"A new handheld digital film camera with a full Super 35 size 6K HDR image sensor, 13 stops of dynamic range, an EF lens mount and dual native ISO up to 25,600 for incredible low light performance."

Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K, a new handheld digital film camera with a full Super 35 size 6K HDR image sensor, 13 stops of dynamic range, an EF lens mount and dual native ISO up to 25,600 for incredible low light performance. This new model builds on the popularity of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K but has a larger Super 35 sensor size with 6K resolution, allowing higher image quality. The EF lens mount model works with a wide range of lenses from companies such as Canon, Zeiss, Sigma and Schneider.

See the full press release, with images, at Blackmagic Design Announces New Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K at DV Info Net (https://www.dvinfo.net/news/blackmagic-design-announces-new-blackmagic-pocket-cinema-camera-6k.html).

Click here to pre-order the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K from B&H Photo Video (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1499529-REG/blackmagic_design_cinecampochdef6k_blackmagic_design_pocket_cinema.html/BI/2855/KBID/3801) (with worldwide shipping).

The given B&H pre-order link didn't work for me. This one did:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1499529-REG/blackmagic_design_cinecampochdef6k_blackmagic_design_pocket_cinema.html/BI/2855/KBID/3801

So here I've been hoping & praying to the gods for a second generation of the Canon 1DC, and then the ebullient people down-under release this brilliant 6k EF hardware, and at half the price of any hi-end Canon. Just WOW.

-- peer

Wow. This announcement just turned my thinking around 180°! I'm suddenly discarding all thoughts of camera (and media) hire for a couple of side projects starting later this year. You can capture an hour of full resolution 6K images onto this camera with a single 256GB SD UHS‑II card, according to the BM website, so the media costs won't be too bad. Super 35 (6144 x 3456) sensor too. Heck, with its standard EF mount, I won't even need to buy an adapter!

I've been strictly using Sony cameras for the past decade, both for my corporate work and creative side projects, but I think the time has come to bifurcate: Sony for corporate and this new BM 6K for creative. I could see what Blackmagic has been trying to do since Day 1 (when they entered the camera market), but have preferred to leave it to others to suffer through any flaky early models, teething problems and late deliveries. Now they've matured and finally arrived at the sweet spot (price and performance). I'm still very mindful of their past reputation for delivery backlogs though, so I've put my deposit down straight away.

As a final comment, I believe that Blackmagic's strategy as a camera company currently makes them the filmmaker's best friend, notwithstanding the problems that early adopters have had to struggle through. They've got their own high-end editing and grading software, Resolve, plus they throw in a free version of Resolve Studio with the camera purchase. Sony does have Sony Vegas, which is for PC-only (whereas Resolve is both PC and Mac), plus I don't believe Sony bundle it in for free with a camera purchase, and it's also not known for high-end film and TV grading like Resolve is. The other thing I like about their strategy is that there's no attempt to lock you in to a high-priced media system (e.g. Sony's SxS Pro+ cards are their only recommendation when shooting 4K XAVC-I with the Z280, and there's Panasonic with their P2 cards, RED with its REDMAGs, etc.). As always, this is just an opinion, so feel free to disagree. And I reserve the right to totally change my mind about this later!

Sony sold their Vegas editing software a few years ago.

Gordon

The given B&H pre-order link didn't work for me.

Many thanks! You've alerted me to a software gl!tch that I wasn't aware of. Now fixed. Much appreciated.

Sony sold their Vegas editing software a few years ago.
Yes, Vegas was acquired by MAGIX in 2014. More info here: https://www.dvinfo.net/article/post/vegas-pro-14.html

Thanks for that, Gordon. I must admit, being on the Mac platform myself, that I completely missed the fact that Sony had sold it! And thanks for the link to the news about it, Chris. Good luck to MAGIX with it!

Here's the link to the manual:

https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/BlackmagicPocketCinemaCamera4KManual.pdf

I must say, this is the most user-friendly camera manual I've ever come across. They really walk the newcomer through every step and every concept very thoroughly, including a full section on how to use Resolve to import, edit, mix the audio, master the edit plus how to get started with Fusion.

Impressive.