Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K Review 2020 #Blackmagicpocket4k #BMPCC4K #Cinemacamera

hi there hold your water for ten minutes
and I’ll give you the lowdown on why the
Blackmagic pocket Cinema Camera 4k is
already a bit of a legend and why after
18 months of use I’m ready to call it
out
is it the fluffy mug why you’ve always
wanted was it a flan camera gremlin
China in that royal hose as I spout on
the improvements made in firmware
rundown my go-to setups take a peeper
image quality elucidate on its low-light
performance and give you some know-how
about me workflow word roll the montage
[Music]
in my 20 years of video production I’ve
never had a camera like the Blackmagic
pocket Cinema Camera 4k since I bought
my magic box back in December 2018
it has changed before my very eyes
nurtured by a consistent pulse of
firmware updates today in May 2020 it’s
grown up along I think it’s fair to say
that the pocket 4k has two parents its
manufacturers as well as its owners
whose commitment and dare I say it love
for this camera is like no other hand on
heart I can say that the maturity of
this camera brings real joy

to
filmmakers and if not all filmmakers
just me ok enough gushing let’s get down
to brass tacks and zero in on the good
the bad and the fugly let’s kick off
with a bit of context the Blackmagic
pocket Cinema Camera 4k has a long name
probably to describe the kind of camera
it is
and relative to other cinema cameras
it’s pocket-sized like all good cinema
cameras has a wealth of professional
video features which we’ll get into
later but for most people the biggest
feature is issues 12-bit internally
which is ideal for corporate video TV
music video and films now this really
isn’t a vlogging camera
so anyone chiming on about flippy
screens my blaster is pointed at you
under the table for those who want to
tilt a screen at any cost you can get
tilta to mod yours although at present
the camera cannot flip the image so you
can’t actually see yourself vlog so back
on track the key USP of this camera is
very clear it shoots 12 bit raw let’s go
back a bit too far because what’s so
special about the pocket 4k are the
firmware updates and support which make
it still very relevant in 2020 we won
when I first bought this camera I was
not interested one iota in shooting
cinema DNG RAW however in 2019 along
came the Blackmagic rule codec and
suddenly the camera had lost its
annoying prepubescent mustache and had
grown a full goatee along with
significant upgrades to the included
full version of black magics resolve
software the release of black magic raw
has shown itself to be a really
compelling option to shoot and edit with
and this coming from me a committed
Final Cut Pro 10 editor
quite simply it’s worth enduring
Blackmagic resolves learning curve to
edit 12 bit raw if you want to know more
about filming and black magic raw and
editing in resolve please take a look
via the link in the description to a
video I made all about it besides adding
black magic raw the pocket 4k has had
notable improvements made to its battery
life now it’s still not great the LPE 6
batteries will get you through 30 to 60
yeah I said 60 minutes depending on
resolution and
frame rate however on the plus-side lpe
six batteries are cheap small and easily
available batteries which mean if you’re
shooting completely stripped down the
cameras very light and low-key just
looks like a chunky stills camera as
filmmakers manufacturers alike have
fallen in love with the pocket 4k the
cameras diminutive battery life has been
well and truly addressed and power
solutions are now everywhere their
varied and abundant from expensive black
magic power grips to standard cinema
camera v-loc batteries to cheap npf
plates that use sony batteries and most
recently power handles so much choice
another boon for the pocket 4k are the
menus which is some of the best around
hats off the black magic because short
of making this a 30 minute video i now
need to roll through there other notable
additions to keep this video clear of an
intermission
where was i yes so since its release
pragmatic have relentlessly improve the
feature set and performers of the pocket
4k and included additional resolutions
and frame rates and Neven engage faster
startup times and my favorite update
punch into focus which works during
recording and now does so up to eight
times magnification up from its original
to as a long time GH 5 and s one user
which has no magnification during record
mode I find the pocket 4k really good
fun to use add my lineup of cameras for
its plethora of video centric features
except in very bright light where is
pretty much the little Mogwai of
filmmaking cameras I also never feed it
off the midnight so what are the pocket
for case features I love so much
well false-color shutter angle histogram
recording to external SSDs letterbox
modes and professional audio as well as
that all-important punch into focus all
of which help keep me calm and focused
when I’m filming so what’s the pocket
for
they like to film with in a word simple
mostly I’ll kick off by saying that in
bright conditions you will need to rig
up a monitor the number of times I put
my eye down to the five inch screen
strangely hoping for a viewfinder and
just greased up that big screen is
simply not funny except if you’re
watching me of course now in terms of
frame rates the pocket 4k shoots the
full width of the 4/3 sensor up to 60
frames a second and in crop mode 75
frames a second at 2.8 K as well as 120
frames a second in HD the 4k is
excellent my advice for best results
always shoot 4k and shoot up to 60
frames a second and if you need to slow
things down further use DaVinci Resolve
the retiming controls in that are
basically the magic so until about July
last year I only use the LPE six
batteries I didn’t use the pocket 4k for
long form recording at least not as my
primary camera however since about July
last year I’ve been running from mains
or MPF power play and I’m totally
confident to use the pocket as my
primary camera I filmed several
long-form seminars without issue and I’d
now consider it to be perfectly reliable
as an a cam on the subject of long-form
recording and for all my client work I
capture externally to Samsung t5 drives
which it worked perfectly for everything
else I capture internally in HD in pro s
proxy or LT and for that I use samsung s
DX e u3 cards they even capture 4k clips
up to about 12 minutes in length at
standard 25 P so my pocket 4k basically
lives in its small rig cage I just don’t
see any point in not protecting my
camera investment at this fundamental
level and with only two mounting points
on the camera itself a cage is a
must-have item if I’m out to running gun
bagging quick shots I’m happy just to
use lpe six batteries however if I know
I’m going to shoot anything long before
I always use the npf power-play if it’s
anything like sunny you also need a
monitor and I’ll get to that in a minute
handheld I like to use a top and side
handle along with a neck strap to add
points of contact and widen the roll
axis to keep things nice and level added
to this as the pocket 4k has no inbuilt
stabilization
I typically opt for a stabilized lens
either the Lumix 12 to 35 mark 2 or the
Sigma 17 to 50 with a speed booster
although the latter does display a tiny
vignette at the wide end if I’m at a
trade show we’re doing a lot of talking
heads on the go then I use this little
rig it’s pretty basic stuff it’s solid
and does the job and links to all of the
kit there is in the description below
now you can pay more but you know what
nobody cares and there lies the lesson
for filmmakers it’s about your attitude
and the results that count now I’m not
just chatting stuff or saying you
shouldn’t spend more money but sometimes
those things just don’t get you any
further down the line and to prove it
here’s award-winning filmmaker Shane
Meadows using a couple of old black
magic cameras on a mobility scooter it
makes you think doesn’t it they put a
camera right there in my head and that
cameras still working watching me how’d
you handle that so what’s the image like
in a word faithful just set the tin and
grade it compared to the s1 I think the
Blackmagic image is it’s a bit more film
like it’s sort of smoother the S ones
codec just kind of makes it look more
contrasting crunchy and I just like the
way it softens very slightly skin and
and just gives me something which I feel
is a reflection it’s not like some image
that’s been made of pixel I just feel
like I’m looking at something really
real
okay oh my go so it’s pretty easy to
make nice images with the Blackmagic
camera it’s a camera it loves light give
it light it will give you good pictures
right here’s a train and what can I say
I love the images that it makes so this
brings us onto low-light I ran some
low-light tests with the pocket 4k
whilst it can be set up to shoot in
fairly low light you do have to be
careful with your settings here you can
see just how much noise is added from
the native ISO to four hundred and
thirty two hundred although it’s at 1250
where you want to be careful so you can
see that filming at a thousand ISO it’s
a total no no because at 1250 a boo and
here you can see progressively obviously
getting noisier up to 3200 and then
after 6400 it kind of gets to a limit
and it’s good night Vienna but how good
is the pocket 4k compared to say an FS 7
at this filmmaking workshop I used both
of those cameras and I have to say
during my edit I had to keep looking
back at the browser to remind myself
which clip was shot with which camera
and I think that says along let’s talk
about the cameras IO the pocket 4k
outputs a 1080p signal via the full size
HDMI and as such there are plenty of
monitors around for about 150 pounds
which will help you see what you’re
shooting in most lighting conditions if
you need a very bright monitor like a
thousand nits or more then the best
options currently are the azimuth
shinobi ninja 5 or the port keys BM 5 as
for other connections the pocket is
replete with a 3.5 millimeter audio
input USB C port for external video
power plug headphone socket and mini XLR
which should all be a resounding win for
the camera
however the placement along with the
rubber doors is a bit of an inelegant
solution even for these kenta CLA’s
build quality wise the pocket feels as
robust as
child’s lunchbox however in reality it’s
still a professional video camera for
grown-ups
it’s solid enough it’s lightweight and
despite the IO layout I still like the
body design and I like it for handheld
use now I’ve just been told that if I
don’t mention audio I will probably get
a poke so I can tell you that the
Pockett 4k has decent preamps which
record a very low noise floor which
basically means whilst the audio is set
a hundred percent it may sound a little
quiet however when you boost these
levels in post you will only be boosting
the dialogue and not any room noise when
all is said and done the pocket 4k is
basically unrivaled on balance between
its cost and specifications despite any
minor gremlins that we know of the
cameras basically a little fluffy Mogwai
he said devil and it’s always better the
devil you know and of course we’ve got
the confidence that Blackmagic support
this camera and third-party
manufacturers new add-ons make this
camera better so I for one am very happy
to own this camera and get a lot of
pleasure from using it anyway
I hope you’ve enjoyed this pocket 4k
video I’d love to see what you’ve shot
with yours please leave any links and
comments down below I’ll be sure to
check them out and get back to you
I’m Adam larette’s from the filmmakers
workshop thanks for watching
[Music]

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