Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K: The good, the bad and the ugly

Videomakers who crave resolution may be interested in the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K, which has just been announced. Here’s what makes it special and how it compares to its predecessor.

It feels like only yesterday the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K (BMPCC) arrived on the scene, bringing with it affordable cinema camera shooting in a relatively compact body. It’s been such a hit that Blackmagic Design is supposedly struggling to fulfil orders quickly enough.

Now there’s a new addition to the family in the form of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K. As the name suggests, it’s capable of shooting at a higher resolution of 6,144 x 3,456 pixels versus the BMPCC 4K’s 4,096 x 2,160.

Here’s what else you should know before you part with all your hard-earned pennies.

Super 35 sensor for the win?

Where the BMPCC 4K uses a micro 4/3rds sensor, the BMPCC 6K has a physically larger Super 35 (23.1mm wide and 12.99mm tall), which is closer to that of an APS-C camera.

As some cinema shooters will tell you the extra resolution benefit is less about making a 4K or full HD image look more detailed, although this is a thing. It’s actually that you can crop into an image more before you start losing resolution.

This means you effectively have a larger zoom range of your lens or can simply shoot a little further away from the scene and then crop in during post production exactly as you want.

EF mount makes life EZ-ish

Another difference between the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K and the new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K is the lens mount. The former uses micro four-thirds (M43), while the 6K has swapped to Canon’s EF mount so you can make use of its extensive lens catalogue.

This move to a larger sensor and new mount does have some drawbacks, mainly that M43 has a wider array of super fast lenses from various manufacturers. Down as low as f0.95, which means a lot of light and greater depth of field.

On the flip-side, EF typically bottoms out around f/1.2 and so you lose the added benefit of extra light and the stronger bokeh effect associated with greater depth of field.

But your lens crop factor is 1.558, meaning a 35mm lens operates at 55mm, where it would be 66.5 for the 4K camera thanks to a crop factor of 1.9. That means you can get away with using slightly less wide-angle lenses.

You could, of course, use a speedbooster and many people do on the current Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. This can reduce the BMPCC 4K’s to as little as 1.22, depending on the speedbooster itself. Expect an improvement for the 6K also.

What else does the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K offer?

Except for a slight physical difference because of the EF mount, the BMPCC 6K is largely similar to its cheaper sibling. It has the same 5.0-inch full HD display and the same XLR and 3.5mm inputs for professional audio.

You also get the ability to shoot in the latest Blackmagic RAW format, which allows for editing flexibility in post production. Plus there’s a free copy of DaVinci Resolve Studio for editing your footage.

That does mean the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K still looks like a rather ugly and bulky camera from the 80s compared with the likes of a Sony A7R IV, but it’s at least lightweight. Until you start rigging it up, which you have to because of the lack of image stabilisation.

No changes have been made to the batteries, which will presumably last an even shorter time on the 6K model. But then you can buy a large capacity battery of third-party replacements on Amazon (Neewer works nicely).

For those who want even greater flexibility and a slightly smaller form-factor than a proper Red or Ursa Mini camera, the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K could make sense.

Whether or not the footage quality is the same or better than the 4K remains to be seen. Guess we’ll just have to find out.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K full specs

• Dual gain ISO up to 25,600
• Super 35mm sensor (23.1×12.99mm)
• 13-stop dynamic range
• 5.0-inch full HD touchscreen display
• Mini XLR (w/ 48v phantom power) / 3.5mm audio inputs
• Canon EF lens mount
• Blackmagic RAW format
• Built in SD, UHS-II and CFast card recorders
• Built in 5″ touchscreen allows accurate focus when shooting 6K
• Blackmagic OS as used in URSA Mini / URSA Broadcast cameras
• Includes Blackmagic Generation 4 Color Science
• Features full size HDMI for monitoring w/ status overlay
• 3D LUTs can be applied for both monitoring and recording
• USB-C port allows recording directly to external disk
• Built in timecode generator for sync muli-camera shoots
• Supports still frame capture up to 21.2 megapixel
• Localized for 11 popular languages
• Supports remote camera control via Bluetooth
• Powers via 12V DC input / recharge via USB-C
• Release date: Available now
• Price: US$2,495 (body only)

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K resolution and frame rate

• 6,144 x 2,566 pixels at up to 50fps (16:9)
• 6,144 x 2,560 (6K 2.4:1) up to 60 fps
• 5,744 x 3,024 (5.7K 17:9) up to 60 fps
• 4,096 x 2,160 (4K DCI) up to 60 fps
• 3,840 x 2,160 (Ultra HD) up to 60 fps
• 3,728 x 3,104 (3.7K 6:5 anamorphic) up to 60 fps
• 2,868 x 1,512 (2.8K 17:9) up to 120 fps
• 1,920 x 1,080 (HD) up to 120 fps
• Frame rates of 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94 and 60 fps supported
• Off-speed frame rates up to 60 fps in 6K 2.4:1, 120 fps in 2.8K 17:9 and 1080p