12Apr Now that we have the Blackmagic Pocket camera is the Digital Bolex still relevant?
It’s been 2 years a year since the Digital Bolex was successfully funded on kickstarter. The camera brought the promise of a super 16mm sensor size and a RAW DNG file format at a sub $3000 price point. In 2011 this sounded like an amazing step forward compared to the cameras that were currently on the market. That was until Blackmagic released the 2.5k BMCC.
At $2995 the BMCC basically delivered on many of the promises that the Digital Bolex was based on. The form factor might not be as elegant as the Digital Bolex design but your still getting RAW and Prores at a $3000 price point.
Both cameras have suffered delays, but the BMCC is basically out in the wild, while the Digital Bolex is still only a cool looking design. Now Blackmagic has announced and plans to ship the Pocket Cinema Camera in the next few months at a price point of $995 and the Digital Bolex may or may not be shipping by that time.
The Pocket Cinema Camera has many of the features the Digital Bolex promised for $2000 less. I know XLR inputs, physical knobs, and some of the other features the Digital Bolex offers are attractive, but so is a $995 Super 16mm camera the size of a point and shoot.
Blackmagic is known for their “will fix it later” style of product release, so I expect to see many growing pains during the life cycle of the Pocket Cinema Camera. On the other hand the Digital Bolex is still an unknown, if it’s released in a few more months and they nail every feature on their list perfectly, it could still be a very attractive camera. But if the camera doesn’t live up to the specs list, the Pocket Cinema Camera might have the upper hand.
Just remember, Blackmagic doesn’t plan to have something as simple as audio level meters working at launch. What else will the camera be missing? Will the $140 Sandisk SDXC cards be able to keep up with RAW DNG, or is Prores 422 the best we can hope for? What other problems could this little camera be hiding? If the Digital Bolex wants to remain relevant in the current camera market, they’ll really have to make sure there are zero problems at launch. If the Pocket Cinema Camera isn’t plagued with problems it’ll definitely be a tempting choice for many filmmakers.
April 12th, 2013 at 9:17 pm
db was on kickstarter in 2012, so only 1 year ago. still looks pretty good, more professional looking for sure.
April 12th, 2013 at 9:48 pm
Thanks for the correction, for some reason I saw 11 on the kickstarter page and typed 2 years, the post has been updated. I hope that the DB lives up to all of the promises, if it does I don’t think they’ll have a problem with sales.
April 13th, 2013 at 9:43 am
The BMCC has terribly rolling shutter problems (and the Pocket camera is supposed to have a similar chip), which the digital Bolex wont have due to their CCD sensor. So I guess if the Digital Bolex also delivers a good dynamic range, it’s worth the extra 2kUSD.
April 13th, 2013 at 10:34 am
From the hour or so I spent playing around with it, the rolling shutter was in the range of a standard DSLR. Shouldn’t be hard to avoid for most applications, but i’m sure there will be other gatchyas hidden in their little pocket camera.
May 8th, 2013 at 9:28 pm
Sorry but rolling shutter cameras are crap. Everyone is talking about 4K, 8K etc. But there are reason pro cameras like the Sony F35 or the Phantom Flex use CCD sensors. Wobble and rolling shutter are the horror – in my opinion for everything that moves – not only for fast action. Rolling Shutter Cinematography is just absolutely ugly and in my opinion rolling shutter cameras are completely useless for filmmaking.
May 9th, 2013 at 10:24 am
“completely useless” and “crap”, is way off base. For documentaries and films that involve a lot of talking heads rolling shutter is a non issue and for many other applications it’s the same story.
I’ve shot 2 features as well as many other projects on DSLR. Sometimes rolling shutter can be a pain, having to use CGI lightning instead of practical lighting for example, and it’s not great for fast camera moves. But if you keep the limitations in mind when you’re filming it’s pretty easy to work around.
Need a fast pace chase scene? Use more cuts and less dramatic camera moves, then cut to reaction shots and you can accomplish the same amount of tension. Want to move the camera fast enough that you start to get the dreaded “jello cam”, just slow down the move and speed up the footage in post.
Take a minute to look over the area you’re shooting in and you can easily avoid moire. Bring a few extra shirts for your actors and have them change if they’re clothing is a problem. Really, proper planning is all you really need to deal with rolling shutter.