# Industry News: Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K for Just $1295



## Canon Rumors Guy (Apr 9, 2018)

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<em>Next generation 4K camera features dual native ISO, full 4/3 HDR sensor, 13 stops of dynamic range, and ProRes or RAW recording to internal SD/UHS-II and CFast cards, or even external USB‑C drives!</em></p>
<p><strong>NAB 2018, Las Vegas, USA – April 9, 2018</strong> – Blackmagic Design today announced the all new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, a handheld digital film camera with full 4/3 HDR sensor, dual native ISO with up to 25600 ISO for incredible low light performance as well as 13 stops of dynamic range. It also eliminates expensive external recorders, as it features a unique new USB-C Expansion Port, which allows customers to record using the internal SD/UHS-II and CFast recorders or directly to the same external disks they will use for editing and color correction. The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K will be available from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide later this year for only US$1,295.</p>
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<p>The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K will be demonstrated on the Blackmagic Design NAB 2018 booth at #SL216.</p>
<p>The revolutionary new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K is the handheld digital film camera that customers have been asking for. It packs incredibly high end imaging and professional features into a portable and affordable design that can be used anywhere. The compact body style is perfect for shooting independent films and documentaries, fashion shows, travel blogs, web videos, weddings, corporate video, sports and much more.</p>
<p>The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K features a full size 4/3 HDR sensor with native 4096 x 2160 resolution and 13 stops of dynamic range for true digital film quality. The full size of the 4/3 sensor is designed to perfectly match MFT lenses so the crop factor is greatly reduced, giving customers a wider field of view. It also features dual native ISO with up to 25600 ISO for incredible low light performance.</p>
<p>The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K is packed with features such as a MFT lens mount, large 5 inch touchscreen monitor, 10-bit ProRes and 12-bit RAW recording, 3D LUTs, 4 built in microphones, mini XLR audio input with phantom power, Bluetooth wireless camera control, HDMI on set monitoring output and more. The latest Blackmagic Design color science lets customers shoot images that are far better than DSLR cameras and even better than professional digital film cameras costing tens of thousands more.</p>
<p>Designed using a space age carbon fiber polycarbonate composite, the body of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K is extremely strong and light. The carbon composite material consists of a high strength polymer that’s reinforced with carbon fibers. This gives the camera body incredible strength and rigidity to help protect it from accidental knocks and drops which can often result in damage. The handheld design features a multi function grip which has logically placed buttons and dials that allow super fast access to essential shooting functions such as recording start/stop, still photos, ISO, shutter, aperture, white balance, power and more.</p>
<p>Fourth generation Blackmagic Design color science lets customers shoot HDR images in film, video and new extended video modes. The new extended mode combines the latitude of digital film with an optimized video file. This gives customers working on fast turnaround projects an ideal solution for shooting great looking images that don’t need a lot of color correction or post production work.</p>
<p>Images can be recorded onto standard SD cards, faster UHS-II cards or CFast 2.0 cards in either ProRes or RAW formats. The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K can record 4K images at up to 60 frames per second and windowed HD at up to 120 frames per second. It’s also the first camera that lets customers record directly onto the same exact external USB-C media drives they use for editing and color correction. That means customers can turn projects around much more quickly because they don’t have to transfer files. All they need to do is unplug the USB-C drive and then connect it to their computer to start editing.</p>
<p>The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K uses the same MFT (Micro Four Thirds) lens mount as the original Pocket Cinema Camera so customers can use the investment in lenses they already own. The MFT mount is extremely flexible and allows for different lens adapters so customers can also use PL, C, EF and other types of lenses from manufacturers such as Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Leica and even Panavision.</p>
<p>The rear of the camera features a large bright 5 inch touchscreen that makes it easy to frame shots and accurately focus. It also uses the same Blackmagic OS as URSA Mini so customers can use simple tap and swipe gestures to adjust settings, add metadata and view recording status. On screen overlays make it easy to see recording parameters, status, histogram, focus and peaking indicators, and playback controls. In addition, 3D LUTs can be applied for both monitoring and recording.</p>
<p>For audio, the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K features multiple built in microphones with an extremely low noise floor, a mini XLR input with 48 volts of phantom power to connect professional lapel and boom mics, and a 3.5mm stereo audio jack for connecting different types of video camera microphones. The high quality built in audio recording means customers don’t have to carry around a separate recorder.</p>
<p>The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K also includes a full size HDMI connector which can output HDR video as well as a clean 10-bit video feed with optional on screen overlays. There’s also an innovative high speed USB-C Expansion Port for adding external accessories such as flash drives and an SSD for external recording. The camera uses standard LP-E6 batteries and can be charged via USB-C or the locking DC power connector, which protects the camera from being accidentally unplugged during a shoot.</p>
<p>“Customers love the original Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and have been asking us for a 4K version,” said Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. “We’ve listened and built a camera that combines all of our newest ideas and customer feedback from the previous model! The new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K is exciting because it packs so much technology into an incredibly small design. We feel it will go well beyond what customers expected. It’s perfect for anyone that needs a truly professional ultra compact digital film camera. This is not a consumer camera that’s trying to do high end work, it’s a true high end camera designed for high end work.”</p>
<p><strong>Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K Features</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Full size 4/3 sized sensor with native 4096 x 2160 resolution sized sensor.</li>
<li>Compatible with extremely high quality Micro Four Thirds lenses.</li>
<li>Super wide 13 stops of dynamic range allows capture for high end feature film look.</li>
<li>Up to 25600 ISO for incredible low light performance.</li>
<li>Carbon fiber polycarbonate composite body which makes it lightweight, portable and durable.</li>
<li>Multi function grip for quick access to recording start/stop, still photos, ISO, shutter, aperture, white balance, power and more.</li>
<li>Built in SD, UHS-II and CFast card recorders.</li>
<li>USB-C expansion port allows longer duration recording directly to an external SSD or flash disk.

Standard open file formats compatible with popular NLE software such as 10-bit ProRes and 12 bit RAW.</li>
<li>Features full size HDMI output for monitoring with camera status graphic overlay.</li>
<li>Professional mini XLR input with 48 volts of phantom power for connecting to pro microphones.

3.5mm audio jack, headphone jack, and locking DC 12 volt power connection.</li>
<li>Built in 5” LCD touchscreen allows accurate focus when shooting 4K.</li>
<li>LCD supports on screen overlays including status, histogram, focus peaking, and transport controls.</li>
<li>Records 4K images at up to 60 frames per second and windowed HD at up to 120 frames per second.</li>
<li>3D LUTs can be applied for both monitoring and recording.</li>
<li>Blackmagic OS as used in URSA Mini and URSA Broadcast cameras.</li>
<li>4th generation Blackmagic color science.</li>
<li>Supports remote camera control via Bluetooth.</li>
<li>Includes full license for DaVinci Resolve Studio editing, color, visual effects and audio post production.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong> Availability and Price</strong></p>
<p>Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K will be available later this year for US$1,295 from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide.</p>
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## swithdrawn (Apr 9, 2018)

Way to go, Blackmagic! This checks off all of my boxes. With a speedbooster the crop is less than the 1DXII. Switching to the BMPCC I would loose DPAF, but I'd gain back the entire Sunday/Monday I spend transcoding TB's of MJPEG to ProRes (and thus, happy wife, happy life, etc) and I'm not worried about focusing with that viewscreen. Mini XLR, full size HDMI and USB-C recording are all great bonuses. Unless this thing has horrible rolling shutter or some other glitchy dealbreaker, I'm jumping ship.


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## crazyrunner33 (Apr 9, 2018)

Absolutely incredible camera for the price point! Looks like it uses the same sensor as the GH5S, so it should have A7S like low light. The lack of DPAF and IBIS is acceptable given the power this camera delivers, and the massive built in screen. The only concern will be the battery life, that 5" screen will eat the LP-E6 for breakfast.


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## EduPortas (Apr 10, 2018)

Honestly, what's the final cost of properly rigging this thing?

The specs look great, though.


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## Antono Refa (Apr 10, 2018)

LP-E6 batteries have become a standard? Cool.


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## syder (Apr 10, 2018)

swithdrawn said:


> Unless this thing has horrible rolling shutter or some other glitchy dealbreaker, I'm jumping ship.



AFAIK every product BM release tends to be filled with glitchy dealbreakers (assuming you need the thing to work reliably). They may have gotten better in the past couple of years (although my recent experience with their streaming box suggests not) but i know some rental houses stopped hiring URSAs because of the number of problems they caused.

BM make incredibly appealing spec sheets that are often wonderful for the 90% of the time they work, but have been far too unreliable for most professional work until at least year after release when they've fixed most of the bugs. Which is almost the opposite of Canon's conservative but functional approach.

New version of Resolve looks interesting though. And the fact that you get a full Resolve license with the camera does make it fantastic value. But BM have such a bad reputation for reliability that i cant help but be sceptical


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## dboris (Apr 10, 2018)

Don't forget that Metabones had developped a BMPCC Speedbooster that had a 0.58x crop. If it has the GH5S sensor, which is a tad bit larger than the usual M43 sensor, then we would basically have no crop over FF.
I think that if it was the case, they would have advertised it as "larger than usual M43 sensors". 
Also the GH5S isn only a 6K sensor because of the M43 aspect ratio. I doubt that this sensor has a m43 aspect ratio. A more "cinema ratio" sensor (like on the FS700) would make more sense. But hey, it's a 1300$ product, I doubt there's such sensors from Sony on the market yet. So I'd guess ; GH5s sensor.

The BMPCC's speedbooster can't be mounted on the GH5 because of the sensor's layers and the shutter mechanism. I hope Metabones will produce a new generation of optics ; they haven't released anything this year and the last ones were having no upgrades over the 4th generation.

I was waiting for the C300 MKIII but this definitely caught my attention, especially considering I'm really into grading (shooting 10bits with GH5), it turned shitty shots to production shots.. At the same time I really don't want a device with tons of attachements on it ; Canon solve this problem by not even outputing a better signal from their C100 ; no need to plug a recorder.
But is this what we want?

I'm also afraid of the lack of viewfinder ; how good will be the screen in bright light? They didn't advertised it with nits value unfortunately.

Finally, I agree with the above comments ; blackmagic hardware always have some deal breaker flaws so I'll wait patiently for the reviews.


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## gsealy (Apr 10, 2018)

Well, we will see. The camera won't be available until this fall, at least. BMD has announced features for cameras in the past only to change them later when they couldn't deliver. The long lead time tells me they are still working out things. If the camera was near ready, then it would shipping in a month or so. The other thing is that nobody has tested it or worked with it. No reviews. Who knows maybe it burns down batteries or overheats. Maybe the optics are poor. Nobody knows. I figure I can always buy it, if it is any good.


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## crazyrunner33 (Apr 10, 2018)

EduPortas said:


> Honestly, what's the final cost of properly rigging this thing?
> 
> The specs look great, though.



It all depends on how you want to rig it. For light weight run and gun, you can get this thing up and running for pretty cheap. The 12-35 2.8 lens from Panasonic is perfect for this. Or add a speed booster and run the 18-35 1.8 from Sigma, along with a 24-105. 

That's the beauty of this camera, it can be rigged as a light weight run and gun setup, or be rigged for studio and film production.


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## crazyrunner33 (Apr 10, 2018)

gsealy said:


> Well, we will see. The camera won't be available until this fall, at least. BMD has announced features for cameras in the past only to change them later when they couldn't deliver. The long lead time tells me they are still working out things. If the camera was near ready, then it would shipping in a month or so. The other thing is that nobody has tested it or worked with it. No reviews. Who knows maybe it burns down batteries or overheats. Maybe the optics are poor. Nobody knows. I figure I can always buy it, if it is any good.



The screen will probably drain the batteries quickly. Fortunately, BMD went with the very reliable Sony sensor that's designed for security cameras, and is the same one used in the GH5S. It's important to note that it does have a fan. Is it as loud or louder than the fans on some of the EOS Cinema cameras? I'm not sure.


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## bsbeamer (Apr 10, 2018)

I'm intrigued by this camera, but think ON PAPER the Sony A7 III would probably make more sense for a lot of people. Will keep an eye when it actually gets released vs. what else is out there for the price range. Maybe the A7S III will blow this away? Maybe Canon will actually come out with something that checks more boxes?


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## crazyrunner33 (Apr 10, 2018)

The A7 III is the camera I would like for a hybrid camera, but these two cameras are two different tools. The aesthetics of the large sensor on the A7 III will be better, and will be a better video choice for those who do not need the RAW capabilities or 10 bit/12 bit color. But the Blackmagic wins when it comes to producing 4K HDR images and color grade ability. It'll also perform a lot better for green screen work. The ability to shoot compressed RAW will keep it from becoming obsolete for a longer period of time.


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## stevelee (Apr 11, 2018)

The announcement keeps mentioning film, but never says what kind or size film it will take.


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## Policar (Apr 11, 2018)

syder said:


> BM make incredibly appealing spec sheets that are often wonderful for the 90% of the time they work, but have been far too unreliable for most professional work until at least year after release when they've fixed most of the bugs. Which is almost the opposite of Canon's conservative but functional approach.



Totally true, and the reason I'm sticking with Canon, but for most enthusiasts it's worth putting up with a little BS. I think this will be big in the enthusiast market. 

Black Magic has gotten better in recent years, too.... still not great, though.


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## AvTvM (Apr 11, 2018)

absolutely fantastic. Love it! 
Hope the "its gotta be cheap and its gotta have 4k-Video"-crowd will buy this camera and give us a break for "4k video in every (stills) cameras" here.


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## Besisika (Apr 11, 2018)

AvTvM said:


> absolutely fantastic. Love it!
> Hope the "its gotta be cheap and its gotta have 4k-Video"-crowd will buy this camera and give us a break for "4k video in every (stills) cameras" here.


Sorry, ain't gonna happen. Must have DPAF, cheap and 4K. Without DPAF? Hein!


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## preppyak (Apr 12, 2018)

gsealy said:


> The long lead time tells me they are still working out things. If the camera was near ready, then it would shipping in a month or so.


I dont know that Blackmagic has ever brought a camera to market within a month of announcing. The original BMPCC was almost a year to market, orders still being filled a year and a half out. Believe the original BMCC was the same way, took forever if you didnt pre-order Day 1.

Id suspect some people will finally get these in November before discovering an issue that makes people pause.

Good to see the LP-E6 is standard here though, the BMPCC was a nightmare for battery life


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