If you found yourself reading our review of Blackmagic’s rather excellent 4K Pocket Cinema Camera, but opting not to buy because that resolution was a touch too low, then we have some good news for you. The company is back with a 6K version, if you’ve got deep enough pockets to absorb the cost.
Let’s get that bad news out of the way first: while the 4K Pocket Cinema Camera cost £1055, the 6K edition will set you back nearly double: £2025. While nobody would deny that’s a lot of cash, in the expensive world of 6K cameras, that’s actually not all that bad, especially when you consider the features that Blackmagic has squeezed in.
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For starters, the new model has a full Super 35 size HDR image sensor, which is a big improvement on the older version. It also records in 10-bit Apple ProRes up to a 4K resolution, or its own 12-bit Blackmagic RAW video format in 6K at up to 60fps.
But it’s about more than resolution and framerate, and the company says that it offers vastly improved performance when it comes to capturing light and dark elements, thanks to its 13 stops of dynamic range, with dual native ISO of 400 and 25,600.
The EF lens mount is compatible with widely-used brands including Canon, Zeiss and Sigma, and like its predecessor it will capture still images, this time of up to 21.2 megapixels. We wouldn’t bank on that, though, if the last version is anything to go by, with Sam describing its predecessor as “next to useless for still photography.”
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Generally, however, we were pretty positive: “It’s almost in a category of its own: pro-level movie maker’s cameras that are as small as mirrorless cameras,” Sam concluded. “In this class, it’s hard to think of anything else that can do what it does, with its superb low-light performance and Raw video performance making it seem like a bargain at the price.”
Hopefully the 6K version will prove just as impressive when we get our hands on it for a full review.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
