Sunday, April 28, 2024

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2 Review: Still Fits in a Niche

blackmagic design pocket cinema camera

This is another one of those “What do you expect for $1,300” features. It shoots beautiful DCI 4K RAW video, has an easy to use menu and costs only $1,300. Supports recording optional portrait mode metadata for all resolutions in Blackmagic RAW and ProRes. More saturated colors are pure and less saturated colors have a percentage of gray in proportion to their hue.

Dual Gain ISO for Exceptional Low Light Performance

Our last major frustration with the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K is its port covers. Three hunks of rubber cover the mic input, headphone output, HDMI out, 12v power, USB-C port and mini XLR port. In fact, we were unable to get the top cover back in place unless we started at the top and worked our way down.

Multifunction Grip with Fingertip Controls!

The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K features a 4/3 size sensor, 13 stops of dynamic range and dual native ISO up to 25,600 for HDR images and incredible low light performance. External controls give quick access to essential functions, while the large 5 inch touchscreen makes it easy to frame shots, focus accurately and change camera settings. The elegant design of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera packs an incredible number of high end digital film features into a miniaturized, handheld design. Made from lightweight carbon fiber polycarbonate composite, the camera features a multifunction handgrip with all controls for recording, ISO, WB and shutter angle right at your fingertips. Because it's an advanced digital film camera, the sensor is designed to reduce thermal noise allowing cleaner shadows and higher ISO. Plus the large 5 inch LCD makes it possible to get perfect focus at 4K and 6K resolutions.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera

The company also creates loyalty through its vast array of workflow hardware and software tools, creating an ecosystem that’s way more than the sum of its parts. While there are some things you won’t find on the BMPCC G2 that other companies include at this $1,995 price, the camera offers a simple, intuitive experience that matches the other products in its lineup. The new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2 successfully carries on the company’s tradition of providing affordable creation tools dedicated to video and cinema creation.

Multiple Resolutions and Frame Rates

blackmagic design pocket cinema camera

The Nikon Zf is a 24MP full-frame mirrorless camera with classic looks that brings significant improvements to Nikon's mid-price cameras. We just shot a sample reel to get a better feel for its video features and have added our impressions to the review. You can’t even turn off noise reduction on an FX3, whereas this Pyxis seems to be a full-blown cine camera.

blackmagic design pocket cinema camera

Remotely Set Iris, ISO, Shutter, Focus and Color

The Nexus G1– A Box Camera Mod Using The Blackmagic Design Pocket 6K G1 - Newsshooter

The Nexus G1– A Box Camera Mod Using The Blackmagic Design Pocket 6K G1.

Posted: Sat, 06 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

While the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera is very small, we didn’t realize quite how small it was until we saw the flat rate box in which our review unit was shipped. Inside the box you are greeted with a manual, an SD card, a small wrist strap, an EN-EL20 battery, a 12V AC adapter for charging and power, and of course, the actual Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera with a lens cap. Next, we put the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K through some basic tests to see its low light performance, moiré and rolling shutter. We noticed during testing that the battery percentage went down very rapidly. Across a few different batteries and tests, we saw a relatively consistent battery life of about 40 minutes. The camera did get hot during our tests but never hot enough to affect performance.

Get Professional Editing, Color Correction, Audio Post and VFX!

You will get double the capacity of your media just switching to ProRes 422 HQ. Add in its abysmal battery life, and you have a camera that’s more difficult to operate that you would expect. Who wouldn't want to use the IS mechanism they've paid for to squeeze a bit more resolution our of their camera?

Another thing to note is that the camera will try to capture to any media you put in it. Using slower-than-recommended media can lead to dropped frames, but on the other hand, older and more affordable media can be used at settings with lower data rates. With the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, you can record in either CinemaDNG RAW or ProRes to SD, Cfast 2.0 or external media. The camera offers dual native ISO for less noise at higher ISOs, and it can capture up to 120 frames per second in windowed HD mode. Adjusting contrast, or the tonal range of an image, can make different parts of the image stand out.

Camera Features

To put this into perspective, for the exact cost as the BMPCC 6K G2, you can buy the Panasonic S5 II, which is full-frame and offers 6K footage bolstered by a stabilized sensor. Fans of the system will point out that the BMPCC does have autofocus, but it’s not exactly what it sounds like. The camera can use contrast detection (not phase detection) to achieve focus, but it comes with a massive amount of “hunting” as the lens racks back and forth to achieve a lock.

Even slow pans exhibit a significant jello effect from the rolling shutter, which is a shame considering the sensor size should make it relatively easy to get high-speed readout compared to full-frame cameras. Yet, many full-frame cameras have vastly better rolling shutter speeds simply because they have faster-performing sensors and processors. The range of products is impressive, and it’s possible to create an entire editing studio out of almost nothing but BlackMagic offerings. Companies like Canon can offer customers a range of lenses, camera bodies, or even monitors, but Blackmagic offers integration and workflow. After exporting our clips into Adobe Premiere Pro we were able to further adjust them and really play with the latitude provided by the Super 16 sensor. It was awesome to be able to pull detail from shadows and highlights that would have been considered lost on other cameras.

By comparison, going from a Sony mirrorless camera to a Sony cine camera requires a mental shift and an adjustment to the different types of controls and disparate menu systems. Although it can’t capture 10-bit internally, it can output it to an external recorder. Adding a recorder would increase the cost of the camera by about $1000. The Z6 also has log shooting, an EVF and a tilting touchscreen LCD, along with IBIS. The Pocket Cinema Camera 4K is the second camera in the Pocket Cinema line.

The fantastic menu system allows clear, easy access to your desired controls. It is organized more like an Arri Alexa than a video/stills camera menu system. The ability to record internal RAW is excellent at this price and there are various levels of compressed RAW settings to reduce file sizes. External control of some camera settings, focus, iris and zoom with compatible lenses, color corrector, tally and internal record start and stop when used with a compatible ATEM and ATEM Software Control. Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera records using standard open file formats so you don’t have to waste time transcoding media.

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