Blackmagic Releases More Pocket Cinema Camera 4K Footage - Day & Night Skin Tones

Blackmagic Design is releasing official videos of its much talked about Pocket Cinema Camera 4K to the public. We first saw Mark Wyatt's "Nature" video exploring the lush Vancouver landscape. There are now two new videos offering a look at how the sensor reacts to skin tones. "Models Walking in Daylight" and "Models Walking at Night" were both shot by cinematographer John Brawley. 

Here's what Brawley had to say about his experience:  “The whole point to this daylight test was to see how the camera handled skin tones. We were shooting these scenes later in the afternoon, so I was at ISO 1000 or 1250, so it was at the lower ISO for this camera. I understand this gives more in dynamic range, so you have a little bit more highlight-headroom there. When I look at those shots now, I am really impressed at how good the dynamic range is. It is great to see all of that detail I was seeing was actually captured in those shots.”

For the daylight video above, the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K recorded in Apple ProRes 422 HQ using Olympus Pro 25, 45, 1.2 micro and Olympus Pro 12-100 F4 zoom Micro Four Thirds lenses. When thinking about MFT's cinematic quality, Brawley mentions, “I don’t think people realize how easy it is to make things look cinematic with Micro Four Thirds! I know that there are a lot of people who like that 35mm full frame look, but it’s still very easy to get images with an out of focus background with the Micro Four Thirds sensor. I found it a great 4K sensor and really good compromise for a small camera that still gets really, really good looking pictures.” 

In the second test, the cinematographer recorded at the same compression code with ISO 1000 and 1200. The Olympus Pro F4 zoom 12-100 MFT lens did the bulk of the work. Brawley notes, " What I wanted to achieve was to test the dynamic range, but to still come up with some really great looking images. Having that higher dynamic range and a high bit depth file means you have a lot of wriggle-room to correct anything that needs to be balanced. This extra range lets you manage and massage the image to get you into a really nice place. You’re not fighting the codec or the dynamic range of the camera.”

When it comes to options, he notes, The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K gives you a ton of options. If you want to take it warmer, darker or cooler, you now have so much latitude in terms of dynamic range and depth of color. With this camera, you just have so much extra choice, because you can take the image wherever you want. And that’s the truly great thing about having such a vibrant and high precision image!”

We reached out to Blackmagic to see if any further videos will be released in the coming days and an expected ship date. They could not comment on the former and did not provide an exact date but confirmed September, which we reported on earlier. 

BMPCC 4K Tech Specs: