NAB 2018: Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

[Savannah Miller]

And a bare minimum a camera targeted at vloggers should have a screen that flips towards you.

I vlog sometimes with my BMPCC, bit tricky when I can't see myself!! For that alone I'd have got the BMPCC4K if I could get it facing me.

A lot of vloggers do seem to use sony mirrorless an not care about the flip screen. They do have decent face tracking autofocus so that might be more important to them. Casey Neistat would use Sony for his studio videos and Panasonic for vlogging because of the flip screen. He switched back to Canon though because Panasonic's contrast detection autofocus is limited.

Blackmagic's idea is that you grip the camera and use the thumb button to record. And with your index and middle finger you can press the exposure button and the focus button located on the back. That doesn't seem like a great solution.

 

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I'll be getting one. At that price it's a no brainer. I liked what I saw at NAB. Really goofy industrial design though. But at least they're consistent with that.

Thanks Bob! I too feel at that price it is a nobrainer. I have been looking for a small camera for discreet shooting. The BMPCC 4k fits the bill. I just hope that it doesn't have any quality control issues.

 

[Emanuel A.]

Round X. You must have stopped reading somewhere. It's always the ones that stop reading and start acting. Go back and read the 3nd of my replay at least.

Now, those people actually did stuff revolutionary, not incremental advancements off the backs of others, more important people like them, and for followers to call others revolutionary instead. If you know about ambarella, you will know they changed the camera landscape and led to a major jump in image quality below the less significant cinema cameras. To question that, is not to know that. You would know, that they had the most advanced chip technology designed in by a team of leaders in the field. Frsbkyz if you wanted to do a cinema camera ASIC better, I 2oyls say hire them. It probably will be more compact and use a lot less power.

Now, I stated about everybody working together. But if you want to be a real revolutionary, bring down the evil leaders of the industry. But nobody has done that, but could have. So what is revolutionary $2000 airfares verses $3000 airfares on a $300 flight. Of $300 anti gravity shuttle flight that takes a tenth the time, maybe even a taxi that turns up on your door step and flys you to my doorstep in 20 minutes for $300. That's truely revolutionary. You are arguing about $2000 airfares.

OK, no objection : ) Still revolutionary when you cut to that price range here something you only had a few steps above. US$1299 4K 12-bit RAW is truly revolutionary, no matter who advanced first when who did it couldn't do it then

(...)

So I thought it worth listing some of other companies you didn't mention that do IBIS that works really well, namely Olympus who have long done it best and now Fuji.

(...)

Let's not forget Panasonic... better than Fuji's and Sony's IBIS BTW ;-)

 

[Hrvoje Simic]

I'll be getting one. At that price it's a no brainer. I liked what I saw at NAB. Really goofy industrial design though. But at least they're consistent with that.

Ursa Minors depart from that trend.
Last Micro is also a refreshing design approach to serious imaging unlike cubes with a lens mount.

If it had a serious video-centric design and selfie rec button the universe might implode.

 

[Hrvoje Simic]

What does that have to do with BMPCC 4K NOT having it?

Your lack of context.

This product is coming from a small company which started making cameras yesterday.

And those you use for comparisons have IP, R&D, product lines, N factories and departments, supply chains, heritage, experience, customer base, income and tech background built over many decades.
Those same ones which some folks like to crap on for not giving it all for pennies, so one would gain most value with least effort invested, served directly in the armchair and regardless of anything or anyone else. Because universe owes them a favour as a reward for inertia. Loud bunch in the Age of self-absorbed Entitlement.

I foresee a new potential drama: "Why are these CFast cards which they also use on Alexa so darn expensive for my 12 bit 4K raw selfies, they cost more than my camera, these card manufacturers suck".

For those who have for years had to wait hours to capture tapes in order to get a 720x576 6 stop image, online dramas like these every five minutes a new improved camera comes out, around whose desires from personal fantasy land haven't been met for summer job tips figures, may easily seem like a bizarre episode from Twilight Zone.

 

[Brian Pascale]

I'd buy one, but I don't think they will ship till September, is that correct?

 

[Wayne Morellini]

You know, I'm still pissed becsuse years ago Z-cam was showing off a $699 or so c1 raw cinema camera which never shipped. I was hoping I could talk him into increasing the quality of the e1 output at least when it didn't come. I forget if it was 4k. But looking at m4/3rds the Yi mirrorless goes on special for $299 with lenses I think. If only it had clean pre-compression processing hdmi image output, or a usb3 to SSD disk. Much poorer than the pocket 4k sensor, but for $299+.

 

[Wayne Morellini]

Seems that yi sells slowly so it's firmware is still improving (has a lot) but still unbelievably limits 4k to around 7 and a half minutes, and no clean hdmi. I've been waiting for a second version for years with 4kp60. But seems a camera that doesn't sell well is not worthy of the attention to make it sell well. A shame. I still may get one.

 

[Mike P.]

I'll be getting one. At that price it's a no brainer. I liked what I saw at NAB. Really goofy industrial design though. But at least they're consistent with that.

Goofy as in "chunky, but totally functional", or goofy as in, "it's a stupid design that's not very production-friendly... but hey, $1300 for 4k/60p raw with a copy of resolve, so I'm still down"?

Honestly, if they have as good QC as the BUMP, and the rolling shutter isn't a6300 horrendous, I'm not sure how much more people could want in that price range. (And to me it seriously points to a sub-$10k FF35 Ursa in the near future...)

 

[Karim D. Ghantous]

I'd buy one, but I don't think they will ship till September, is that correct?

Yes. But I suspect that they will drop it early. The psychological effect of that will help generate more excitement for the product.

 

[Arun R]

We asked this to RED from many years , They announced and made to wait for over four years by the name of Scarlet & finally they failed & Blackmagic born & again Blackmagic Design back with one of the best camera on planet the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K . RED are you dead or alive if alive then come out from your fan boys club & see where the whole world is going . LOL

 

[Michael Hastings]

And a bare minimum a camera targeted at vloggers should have a screen that flips towards you.

I vlog sometimes with my BMPCC, bit tricky when I can't see myself!! For that alone I'd have got the BMPCC4K if I could get it facing me.

Couple of small mirrors should help with that.

 

[Savannah Miller]

Couple of small mirrors should help with that.

Two mirrors positioned at 45 degree angles should not only give you a clear view but also result in an image that is flipped the correct direction too. It's a win-win as well because it will help to shade the monitor from the sun. Build it out of cardboard or plastic and mount it to the 1/4"-20 on the bottom of the camera and it should work totally fine.

 

[Phil Holland]

We asked this to RED from many years , They announced and made to wait for over four years by the name of Scarlet & finally they failed & Blackmagic born & again Blackmagic Design back with one of the best camera on planet the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K . RED are you dead or alive if alive then come out from your fan boys club & see where the whole world is going . LOL

No offense, but that's certainly one perspective to have. However, you are disregarding a great deal of things in relationship why BMD cameras aren't used on smcertain productions that for whatever reason temhey have yet to deal with.

Don't get me wrong, the Pocket 4K is a tremendous value, but right out the gate there's a few things to take note of for actual production work and consider the costs associated with it on the day and back end.

I do think BMD has done a knock out job on the in camera OS however. And in terms of responsiveness and optimization there's something that all more professional minded cameras need to take stock of.

Entry level cameras are certainly becoming "more amazing" day by day. But it's important to understand what makes them entry level in the face of what and why professionals use other bodies for their main camera.

Again, this little bad boy is pretty amazing for the price and who knows, I'll probably snatch one up. But it's a looooooong way from becoming A camera for my work and my client's desires.

 

[Alex.Mitchell]

No offense, but that's certainly one perspective to have. However, you are disregarding a great deal of things in relationship why BMD cameras aren't used on smcertain productions that for whatever reason temhey have yet to deal with.

Don't get me wrong, the Pocket 4K is a tremendous value, but right out the gate there's a few things to take note of for actual production work and consider the costs associated with it on the day and back end.

I do think BMD has done a knock out job on the in camera OS however. And in terms of responsiveness and optimization there's something that all more professional minded cameras need to take stock of.

Entry level cameras are certainly becoming "more amazing" day by day. But it's important to understand what makes them entry level in the face of what and why professionals use other bodies for their main camera.

Again, this little bad boy is pretty amazing for the price and who knows, I'll probably snatch one up. But it's a looooooong way from becoming A camera for my work and my client's desires.

I hear you man. It still blows my mind that I have to argue with people about the necessity of an OLPF in 2018. Seems rad in almost every other way, but if I have to deal with moire ever again it’ll be too soon.

 

[Savannah Miller]

I'm not so sure. If Blackmagic not including an OLPF saves them significant development time and money, I don't think it's a huge issue. For the kind of jobs you would use a $1300 camera as an A camera, I highly doubt any client is going to care about the small amount of Moire that might show up, and for bigger jobs as long as you're aware that the camera lacks an OLPF then you can easily work around it too. Especially with smaller-photosite 4K acquisition it's not nearly that bad anymore to where it's a daily occurrence. Aliasing maybe more so but that is probably less of a problem than moire.

That being said a lot of people classify rolling shutter and moire as VFX fixes, and while that is true, as a VFX artist it scares me a little bit to even begin to think about how to fix it. Working on big budget TV 90% of the shots are Alexa and it never has these issues. Weirdest "fixes" i've ever had to do was removing a beautiful full lensflare from a closeup portrait shot and painting out a full face of tattoos from a 500 frame dolly shot, and somehow moire seems much harder to fix.

 

[Uday Bhaskar Karra]

One among The coolest feature for me in BMPC is the ability to record to external SSD through USB-C.
It saves a lot of money that we are currently investing on SD/CF/RedMags.

Hoping that RED would introduce similar feature at least in DSMC3. Let’s say, two/three USB-C. One for Raw and another for ProRes/Proxy. (USB-C for display too instead of hdmi).

 

[Savannah Miller]

Something interesting is at $1300 it's almost exactly 1/10 the price of the ~$13K startup kit. While the Raven is pretty much destroys this camera in every way, there are quite a few interesting features the Blackmagic does have.

Similar sized sensor when shooting in 16:9 mode. But because the Blackmagic is true micro4/3 sensor and mount you can use speedbooster XL to become the largest format Blackmagic camera they make. Plus the 1.3 stop increase makes this camera incredibly sensitive too.

4K 60fps lossless vs 6:1 on the Raven. Not a huge thing as RED uses incredible compression, but still interesting.

4K prores recording.

Internal LUT support for both monitoring and recording. I don't think any other camera can do that, and definitely not while outputting over USB-C to a mounted drive.

Bluetooth camera control

Mini XLR with phantom power

Only big downside compared to previous cameras is this camera might have slightly less DR than the original pocket and because it's the first BM camera that has a significant ISO range, in the upper limits of the 3200 ISO mode it will be significantly less, bordering around 10 stops.

 

[AndreeMarkefors]

Something interesting is at $1300 it's almost exactly 1/10 the price of the ~$13K startup kit. While the Raven is pretty much destroys this camera in every way, there are quite a few interesting features the Blackmagic does have.

I'm not sure this was meant to be ironic or not, but isn't it the other way around?

• The Raven is built like a brick, and you need another brick on top of that for power --> BMPCC4K is built like a camera that sits correctly in your hand with important controls at your fingertips.
• The Raven is marketed as a light weight camera at 3.5 lbs. And it is, for what it does. --> But the BMPCC4K will likely be even lighter using its carbon fiber polycarbonate composite shell.
• The Raven's monitor adds substantial volume on top of the camera --> The BMPCC4K's screen is already built into the body (and the main reason the body is as large as it is).
• The Raven has a slightly larger physical sensor size (23x10.8 mm) but uses a fixed EF mount where FF lenses spill lots of light outside the sensor --> BMPCC4K is SpeedBooster XL compatible, including electronic passthrough, which takes the whole FF image circle and projects it more or less to the exact MFT sensor size of the BMPCC4K, at around 17x10 mm.
• Raven has "scratch audio" pickup --> The BMPCC4K has "we wanted to make sure it has great audio, because sometimes you don't want to add an additional microphone"-level audio, according to Grant Petty. Who knows what this means, but the audio might be fine for picking up ambient in some situations.
• The Raven records to REDMags --> The BMPCC4K records to CFast or SD USH-II cards. Or via USB-C directly to an external drive.

I still see the Raven as more of a production camera. It has its strengths in higher FPS and a solid workflow. The BMPCC4K is more of a personal camera, that perhaps for the first time since the 5D mkII, unlocks a new tier of performance in a large enough sensor, in a form factor that you can carry around—for pocket change. Add to this the complete software solution that is included with DaVinci Resolve/Fusion/Fairlight 15 Studio.

Yes, time will tell how it lives up to each of its 'on paper specs', but in my mind compared to RED Raven, there is no "being destroyed", in any way. Each camera has its pros and cons and that's fine.

Surely, the BMPCC4K is all anyone starting out would need to explore cinematography techniques and workflows on a personal level. And if they find themselves in a commercial environment and the camera turns out to have some issues like moiré or whatever, they can always trow money at the problem and upgrade to a substantial camera kit in that situation.

 

[Savannah Miller]

I'm not sure this was meant to be ironic or not, but isn't it the other way around?

• The Raven is built like a brick, and you need another brick on top of that for power --> BMPCC4K is built like a camera that sits correctly in your hand with important controls at your fingertips.
• The Raven is marketed as a light weight camera at 3.5 lbs. And it is, for what it does. --> But the BMPCC4K will likely be even lighter using its carbon fiber polycarbonate composite shell.
• The Raven's monitor adds substantial volume on top of the camera --> The BMPCC4K's screen is already built into the body (and the main reason the body is as large as it is).
• The Raven has a slightly larger physical sensor size (23x10.8 mm) but uses a fixed EF mount where FF lenses spill lots of light outside the sensor --> BMPCC4K is SpeedBooster XL compatible, including electronic passthrough, which takes the whole FF image circle and projects it more or less to the exact MFT sensor size of the BMPCC4K, at around 17x10 mm.
• Raven has "scratch audio" pickup --> The BMPCC4K has "we wanted to make sure it has great audio, because sometimes you don't want to add an additional microphone"-level audio, according to Grant Petty. Who knows what this means, but the audio might be fine for picking up ambient in some situations.
• The Raven records to REDMags --> The BMPCC4K records to CFast or SD USH-II cards. Or via USB-C directly to an external drive.

I still see the Raven as more of a production camera. It has its strengths in higher FPS and a solid workflow. The BMPCC4K is more of a personal camera, that perhaps for the first time since the 5D mkII, unlocks a new tier of performance in a large enough sensor, in a form factor that you can carry around—for pocket change. Add to this the complete software solution that is included with DaVinci Resolve/Fusion/Fairlight 15 Studio.

Yes, time will tell how it lives up to each of its 'on paper specs', but in my mind compared to RED Raven, there is no "being destroyed", in any way. Each camera has its pros and cons and that's fine.

Surely, the BMPCC4K is all anyone starting out would need to explore cinematography techniques and workflows on a personal level. And if they find themselves in a commercial environment and the camera turns out to have some issues like moiré or whatever, they can always trow money at the problem and upgrade to a substantial camera kit in that situation.

Well I meant image and production features. But from a walk-around perspective then yes as those arguments I listed, the Pocket is indeed much better. I guess I should have reworded it but I do think the Blackmagic is a tremendous value and feature-set and I was only mainly referring to image.

Blackmagic 4k Pocket body is 750g or 1.6 lbs


One area it seems Blackmagic is an industry leader is the use of FGPAs in their cameras. They seem to do it better than anyone else and rather than designing a high-cost ASIC for everything they can have lots of power in the cameras at an affordable price.

The audio of the pocket 4K is the same as the videoassist 4k and the Ursa Mini Pro, so very usable.

Recording media is extremely flexible with the Blackmagic camera. One overlooked feature is there's no firmware codec limits with the different recording media. As long as your media is fast enough, it will record any codec and frame-rate.

Power is also another factor. Blackmagic has internal power and since there is no DSMC2 side handle anymore the only way to power a Raven internally is with the large redvolt back.

Moiré shouldn't be a huge issue because this camera is high enough volume that there will almost certainly be a 3rd party OLPF made. It will likely be affordable just like the other ones that were released.

I do think it will be interesting as this camera meets all the technical requirements for Netflix production. It would certainly unusual to use this as an A camera on a Netflix production, but maybe you can.


It's really nice how Blackmagic put 6 years of camera design knowledge into making the best possible, small format camera for video, and then decide to also release it at an honest price too. They could easily charge twice as much and it still seems like a relatively good deal.