Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera is better than a simple video camera because it has professional features allowing you to create the same “look” as Hollywood feature films. The combination of high dynamic range, great low light performance and Blackmagic RAW gives you feature film images with precise skin tones and gorgeous organic colors. You get advanced features such as 4K or 6K models, large 5″ LCD for easy focus, SD card and CFast media, external USBC media disk recording, EF or MFT lens mounts and more! DaVinci Resolve Studio is also included for editing, color correction, audio post and VFX!
When it comes to entry-level film cameras that punch way above their weight, both the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 4K and 6K are the best around. Neither camera is perfect, but the things they can’t do are significantly outweighed by what they can.
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K –
Featuring a larger 6144 x 3456 Super 35 sensor and EF lens mount, the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K model lets you use larger EF photographic lenses to create cinematic images with shallower depth of field, allowing creative defocused backgrounds and gorgeous bokeh effects! Extra resolution also gives you more room for reframing in editing and color correction. This means that you can shoot in 6K and then in post-production zoom and reframe to allow wide shots and close ups to be created, all from a single camera and without losing image quality!
The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K features a native sensor resolution of 6144 x 3456. Whether you’re shooting in bright sunlight or in almost no light at all, it features 13 stops of dynamic range and dual native ISO up to 25,600 for stunning low noise images in all lighting conditions. Additionally, the 6K model’s larger Super 35 sensor allows shooting with a shallow depth of field and anamorphic lenses. Both models let you shoot up to 60 fps in full resolution or 120 fps windowed. With Blackmagic Generation 4 Color Science, you get the same imaging technology as our most expensive digital film cameras.
In terms of framerate and format, the new BMPCC 6K can capture a full 50fps at 6144 x 3456 (16:9), 60fps at 6144 x 2560 (2.4:1), and 60fps at 5744 x 3024 (17:9). Apply a crop, and you can crank the frame rate to 120fps at 2.8K 2868 x 1512 (17:9) or shoot in true anamorphic 6:5 using anamorphic lenses at up to 3.7K 3728 x 3104 resolution and 60fps. And all of this can be recorded in 12-bit Blackmagic RAW.
The pocket in the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera is a bit of a misnomer ever since the second generation BMPCC 4K came out, and the BMPCC 6K is even larger to account for the larger Super 35mm sensor. That said, this little camera might be a game-changer that will tempt many a video shooter away from hybrid systems like the Nikon Z6, Canon EOS-R, or Sony’s rumored a7S III that have been winning them over from Micro Four Thirds systems in recent years.
If you’re looking to get into professional video and don’t need a camera that can handle regular stills photography too, then the Pocket 6K could be the perfect choice – but it’s not a camera for vloggers or photographers who want an all-in-one bit of kit.
The Pocket 6K is made with premium video capture firmly in mind, from its 16:9 aspect ratio screen, versus the traditional 3:2 aspect ratio display found on multi-functional photography cameras, through to the enormous file sizes that videos shot on it climb to.
The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K also shoots RAW video out of the box, giving filmmakers and enthusiasts much more control over their productions in the editing phase. When combined with Blackmagic’s Davinci Resolve software, for example, (and free with the camera) editors have scope to go a step beyond RAW photo capture, even changing the ISOs of clips after they are captured.
With 13 stops of dynamic range and dual native ISOs, it’s also tuned to handling noise and retaining tonal detail in situations notoriously hard for video. This also means it’s also set up to capture HDR content.
Blackmagic has also created an extended video mode, sitting somewhere between RAW and compressed, which delivers a broader tonal range ready for colour grading, and with a free copy of Davinci Resolve with every camera sold, you don’t even need to invest in any pricey software to get started.
The benefit in image quality is a no-brainer. 4K footage downsampled to Full HD looks richer than native Full HD footage and the principle stands with 6K capture downsampled to 4K footage. Naturally, with 8K on the horizon and several TVs sporting the resolution expected in the near future, 6K capture will also look better than 4K capture when scaled up, so there’s an element of future-proofing involved as well.
Blackmagic says the initial shipping formats are optimized for the largest field of view and frame rate possible. Shooting 6K and downsampling for 4K delivery will yield a higher picture quality than shooting directly to 4K.
There’s no in-body stabilization on the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K, so if you plan on shooting hand-held, be sure to use a gimbal or a stabilized lens.
Sporting a virtually identical design to that of its predecessor, everything about the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K is familiar if you’re coming from a the 4K model – for better or worse. It’s got the same excellent array of ports, but with a retro look and plastic build.
Its bulbous body features a combination of textures, with a ribbed grip for a secure hold, which extends around the back by way of the card slot. The rest is a matte plastic – and the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K does rather feel like a toy until you put a giant lens on it.
The front of the camera houses the EF lens mount, a horizontal rotating dial and a dual microphone set-up. There’s also a front mounted record button and an LED light. The camera has buttons on the top for recording and 6K stills capture (RAW) as well as ISO, shutter angle (shutter speed) and white balance controls. Three handy customisable function buttons are also in easy reach, along with the power switch.
The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K has a standard tripod thread mount at the base and top, and fits in the same cage as the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. Alternatively, the thread could be perfect for attaching an external monitor or LED light.
You can also record directly to external hard drives, so 6K capture does not need to be so expensive. But at maximum resolution, some reviewers have noticed occasional dropped frames when doing so.
The video captured looks sensationally cinematic and flat, and if you want a RAW look without the monstrous file sizes, Blackmagic’s Extended Video LUT (lookup table) is a great workaround.
Skin tones look rich and nuanced, and the dynamic range the 6K is capable of capturing is stellar for the price. The camera has a wider angle of view than the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K with lenses of the same focal length, and with its larger sensor, gets more depth (you’ll generally be using longer lenses) which can be perfect for certain shots. We often found ourselves reducing the aperture to increase depth of field, though, especially when shooting people – to make sure faces were sharp across the board.
Additionally, the dual ISO ranges work to great effect, and we found ourselves confidently going up to ISO 3200 – something we seldom do on other cameras. Noise is handled well, and even at up to ISO 8000.
Finally, there are some limitations as to what formats you can record specific resolutions at. For example, if you want to shoot 6K footage, you have to shoot in RAW. However, if you’re going to shoot 4K footage, you can’t shoot RAW, you have to shoot ProRes.
We at Paxton Equipments have Black magic cameras on rent including the Black magic pocket 6k.
