wemrick1 wrote:It's five grand with an ev... It has no special place that I haven't already covered…
Hmm. Not a perfect camera and not suited to all current shooters, but may broaden their market share.
Something borrowed, something new:
It is a 6K camera that is designed to oversample for 4K delivery in a box form designed to be rigged and easier to mount on various stabilizers which many people wanted in an entry-level cinematic full frame camera (although the ‘box’ might be larger than most imagined).
It does have the dual ISO ranges that the Pocket camera shared making it better suited to somewhat lower light levels and BMD appears to have determined that this is beneficial to continue in their entry-level box camera.
Strangely though one XLR port was sacrificed perhaps to support dual CFexpress recording for continuous recording at all 6K resolutions which was requested by many and is a very welcome addition to keep media storage more cost-effective for their target audience compared to the high-end URSA Cine 12K.
The argument that this single XLR port encourages off-camera recording is only satisfactory for certain use cases. Most times I only use one of the two XLR ports on the UM4.6K (as a disaster recovery option) as the MixPre-6 II ports suffice and provide 32bit audio.
You have the option of using one of three fixed ‘native’ mounts which means many shooters can continue to use their EF photo lenses and many PL lenses for cine without adapters. The L mount was also requested by many as it is adaptable to several other lens mounts.
You know there are many other features, such as integrated cloud and proxy support, that may be considered innovative for BMD.
Certainly the pairing with the new EVF and the extensible EVF are highly desirable for many shooters. I do believe a new generation of Video Assist monitors will follow within the year. These two options make this camera more flexible than many other BMD cameras.
I do think it’s an appealing option that may take some time to build an appreciative audience. And there will be many who hold back on Pyxis at this time. The original Pocket camera was quite a sensation and exceedingly popular. I loved its imagery. But I didn’t purchase it because I was waiting for something with more flexibility and robustness. Fully rigging the original UM4.6K met those needs and continues to work for me and my clients, but in several ways these 2024 cameras offer an opportunity for growth, continued learning, and greater expression. That’s their appeal to me, the sum of the technologies as creative tools is greater than the parts.
… I also can't find any reviews where anybody has used one...
Perhaps BMD hasn’t circulated any prototypes to influencers and the production version is not quite ready for prime time, but it is expected soon.