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So, without being an apologist for its flaws, they are overshadowed by more pros than we would ever have expected from a $1,295 / £1,034 pro-grade film camera. Using Canon LP-E6 batteries, it shouldn’t be too costly to pick up a few extra for shoots - and boy will you need them. The quoted 50-minutes of battery life out of a single charge was very optimistic, with real world results closer to mins. This time round, there’s more bang, less buck and a generation of eager YouTubers and video enthusiasts looking for a premium, yet value-centric 4K option, and this could be just the ticket. All these specs make the Blackmagic one of the best video cameras you can buy.
Ports
There’s also no shoe mount on top, replaced instead with a screw thread for connecting a camera cage or mounting plate. Oddly, the bottom tripod mount is a sole 1/4-inch socket, missing the extra pin often found on video cameras. This is, then, a camera you will certainly want to accessorize to get the most out of it. It's a pity Blackmagic hasn’t included continuous autofocus, so Canon is still winning this battle.
Price and availability
Because the screen is larger, no movement isn’t as bad as it could be, but it’s still lame when you want to shoot low or high angles or in situations where there is loads of glare on the screen. The screen looks great and, along with the built-in shot assists tools, it gets the job done. For about $150, you can get an SSD that will capture for 15 minutes at the highest data rate. Outside of having to secure the media, external SSDs are a great lower cost option. All you do is plug them in via USB 3.1 and you are ready to format and shoot; it’s really easy. With the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, you can record in either CinemaDNG RAW or ProRes to SD, Cfast 2.0 or external media.
A highly portable, semi-pro 4K video camera that's significantly less expensive than its rivals – what's not to like?

We expect you could easily get several years of use out of it. Basil Kronfli is the Head of content at Make Honey and freelance technology journalist. He is an experienced writer and producer and is skilled in video production, and runs the technology YouTube channel TechEdit. With such massive power drains, if you’re doing any studio based work, we’d recommend stumping up for a 2-pin DC connector. As for on location shoots, packing in excess of ten batteries wouldn’t be a bad idea. This isn’t surprising, not only does the Pocket Cinema Camera have a giant screen to power, it’s also got a air vents to keep things cool - and even so, it gets hot.
Moving on to testing rolling shutter, we panned the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K back and forth to see if vertical lines started to bend. The camera does have a rolling shutter, so we expected to see a bit of jello, but there wasn’t much of any. The menu is operated by touch, although there are buttons for the things you use the most often, like ISO and shutter speed. We shot with three lenses during the review, all three from the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED line.
@Samuel, I believe BM are producing a viewfinder for this camera, that does indicate shoulder mounting is a good possibility. I think with a suitable plate for a shoulder pad, battery power on the back and viefinder, this camera would have good balance on the shoulder. @dmanthree there is also a growing amount of L-Mount cinema lenses, as many camera makers move to mirrorless mounts (RED uses RF, Sony their E-Mount).
4K video was beautifully sharp, but free from visible over-sharpening. With no noticeable artifacting to speak of, the results were amongst the best we’ve seen on any sub-£2,000/$2,000 camera. Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best.
Features
Who wouldn't want to use the IS mechanism they've paid for to squeeze a bit more resolution our of their camera? People like Richard Butler, who question the effort/reward balance they offer. Popular photo sharing service Photobucket recently revealed that the 13 billion images it hosts online could be used to train AI models.
Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 4K review: value, flaws and 4K RAW
Its form-factor is that of a mirrorless hybrid video/photo camera, but, ironically, it doesn’t shoot photos. The first reaction from this reviewer is that it’s just plain ugly. Luckily, the picture quality is much prettier than the physical design. Unfortunately, it’s not quite right for one-person crews like YouTubers and vloggers (and Digital Trends camera reviewers) who depend on reliable continuous autofocus and can’t monitor battery life like a hawk.
And if you want to record RAW, you still have to attach BM Video Assist. I still see a MAJOR selling point adding a hinge to the screen as is, at the cost of $1-200 (can't imagine being more...). The Blackmagic Pyxis is available from June 2024 at a recommended price of $3,000. To test the moiré of the camera, we shot the DSC Labs SineZone test chart. We all love making memories, and a great way to collect those memories is to take a quick snap of a gorgeous landscape, a party in full swing, or a particularly incredible meal.
It shoots beautiful DCI 4K RAW video, has an easy to use menu and costs only $1,300. In our experience, the autofocus was often slower than simply focusing manually (which, again, is quite easy to do thanks to the great monitor). Worse, it only focussed correctly about 50 percent of the time, often missing focus even in well-lit situations with plenty of contrast. As for the onboard microphones, they sound as decent as on-camera mics can. They are useful for scratch audio or for syncing if you record primary audio into another device, but you probably shouldn’t rely on them for much beyond that.
Hands on Insights With the New Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K - No Film School
Hands on Insights With the New Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K.
Posted: Tue, 19 Sep 2023 16:19:14 GMT [source]
However, it is otherwise such a refreshing camera to use and produces such great results that it may well be worth the minor headaches. The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K is a revolutionary product, one that has again lowered the bar for entry into professional video production. It will find a warm welcome in independent productions, student films, and documentaries. At the same time, there’s nothing proprietary to Blackmagic going on here. ProRes (a professional compressed format developed by Apple) and CinemaDNG (an open RAW video format spearheaded by Adobe) are industry standards.
There’s a good size grip with access to control dials, function buttons, and the record button. On the side of the grip you’ll find memory card slots for both SD and CFast 2.0 cards; the opposite side houses a USB-C port that can be used to connect a solid state drive (SSD), which the camera can record to directly. At the base is a slightly flimsy battery door which is removable so the potential for third party battery grips is a reality, while to the left you’ve got a dual card slot which feels a bit more sturdy. The camera takes SD and CFast cards, with the CFast cards required for the highest quality raw 4K video. Blackmagic PYXIS features a wide range of connections for audio, monitoring, power and more.
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. Nothing else does what this camera does anywhere near this price point, so no.
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