How Blackmagic Design Changed Videography Forever

I know the Blackmagic line of cameras and basically all of their products have helped me and I’ve seen them help other people. I wanted to give a bit of my story because people following along, whichever step in the program, whichever stage in their career they’re at, the information probably resonates with a lot of what I went through.

To summarize briefly, I started working with a company where I was basically handling all the videography tasks. I had to come up with everything. They did online videos to teach people about business and I handled all of their videography production. So at one point in time I had to figure out what kind of cameras we were going to use. They had two different kinds already, so I had to find one that be as good or better than the others. They had a Canon T2i and they had a Panasonic AG-AC 160A.  They liked to use the AG-AC 160A for everything because they knew that was a broadcasting standard and that’s what they thought was the best. Now, I liked to use the Canon T2i,

It was kind of strange because they had this other big professional camera that was the main camera and I preferred this little T2i  just because it was simpler and I thought the picture looked nicer. I didn’t know exactly why I liked it better. I wasn’t educated on the technical concepts yet, but over time I would learn why you know why why I preferred the Canon camera over the AG-AC 160A. But that experience made me realized what I was beginning to look for and what kind of specifications I was beginning to look for in a camera.

I think that’s one of the biggest things Blackmagic allowed people to do. They bridged the gap between casual videographers and serious videographers. I wasn’t able to look at serious cameras like Reds and Arris because for the company that I was working that was not in their budget. I had to find other solutions and instead of just going with the status quo and picking a standardized thing, I  wanted to find whatever was the best. I wanted to find whatever I could just to make their picture look as amazing as possible. In that search, I found a new line of cameras, at least it was new to me, and that was the Blackmagic line of cameras.

It had these amazing specifications and the price wasn’t out of our range. That’s the second big point and it’s one of the biggest reasons this camera was so disruptive. The price point was so aggressive. I talked people about this who were looking at different cameras, other videographers who were doing the same thing, and it’s so amazing to look back and reflect on what black magic was able to do at that time.

Everyone, including Blackmagic, was tired of other camera manufacturers just totally jacking up the price and not offering what they could to the audience that needed it the most. So when Blackmagic decided to come out with their own camera, it was just like a big “f you” to all the other camera manufacturers. Now, it was a work-in-progress. Because they came out with some camera models and bodies that were questionable. And they came out with certain functions missing and certain functions people didn’t need like offering a quarter inch input and no XLR. It was  just little things like that that they improved over time.

They didn’t have everything figured out, but they knew that there was an audience there and they continued to bridge that gap and I think it was so impactful because that audience is still continuing to grow. Blackmagic Design’s cameras have become such an insane solution for more and more people as they’re finding it out about them.  Of course, camera lines like Canon and Nikon have such a foothold in the industry and their marketing and promotion are powerful. But the more people find out about about Blackmagic the more accessible this kind of this kind of solution is for other businesses and individuals.