Sounds awfully like RED, but they took far more than a year.
Yet they have a dismal reputation for reliability. Philip Bloom sold his despite the fact it produced images better than his other cameras, because he couldn't trust it to always work. And I also seem to to recall RED/Jim Jannard getting a bit annoyed that he did this and there was a bit of an silly online hoo-haa about it all, which didn't do RED any favours.
Full disclosure. I've had my up and downs with RED, especially in their buying process.
I also waited until the mx sensor was available AND in wide use before I bought my first then second R1.
I had heard the things about overheating, you need two, etc. etc., but ours have been virtually perfect, around the world, from Zero C in New York and Paris to hellish hot and humid conditions in Thailand and KL. In fact for dialog I usually run very long takes and had no issue.
Now the Scarlet, I bit early and yes . . . it's been more than a year since I find it really all around usable. But RED came through made hardware fixes for sound, fan, connections and it is a useable production camera and now well worth the money.
I'm not a RED fan boy like you see on their forums, rarely go on their forums unless I want to buy something, but there was and is no completely capable 4k, to 5k raw camera, with it's own software suite, that is available today, that is tested in battle for the price RED sells for.
In fact I'm so pleased with the R1's that if I needed a 4th RED, it would be an R1, but I use the scarlet and now as a c cam . . . use it for shoulder mounted and quick set up shots, usually with Canon I.S. lenses.
But to Blackmagic.
I can promise you nobody would like them to succeed more than I. The price is good, (not great considering what it takes to make one really work) and I believe they will get there, though it seems to take even Sony, a year or so to really get a 4k camera working in mainstream and varied conditions.
I had my pocket book out for the little mft pocket camera, and if I like it, maybe the 4k camera, but Phillip bloom's testing kind of threw me back. No camera formatting which I'm sure they'll fix in firmware, though 5 batteries for 50 minutes is not going to work for most people. Just like the in handle Scarlet and Epic batteries, they're is just not enough juice in small batteries to run a 4k camera. I know, because I own more V-locks than I do SSD, CF and SD cards.
BTW: Either the camera or Phillips color grading for his quick tests was very, very pretty for such a quick test.
But back to why 4k matters. Go get a small dslr, or a mft camera. Set a jpeg at around 2000 pixels across and throw it into fcp. Drop a filter in and start working. Then take the same image shot raw at 4k and do the same. Even for a still you'll see the difference and more than a looks a little better difference, you'll see a holy s__t what a difference.
4k is here in production. In output I'm not that sure, but in acquisition 4k is the deal.
Yea, Sometimes Mr. Jannard does himself no favors, but he's bold, he's proud, he did what he said . . . not all . . . but more than the big players and he doesn't take any lip.
In a world that bold and proud has been turned to a negative, I find Mr. Jannard refreshing and he puts himself out there for the world to swing at. I like him.
Consequently medium format cameras fall into the same high quality niche and the Phase one CEO essentially does the same thing, in a much more understated manner, but he makes no apologies for making good camera backs that are professional.
The part I don't understand with both of these companies is people like to diss them, few that do have actually worked with their equipment under heavy, lots of money on the line production, but everybody, even part time testers love to complain and unfortunately the web gives everyone an equal voice.
IMO
BC
