Blackmagic Design announces Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro

 
Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 6K Pro camera, and even more impressively released it at the previous price of the BMPC 6K $2499. This camera includes the same sensor as the 6K camera, but with some features people have been clamoring for. 

First off is the articulated screen which can tilt up or down (though not to the side for vlogging) which is hdr and 1500 nit brightness. This is huge, there have been kits to upgrade the screen in previous models, but this is built in.

Next are 3 motorized ND filters with infared, including, 2, 4 and 6 stops of ND.
 
The battery has been changed to the larger Sony NP-F570 battery, which should provide longer run times and the Battery Pro grip which adds 2 more batteries doesn’t replace the internal battery and lets the 2 batteries in it to be swapped while still recording.

Then we have an additional mini xlr input, for 2 mini xlr inputs.

 

And it will now include the color science 5 from the 12K camera, though that is also coming to the 6K and 4K models.

And you can aslo add for $499 an EVF eye piece with glass lenses that will shut off the touch screen when in use.

All this does mean the camera is even larger than the previous 6k model (which will make it interesting for stabilizers), and people are already complaining about the still having an ef mount and not the new rf mount at least. 

I don’t see any of that as a problem, this is a very impressive camera, and I want one.

ProVideoCoalition Speed Editor Review Part 2 Multi-Cam Editing

Scott Simmons at ProVideo Coalition has posted his second part of his review of the DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor, this one focused on Multicam Editing, which seems to be mostly a mess.

While The Speed Editor seems great overall, it’s basis in the Cut Page and the buttons chosen on it seem to be the main problems of it., and the reason I will likely never get it, though maybe a version 2 more focused on Editing?

ProVideoCoalition Reviews the DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor, which seems to be mostly for Cut Page

Scott Simmons at the Pro Video Coaition has posted part 1 of 2 of an in depth review of the DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor Keyboard. This part 1 is about all the functionality minus the multi-cam functionality which will be in part 2.

It is a great review, and shows that this is really for the Cut Page of DaVinci resolve, a page that is likely going to slow down experienced editors until they use it for a long time. I have barely used the cut page yet, as I think the Edit page needs more depth, and I am much more comfortable with a less Final Cut Pro X type interface, though there are some things for scanning footage that seem great.

Honestly it makes me not care so much about it or the full DaVinci keyboard as I don’t want keys that are just for the cut page, but would like things for the edit page as well.

And in depth and well worth it read.

Bare Feats does speed tests on M1 MacBook Pro on DaVinci Resolve 17 and it shows the power of GPUs

 

Bare Feats has run speed comparison tests with DaVinci Resolve 17.0 beta 4 on the m1 MacBook Pro and the 2017 iMac Pro, 2 variations of the 2019 MacPro and the 2013 MacPro.

And the results are not surprising, the M1 currently gets stomped in 4K Noise Reduction by more than 2x, almost 3x for the slowest Mac (the 2017 iMac Pro Pro Vega 64).

And at least currently it seems to show the power of GPU adds to Macs, over what the M1 can do. Now surely the M1 will scale, but we will have to see just how far it goes.

I missed this, the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K Data rates are insane!

Ok so I missed this first looking at the URSA Mini Pro 12k, but they have listed the data rates for it’s video settings in the tech specs and they look great!

Storage Rates

Storage rates based on 24 frames per second.

12K – 12,288 x 6480
Blackmagic RAW 5:1 – 578 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 8:1 – 361 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 12:1 – 241 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 18:1 – 160 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW Q0 – 241 to 578 MB/s 1
Blackmagic RAW Q1 – 144 to 361 MB/s 2
Blackmagic RAW Q3 – 96 to 241 MB/s 3
Blackmagic RAW Q5 – 72 to 180 MB/s 4

8K – 8192 x 4320
Blackmagic RAW 5:1 – 258 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 8:1 – 161 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 12:1 – 107 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 18:1 – 72 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW Q0 – 107 to 258 MB/s 1
Blackmagic RAW Q1 – 64 to 161 MB/s 2
Blackmagic RAW Q3 – 43 to 107 MB/s 3
Blackmagic RAW Q5 – 32 to 81 MB/s 4

6K – 6144 x 3240
Blackmagic RAW 5:1 – 145 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 8:1 – 91 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 12:1 – 61 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 18:1 – 40 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW Q0 – 61 to 145 MB/s 1
Blackmagic RAW Q1 – 36 to 91 MB/s 2
Blackmagic RAW Q3 – 24 to 61 MB/s 3
Blackmagic RAW Q5 – 18 to 45 MB/s 4

4K – 4096 x 2160
Blackmagic RAW 5:1 – 65 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 8:1 – 41 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 12:1 – 27 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW 18:1 – 18 MB/s
Blackmagic RAW Q0 – 27 to 65 MB/s 1
Blackmagic RAW Q1 – 16 to 41 MB/s 2
Blackmagic RAW Q3 – 11 to 27 MB/s 3
Blackmagic RAW Q5 – 8 to 20 MB/s 4

Recording Formats

Blackmagic RAW Q0, Q1, Q3, Q5, 5:1, 8:1, 12:1 and 18:1 at 12,288 x 6480, 11,520 x 6480, 12,288 x 5112, 7680 x 6408, 8192 x 4320, 7680 x 4320, 8192 x 3408, 5120 x 4272, 6144 x 3240, 4096 x 2160, 3840 x 2160, 4096 x 1704 and 2560 x 2136 stored as 12 bit non-linear with film, extended video, video or custom 3D LUT embedded in metadata.

1 Constant Quality setting Q0 storage rates quoted are indicative only, based on a 5:1 – 12:1 compression range.
2 Constant Quality setting Q1 storage rates quoted are indicative only, based on a 8:1 – 20:1 compression range.
3 Constant Quality setting Q3 storage rates quoted are indicative only, based on a 12:1 – 30:1 compression range.
4 Constant Quality setting Q5 storage rates quoted are indicative only, based on a 16:1 – 40:1 compression range.
Actual storage rates are entirely dependent on image subject matter.

These data rates are insanely low, wow! Honestly this blows the Canon R5 and R6 out of the water. Wow, will this move down to the BMPCC? Lets hope so!

BlackMagic updates the Ursa Mini Pro to 12K and improves BlackMagic RAW to deal with it

Wow, so BlackMagic has done it again and instead of going full throttle with 8K like Canon, has jumped right to 12K for $9.999 with the new 12K Ursa Mini Pro! And with a full 35mm sensor that has no pixel binning and can supposedly do different resolutions with the full sensor. Wow, will have to see it, but if so that is really impressive. And they showed playback with BlackMagic RAW 12K on an Apple Macbook, and they said that Metal is in fact ahead of windows right now.

I have to admit I was hoping for a full frame BPCC 6K or 8K, but this is a very impressive high end camera. Wonder what it is going to do for high end cinema.

Red Giant Updates VFX Suite to 1.5 a paid upgrade

Red Giant has released a paid upgrade to it’s VFX Suite to version 1.5. It is a $199 upgrade unless you are subscriber to Red Giant Complete (feels like a 1.5 should have been a free upgrade).
It includes a new Lens Distortion tool to easily figure out lens distortion to help composite and even track.
And they have updated Supercomp with an automatic color matching, color space options, optical glow and layer glow tools, though I am mostly pissed that they have not figured out how to include motion blur which has been my main objection to supercomp.
Optical Glow has been updated with the ability to control radiate which gives directionality, control per channel size and size xy. This certainly makes for an impressive update over the built in glow.
And Shadow and Reflection has added the ability to show shadows only as well as distort based on the image.
I am glad for the update, though as I said I would like them to put motion blur into supercomp to really make it usefull.

Blackmagic replaces the loud and hot Ultrastudio 4K with the mini

Blackmagic has replaced it’s Ultrastudio 4K with the Ultrastudio 4K mini, for the same price of $995 with an upgrade from Thunderbolt 2 to 3, and a headphone jack with volume, an sd slot and a usb port as well moving from 6GB SDI to 12GB and a much smaler form factor!

Damn! I want one! I have an Ultrastudio 4K, and while a powerful machine, I mean it plays back anything I send to it, but it is thunderbolt 2 (so requires a thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter) and it gets hot, I mean real hot, and it’s fans are so loud! It is painfully loud!

Too bad their isn’t an upgrade path!

Blackmagic announces the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K

So Blackmagic surprised everyone and announced the new Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 6K camera, which has a Super 35mm Sensor and an EOS lens mount. The sensor is an impressive 6144×3456 sensor, and the Super 35mm means aps-c size which means a 1.6x crop factor vs the 2x crop of the 4K mft version. And it is $2495 vs $1295, but doesn’t need a Speed Booster, which would have fixed the crop factor, and increased the lens speed, but also added more glass between the sensor and lens.

Now the camera will eat more battery than the already battery eating 4k (That it turns out is why they made the battery grip). And the new camera only shoots ProRes in 4k and UHD, saving BRAW for 6k. And the current manual only lists 4k speeds for drives and Cfast cards.

For someone with EF lenses this is a dream camera, if only I could afford it right now!

BlackMagic Design releases some major camera updates

Along with some impressive new capture cards, Blackmagic has released a new Ursa Mini Pro G2 with a super 35mm HDR image sensor, 15 stops of exposure and 120 fps at 4.6 K and 300 fps at cropped 1080p. All for $5999.

And more exciting for lower end is an update to the Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K to add full Blackmagic RAW support with 1:1, 3:1, 5:1, 8P1 and 12:1 compression (as well as removing cinema dng codec because of licensing issues). This is a huge update to this impressive little camera!

Of course no Blackmagic raw support yet in premiere so you will need to purchase something like this from BRAW Studio. It is only $29 so worth it if you have a camera that uses it.