What I find interesting is that there appears to be no way to view the live video on a set of goggles for the camera operator, or the director. At least, it's not mentioned in the link above.
Also, it seems like Apple must have contributed to Blackmagic's investment in this product, right? There are ~300k Vision Pros, so maybe Blackmagic will sell a couple hundred of these units? Without Apple's involvement, how could they have justified the investment in hardware and the new version of Resolve?
My background was in film where I also worked on stereo for certain big projects. I know some anti-Apple folk will criticize my comments below so I want to be clear I’m talking about 3D video specifically.
I think it’s a bet on the future. Even though Apple aren’t high volume, they’ve dramatically shifted the professional stereo video landscape more than anything else in the last decade.
This is everything from bringing full resolution stereo videos for home viewing , to making a seemingly standardized format for 180 videos. Even if the latter is just restricted to their platform.
If I was BMD, I’d be seeing how everyone else is now following Apple in this specific area. Even though Meta were first, they’re undeniably also following Apple in some key areas. Same with Android XR. You can just look at their software releases/announcements over the last year as evidence.
If DaVinci can output to a range of formats, then it reduces the issue of it being apple specific. It’s a bet that they’ll be effectively the only professional game in town when all the brands (Apple, meta, Google) want to start driving content.
Beyond that, I don’t think the outlay for hardware is that high. It’s largely based off the Cine 17k, so most of the investment is amortized there.
Also even beyond the VR space, there’s the market for immersive experiences like projection events, the Vegas sphere, theme parks etc…
You also benefit from people who are bleeding edge either staying in, or entering, the backmagic ecosystem. I read through the comments and most people are focused on the cameras. I know the blackmagic folks from back in the day, been to their lab etc, if you know them they're all about "the blackmagic look" and their thought (at least in the start) is they just need people to fall in love with the profile of their imaging, and they will be stuck in the ecosystem. Anyone I know who shoots BM is obsessed with their IQ.
> I think it’s a bet on the future. Even though Apple aren’t high volume, they’ve dramatically shifted the professional stereo video landscape more than anything else in the last decade.
> This is everything from bringing full resolution stereo videos for home viewing , to making a seemingly standardized format for 180 videos. Even if the latter is just restricted to their platform.
I'd assume Porn already achieved all of the above. The format seem to have mostly settled, and the volume produced are relevant.
Apple might succeed in the "not first but best" approach, but do they have that much of an impact on the landscape right now ? In particular while this camera is marketed toward AVP movies, Apple being an early partner and probably footing the bill for most of it, is a weaker signal than BlackMagic doing it on its own as a forward investment.
