Blackmagic Design Announces a New Pocket Cinema Camera Can Shoot 6K Videos
Blackmagic Design has revealed its latest compact camera for cinematography, the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K. It looks pretty similar to the 4K camera introduced last year, and is essentially the same as its 4K younger brother, except for the obvious addition of an EF mount lens.
What are the new Pocket 6K specs?
First and foremost, BMPCC 6K features a larger Super 35 sensor with a resolution of 6144 x 3456 (16:9 ratio).
Resolution aside, the switch to Super 35 will allow for much better low-light performance and control over depth of field. The 6K camera also uses Canon’s EF lens mount, rather than the 4K’s Micro Four Thirds, and Blackmagic is claiming 13 stops of dynamic range with dual native ISO of 400 and 25,600.
When the ISO setting is between 100 and 1,000 the native ISO of 400 is used as a reference point. The ISO range between 1,250 and 25,600 uses the native ISO of 3,200 as a reference. If you are shooting in conditions where you have a choice between ISO 1,000 or 1,250, BM suggests closing down one stop on your lens’ iris so that you can select ISO 1,250 as it will engage the higher native ISO and provide much cleaner results.
Like its 4K sibling, the 6K Pocket Cinema Camera comes with a 5-inch touchscreen with an intuitive menu system and is powered by Blackmagic OS.
The 6K camera records using standard open file formats — 10-bit Apple ProRes in all formats up to 4K, or 12-bit Blackmagic RAW up to 6K. The camera features built-in CFast and SD UHS-II card slots, and a USB-C expansion port for recording directly to an external SSD. Media cards and disks can be formatted in HFS+ for Mac and ExFAT for Windows.
It has the same set of connections as the BMPCC 4K. The camera includes a full-size HDMI connector for monitoring with support for HDR and clean 10‑bit output. There’s also a mini XLR connection with 48-volt phantom power for attaching professional microphones, a 3.5 mm video camera style microphone input, headphone connection, and a professional locking DC power connector.
Just like the BMPCC 4K, the 6K version has four built-in microphones that BM claims have an extremely low noise floor and are shock and wind-resistant.
Paired with any of the EF mount lenses, this camera becomes an ideal companion for street photographers who try to capture every day’s scene in a different way.
The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K is available now for $2495. More info on Blackmagic website.