Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

[Jim Giberti]

On 4/20/2018 at 9:50 PM, Savannah Miller said:

  Not good enough for you?

No.

[cantsin]

3 hours ago, jonpais said:

The GH5 is the true Pocket camera. Without any rigging at all, I can shoot handheld without a gimbal, tap to focus, battery lasts for hours, I can custom white balance, record simultaneously to two SD cards, delete and format cards in camera, and import footage and export with virtually no grading. Sure, it might not be a cinema camera, but it is one heck of a video camera. 

I agree that the GH5 is a more suitable camera for run-and-gun shooting, particularly because of IBIS, EVF, flip-/tilt screen, battery life and the option to record in more densely compressed codecs/smaller file sizes.

However: The Pocket has tap-to-focus, can format cards in camera, and you can record Rec709 ProRes video that requires no grading at all and has beautiful colors out-of-the-box. (Actually, the old Pocket can format in-camera and record great Rec709 ProRes as well.) 

[greenscreen]

Impressive launch indeed. Anything new since NAB?

[Danilo Del Tufo]

1 hour ago, cantsin said:

I agree that the GH5 is a more suitable camera for run-and-gun shooting, particularly because of IBIS, EVF, flip-/tilt screen, battery life and the option to record in more densely compressed codecs/smaller file sizes.

However: The Pocket has tap-to-focus, can format cards in camera, and you can record Rec709 ProRes video that requires no grading at all and has beautiful colors out-of-the-box. (Actually, the old Pocket can format in-camera and record great Rec709 ProRes as well.) 

I'm not sure that Pocket has tap-to-focus, what I've understood is that it has just a square at the center of the image pressing the autofocus button.

[greenscreen]

1 minute ago, Danilo Del Tufo said:

I'm not sure that Pocket has tap-to-focus, what I've understood is that it has just a square at the center of the image pressing the autofocus button.

Hope for more than only that.

[Savannah Miller]

11 hours ago, jonpais said:

The GH5 is the true Pocket camera. Without any rigging at all, I can shoot handheld without a gimbal, tap to focus, battery lasts for hours, I can custom white balance, record simultaneously to two SD cards, delete and format cards in camera, and import footage and export with virtually no grading. Sure, it might not be a cinema camera, but it is one heck of a video camera. 

Blackmagic should be able to custom white balance, possibly tap to focus (very slow), delete and format in camera, and also has a wide DR setting for a nicely colored image without grading.

It can stabilize with OIS lenses, same as the GH5s, but not like the GH5 with IBIS.  It can't dual-record simultaneously and does not likely have more than 1 hour of battery life.  Blackmagic is not too far off in terms of video features but we may never know until it ships.  That being said if you use a cheap shoulder rig with a v-mount battery as the counterweight, most of the issues with IBIS and battery life are rectified, plus you can plug in an external SSD and record for hours too.

[Eduardo Granadsztejn]

Hi,

 

Anybody know about this things? I can´t find it info:

1080p raw?

dci 4k prores?

prores recording external to usb-c?

 

Thanks!!

[Anaconda_]

18 minutes ago, Eduardo Granadsztejn said:

Hi,

Anybody know about this things? I can´t find it info:

1080p raw?

dci 4k prores?

prores recording external to usb-c?

Thanks!!

Yes to all of the above.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/nl/products/blackmagicpocketcinemacamera/techspecs/W-CIN-12

[Eduardo Granadsztejn]

9 minutes ago, Anaconda_ said:

Yes to all of the above.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/nl/products/blackmagicpocketcinemacamera/techspecs/W-CIN-12

Thanks!!!

[sanveer]

6 hours ago, Savannah Miller said:

It can't dual-record simultaneously

'Not at the moment' is what one of the Blackmagic guys said at NAB. 

[Anaconda_]

13 minutes ago, sanveer said:

'Not at the moment' is what one of the Blackmagic guys said at NAB. 

I'd love it if you can record for example 4k50p in ProRes HQ (or raw if you like) to the SD/Cfast and 1080p50 proxy through USBc. That would make editing super fast, as you could just plug the hard drive in and work with your proxies, while the bigger master files are copying to an archive at the same time. Then just relink when you need to do colour work or export.

If that's not possible, it could be worth buying the Atomos Star. I bet they're super cheap now. You could film the highest quality possible in cam, and then get 1080p proxys (up to 30p I believe) through the HDMI. Maybe not quite so convenient... 

Even better if you can send a LUT over HDMI, but not bake it into the internal recordings. I assume this would be possible for client monitoring and things like that, but have no basis for my assumption. 

[Django]

51 minutes ago, Anaconda_ said:

Even better if you can send a LUT over HDMI, but not bake it into the internal recordings. I assume this would be possible for client monitoring and things like that, but have no basis for my assumption. 

 

URSA Mini can do just that and so I assume the P4K too since they'll be running the same OS..

[Anaconda_]

I just found a Q&A with a 'Black Magic Design Expert'. Let me know if there's a better way to display this. I'll try to add to it as more information comes.

 

[LORDD]

 

I will use these lenses in the BlackMagic Pocket 4K ... 

[JordanWright]

Make sure to show us some test footage with those lenses!

[Jim Giberti]

21 hours ago, Danilo Del Tufo said:

I'm not sure that Pocket has tap-to-focus, what I've understood is that it has just a square at the center of the image pressing the autofocus button.

Exactly - it doesn't have tap-to-focus but one button push AF like in the original Pocket.

[webrunner5]

Nice video that shows all of the menu options, etc.

 

[jonpais]

Would someone be so kind as to show me some cinematic looking footage that has not been graded? No need to post it here, just PM a link. Because I’ve never seen such an animal. All theatrical releases have been graded. 

Also, some here are saying things like, ‘I’m sure the Pocket will have custom white balance.’ I hope it does too - but how can anyone make statements like that? Are they clairvoyant?

And in answer to short battery life and lack of IBIS - which TBH I don’t really care anyway - someone says just slap on a cheap rig and V-mount battery: well, that seems painfully obvious; but it’s not the same as having IBIS and 3-hour battery life. 

[Emanuel]

34 minutes ago, Jim Giberti said:

Exactly - it doesn't have tap-to-focus but one button push AF like in the original Pocket.

Let's hope they may develop the thing though : )

13 minutes ago, jonpais said:

Would someone be so kind as to show me some cinematic looking footage that has not been graded? No need to post it here, just PM a link. Because I’ve never seen such an animal. All theatrical releases have been graded.

You're right : ) Merely part of the filmmaking process. There's no straight out of the box with no subsequent effort...

@webrunner5 thanks for posting, pal :-)

[webrunner5]

9 minutes ago, jonpais said:

Would someone be so kind as to show me some cinematic looking footage that has not been graded? No need to post it here, just PM a link. Because I’ve never seen such an animal. All theatrical releases have been graded. 

Also, some here are saying things like, ‘I’m sure the Pocket will have custom white balance.’ I hope it does too - but how can anyone make statements like that? Are they clairvoyant?

And in answer to short battery life and lack of IBIS - which TBH I don’t really care anyway - someone says just slap on a cheap rig and V-mount battery: well, that seems painfully obvious; but it’s not the same as having IBIS and 3-hour battery life. 

This video might change your mind about how good IBIS is versus lens OIS. Canon, Nikon have sort of used the latter to good use for many years.