Black Magic Cinema Camera price drop: $1,999

combatentropy said:
Not everyone is motivated mainly by money.

From the article:

"We've worked very hard over the last year to be able to build the Blackmagic Cinema Camera at a lower cost so we can reduce the price and allow access to digital filming to a wide range of cinematographers and photographers," says Petty. "This is very exciting and is one of the proudest moments of my life to be able to do this."

Some people derive pleasure more from looking at what they've done and admiring it, than having a load of cash . . . so that they can afford to a trip to Europe, expensive dinners, or to buy nice things that others have done (paintings, cars, etc.) and admire them. I am that way, too. So was Steve Jobs:

""My passion has been to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products. The products, not the profits, were the motivation. Sculley flipped these priorities to where the goal was to make money. It's a subtle difference, but it ends up meaning everything."

Not to rank myself with Steve Jobs as far as capability, only with motivation. I get these two people. Maybe you don't.
Click to expand...

I think this is simply naive. Would you rather sell 1 widget for a thousand dollars and make 10% profit (100 dollars). Or would you rather sell 1 million widgets for 1% profit? (10,000 dollars).

If Jobs was going for altruism insted of money, he never would have built a billion dollar company. It is always about money.

Giving to charity, for example, is GREAT for companies. It's very cost effective publicity. Lower prices, and lower profit, can be a VERY effective strategy to gain market share, which can mean vastly larger profits in the future.

Raises for employees can actually cut costs to the company because of greater retention, which means less training costs.

Don't confuse sound business principles with warm fuzzy feelings.

Are you sure you "get" Steve Jobs?

[h=1]Steve Jobs Used Patents Like A Mob Boss: Threatened To Sue Palm Over Patents If It Poached Any Apple Employees[/h]http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...tents-if-it-poached-any-apple-employees.shtml

I bet you 50 cents this is a business move calculated to make BMC more money.
 
What does it say about the true manufacturing cost and component quality going into the camera? Normal mass retail price to manufacturing cost ratios for consumer electronics are at least 5:1 packaged and ready to ship. So maybe $500-700 max on skinny margins including the software?
 
Manufacturers always determine cost by what the market can bear. With this decrease, BM has effectively raised to the price of the 4K model by hundreds of dollars to those who own the old BMCC and were going to sell it in order to upgrade. That group probably outnumbers new BM customers.
 
maybe they're clearing house... get rid of all of them and just stick with the 2 cameras... my only ?... someone said... but I didn't see that it still came with resolve... might just gamble and get one.... since the camera is only a grand now... then still paying $995 for resolve... might not be a bad deal...
 
Noone really knows, but I do know if you're on the west coast and you want a BV1-MFT camera today, Hot Rod Cameras in Los Angeles just got a handful of them and have updated their pricing.
 
After witnessing a couple of years of Black Magic's practices, it seems to me their best strength as a company is having the pulse of forums like this and others down to a science. How many times before the BMCC did we hear - "Just give me a sensor with great DR, throw it in a box, don't compress it to death, keep the cost down by removing all the bells and whistles, and take my money" This is just more of that philosophy. Sony and others have had the same price on several models for close to 3 years, maybe even more. I like this new way of thinking.
 
The pocket and the production camera are about to eat their own market. Hence the price drop. Yes, it's about money.

Sure wish they would concentrate on getting out an anti-moire filter out for their cameras instead.
No solution for that, no purchase by me.
 
Razz16mm said:
What does it say about the true manufacturing cost and component quality going into the camera? Normal mass retail price to manufacturing cost ratios for consumer electronics are at least 5:1 packaged and ready to ship. So maybe $500-700 max on skinny margins including the software?
Click to expand...

Sadly it's a higher ratio but who's going to admit to that? With BMCC the big hook was Davinci Resolve, a $0.50 software duplication valued at $1000. FAKE
 
Zephyrnoid said:
Sadly it's a higher ratio but who's going to admit to that? With BMCC the big hook was Davinci Resolve, a $0.50 software duplication valued at $1000. FAKE
Click to expand...

It cost 200 mill to make Avatar, so would you say it's only worth the cost to make a DVD copy? Hey, it only cost a buck to burn a DVD so if you charge 2 bucks that 100% profit? What about the production costs?

Just like making a movie, it takes money to make software.
 
Gillvane said:
It cost 200 mill to make Avatar, so would you say it's only worth the cost to make a DVD copy? Hey, it only cost a buck to burn a DVD so if you charge 2 bucks that 100% profit? What about the production costs?

Just like making a movie, it takes money to make software.
Click to expand...
For all those like Z who insist that the cost of a product is limited to the cost of physically manufacturing the final item, just remind your agent that when you go to sell your screenplay, it only costs 85 cents for the paper you printed it out on, so be sure to turn down the $1 million they offer, because that would be, in the words of Zephyrnoid, FAKE. Tell your agent you only want to sell it for a dollar, because to you that'd be a fair profit...
 
Barry_Green said:
For all those like Z who insist that the cost of a product is limited to the cost of physically manufacturing the final item, just remind your agent that when you go to sell your screenplay, it only costs 85 cents for the paper you printed it out on, so be sure to turn down the $1 million they offer, because that would be, in the words of Zephyrnoid, FAKE. Tell your agent you only want to sell it for a dollar, because to you that'd be a fair profit...
Click to expand...

Yes, many folks don't understand why profits need to be made. Too much occupy Wall Street thinking I am afraid.
 
GaryinCalifornia said:
maybe they're clearing house... get rid of all of them and just stick with the 2 cameras... my only ?... someone said... but I didn't see that it still came with resolve... might just gamble and get one.... since the camera is only a grand now... then still paying $995 for resolve... might not be a bad deal...
Click to expand...

Resolve 9 is still included. What do you mean clearing house to stick with the two cameras? Are you saying to get rid of the BMCC in favor of the Pocket Cinema and 4k? If so, definitely not. That wouldn't make any sense for them. They're creating a more logical price point for the 2.5k BMCC between the 4k and the Pocket. It was too highly above the Pocket before. Not to mention it's undercutting the 5D3's price by enough to keep people from jumping ship for its RAW ability (among MANY other features). Now that the price is $1,500 more for the 5D3 instead of $500 a lot more people will stop to think what else they could do with that $1,500 saved.
 
Market value is based on supply and demand, not cost of production.

Paranormal grossed 100 million, but costs only 15,000 to make.

John Carter cost 200 million dollars to make, but didn't come close to making it's money back.

They were either worth the price of a movie ticket or they were not, and the cost to produce them was irrelevant.

And this is exactly the way I feel about rich movie stars doing a kickstarter. The money they have or do not have is irrelevant. Either the DVD they are promising is worth the cost of the kickstarter pledge or it is not. Whether they are a Billionaire or a starving first time film maker doesn't change that one bit. It's worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

If people are willing to pay 1,000 bucks for Resolve, then that's what it's worth.
 
Quite simply, when they announced the new 4K cinema camera, they effectively killed the previous model. Who wants to buy the previous unit when a new one is coming at close to the same price. I'm sure they were people still waiting for delivery who cancelled their orders and put in for the new one so BM still has stock around that they need to sell/move...and that is why they are now lowering the price.

Jim Martin
Filmtools.com
 
Spent a few hours backtracking BMD's hardware release history. Google and all. I remember the Hyperdeck being updated swiftly after it was released, and a price drop on some other gear.

Basically, people haven't actually been paying attention to BMD. Me either, as I didn't expect two new cameras so soon. I don't think it has ANYTHING to do with a 5D Hack, so on and so forth. This is JUST how they operate: they update their hardware when they can, and as fast as they can and slash prices where they can. Hyperdeck Shuttle 2 HAD to have been in the works as soon as they released their first one, a lot of their production hardware got updates just as quickly, and price slashes.

The company just doesn't operate on the same wavelength that others do, for better or worse in some people's eyes. That's just my thought, feel free to leave it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top