these buckets with relative ease, including music streaming.

I don't think terrestrial radio is going anywhere anytime soon. But unless they adopt to the tsunami of mobile users in a convenient way, I'm afraid they're looking at a serious decrease in revenue (from ads), and a loss of culture capital as the way to find/hear/explore music. In fact, it could be argued that both of those are already happening.

It’s time to talk about color correctors. In this post, I’ll compare Color, Resolve,SpeedGrade and Symphony. These are the popular desktop color correction systems in use today. Certainly there are other options, like Filmlight’s Baselight Editions plug-in, as well as other NLEs with their own powerful color correction tools, including Autodesk Smokeand Quantel Rio. Some of these fall outside of the budget range of small shops or don’t really provide a correction workflow. For the sake of simplicity, in this post I’ll stick with the four I see the most.

Oliver offers up a good overview of the color tools available today. If you're curious about which direction you should take your shop or what else you should invest in learning this blog post is a good place to start.

A point of pride for many film buffs is a knowledge and love of aspect ratios. You can often hear their excited gasps of delight in any cinema showing the new, pristinely presented Wes Anderson, or see them stomp off to see the management if the local multiplex isn’t projecting a Coen Brothers film in quite the correct ratio. Yet with all the various incarnations of image sizes over the years, it’s easy to get lost or confused. Never fear – if you’ve ever wondered about the difference between Academy Ratio and CinemaScope, or why the hell your TV is shaped the way it is, Empire can make it all crystal clear…

I'd bookmark this link because it's filled with such good information. I''ve written previously on the topic of aspect ratios, see here. If you're having trouble figuring out your pixel dimensions are the correct ratio try this handy calculator. That pixel aspect calculator is a staple in my bookmarks toolbar.

Lance: Film look is indeed sort of a strange thing to try and define. On a technical level there are very specific colour responses and associated printing responses. But  that’s really only half of the story, because the real arbiter of a film look is this funny plastic thing called the human brain which does all sorts of odd things. Both it and the human eye adapt over time, so the exact same thing will look different depending on a number of things such as how long you’ve been sitting in the theatre, whether or not it was sunny or cloudy outside the theatre, how dark the theatre is, and what colour the walls are, just to name a few.

So, coming back to film… well, it’s hard to say what the film look is. It’s not the exact colours that are important, but moreover film has what I call a more “organic” feel: the highlights roll off nicely, the shadows roll under nicely, there’s a strange twist in the middle of the colour response, and a curious lack of real deep blues. When running through a projector, the fact that the photosites move around from frame to frame (grain!) adds to the effect, which your brain puts together and screams “film!”

I agree digital isn't exactly like film, but it's darn close. The gap is closing rapidly. I have a very hard time telling the difference in theater between a scene shot on film and a scene shot on a digital camera. Arri's Alexa has gone a long way to minimizing the gap.

The results also indicate that adults under the age of 35 are twice as likely not to have a pay TV service -- 12.4% of those households where an adult under the age of 35 lives are cord-cutters

This should really worry broadcasters:

Experian says these young adults may not necessarily be defined as “cord-cutters” because they may never have had a pay TV service. When you factor in those young adult homes with either a Netflix or Hulu account, Experian says, the share of young adult households that don’t have a pay TV service jumps to 24.3%.

If you've never used the cable-TV product you're more inclined to never think of needing the cable-TV product. While the crisis won't hit broadcasters in the near-term, the future doesn't look rosy. As Game of Thrones is fond of saying, "Winter is coming."

While it had been hoped that a patent pool license for the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC, aka, H.265) compression scheme would be available from licensing body MPEG LA by now, encoder/decoder vendors that required this patented technology to build their products are still waiting.

4K is currently only for post-production uses - tracking, stabilizing, pan/scan, and mastering. Until there's a way to deliver to the end user efficiently, not destroying data caps in the process, UHD won't see the light of the TV screen.

“A great game should remind people that they are human beings,” he said, “not just players.”

Video games have come along way since the Atari days, especially in terms of story, special effects, and cinematography. The best games I've ever played do wrestle with ethics and morals within the story. BioShock: Infinite stands as one of the best games I've ever played that actually deals with morals, ethics, and philosophy.

What Adobe needs is some type of fail-safe to allow users to, at the very least, get in and launch their apps for a 24, 48, 72 hour period when something like this happens. If you’ve ever signed up for 2-step verification for any of your online services you might have gotten a secret verification code to use in the event one of your verification methods isn’t available, say if you lose your cell phone. Supplying something similar to Creative Cloud users might ease the fears that were caused by this recent outage. This option has been discussed before and was, of course, discussed again. I can’t image the Creative Cloud ever staying down for an extended period of time as Adobe has bet the farm on this new business model and they want it up and operational more than anyone. But some failsafe would be great for the customer. If their servers are down you might not be able to access your fonts or sync your settings but at least you’d be guaranteed the ability to launch an app and work.

By now I'm sure you've read or experienced the Adobe Creative Cloud meltdown that happened last week. Scott has a good, fair-balanced look at the problem. I too agree with him that Adobe needs a fail-safe in place for when (not if) this happens again. Technology will always malfunction at some point and typically it seems to happen when you need it just work. So building in some sort of safeguard so that when their servers go down (for weather, maintenance, outside hackers, etc) there is still a mechanism in place for users to login and get to work (though the CC services like fonts, or files won't be available).

I didn't experience any problems during the Creative Cloud outage. We have 4 machines running CC and none of them reported any problems last week. I'm very sorry for those that did though as that can be costly both financially and for your reputation.

I did, however, chuckle over Scott's "if you have a few hours to kill" jab at the Creative Cow forum entitled "Adobe Creative Cloud: The Debate Forum." But he's right! If you want to waste some time read those threads...

I get it. You’re frustrated. I’ve been there, and have done my fair share of swearing at my monitor when something makes me crazy. But in the immortal words of Ice Cube, check yourself before you wreck yourself.

It’s a mistake to think that nobody from company X, Y, or Z is going to read your forum post or email, so being incendiary will cut through the clutter. The truth is, folks at software companies do read forums and they do peruse these emails; not only management, but also the software designers and engineers in the trenches. Real people who’ve been staying up late nights trying to make the software you use better. So if there’s something you wouldn’t say to one of these folks in person at a meeting or party, you really should reconsider whether phrasing it that way in a forum is the most influential approach you could take.

Good words. Please remember this the next time you go to submit a bug report, or even email a companies tech support. You'll always attract more flies with honey than vinegar. Don't do or say anything online that you wouldn't do or say face-to-face.

Convinced? They have a website dedicated to the campaign as well. They aren't the first to do this. HP started doing this months ago with nearly the exact same computer specs.

There are advantages in both camps - Mac or Windows. Ultimately, it depends on your budget, workflow, software, and personal OS preferences. For me and my team, we're currently an all Apple shop. But these other options do look tempting....

Canon Inc. today celebrated an impressive lens-manufacturing milestone with the production on April 22, 2014, of the Company’s 100-millionth EF-series interchangeable lens for EOS cameras—an EF200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4x.

Change is attractive to new users, with no preconceived preferences. FCP X acolytes like to say how much easier it is to teach new users FCP X than a track-based system, like FCP 7, Premiere Pro or Media Composer. As someone who’s taught film student editing workshops, my opinion is that it simply isn’t true. It’s all in what you teach, how you teach it and what you expect them to accomplish. In fact, I’ve had many who are eager to learn Media Composer, precisely because they know that it continues to be the “gold standard” for feature film editing software.

There are some concrete reasons why film editors prefer Media Composer. For many, it’s because Avid was their first NLE and it felt logical to them. For others, it’s because Avid has historically incorporated a lot of user input into the product. Here are a dozen factors that I believe keep the equation in favor of Avid Media Composer.

That's an interesting take down to the FCP X is the easiest NLE to teach/learn. Maybe some people gravitate to it faster than others. Maybe some teachers find it easier to explain. It may just be in the teacher. A good teacher can make learning interesting regardless of the tool, skill, or concept being taught. But as I've said before:

Let me be clear about this: nobody cares what NLE you use. If you're getting the job done and the client is happy that's all that matters. If a particular NLE caters to your workflow better then another. Fine. Use that NLE. If you need to adapt your workflow to better utilize the NLE then adapt your workflow. But seriously, stop with the "this software is faster" or "I'm 2x faster in..." All the NLE's on the market today - FCPX, Premiere Pro CC, MC7 (and yes, even you Autodesk Smoke) - work well and can get a story cut. All of them are fast, fluid, and when used by an expert, can accomplish the art of editing.

(1) Create a Template folder structure on your OS and you can simply copy/paste that folder and rename for each new project.

(2) Use Post Haste from Digital Rebellion. It's free, easy to use, customizable, and did I mention it's free.

(3) Evan Pease (@Jack_McFly) in a recent #postchat gave people to an AppleScript file that he uses. Same idea as Post Haste, but in the convient form of an AppleScript. The script is modifiable if you know how to work with AppleScript

The Canon EOS C100 Digital Video Camera is now available for purchase with a Dual-Pixel CMOS AF Feature Upgrade. The revolutionary Dual-Pixel CMOS AF technology, originally introduced on the Canon EOS 70D, will enable continuous autofocusing with Canon’s entire EF lens lineup. Additionally, the EOS C100 now has three new EF lens kit bundles to complement the Dual-Pixel CMOS AF technology.

I expect the C300 to follow a similar pattern. There's no reason for Canon to not just sell these cameras with the upgrade right from the start. For existing users they're required to send their cameras in to Canon to receive the upgrade, but for all new users just joining the family they shouldn't have to. This just makes sense.

No longer bound to a set TV schedule, U.S. consumers continue to choose when and where they want to watch the shows they love most, even if it's not at the exact time the program provider wants them to.

So let me get this straight: consumers want to watch what they want, where they want, and when they want? Film at 11.

1. Me-Too

So everybody makes a camera now. Sony, Panasonic, Canon, JVC, RED, Arri...yeah we've all heard about these companies. But Blackmagic, with their 2 additional iPad screens on a sensor,  will now offer 5 different camera models for sale. BMD claims to ship the URSA and BSC by July...though their history says otherwise. AJA didn't want to get left out so they developed the CION (see here). This camera looks like a shoulder-mount camera persons dream. It's balanced, good dynamic range, global shutter, PL-mount, XLR inputs and on and on and on. I do wonder how this will impact AJA's relationship with other camera manufactures which they have traditionally supplemented through recorders and converter boxes....?

2. Make sure it moves

Every company now makes a portable slider, jib, and some sort of Movi knock-off. Manufacturers of sliders and jibs have been in a race-to-the-bottom as they continue to refine manufacturing processes and reduce the price. A smooth, lightweight slider can now be purchased for under $1K. I just recently purchased the Duzi from Cinevate for $400 from B&H. There's little reason for videographers and indie cinematographers not to add motion to their shots if it's needed. At the very least, price isn't the problem now.

It seemed like their were a million different Movi-like products. The most interesting of them seems to be the Letus Helix (see here). I see this part of the market taking a similar trajectory to sliders and jibs. In another 18-24 months these products will sell for under $1K and provide smooth, fluid, balanced motion. If you gotta have one now, there's plenty of good products to pick from. If you can wait then I'm sure there's even better (and cheaper) products on the horizon.

3. Manage that media

Since everybody is making a camera now and they all shoot at least 1080p, many shoot 2K/4K/6K images and all cameras shoot to solid-state media there's no better time to get serious about asset management than right now. As shooting becomes cheaper and more cost-efficient for greater and greater resolutions you better start thinking now about how to ingest, edit, deliver, and archive those assets. Whether you're looking at CatDV, Cantemo, eMAM, or something else it's time to get serious about managing your media and/or backing up that media. There is no day coming where you'll shoot less (unless you retire), ask for slower speeds, need less storage space, or not need to resurrect an old project. Everything that shot is now expected to be recalled on a whim and repurposed. Regardless of if you're in news, commercial, corporate, or event tracking your media and reusing it is only going to grow more important. So get in the habit now of maintaining strict folder structures, and creating archives of your work.

4. Blackmagic won't stop (cause they can't stop)

I already referenced BMD above, as they dropped 2 new cameras in our laps (both well under $10K). They also kicked out a slew of video converter boxes, signal routers, and a little something called Resolve 11. Yours truly from March 2013:

I might be off my rocker here, but I can't get over how close DaVinci Resolve is to a NLE. Now there are some serious limitations with Resolve as an editor compared to Media Composer, FCP7/X, or Premiere Pro. Without a doubt as it stands now, Resolve is not in the league with any of the systems from the big 4 A's (Apple, Adobe, Avid, Autodesk). Resolve's conform tab offers very little compared to the other NLE's. So I'm not comparing the product as it stands today, but more in looking at where BlackMagic could take the product. I'm willing to bet that they have an NLE up their sleeve somewhere.

A couple weeks later they showed off Resolve 10, which looked even more like a NLE. A year later, 2014, Resolve 11 shows up and it looks even more like a NLE. BMD has a serious powerful and market disrupting strategy at play here. Short-term I image most of us will stick with the paid guns that have always done traditional NLE stuff - Avid, Apple, Adobe, Autodesk. But what about the next wave of video editors, vfx artists, and colorists? If they are in high school today, they can download the same version of Resolve that "the big boys" run....and oh yeah, it's completely free. BMD is training a whole host of up and coming artists on their software. Not necessarily because it's better, but because it's more readily available and accessible.

The other A's  have no choice but to drop their price in order to compete. And that's exactly what we're seeing year-over-year. FCPX - $299. Adobe moved to a subscription plan that can cost an individual as little as $20/month. Avid continues to lower the price of Media Composer, now down to old Final Cut Studio prices at $999 and Autodesk just announced a subscription service for Smoke which again lowers the price from $3,499 to $1,750 per year (you can also subscribe per month at $195 or per quarter at $545).

It seems like BMD, with Resolve, is further eroding the "make money on software" concept which was so popular in the 90's and early 00's. Now companies need to rely on additional sources of revenue to generate income - Avid sells Isis, Apple sells it's hardware to run it's software. If BMD's pace of development for Resolve doesn't slow down or their business model doesn't change I can see some serious struggles ahead for the other NLE's as they try to justify their costs in an ever softening NLE landscape. In 2, 3, or 4 years Resolve could be just as, if not more, capable than a Media Composer, FCP, or Premiere. Look at how fast FCP and Premiere have moved on product development. FCP X only came out 3 years ago and it's had several upgrades. Premiere since CS5.5 has moved at lighting speeds to add features and increase usability and interoperability. (And yes, I'm leaving Avid off this fast moving list as I still think they're a lumbering dinosaur that caters to a specific segment of the market, and not much else). Autodesk with Smoke 2013 and now 2 years later, Smoke 2015, has made drastic rewrites to its UI and UX designs. BMD certainly has the long-game in mind with Resolve as a NLE though (see Philip Hodgetts' remarks here).

Outlook

So what's next? I have no idea! I do know that there's no better time to be in this industry than right now. It's becoming more affordable, with hardware/software that allows you to create just about anything. My only recommendations:

1. Buy the fastest computer you can afford, it'll last longer than going cheap
2. Buy as much storage as you can afford, you'll never complain about having too much space
3. Manage your media. Start creating strict folder structures and naming conventions. Start backing up your data. A file doesn't exist until it exists in at least 2 places (preferably 3).
4. Keep learning. There are tremendous resources for hardware or software training available to anyone willing to spend the time to learn - Twitter, YouTube, CreativeCow, lynda.com, manufactures websites, books, etc. People not knowing means they just don't want to take the time to read what's out there.
5. Meet people. This is something I'm not good at. I like being behind a camera or a computer...I'm an introvert. But meeting people, networking, attending premieres, talking with vendors, etc. is part of the social experience of our profession. It's also important if you want to develop other contacts for future purchases, jobs or learning opportunities.

This creeping development has been one of the underlying themes of modern American media and cultural life. Once upon a time, all video in the home, save for public television, was ad-supported -- even most ticket-supported movies were designed for ultimate television consumption and advertising payoff. Then came the VCR, premium pay television, DVDs, piracy, DVRs, streaming. Suddenly, a sizable part of video consumption was ad free. What's more, cable, by providing a revenue stream hooked to subscriber payments, started to wean content makers and distributors, in addition to audiences, off of advertising.

[...]

But we are arriving, ever-faster, at a new normal: a world, practically speaking, without advertising on television programs — in effect, the end of advertising as we know it.

I would like to know what world Mr. Wolffe is living in where advertising ends. Maybe he has not watched broadcast television, cable television, the Super Bowl, or visited Google, Facebook, Hulu, or YouTube in the last 5 years. And...oh yeah...there's also this just in. There is currently no world which exists that doesn't have advertising all over it.

One of the more extreme predictions of the day came from Light Iron Digital’s CEO, Michael Cioni, on a panel on “The New Post-Production.” Cioni noted that today cinemas are the highest quality presentation, TV is next, followed by web devices. He predicted that soon that order would turn upside down, with web devices beating out TV and theaters trailing behind.

I think Mr. Cioni is right.

CION™ is the new 4K/UHD and 2K/HD production camera from AJA. Record directly to Apple ProRes 422 and 444 at up to 4K 60fps or output AJA Raw at up to 4K 120fps. CION features an ergonomic design and open connectivity to give complete flexibility in the field or studio.

The price looks right at $9K MSRP for the features specced on the camera. The only other question I have is can they hit their shipping dates?

If having a presence at CES justifies the future of something, then we would all be doing 3D by now. The reality is that all but a very few of the home viewers will be able to perceive the difference between 4K and HD anyway. So we should all invest in brand new gear, handle 4x the bandwidth with the accompanying slow downs and data storage issues for the net result of no improvement to the consumer? And we should do all of this without being able to charge significantly more to cover the costs?

In 2014 the primary benefit to shooting 4K is for image stabilization or having the flexibility to pan/scan in post. But the challenges to working natively in 4K are tremendous - data rate throughput, storage, 1:1 monitoring, archiving. 4K doesn't magically make your productions better. Consider the other costs before jumping on the 4K freight train. 

Editing and video content creation workflows are about to get easier and more exciting, with major updates coming soon to Creative Cloud, bringing more Adobe magic, expanded support for cutting edge technologies, and an even more connected creative experience. At NAB 2014 Adobe will preview the next wave of innovation in pro video, including Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Adobe After Effects CC, Adobe Prelude CC, Adobe Audition CC, Adobe SpeedGrade CC, Adobe Story CC Plus, Adobe Media Encoder CC and Adobe Anywhere for video. (See what we have planned for NAB 2014.)

Adobe TV has plenty of videos you can watch to see some of the new features in action. Scott Simmons for ProVideo Coalition has a good write-up highlighting the less glamours (but extremely helpful) updates:

Yes, the flashy new effects related additions to this updated version of PPro will get lots of press and deservedly so. Things like Master Clip Effects, After Effects text templates and built-in source clip Masking and Tracking are great additions and we’ll touch on them later. But for now … it’s these little things that many craft editors like myself will most appreciate. Under the hood changes which will make a difference in their day to day editing doldrums, much more-so than the effecty ones. These are a lot of the really nice, little updates I noticed while working with this new version.

Take a look at a write-up of all the Premiere Pro features from Adobe's blog. Adobe is very aggressively tackling the NLE market. Ever since they released CS5 (with the Mercury Playback Engine) in April of 2010 they've steadily added more and more features to all aspects of the video production apps. When Apple released FCP X in June of 2011 Adobe slammed on the gas in an attempt to take advantage of the traction lost by Apple and FCP at that time. I was among those that Adobe converted due to the limitations within FCP X at release, and the age of FCP 7. Truthfully, I don't miss FCP. Premiere Pro has proved more than an able replacement. I'm glad to see they haven't let up on adding useful, time-saving, workflow-improving features.

John Bourbonais, Cinematographer, writing for Broadcast Engineering on 4K:

Camera manufacturers stoke our egos with the thought that if we shoot 4K, we’ll be able to improve the overall quality of our production, expand our business, be more creative, use the footage forever and become a Hollywood filmmaker. Since 1998, the advertising buzz surrounding technologies such as 24p standard definition, 1080i HD, 1080p HD, 720p HD, 720p Variable Frame Rate, 1” imagers and the like have had compelling reasons that drove their success. However, some touted technologies such as the biggest marketing debacle in the past 15 years — 3-D TV — have not lived up to expectations, and 4K technology is another flash in the pan despite what equipment manufacturers tell us. The most oft-repeated promises for improvement are in the areas of quality, post, delivery and future proofing, but here is why that will not hold up.

His writing about quality, post, and delivery are spot on. I've already written about some of the problems with 4K before, see here and here. While 4K has some limited uses for today's productions I don't think it's the magic-bullet that many in our industry are making it out to be (or manufacturing advertisers are making it out to be).

Something between a black MIDI glissando and a brown note, the THX "Deep Note" is one of the world's most recognizable audio logos, signaling the highest quality audio standard in films. Parodied by The Simpsons and sampled by Dr. Dre (which got him sued), at peak popularity the THX Deep Note was played in front of 4,000 movie theater audiences a day, or around once every 20 seconds. Yet despite its distinctive crescendo, the THX Deep Note wasn't actually composed so much as it was programmed, which makes it a fascinating success story of early computer audio design.

Such a cool sound! I love it when it plays on my home theater setup.

I'll be attempting to add things to this blog from the show floor while I'm there. As much as I can attempt to "cover the news" I will. As usual I'll be linking to many others next week who have full teams there to cover all the news, announcements, and products coming our way.

For the uninitiated, booth babes are female models who are hired to lure men to take a look at products that are otherwise too dull to merit genuine interest.

Spencer Chen writing for TechCrunch:

I am not here to participate in the bigger social debate on whether exploiting women as booth babes is bad for all of us in the long run…or if it’s simply wrong. I just wanted to state that if you were so inclined to take up this debate, I can offer you a sound business reason to support your opinion: Booth babes don’t convert.

Booth babes don't bring in better customers. Or more aptly stated, scantily clad women at your booth don't convert to sales of your product. Can we move on now to treating women in and around our industry with more respect, dignity, and appreciation? 

For better or worse, “booth babes” is an industry term to describe women paid, as former Eurogamer.net writer Rab Florence noted, “to stand for hours in painful high heels and skimpy clothes by a corporate body operating under the dated notion that tech products can’t be sold without appealing to the worst elements of a perceived demographic.”

Alicia Fremling on Slate:

Little is more off-putting than being hit on by a married man, yet as I helped adjust for a potential customer the newly designed earphones—guaranteed not to fall out while providing a superior sound experience—he leaned in and whispered, “You smell nice.” My paid response was to smile sweetly and squeak “Thank you!” in an overly excited voice. It's simply part of the job as a brand representative (aka booth babe).

Nicole Kobie:

To me, the use of such women to run a stand smacks of desperation. If I walk up to a booth manned by models, I know I won’t be able to find out anything worthwhile about the product. I’ll have to dodge the bikini-clad, stomach-baring ladies, push past their ardent admirers, and then attempt to have an actual conversation with whoever is actually in charge of the stand, which is inevitably marketing a product so bad that it needs cleavage and naked legs to gain attention.  This is a massive waste of my time.

Do I also find it uncomfortable? Of course. To me, it’s gross and it’s insulting. The constant reminder of the objectification of women isn’t ideal when I’m already hideously grumpy from trekking through the crowded, massive halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center, either. It’s also rather confusing: why would anyone choose to do this as work? Do men not find this insulting to their intelligence? And how the heck does she stand in those shoes all day?

Olivia Solon:

As a woman who writes about technology, I find booth babes insulting, embarrassing and anachronistic. Glamorous assistants have been largely banished from TV game shows, much to Bruce Forsyth's chagrin, but they are pervasive at technology trade shows and in certain tech magazines. They imply that only men are interested in technology and that women are just the accessories that dangle redundantly from your mobile phone. Anecdotal evidence even suggests that some of the booth babes ignore female journalists who have waded their way through thepointy-panted men taking photos to actually find out more about the products.

Tina Amini:

It’s an unfortunate and uncomfortable reality that female attendees at shows like E3 are constantly mistaken for booth babes, who are women hired to wear revealing clothing and stand at company booths. Here are two of those stories.

A female journalist was waiting for a PR rep to take her to her next appointment. “I accidentally made eye contact [with some guy],” she told me over the phone.

“So, what booth do you belong to?” the guy asked.

She lifted her media badge in defiance, simultaneously moving away from him. In order to avoid comments and looks in the future, she told me, she plans to wear jeans. That time, she said she had been wearing a “nice, modest dress” that stopped just above her knees. She had a similar experience the next day, with trails of stares following her down the hallways. She learned that, as proud as she is of her fashion sense, it’d be more comfortable to cover up.

Annie-Rose Strasser:

It shouldn’t take a fiscal argument to quell the practice of objectifying women to make sales. Anti-booth babe advocates have repeatedly pointed out that booth babe culture is an insult to both men’s and women’s intelligence, reducing women to objects while also assuming men aren’t capable of refusing an ample cup size. Booth babes themselves say the pay makes it worth it but have spoken out about “the creepers who like to take photos without asking,” or the companies who want them to be nothing more than “eye candy.”

With NAB right around the corner this explicit sexification of broadcast/film equipment will be in full effect. It's more than past time for this practice to stop. Both men and women in this field deserve better, as do the women subjected to this line of work. So when you're at a booth at NAB next month remember that the young woman acting as "eye candy" is much more than that! Try to show her some respect and dignity while speaking with her.

The latest Visual Networking Index (VNI) on Global Mobile Data Traffic from Cisco predicts that by 2018, nearly 5 billion mobile users and more than 10 billion mobile connections will drive mobile video to 69 percent of mobile data traffic.

If this pans out, that's a mountain of data. The interesting thing to me is how the majority of data is predicted to be video. Video is on the verge of becoming the currency that corporations, brands, schools, and business talk through. Just look at the difference between some of your favorite sites from the early days of the internet through today. Media rich content (stills, audio, and video) now dominate our daily web experience.

For a second time, Google is attempting to pitch a compression format as the replacement for an H.26X compressor. They tried to do it three years ago for HD video when they pitched VP8 as a replacement for H.264 and had little success. Now they’re back with a new angle: VP9 is the format for 4K, and they are putting it up against H.265, the new 4K compressor that is also referred to as HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding). Should you care?

Here we go again....again.

Some people have been trying to build their own Production Premium CC by using the single app for $20 / month plan. If you’re only picking two tools out of the video focused apps (say Premiere Pro and After Effects) then you could save $10 a month. You might actually find a few video-focused people who only need PPro and Photoshop or AEand Photoshop (let’s be honest everyone needs Photoshop unless you try to make your way with something like Pixelmator) but those folks are few and far between. Most video pros will need three CC apps, at the very least, so at that point single app licenses become more expensive than the complete option.

Honestly, what I need from Adobe - Prelude, Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop, Audition, Speedgrade, and Lightroom - basically a post-production package. There are many apps in the Creative Cloud that I have absolutely 0 use for - Edge <Everything>, Flash Builder, InDesign, InCopy, etc. My hope is that Adobe offers a video centric Cloud bundle, and charges around $30-$40/month (slightly less for edu installations).

Red Giant says they are releasing 50 new free and premium tools as part of Universe, but prior to release did not specify how many of them are free. Universe’s Premium option provides access to more tools as well as existing Red Giant tools that will be ported to Universe, including Knoll Light Factory EZ, Holomatrix, Retrograde, and ToonIt. Taking a leaf from Adobe’s book, Red Giant is offering subscriptions of $10 a month, and $99 yearly, but they are also offering a $399 lifetime subscription.

Big announcement from Red Giant last week, that looks very interesting. I'm going to take a guess that a switch to the subscription model by Red Giant won't raise nearly the same (any?) vocal outcry that Adobe received for its switch to the same model a year ago (see here, here, here, here, or here).

Today, Sony announced that their popular F5 and F55 cameras will be able to directly record in ProRes and DNxHD in the future (no time frame given).

Very interesting to see more and more camera manufactures treat their cameras like computers, offering firmware updates to extend the life of the product. Canon just recently did this as well with the C100/C300 series of cameras. I hope this trend from camera manufacturers continues.

For us it has to be led by consumers. At the moment our data is showing that 0.4% of the world's population own a 4K Television. Traditionally, our market is broadcast. We don't tend to work with cinema and so what we wanted to do was explore a workflow that's really manageable, flexible, and cost effective for broadcast.

I think Aisling is completely accurate in that Panasonic is hardly known in the cinema category. Canon fell backwards into it. Sony is trying to push it's way into the market (cf. F65/55/5/700/100). But "cinema" has belonged to Panavision, Arri, and for a brief time RED (which makes me wonder what's RED up to now....they've had a tremendously hard time shipping the Dragon sensor...and other camera manufactures have closed the lead that RED held for so many years. RED's advantage may have simply been that they were first to market with a 4K camera?). Panny doesn't make cinema cameras (some could argue even "cinematic images"). Ultimately, the jury is still out as to whether the GH4 is Panasonic's attempt at a cinema camera or if they'll stay squarely in the "safe" broadcast/ENG market. With NAB only weeks away I'm expect we'll get a glimpse of where they're headed. Since I'll be in Vegas, my money is on Panny staying with the preeminent cash-cow of broadcast television/acquistion, with the occasional attempt to "cross-over."

Softimage enjoyed a long and beloved history in CG and VFX production, beginning life as the Softimage Creative Environment and used by ILM in many of its early landmark productions. Microsoft acquired the company in 1994 and renamed the software Softimage|3D, before it changed hands to Avid in 1998 and then Autodesk in 2008. Many advancements in the software, which became known as SoftimageXSI, were made over time, perhaps most notably with ICE (Interactive Creative Environment).

When you attempt to launch Adobe Media Encoder CC, or when you export from Adobe Premiere Pro CC via File > Export > Media, a crash occurs.

Updating the Creative Cloud desktop application provides fixes for other applications, as well. See the release notes here.

Morale of the story: get CC updated if you're having problems with this.

Overall, Canon cameras are used for 58% of the images, with Nikon trailing at 28%.

That's a sizable advantage favoring Canon. I always thought it was closer than that.

February movies are bad. Filmgoers know it. Movie executives know it. The industry reserves its most promising films for the holidays and summer, when consumers have the leisure to watch them, and the real stinkers for February. Just how bad are these February movies? We’re too afraid to watch them ourselves, so we looked at the Rotten Tomatoes scores of every movie making more than $1 million in the domestic box office since 2000, grouped the movies by month of release, and averaged the scores. Here’s what we found:

Looks like January, August, and September aren't far behind February for overall suck-factor. Anecdotally, my February viewing experiences seem to support these findings.

The Blackmagic Production Camera 4K inside of a Cinestar Industries cage

NAB 2012 was an important year for the camera market. That year saw a slew of new camera tech announcements and products flood the market, like Canon’s C300 and Sony’s F5 just to name a couple. But one announcement seemingly trumped them all, Blackmagic announcing the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. That put the production and post-production community on edge as the fabled 3K for $3K concept that RED failed to deliver on was finally in sight. Blackmagic had a heck of a time launching the camera as manufacturing setback after manufacturing setback pushed the actual release into 2013.

However, those setbacks didn’t stop Blackmagic from showing up at NAB 2013 and promising even more new camera tech. Last year the BMD Pocket Cinema Camea and the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K were announced. While the Pocket Camera shipped about a month after it’s promised release date, the Production Camera under went many of the same struggles as it’s Cinema counterpart. Manufacturing delays pushed the actual release of the Production camera into early 2014.

Having just received mine this past week, I was eager to test it out to see what it’s capable of. While I haven’t yet brought it on set in a “live production” environment, I have a decent feel for what seems to be the capability of this little 4K for $3K brain.

If I could sum up the entire camera in one word it’s the word production. It’s the most important word in the name of the camera. Why? Because this camera is meant to (1) be on rails or in a rig (like it’s counterpart), and (2) be in a well lit, completely controlled environment like you’d find in a studio setting. It’s no surprise that Blackmagic then also updated it’s line of ATEM switchers to handle 4K cameras. The expectation being that if you purchase 2 or more BMPC4K cameras you’ll need a switcher capable of digesting UltraHD (3840x2160) signals, and who better to supply you that hardware than Blackmagic.

What I would immediately caution people towards is thinking that this camera in any way, matches up with the BMCC. It doesn’t. I believe they are intended, built, and specced for entirely different markets, though BM’s advertising ( http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicproductioncamera4k/uses ) does claim the camera to be suited to areas I think it would struggle. Does that mean you can’t use the BMPC as a cinema camera? No. But it does mean there are several serious limitations that will make it extremely difficult to use in a cinema/documentary/indie film sort of way. So let me get right to the main negative then!

The Sensor…Really?

BMD equipped the 4K camera with a Super 35mm sensor (21.12mm x 11.88mm). Many were clamoring for a larger sensor after the BMCC’s paltry 15.81mm x 8.88mm sensor was deemed “too small.” The BMPC’s sensor provides plenty of surface area for the cinematic bokeh that so many enjoy shooting. The size of the sensor isn’t the problem. The sensitivity is. The camera has 3 ISO settings - 200ASA, 400ASA, and 800ASA. Just 3. That’s it. 200 and 400 appear to be perfectly suitable for anything shot under well lit, well controlled conditions (i.e. studio setting or daylight outdoors). In my limited tests the 800ASA struggles. One can see vertical smearing of the image even on the less than desirable 5”, 800 x 480 LCD of the camera (and really...no HD LCD screen?). However, the 10-bit ProRes(HQ) recording does give you quite a bit of room in grading to pull the shot up, but still doesn't deal with the vertical streaks created at 800ASA. Coupled with that the noise pattern at 800ASA looks more like digital noise than cinematic film grain.

While the BMPC4K is no low light king, I don’t even think it’s worthy to call it a low light contender. It barely functions in low light environments. When shooting the camera at 800ASA I feel like I’m looking at an image from a low-end video camera circa 2002. The image appears muddy, streaky, and generally poor (download sample footage here). I can’t understand how this sensor made it into the camera in 2014. With cameras like the Arri Alexa, Canon C300/C500, 5D Mark III, Sony F5, Nikon D5300, and Panasonic GH3 (and soon to be released GH4) on the market which all have incredible ISO range, performance, and usable noise patterns (also see the newly announced Nikon D4S with a native ISO of 25600 and an extended ISO of 409600!). The BMPC's sensor seems like a strange design choice unless it’s primarily meant for highly controlled production environments.

After all the delays with the sensor manufacturing process (here and here) I expected a sensor that was more capable than the one delivered. It's possible I have faulty expectations. However, I argue that the BMPC4K does not exist in a vacuum. It exists in a landscape dominated by other competent performing low light cameras. While the argument can be made that given the BMPC4K's price expectations should be adjusted downward (though I don't think Grant Petty would ever argue that), I don't think that's a highly credible argument given that this is BMD's third camera to market. BMD is competing with RED, Alexa, Canon, Sony, Panasonic, and a host of other manufactures. I think BMD needs to provide a stronger product in light of the competition. And I don't expect the competition to take a nap either. With NAB 2014 right around the corner a slew of new announcements are sure to follow.

There are also reports about white specs appearing in the shadows, see here and here. I haven’t seen this yet on my camera, but there seems to be substantial evidence of it’s existence. It may have something to do with the sensor calibrations problems BMD was having as recently as December.

Similar to the BMCC the extreme overexposed portions of an image are prone to showing digital noise. Below is an example of the digital noise created in an overexposed area. This could be a problem for night time shooting when exposure is even more challenging. You can download the original 4K clip from my Vimeo page.

Notice the pink noise on the sun, behind the tree

A closeup crop of the noise within the sun

Ergonomics

I think this horse has already been beaten to death, buried, resurrected and beaten again. So I won’t spend much time on it. Suffice it to say the camera's form factor means you need handles, or rails, or a tripod - something to set it on. It is not designed in any way with “hand held” in mind. So factor in the added cost for cage, rails, adapters, etc.

Battery

This topic has also gotten it’s fair share of coverage with the BMCC. Same problems here with the BMPC4K. The battery is sealed in the camera, non-removable. The battery powers the camera for between 60-90 minutes depending on if you’re recording or merely sitting idle. There are plenty of third party adapters now on the market that allow you to power the camera from either a gold mount or V-mount battery. But again, that negates any type of handheld use, especially ones that documentary and indie filmmakers often rely on.

The Menus

At times, the menus feel like a cruel joke. For instance, the audio volume meter is a touch screen slider based from 0% to 100%. What does that mean to an audio engineer? Where’s -12dB? Where’s -18dB? How come there are no meters whatsoever on the camera? For that matter, there are no meters on the camera at all - Waveform, Histrogram, etc. Those are only available via a Thunderbolt cable connected to an applicable computer running Blackmagic UltraScope (included software from BMD). So you’ll need to bring a laptop everywhere you plan to shoot in order to nail exposure and audio settings.

Common complaints about the BMCC apply just as equally to the BMPC4K. There’s no way to format the SSD within the camera. There’s no indication of how much space/time is left on the SSD for recording. You’re essentially flying blind while you shoot. For any production that has multiple SSD’s to throw at the situation, with an on-set assistant to copy data off, this presents no problem. However, for many who want to purchase this camera those are unfordable luxuries. There should be a way to display that type of essential user data on screen or in a menu. (Click the pictures below to cycle through the gallery of images. Each screen is documented here.)

Contained in this menu are Camera ID, Date, Time, ISO, White Balance, and Shutter Angle

Level input adjustment for line 1 and line 2, speaker volume, and channel mapping.

This menu contains Recording Format, Dynamic Range, Frame Rate, and Time Lapse Interval

Menu contains Dynamic Range setting, LCD screen brightness, Zebra levels, SDI overlays, and SDI output.

The scopes and meters notwithstanding, the menus are very simple and easy to navigate. A welcomed change from virtually any other camera. Coming from Sony, Panasonic, and Canon cameras I’ve grown accustomed to setting up a favorites page for fast access to most commonly used settings. With the BMPC4K there are 4 simple menus: Camera Settings, Audio Settings, Recorder Settings, and Display Settings. These 4 menus encompass all that the camera currently has to offer (firmware updates are coming which can add or enable more features). The menus are easy to navigate and the touch screen is responsive and accurate.

Connections

There is no shortage of “professional” connections on the BMPC4K. Much like it’s counterpart you have Left and Right 1/4” audio jacks, a Thunderbolt cable, and headphone jack for monitoring, and a power connection. The BMPC4K features a 6G-SDI port for pushing UltraHD content or traditional 1080p HD to a recorder, monitor, or switcher. Only things I could object to are no HDMI port (which I frankly hate HDMI in production settings, but can be good for a cheap monitor feed) and an additional SDI port so I’m not constrained to only 1 SDI port on set. But honestly, at $3K I can’t really complain about these things with any degree of righteous indignation.

Remote, headphones, 1/4" audio in, SDI, Thunderbolt, power 12V-30V

So Why’d You Buy It?

So if I hate it so much then why'd I buy it. Simple: it’s 4K resolution and it’s only $3K! Plus it ships with a full license of Davinci Resolve (worth $1K). And frankly, I paid more for my 5D Mark III than this camera. The price point is absolutely incredible and makes up for many of it’s shortcomings…though not all of them. I intend to use the BMPC as an A-camera on interview shoots, which is most of my work, allowing me ample resolution to reframe the shot as needed in post (since 4K is 4 times the size of 1080 I have plenty of room to move the frame around or in without loosing sharpness). Having one camera with such a massive frame allows for easy reframing while maintaining the same eye line between cuts. Philip Bloom has an excellent example of this on his tumblr.

Though I still worry about the sensor’s sensitivity, I think the camera has many benefits that will materialize over time and as I get more used to what the camera can do. The sensors lack of sensitivity may be partially overcome when RAW recording is delivered to the camera via a firmware update providing a bit more dynamic range potential. Currently the camera is "constrained" to recording in Apple ProRes422 (HQ). And if you've never gotten to grade with 10-bit footage before, you're in for a real treat. There's so much more color information contained in a 10-bit file compared to an 8-bit file. You can download original sample footage from my Vimeo account (you must be a Vimeo Plus or Pro member).

Additionally, the global shutter is a huge improvement in capture quality. Gone are the skewed images of the rolling shutter DSLR world that we’ve grown accustomed to over the last 5 years. That is a huge improvement for panning or fast action sequences. I could make the case that the global shutter alone is worth the price of admission.

Conclusion

I still have hope that Blackmagic will squeeze more performance out of the camera over the coming months through firmware updates. There’s definitely room for improvement. But I would caution anybody considering purchasing the BMPC that this camera is more about well-lit, well-controlled, studio environments than its smaller and cheaper counterpart the BMCC. The shortcomings of that camera are well documented and as a film community you should be going in with your eyes wide open about either camera's limitations. While I have no doubt that the BMPC4K will be used outside of the studio, and in fact, I intend to use it outside the studio, I think its current strength lies in a heavily controlled, well-lit environment.

Downscaling and transcoding to ProRes or CineForm at 1080p can convert the RGB 4K data from the GH4′s 4K 100Mbit/s codec to the higher bit depth o f 10bit and color sampling of 4:4:4.

If true, this is a very interesting aspect to this camera. Shoot 4K, 8-bit, 4:2:0. Down-sample to 1080p, 10-bit, 4:4:4 in post. According to Dave Newman (@David_Newman), GoPro's Senior Director of Software Engineering and ex-Cineform CTO, that is exactly what happens.

There is no clear winner among these three. If you are on Windows, then the choice is between Adobe and Avid. If you need 4K output today, Apple or Adobe are your best option. All three handle a wide range of popular camera formats well – especially RED. If you like tracks – go Avid or Adobe. If you want the best application for the new Mac Pro, that will clearly be Apple Final cut Pro X. These are all great tools, capable of any level of post production – be it commercial, corporate, web, broadcast entertainment or feature films. If you’ve been on the fence for two years, now is the time to switch, because there are no bad tools – only preferences.

Oliver's conclusion here is very similar to what I referenced last week regarding FCP X. The NLE battle between the Big A's - Adobe, Apple, Avid - is now at a point of relative parity (I'm not including Autodesk in this as they have some work to do with Smoke if it truly wants to be a NLE of the same caliper as these others). Meaning that what remains is ones personal preference of how they like to work and what business model for purchasing the NLE they want to get into bed with - cloud, internet activation, perpetual license. Any of the NLE's will get the job done, which one you prefer is entirely up to you.

At first glance, the new Mac Pro seems like a finger in the eye for demanding creative professionals. But after actually using the system, I am convinced that this is a very successful workstation design that can be a great template for future versions. As novel as the tube design is on the surface, it is simply a solution to a design problem for workstations. How do you keep a high-performance machine with two powerful compute GPUs cool? You make it small, you make it a wind tunnel, you put all the devices along the walls of a giant heatsink, and you make the case metal to assist with cooling. James Dyson couldn't have done it better.

Girad's initial review is an extremely thorough breakdown of the new Mac Pro (see also his followup article updating the Maya/Open CL issue here). As the computer begins to trickle out to users I'm sure it'll become more accepted. Once the third-party manufactures have a few months with the new Mac Pro they'll be able to craft solutions for it's perceived "pro" shortcomings. My hunch: in a year or two we'll wonder why we ever had such big computers on our desk or in our machine rooms in the first place.

“We’re certainly not promising that customer bills are going to go down or even that they’re going to increase less rapidly,” David L. Cohen, a Comcast executive vice president, said Thursday in a conference call with reporters.

Really? Good thing he's not promising that bills will go down, especially since the American public holds what major telecomm execs say in such high esteem. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to see how this merger is a good thing for consumers. 

With the release of version 10.1.1 Final Cut is finally at a place where I think it is a viable editing app again. As a big Apple fan, that really excites me! However, with all of the additional apps you have to buy (I didn't even mention, Motion, Compressor, Logic...), and the upgrade that has to be done to my computer system, it feels like a bit of a tease... there goes that affordable price of $299.

I agree that there are aspects to FCP X that still need treatment - it's inability to read a standard XML format from Avid, Premiere, or Smoke is kind of ridiculous. However, the editing paradigm X uses works well for many people. And FCP's ability to work great for one-man-band operations is all over the web (and some larger outfits as well). I think any claims to the contrary are hyperbolic and boil down to personal preference. X is a capable editor if it suits your workflow and style. It's not good for everybody. But that doesn't mean it's not good for somebody.