Shoot in 6K for under R50k with the new Pocket Cinema Camera 6K from Blackmagic Design.

Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K, a new handheld digital film camera with a full Super 35 size 6K HDR image sensor, 13 stops of dynamic range, an EF lens mount and dual native ISO up to 25,600 for incredible low light performance. This new model builds on the popularity of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K but has a larger Super 35 sensor size with 6K resolution, allowing higher image quality. The EF lens mount model works with a wide range of lenses from companies such as Canon, Zeiss, Sigma and Schneider.

The elegant design of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera packs an incredible number of high end digital film features into a miniaturized, handheld design. Made from lightweight carbon fiber polycarbonate composite, the camera features a multifunction handgrip with all controls for recording, ISO, WB and shutter angle right at their fingertips. Because it’s an advanced digital film camera, the sensor is designed to reduce thermal noise allowing cleaner shadows and higher ISO. Plus the large 5 inch LCD makes it possible to get perfect focus at 4K and 6K resolutions.

Featuring a larger 6144 x 3456 Super 35 sensor and EF lens mount, the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K lets customers use larger EF photographic lenses to create cinematic images with shallower depth of field, allowing creative defocussed backgrounds and gorgeous bokeh effects. This means that customers can shoot in 6K and then in post production zoom and re-frame to allow wide shots and close ups to be created, all from a single camera and without losing image quality.

High Dynamic Range

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K and 6K both have an incredible 13 stops of dynamic range which means they preserve more detail in the lightest and darkest areas of an image than simple video cameras can. This allows customers to set exposure for an indoor scene such as a cafe and still retain the details of bright outdoor light coming through a window. Customers even get more colors than the standard DCI-P3 colorspace used for feature films.

The Pocket Cinema Camera will be the first camera that allows South Africans to shoot in 6K for under R50,000.

The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera features dual gain ISO up to 25,600, which means both the 4K and 6K models are optimized to minimize grain or noise in images, while maintaining the full dynamic range of the sensor. The native ISO of 400 is ideal for scenes with on-set lighting. The gain is set automatically as they adjust the ISO setting on the camera, so it’s easy to capture great images when they don’t have time to set up lights.

The new 6K model will shoot up to 50 fps at 6144 x 3456 16:9 or 60 fps at 6144 x 2560 2.4:1 and 60 fps at 5744 x 3024 17:9. For higher frame rates they can window the sensor and shoot up to 120 fps at 2.8K 2868 x 1512 17:9. Customers can even work in true anamorphic 6:5 using anamorphic lenses in 3.7K 60 fps at 3728 x 3104.

The rear of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera features a large, bright 5 inch touchscreen that makes it easy for customers to frame shots and accurately focus. It’s like getting a built in Blackmagic Video Assist with their camera. The touchscreen displays critical information while shooting, as well as menus for setting up the camera and intuitive touch to focus controls. On screen overlays show status, a histogram, focus and peaking indicators, levels, frame guides, playback controls and more.

Try the New Pocket Cinema Camera 6K for a Weekend

The Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 6K will be arriving in South Africa within the next few weeks. We’ve launched our unique Demo Weekend Programme that lets you try out the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K before buying it. You pay a small fee to use the camera for a weekend. If you decide you’d like to buy one, your fee gets deducted from the cost of your brand new camera!

Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Features:

• Use for independent films, documentaries, blogs and more
• Designed from carbon fiber polycarbonate composite.
• Multifunction grip allows single hand operation.
• 2 models with 6K at 6144 x 3456 and 4K at 4096 x 2160.
• Compatible with MFT or EF lens mounts.
• Wide 13 stops of dynamic range for film looks.
• Up to 25600 ISO for incredible low light performance.
• Records full resolution up to 60 fps or 120 fps windowed.
• Standard open file formats compatible with popular software.
• Built in SD, UHS-II and CFast card recorders.
• Features incredible quality Blackmagic RAW recording.
• Built in 5″ touchscreen allows accurate focus when shooting 6K.
• Blackmagic OS as used in URSA Mini and URSA Broadcast cameras.
• Includes Blackmagic Generation 4 Color Science.
• Features full size HDMI for monitoring with status overlay.
• Professional mini XLR input with 48 volt phantom power.
• 3D LUTs can be applied for both monitoring and recording.
• USB-C port allows recording directly to external disk.
• Built in timecode generator for sync muli-camera shoots.
• Supports still frame capture up to 21.2 megapixel.
• Localized for 11 popular languages.
• Supports remote camera control via Bluetooth.
• Powers via 12V DC input and can recharge via USB-C.
• Includes full DaVinci Resolve Studio for post production.

Connectivity & Formats:

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera records using standard open file formats so customers don’t have to waste time transcoding media. Recording works in industry standard 10-bit Apple ProRes files in all formats up to 4K or 12-bit Blackmagic RAW in all formats up to 6K. Best of all media files work on all operating systems plus customers can format media cards and disks in HFS+ for Mac and ExFAT for Windows.

The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera features built in CFast and SD UHS-II card recorders, and a USB-C expansion port for recording direct to an external media disk. Customers can use regular SD cards for HD or higher performance UHS-II and CFast cards for native 4K or 6K when using Blackmagic RAW. Imagine capturing over an hour of full resolution 6K images on a single 256GB SD UHS-II card.

Blackmagic RAW is a revolutionary new format designed to capture and preserve the quality of the sensor data from their camera. Video formats such as H.264 are highly compressed, plus add noise and weird artifacts, causing original sensor detail to be lost forever. Blackmagic RAW eliminates this problem and gives them stunning images with incredible detail and color throughout the production pipeline from camera to edit, color and mastering. It also saves camera settings as metadata so customers can set ISO, white balance and exposure in camera or override them later while editing, all without any loss of quality. Blackmagic RAW files are also small and fast to use making them easy to work with.

Pocket Cinema Camera 6K South African Availability:

Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 6K orders are now open and delivery is expected in South Africa through August and September.