The Blackmagic Pocket 4K Hands On

[DBounce]

Just returned from NAB. Here is what I found out about the new Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. 

The Good:

1. Huge screen.

2. Surprisingly light..

3. Ports

4. 12 bit 4K internal recording.

The Bad

1. There is nothing “Pocket” about it. It’s huge for the form factor.

2. It is not of the same build of the MkI version. That is to say the new camera will be polycarbonate that is carbon fiber reenforeced. What does this mean in the real world. While it does not feel flimsy, it also fails to feel premium also. 

3. The UI/UX design language will feel familiar, in it’s implementation.

4. Battery life of around an hour... read that to mean 45 minutes or so. 

Additional thoughts:  I don’t see this as a threat to GH5/S as it is not the same type of camera... Apples to oranges. This is not something you are going to be carrying all over the place with you. :This is not a DSLR format camera. It’s something else, and that makes me think they should have moved to a new ergonomic form.

Blackmagic would not let anyone pop an SD card in, so I cannot say how the IQ is. On screen it looked ok, but not “special”. On the other hand over at the Atlas Lens Co booth they were showing off their lenses with the new Kinefinity Mavo, and from what I could see it looked stellar. 

[Emanuel]

Hey you as anamorphic shooter, can you ask for anamorphic support adding your lobby to Petty and his team in order to a future firmware upgrade at least we all hope and request?

Thanks BTW for posting (E :-)

[DBounce]

37 minutes ago, Emanuel said:

Hey you as anamorphic shooter, can you ask for anamorphic support adding your lobby to Petty and his team in order to a future firmware upgrade at least we all hope and request?

Thanks BTW for posting (E :-)

I seem to recall overhearing them say they plan to add it in a future update. However the Blackmagic people were unwilling to say anything on camera.

[sanveer]

5 hours ago, DBounce said:

Just returned from NAB. Here is what I found out about the new Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. 

The Good:

1. Huge screen.

2. Surprisingly light..

3. Ports

4. 12 bit 4K internal recording.

The Bad

1. There is nothing “Pocket” about it. It’s huge for the form factor.

2. It is not of the same build of the MkI version. That is to say the new camera will be polycarbonate that is carbon fiber reenforeced. What does this mean in the real world. While it does not feel flimsy, it also fails to feel premium also. 

3. The UI/UX design language will feel familiar, in it’s implementation.

4. Battery life of around an hour... read that to mean 45 minutes or so. 

Additional thoughts:  I don’t see this as a threat to GH5/S as it is not the same type of camera... Apples to oranges. This is not something you are going to be carrying all over the place with you. :This is not a DSLR format camera. It’s something else, and that makes me think they should have moved to a new ergonomic form.

Blackmagic would not let anyone pop an SD card in, so I cannot say how the IQ is. On screen it looked ok, but not “special”. On the other hand over at the Atlas Lens Co booth they were showing off their lenses with the new Kinefinity Mavo, and from what I could see it looked stellar. 

I have to point out a few things:

1. A 5inch Screen is 2.5 Times the real estate of a 3inch screen. It will, therefore consume a lot more battery. 

2. RAW requires a lot more processing power (I am guessing as does higher bitrate ProRes). For lower bitrates H.264 and other compressed codecs may require more processing power. 

3. On the Blackmagic there is a power saving mode where the camera switches off when not in use. I guess if Blackmagic is able to use this feature well, then like Panasonic, it should be able to pull off a little juice out of it's LP-6 battery (to switch off the screen when it is not recording).

 

You forgot to mention that the BPCC 4k has aa fan. What did you feel about that one. Was it audible? 

 

[anonim]

3 hours ago, DBounce said:

However the Blackmagic people were unwilling to say anything on camera.

Thanks for concise report... So pity, it seems to me that Blackmagic keeps some black magic veil around this product 

Just one thing I'm starting to dislike more after witnessing preorder euphoria - isn't BM voice once upon a time clearly said that will be never talk about products not instantly ready for selling? It was about fiasco with BMCCC anounce of global shutter and long delaying because they desperately trying to accomplish what they promised... Why BM don't keep the word about "ready to sell"?... Of course BMPCC 4k looks to me as miracle - but after reading the fact that actually it will be distributed at least just after half a year, I must to recall of some previous experience and given word about new anouncing course...

[Lars Steenhoff]

4 hours ago, sanveer said:

I have to point out a few things:

2. RAW requires a lot more processing power (I am guessing as does higher bitrate ProRes). For lower bitrates H.264 and other compressed codecs may require more processing power. 

 

 

uncompressed Raw actually requires less processing power.   no need to debater and to compress.

[sanveer]

9 minutes ago, Lars Steenhoff said:

uncompressed Raw actually requires less processing power.   no need to debater and to compress.

It has 4 flavours of DNG (including flavours of  compressed RAW). I am comparing RAW with H.264. I am guessing that while many flavours of ProRes may require less processing power due to compressing at real time, in comparison to RAW, it may be different. 

[Chrad]

4 hours ago, anonim said:

Thanks for concise report... So pity, it seems to me that Blackmagic keeps some black magic veil around this product 

Just one thing I'm starting to dislike more after witnessing preorder euphoria - isn't BM voice once upon a time clearly said that will be never talk about products not instantly ready for selling? It was about fiasco with BMCCC anounce of global shutter and long delaying because they desperately trying to accomplish what they promised... Why BM don't keep the word about "ready to sell"?... Of course BMPCC 4k looks to me as miracle - but after reading the fact that actually it will be distributed at least just after half a year, I must to recall of some previous experience and given word about new anouncing course...

They said at the press conference that they get asked about the Pocket 2 in every interview, so they didn't want to do NAB this year without showing it, and they felt ready to unveil it because the camera is finished. It just needs to be mass produced. 

[Emanuel]

They already have their experience from the past. I want to believe they won't fail this time :-)

[anonim]

1 hour ago, Chrad said:

They said at the press conference that they get asked about the Pocket 2 in every interview, so they didn't want to do NAB this year without showing it, and they felt ready to unveil it because the camera is finished. It just needs to be mass produced. 

How so? You think that camera is finished, but not just there's no any presented footage, but Petty himself said to 5D interviewer that he also is interested to shot with it - but he still can't... Some previous firmly claim was that they will not speak anything before any new camera is not ready for market distribution - and that really was case with UMP. But now - half year at least.

[Chrad]

1 hour ago, anonim said:

How so? You think that camera is finished, but not just there's no any presented footage, but Petty himself said to 5D interviewer that he also is interested to shot with it - but he still can't...

This is just what Petty said at the press conference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OfzwfJtfMI&t=25m37s

[anonim]

4 minutes ago, Chrad said:

This is just what Petty said at the press conference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OfzwfJtfMI&t=25m37s

I'm referring to this one: "We all desperately wait to use it..."

:

[IronFilm]

He was meaning they could already film with it in the lab, but they can't take it outdoors into the open to film with because it is an unannounced camera!!!

Of course now everyone knows about it, they're quite free to take it out into public to have a play around with filming with the BMPCC4K rather than staying confined to the insides of a lab. 

[jonpais]

2 hours ago, anonim said:

How so? You think that camera is finished, but not just there's no any presented footage, but Petty himself said to 5D interviewer that he also is interested to shot with it - but he still can't... Some previous firmly claim was that they will not speak anything before any new camera is not ready for market distribution - and that really was case with UMP. But now - half year at least.

Hopefully, @John Brawley will share some good news with us soon.

[Andrew Reid]

9 hours ago, sanveer said:

I have to point out a few things:

1. A 5inch Screen is 2.5 Times the real estate of a 3inch screen. It will, therefore consume a lot more battery. 

2. RAW requires a lot more processing power (I am guessing as does higher bitrate ProRes). For lower bitrates H.264 and other compressed codecs may require more processing power.

If I were to speculate on the battery side...

The larger screen is 1080p... constant 1080p feed to debayer and process, from constant full pixel readout. Mirrorless cams have a lower power, lower res mode for live-view. This probably doesn't.

Raw is unprocessed data straight from the sensor, but the write speeds will be higher, card and card controller more power hungry and dedicated processors involved with compression even (maybe).

Other considerations... the touch screen UI is like running a tablet on the side, from same battery as camera... probably runs on an Arm processor, and quite a lot of background processes going on involved with the display and monitoring tools...

And then there is power and heat management, which probably isn't as well developed as on a camera like the GH5.

And maybe they just selected less expensive, but less power economical chips.

[tupp]

5 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

Raw is unprocessed data straight from the sensor,

I think that an analog-to-digital converter is draining juice somewhere in the middle of that scenario.

 

 Hitting the show floor in a couple of hours.  Probably won't make it to the South Hall (BMD) until tomorrow.  Will there be an EOSHD cocktail party?

[DBounce]

7 minutes ago, tupp said:

I think that an analog-to-digital converter is draining juice somewhere in the middle of that scenario.

 

 Hitting the show floor in a couple of hours.  Probably won't make it to the South Hall (BMD) until tomorrow.  Will there be an EOSHD cocktail party?

Flying out today I’m afraid, but enjoy the show. It’s a huge event.

[sanveer]

45 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

If I were to speculate on the battery side...

The larger screen is 1080p... constant 1080p feed to debayer and process, from constant full pixel readout. Mirrorless cams have a lower power, lower res mode for live-view. This probably doesn't.

Raw is unprocessed data straight from the sensor, but the write speeds will be higher, card and card controller more power hungry and dedicated processors involved with compression even (maybe).

Other considerations... the touch screen UI is like running a tablet on the side, from same battery as camera... probably runs on an Arm processor, and quite a lot of background processes going on involved with the display and monitoring tools...

And then there is power and heat management, which probably isn't as well developed as on a camera like the GH5.

And maybe they just selected less expensive, but less power economical chips.

Yes, true. One of the things that Sony said about the A7iii was that the new processing greatly improved heat dissipation (and I think they also said something about it affecting battery life).