Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K Review: Finally Full Frame

Few digicam producers have managed to face out the way in which Blackmagic has in relation to capturing high-quality video on a mirrorless digicam. The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro (dubbed PCC6K Pro) impressed me after I reviewed it just a few years in the past, however by some means the corporate’s new Cinema Camera 6K has managed to prime it. With a full-frame sensor, the brand new L mount, and an analogous $2,600 worth, it’s turning my head once more.

The Cinema Camera 6K is essentially much like its predecessor, with practically an identical battery life (about an hour on one 3,500-mAh battery), and it retains the intuitive controls in comparison with what you will discover on {most professional} cameras. It lacks the built-in impartial density filters I favored within the PCC6K Pro, however the brand new options are definitely worth the trade-off.

The Full-Frame Sensor Experience

The largest improve to the Cinema Camera 6K is the one so essential they put it proper on the entrance of the casing: a full-frame, 36 x 24-millimeter sensor. Compared to the Super 35-mm sensor on the earlier fashions–which, regardless of its identify, measures 23 x 13 mm–the brand new mannequin’s sensor is a major improve.

Full-frame sensors are comparable in measurement to 35-mm movie. The most distinguished advantage of that is that there’s no crop issue when utilizing most lenses. Cropped sensors lead to a smaller field of view, which means you’ll be able to match much less of a scene right into a body in comparison with a digicam with a full-frame sensor. Put merely, you could be additional away, use shorter lenses, or each to get the identical picture. This can typically come on the expense of issues like a shallow depth of subject or worse low-light efficiency.

Putting a full-frame sensor inside one in every of Blackmagic’s cameras might be the perfect improve I may’ve requested for. I typically shoot movies in my residence, and it may be tough to get photographs that look good as a result of there merely isn’t sufficient area within the body to get the scene that I would like. For instance, under are two images taken with a 50-mm lens, first with the PCC6K Pro and the second with the brand new Cinema Camera 6K; I stood in the identical spot in my tiny lounge. The full-frame sensor can seize considerably extra of my residing area. For some individuals like me who typically must shoot in cramped areas, that is nothing in need of a godsend.

The new mannequin feels simply as snug to make use of as Blackmagic’s different cinema cameras. It is likely to be a bit cumbersome, however its chassis feels wonderful whether or not you are holding it with one or two arms. The autofocus is impeccable; there’s nonetheless no autofocus monitoring nor in-body picture stabilization (IBIS), however with the helpful focus button subsequent to the left thumb, I discover it simple to land the main focus straight on my topic. The complete factor could be heavy, particularly in the event you use it with Blackmagic’s optional battery grip, however that is nonetheless my favourite design for every part from the studio to run-and-gun shoots.

Low-Light Performance

With a much bigger sensor comes bigger pixels that may seize extra gentle. Compared to the sensor on the earlier 6K Pro, the full-frame sensor has practically 3 times as a lot floor space, however the identical 6K decision. That signifies that every pixel is capturing virtually 3 times as a lot gentle for every pixel within the picture.

The result’s that the brand new Cinema Camera 6K performs even higher in low-light situations than the already spectacular mannequin that got here earlier than it. Here are two images, one with the earlier 6K Pro, and one with the brand new Cinema Camera 6K. Both cameras had been set to an ISO of 400, at an ƒ/3 aperture, and 1/30 shutter velocity. They had been additionally captured from the identical place, though I cropped the full-frame photograph to a comparable space of the 6K Pro.