Official word has just dropped from last night's exciting announcement leak of two new cameras from Blackmagic Design: The 4k Production Camera and the Pocket Cinema Camera. Any skepticism on its legitimacy is now put to rest -- it's real alright. Read on for the full details and more info about the cameras from John Brawley.
Updating this post regularly. Thanks to John Brawley for the heads up.
Blackmagic Production Camera 4k
- Super 35 size sensor with a global shutter
- Native 3840 x 2160 resolution, optional 1920 x 1080 (via downsampling)
- 12 Stops Of Dynamic Range
- Shoots 23.98/24/25fps, 29.97/30fps, 50i and 59.94i in 1920 x 1080
- EF Mount
- Visually lossless compressed CinemaDNG RAW and ProRes 422 (HQ)
- 21.12 x 11.88mm active sensor area
- 2.5" SSD
- Thunderbolt and 6G-SDI output
- Built-in touchscreen
- Available in July for $3,995
- LANC
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera
- Super 16 1080 HD Sensor
- 13 Stops of Dynamic Range
- Shoots 23.98/24 and 29.97/30 fps
- Active m4/3 mount
- Visually lossless compressed CinemaDNG RAW and ProRes 422 (HQ) to SD cards
- 12.48 x 7.02mm active sensor area
- Shipping in July for $995
- 3.5" LCD touchscreen
- Removable Battery
- Built in Stereo Mics
- LANC, micro HDMI with overlays
John Brawley speaks to the sensor size of the 4K model:
In the same form factor as the BMCC, they now put a near super 35 4K sensor. Not only that but the global shutter, eliminates rolling shutter, something many found irritating to work with. The active image area is 21.12mm x 11.88mm. Super 35 @ 1.78 is 24.89 mm × 14mm. By way of comparison the Sony F5 is 22.6 x 12.7mm and they get to call theirs Super 35.
On global shutter and dynamic range of the 4K camera:
Because of the global shutter and different sensor technology, the 4K one doesn’t quite have the same DR, but it’s still going to be very good and certainly better than most of the dSLR’s from what I can see. It’s still early days and right now they’re trying to squeeze as much DR as they can, but the global shutter mode and slightly different sensor technology means it won’t match the BMCC. I’ve shot some early engineering tests and it actually already looks very good. When you directly compare it for DR, you see the difference, but by itself, the images are still great.
On the Pocket Cinema's recording capabilities:
Currently the prototype camera I have records only in ProRes 422 @ 10 bit, just like the BMCC. The plan is to add a NEW compressed RAW implementation of DNG. The spec allows for this be lossless (not lossy) and at 1.5:1 – 1.2-:1.
As I mentioned the Pocket cinema camera also has an interchangeable battery and records to regular SD cards. Though you can’t get away with any old SD card. I’ve been using only the SanDisk Extreme Pro 64Gb. Like we’ve discovered with the SSD’s, they aren’t all created equal, even when the specs say they are. BMD are doing the research right now on this so expect to see a list of SD cards that will be recommended.
Well, what a pleasant surprise from Blackmagic. It's already proving to be an exciting NAB! Share your thoughts about these announcements in the comments!
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