With all the big camera releases from Blackmagic Design, you might wonder if The Nexus Project is still alive. Well, it looks like it is, and I’m glad to see that the Pyxis leaves a lot of boxes unchecked that the Nexus includes. Below is a statement from Thomas that explains very well what the next steps will be.
This morning we learnt of the announcement of the Pyxis!! It was very exciting to see Blackmagic finally move towards a new form factor!At first I thought it may be like the Nexus, and that all of our requests to Blackmagic for a streamlined, affordable run and gun box form factor cinema camera had finally been answered!But after reviewing the Pyxis, unfortunately it is clear to me that it isn’t what I’ve been waiting for.
It’s more like a cut down Ursa, not designed to be an easy to use run and gun cinema camera, but more of an ENG camera that lives on the shoulder, or a conventional studio camera. This is evident because of the fact there is no built in Monitor or HDMI output port (which means you can’t use the camera without a professional SDI monitor), and the only way to control the camera when handheld is on the fixed screen on the side (unless you always use a US$650 SDI Portkeys BM5 III WR bluetooth control monitor), and there is no grip to control even basic settings, and no way to attach a handle to the left side of the camera for handheld.
This is a worse control situation than the original fixed-screen pocket cameras!! Further, there is no option to have internal ND filters, there is no 120 fps 2.8K (only 1080p), there is no ProRes recording, there is only one XLR port, you can’t use the original Blackmagic pocket EVF (only the expensive US$1,695 Ursa Cine EVF), there is no SDI switcher control, the camera only accepts an uncommon type of battery (BPU) that not many other devices use, and the cooling vents are on the top of the camera wide open to the sky – which is problematic for uncontrolled filming environments.
We have received a lot of messages and comments from people asking our view of the Pyxis. For the above reasons we see it’s clear that the Pyxis is a different camera for a different application to the Nexus – the Pyxis isn’t the camera we would buy for our small commercial film productions, so the Nexus project is a must. Lately we haven’t been able to dedicate as much time as we’d like to project updates, as we have been working intensively on the Micro-Four-Thirds (MFT) Positive Lock mount.
We are excited to announce that we have developed an entirely new type of positive lock mechanism that locks rock solid, is super low profile (which allows us to fit an ND filter behind it!), is easier to use, and mechanically cooler!
Prototype of the MFT mount and reveal of the latest Nexus G1 body design and prototype coming soon!Thanks a lot everyone for all the support of the project, and patience as the Nexus progresses through R&D! Thanks!
Thomas – The Nexus Project
Again he makes a lot of valid points and I’m very interested to see what comes of the project. Are you still excited and interested?
