Blackmagic

We usually don’t spend too much time discussing camera accessories on this site, but the Pocket 4K is such a good value we also want to discuss the accessories that modify it. Blackmagic has released a battery grip (that unfortunately won’t be shipped for a while) that allows up to 2 hours of recording time. This is cheaper and nicer looking than a lot of the other power solutions out there.

Blackmagic RAW is an attempt to give you the majority of the benefits of RAW in a video file that can be smaller than some existing codecs. It’s a great thing and it will make media costs go way down. We’ll be doing all our shooting in BRAW. There are gains to be had by shooting DNGs but it’s diminishing returns.

No, there is no BRAW in firmware 6.1, nor do we have an ETA on when BRAW might be coming to the Pocket 4K, but they have added the following:

• Added support for pixel remapping in camera.
• Added 2:1 monitoring frame guide.
• Improved media formatting user interface.
• Improved audio monitoring latency performance.
• Improved auto focus performance.
• Improved signal to noise ratio performance of camera internal microphone.
• Improved power efficiency for improved battery life.
• Improved 3.5mm audio input selection interface.
• Improved AV sync performance.
• Fixed an issue where time and date is not updated on camera when connected to the Blackmagic Camera Setup utility.
• Fixed an issue where the 3.5mm audio input level is 6dB lower than expected.
• Fixed an auto focusing issue with Lumix 20mm f/1.7 lens.
• Fixed an issue where some USB-C external SSDs were not detected when connected before camera is powered up.
• Fixed an issue where some batteries might shut off earlier than expected.
• Fixed an issue where low battery indicator is not displayed appropriately.
• Fixed an issue with camera not being detected by host computer when connected to certain USB ports.
• Updated dynamic range and ISO chart in user manual.

It’s no surprise that the Blackmagic Pocket 4K continues to be one of the most talked about video cameras at the start of 2019. We expect this to remain the best value cinema camera for possibly years to come.

A lot of people who wanted the Blackmagic Pocket 4K have it now. Some of us are still waiting. But most of the backlog should be cleared up in January.

What has remained clear: this is the best value video camera and that will likely remain the case into 2019 and possibly beyond.

Since there have been quite a few more good videos about the Pocket 4K released we thought we would round them up here.  It sounds like Blackmagic doesn’t expect the backlog to be fully cleared until January.  We’re still waiting for our pre-order.

So many acronyms but you know we mean.  We’ve seen posts on some forums claiming that the BMCC 2.5k had a better, more filmic, more organic, less video, or more “mojo” look when compared to the Pocket 4K.  Now, these are different cameras with different sensors and different versions of color science.  It’s not unfair to postulate differences.  But we’ve yet to see any compelling evidence that the Pocket 4K’s image can’t be made to look magic.  We think the higher resolution, the neutrality of the colours, and the lack of noise in the footage make the output of the 4K lack immediately recognizable character.  However, like a good microphone, there is an advantage in having a faithful, neutral recording that you can later adjust rather than being committed to a certain kind of character from the outset.

This video nicely shows how close you can get the BMPCC 4k and BMCC 2.5k images: