Sean's Latest Blackmagic Production 4K and Pocket Camera Update

The latest buzz on the net is coming from the Blackmagic Forum where it has been stated that the new cameras will not be shipping by the end of July.

 In an update that was sent to a user of the Forum from Blackmagic's UK office:

Official statement from Blackmagic on new camera shipping: Simon Westland of Blackmagic Design EMEA "Blackmagic Design is making significant progress in production of the new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and Blackmagic Production Camera 4K. Full production manufacturing is underway on the Pocket Cinema Camera with first production units in final testing. This is inline with our initial expectations of the end of July and means the camera will start to ship in quantity during August. There are several weeks of work to do on Production Camera 4K before this will enter full production manufacturing, however we expect to ship the first quantities of this model before the end of August."

Source: http://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10395#p65002

 While it seems that most users are slightly relieved to hear something, some are up in arms due to the fact that the camera won't be in their hands by July 31st.

 It is never a good idea promise a hard date. As we saw last year with the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Murphy's Law can and will come into play.

As for now, be patient and don't plan on shooting any paid gigs with a camera that isn't physically in your possession. Make sure to join our waiting list if you are interested in getting this camera.

Signs of the Apocalypse, Toronto Flood Edition

Toronto has survived The Great Flood of 2013, and the images of the sudden flash floods are surreal. One expects flooding on the Don Valley Parkway, but DV Dude never imagined he would see flooding like this on the 427.

Picture taken by Elamin Abdelmahmoud, and courtesy of the CBC's web site.

The Mother of All Computer Demos, 1968 Edition

News came out yesterday that Douglas Engelbart had died at the age of 88. Engelbart was best known for developing the computer mouse, but these videos show he, and his team of engineers, were responsible for so much more - basically the entire concept of modern personal computers. These videos are from the legendary public demo Engelbart did on December 9, 1968 at the Stanford Research Institute. It has been called "The Mother of All Demos," and after watching them, I can see why. With one exception (the concept of windows, which Xerox did at PARC, and Apple commercially implemented later), the entire basis of modern computing is in this demo, in 1968.



Here's the mouse.



We take this for granted now, but in 1968 it would have been very trippy!



Collaboration, and at the end of this clip, video conferencing.

You have to remember that in 1968, computers were very crude. You interfaced with them using punch cards or other inconceivable media. So to show you typing in real time, re-arranging words, copying paragraphs, using a mouse, video conferencing, two users collaborating on the same screen, etc. etc. was light years ahead of what would be possible even 30 years later.

Wow.