Monday, February 10, 2014

That was fast: Blackmagic Design drops price of Production Camera 4K to $2,995

Just three days after the formal announcement of Panasonic's 4K GH4, and before Panasonic has announced pricing or availability for its new camera, Blackmagic Design has cut $1,000 off the price of its Production Camera 4K, bringing the price down to $2,995 (U.S.). That should be below the price of the GH4 plus its dock. In addition, as I wrote yesterday, the GH4 will need an external video recorder to take full advantage of the camera's 4K output, while the Production Camera 4K has a built-in SSD dock, which makes Blackmagic's camera an even better deal. The Production Camera 4K also has a Canon EF/Zeiss ZE mount, compared to the GH4's Micro Four Thirds mount, which could be very important if you've already got an investment in Canon lenses.

I suspect that Blackmagic was planning the Production Camera 4K's price drop as a big announcement at NAB in April, but the company decided to make the announcement early after seeing Panasonic's moves. It's pretty amazing--in the space of four days, we've gone from no 4K cameras under $3,000 to two.

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