BMD 6K Pocket Cinema Camera

Its definitely disappointing, but at the same time they are making some good choices. A7III size battery, no 4k record limits, flip screen, crazy good auto focus. These smalls things are huge selling points for a lot of people. Better codecs would certainly be nice but if your shots are out of focus, the footage is worthless regardless.
 
The Blackmagic Pocket 4K camera is not discontinued. We just received a new shipment of Pocket 4K cameras yesterday.

It seemed like the release of the Pocket 6K put a damper on Pocket 4K sales for a couple weeks, but sales have picked back up to where we sell through our allocations in a couple days after receiving any cameras.

Does anyone know if the 4K version of this camera is discontinued? It says it's on backorder everywhere.
 
I do think BM's look has changed. IMO the 2.5K/bmpcc were the most aesthetically pleasing and their new cams not so much. Highly subjective though...
SCORESEFAN, yes, I think this is what it's missing to my eyes. The motion even looks more cinema to me. And like u said it's subjective. Almost seems like to have all the good qualities of the original is always to good to be true.
 
FWIW, the old Blackmagics like the 2.5K and BMPCC were lower-resolution systems, which I've seen time and time again mentioned as more "cinematic" and "filmic".

I think it's sometimes difficult for people to adjust to higher-resolution motion pictures, which may seem too lifelike.

As far as the motion, CinemaDNG (individual stills like film & its frames) is one theory why the motion looked so good. (The cameras offer ProRes too though.)
 
FWIW, the old Blackmagics like the 2.5K and BMPCC were lower-resolution systems, which I've seen time and time again mentioned as more "cinematic" and "filmic".

I think it's sometimes difficult for people to adjust to higher-resolution motion pictures, which may seem too lifelike.

As far as the motion, CinemaDNG (individual stills like film & its frames) is one theory why the motion looked so good. (The cameras offer ProRes too though.)

Higher resolution motion pictures don't have a problem with looking too lifelike, they look too crispy, flat and pattern like, like looking at a honeycomb. It's why we crave shallow DOF, gives our eyes a break as we bring details to the front and blur others, more like we see the world without the rectangular frame.
 
My P6K arrived yesterday, mini-review:

Packaged nicely, double boxed from retailer. Inside it had the updated foam sleeve around the camera body. There were no scratches or scuffs, no fingerprints anywhere, sensor pristine, LCD screen had protective sleeve. This was completely satisfactory. There is a rubber pad covering the battery door that bubbled up slightly at the corner.

I charged the battery inside the camera. The battery life exceeded my expectations which were not high in this regard. I plugged in a 1TB Samsung T5 SSD into the USB-C port. With this I could shoot the full sensor BRAW 6K at 50 fps at 5:1 compression without dropping frames for the duration of the capacity which was 118 minutes. I put in a SDXC class II V90 128GB card into the slot. This permitted BRAW full sensor 6K operation at constant quality Q5 for up to 29.97 fps. Resolve 15.3 would not recognize the BRAW files until I updated to version 16.0.

The operating system is very simple but the killer feature is that you can seemingly change any and all the settings while you are shooting. You can punch in 2:1 for focus, aperture, ISO all while camera footage is rolling. Nice!

The auto focus works. It's like a DSLR so no tracking or continuous operation but it hits the target and in pretty low light as well. Ergonomics are large but pretty good. It's lacking the waveform monitor which is unfortunate, it does include a histogram and auto exposure. Manual WB to a 90% white card or table cloth etc. Touch screen is sensitive and responsive, menu simple but well organized and fast.

The BRAW footage looks super good in Resolve. I honestly am unable to see a 6K downsampled resolution difference against quality 4K native footage from other cameras. The overhead from shooting BRAW was not taxing my workstation to any particular degree and the BRAW project settings worked just as they do for Sony Raw (16 bit). This was all very intuitive and I was grading BRAW in no time.

I'm really excited to have the P6K breathe new life into my dormant EF lens collection. They look better than ever, having full frame Canon-L glass covering an S35 sensor makes moot any vignetting or corner softness. Shallow DOF with the Canon 85mm F1.2L II or Sigma 50mm F1.4 DG HSM is more than enough. These are sharp lenses. I have Canon 70-200 F4.0L IS and Canon 17-40mm F4.0L to go on as well. These were great still photography lenses that I am so glad to be using again. BMD has been questioned about the wisdom of going with EF mount versus newer designs but you cannot dispute the logic, there are literally millions of EF lenses in circulation, and this choice was a key factor in my decision versus the Panasonic S1H which is a beautiful camera but a far more costly playground.

My producer is a strong BMD proponent, was pleased with this decision and together we will be shooting TEDx again in Boulder Oct. 19th in 6K Prores (for punched in flexibility), which has already amassed more than 10 million views.
 
Tom,

Now that you have 16.2 play around with the cut page ... unbelievably fast and intuitive ... I populate the timeline in cut move to edit and fairlight ... prior to color as the playback
plummets with my normal 7 nodes .... and I tend to use the 5.7K as it is 17x9 and is a great capture for 4K or 2K DCI (also 17x9).

There is a cohesiveness to the structure of the 5.6/6K debayer to 4/2K that I find more pleasing than regular 4K capture on the P4K or my other cameras.

The external power input is perfect ... I don't even think about it with a couple of AB gold mount batteries .... and the T5 or external M.sata EVO 860s give hours of 6K capture. Just need to
edit and cull unnecessary footage as it can overwhelm storage in a fairly short time.
 
BMD is sending me one to review, it arrives today. Just shipped the UMP G2 back yesterday, now I get to play around with the PCC 6K for a few weeks!
I'm looking forward to it. The UMP G2 is a really impressive camera in some aspects and a sort of puzzling one in others. Wonder if the PCC 6K will be the
same way?
 
... BMD has been questioned about the wisdom of going with EF mount versus newer designs but you cannot dispute the logic, there are literally millions of EF lenses in circulation, and this choice was a key factor in my decision versus the Panasonic S1H which is a beautiful camera but a far more costly playground....
For reference, there have been about 150 million EF lenses made since the early 1980's.

Which is the main reason why C500 MKII is also EF (albeit swappable with the PL).
 
Tom,

Now that you have 16.2 play around with the cut page ... unbelievably fast and intuitive ... I populate the timeline in cut move to edit and fairlight ... prior to color as the playback
plummets with my normal 7 nodes .... and I tend to use the 5.7K as it is 17x9 and is a great capture for 4K or 2K DCI (also 17x9).

There is a cohesiveness to the structure of the 5.6/6K debayer to 4/2K that I find more pleasing than regular 4K capture on the P4K or my other cameras.

The external power input is perfect ... I don't even think about it with a couple of AB gold mount batteries .... and the T5 or external M.sata EVO 860s give hours of 6K capture. Just need to
edit and cull unnecessary footage as it can overwhelm storage in a fairly short time.

Good advice, thanks! Looking forward to using the Cut page, the 5.7K > 4K DCI sounds enticing!
 
The UMP G2 is a really impressive camera in some aspects and a sort of puzzling one in others. Wonder if the PCC 6K will be the
same way?

It's very simple and fast. The proportions seem more balanced than I was expecting; looks proper for largish EF lenses. I hope my sample is truly Q.C. representative because the build quality seems entirely fine. It has a little more heft and feels a little less plasticky that I expected, and no operational glitches or flaws in the footage, which is just beautiful. I didn't know I could be subject to emotional attachment, it's the 3 legged dog at the shelter, you took it home anyway, fell in love and it returns the favor.

The BRAW constant quality Q5 setting seems a good bargain for bit rate and file size at such quality.

I will be looking forward to your comments, be sure and review it!
 
It's very simple and fast. The proportions seem more balanced than I was expecting; looks proper for largish EF lenses. I hope my sample is truly Q.C. representative because the build quality seems entirely fine. It has a little more heft and feels a little less plasticky that I expected, and no operational glitches or flaws in the footage, which is just beautiful. I didn't know I could be subject to emotional attachment, it's the 3 legged dog at the shelter, you took it home anyway, fell in love and it returns the favor.

The BRAW constant quality Q5 setting seems a good bargain for bit rate and file size at such quality.

I will be looking forward to your comments, be sure and review it!

Definitely. A few outtakes from my photo session with the UMP G2 the other day. I get so bored with the press photos with white BGs and I have to take pictures of specific areas of the cameras that that the photographers for BMD normally don't focus on. It's an interesting camera for sure. It ran really well with my cheap Chinese $99.00 V-Mounts on the back.

01.jpg

02.jpg
 
The news appears to have been shared a bit too early...I believe that was supposed to be an announcement at IBC.
 
It is indeed shocking though, as the Pocket6K is flying off the shelves.

But, I assume, Petty knows what other cameras are going to be revealed at IBC and is firing a salvo of his own.
 
Testing the BMD PCC 6K today, I'm actually liking it a bit more than I expected I would. With my EF S 17-55 f/2.8 IS on it, its a hefty litttle handful, definitely Pocket in name only. But the menus, controls and build all seem decent for what it is. Going to start shooting with this week.

BMD PCC 6K 01.jpg

BMD PCC 6K 02.jpg

BMD PCC 6K 03.jpg
 
Blackmagic has a history of slashing prices aggressively.

Grant - since day 1 - has mentioned one of his goals was to provide high-quality motion picture capturing for everyone.
 
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