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Mood.camera is a new iOS camera app that aims to emulate film photography by offering 14 'film stock' filters, but which, like film, only shows you the results after you take a photo. 40MP sensor shows lots of detail, with its lens delivering good levels of sharpness at our standard F5.6 test aperture. It's half the price of an FX6 and $800 less than an FX3 (which is essentially an FX6 in a smaller body). There are other differences between a BlackMagic camera and a Panasonic mirrorless that might not be apparent without using them.
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There’s no getting around it, the BlackMagic Pocket Cinema camera isn’t perfect - it doesn’t have an articulating screen, the battery meter isn’t always reliable and battery life isn’t great generally. While that all matters though, it’s also very easy to cut it a lot of slack. We know, we know, when you’re shooting video, a true professional never uses continuous autofocus. But, we’re not true professional videographers, we’re video journalists and on some occasions, needs must. As for the user interface, it’s responsive and highly customizable, giving you a huge amount of control over everything from firing up focus peaking to shutter angle, audio input control, zebra levels, histograms and more. There’s a steep learning curve, especially if you’re coming from a simpler system, but after over a week with the camera, it started to feel more like a Swiss Army Knife and less like a Rubik's Cube.
Price and availability
Easily the best kitted out camera for the price when it comes to connectivity, the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K has a full sized HDMI port, which is significantly more secure than the flimsy mini or micro HDMIs of old. "We have not made any significant progress since last year," says Sigma owner and CEO Kazuto Yamaki, when asked about the planned full-frame Foveon camera. But he still believes in the project and discussed with us what such a camera could still offer. Sony has announced the FE 16-25mm F2.8 G, a compact, fast wide-angle lens designed to complement its recent 24-50mm F2.8. Sigma has announced it will be offering six of its DC DN APS-C lenses for Canon's RF mount, making it one of the first third-party manufacturers to sell RF lenses under license.
Dual ISO
BM cameras are full of caveats and I speak as an URSA owner that shot two solid movies on them. It lacks some features (like XLR input and an LCD), but it's cheaper, smaller and much lighter, and it's compatible with BM Video Assist, which adds most of what is needed. I like how the announcement says the product will likely have much worse shutter performance than a sony product. I assume this is an entry-level camera and the folks looking into this might not want to get too many additional accessories, line a monitor, and such. Next, we put the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K through some basic tests to see its low light performance, moiré and rolling shutter.
Image quality and audio
Adding a recorder would increase the cost of the camera by about $1000. The Z6 also has log shooting, an EVF and a tilting touchscreen LCD, along with IBIS. The Pocket Cinema Camera 4K has a dual native ISO, meaning there are two ISOs where noise is at its minimum. For the Pocket Cinema 4K, you have a native ISO of 400 and 3200.
The Apple iPhone now also adds a location to your pictures, meaning it can collate those images together into a location-themed album, or show you all the shots you've taken in a specific location. It's a fun little addition, and it's one that adds a lot of personality to the Photos app. Resizing an image is something we’re all going to have to do at some point in our digital lives. And whether you’re using Windows, macOS, or you’re rocking a Chromebook, there are ways to scale images up and down on each PC. Blackmagic has also created an extended video mode, sitting somewhere between RAW and compressed, which delivers a broader tonal range ready for grading. The Pocket Cinema 4K comes with a free copy of Davinci Resolve, so you don’t even need to invest in any pricey software to get cracking with your 4K edits.
The camera isn’t perfect, but what can you expect for a $1,300 camera? That large screen consumes a lot of juice, and we went through four batteries in just under 2.5 hours. That isn’t so bad by itself — the camera uses widely available Canon LP-E6 batteries — but the camera will also shut down without warning if the battery gets too low.
You have to fall before you can fly, and Blackmagic Design is still stumbling in some areas. The non-continuous autofocus on the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K is useful as little more than a spec sheet bullet point. Noise is also kept impressively low, at least through ISO 1600, the highest sensitivity we needed during our review. ISO maxes out at 25,600 which is actually several stops higher than the Ursa Mini Pro.
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Further separating the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K from would-be competitors is that Blackmagic Design isn’t just a camera company. In fact, up until about six years ago, it wasn’t even a camera company. Before then, it was best known for its DaVinci Resolve color grading software — originally sold as a $20,000 suite complete with bespoke hardware interface. The full version of the software now costs just $299 (sans control panels), even as Blackmagic has built it out with editing and compositing capabilities. And DaVinci Resolve Studio is now included with the BMPCC 4K at no additional charge.
Despite no continuous autofocus, there is autofocus on board, and it works with either a single tap of the screen, just like a smartphone, or by hitting the focus button on the back of the camera. In good light, it works great, in bad light or when focusing on dark objects, it’s more hit and miss. There’s also a USB-C port, supporting data transfer and slow charging. A point to note - this won’t keep the camera alive while shooting, just supplement the battery power to ease the load. Moment's T-series lenses are well-built, offering the look and feel of a premium product.
At the base is a battery door which is removable, to the left sits a dual card slot while to the right are all the ports. A good selection of ports is a must for shooting video, as many will want the ability to connect gear like external mics or a larger video monitor. Fortunately the Pocket Cinema 4K is well stocked for port options. Though it already packs higher-quality microphones (4 in total) than we’ve seen from the Blackmagic Pocket series before, you also get a 3.5mm headphone out and separate 3.5mm microphone in.
The camera offers dual native ISO for less noise at higher ISOs, and it can capture up to 120 frames per second in windowed HD mode. Everything is exactly where you’d expect to find it, labeled in plain English, and the tap targets are large so you won’t accidentally hit the wrong button. The body has a combination of textures, with a ribbed grip for a secure hold. The front of the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K houses the lens mount, a horizontal rotating dial and a new improved dual microphone set-up.
A 512 GB Cfast 2.0 card will set you back at least $530 and will get you a little over 31 minutes of record time in RAW. For recording audio, the camera has both a 3.5mm and mini XLR audio inputs in addition to stereo microphones on the front of the camera. Audio quality from an external microphone is very good, evidence of professional quality preamps. This is one area where consumer mirrorless cameras often skimp. In a world of mirrorless stills cameras that can shoot good quality 4K video, the Pocket Cinema 4K can at first see like a less versatile contender. The ability to shoot Raw video out of the box is something stills cameras rarely offer, and it offers filmmakers and enthusiasts much more retrospective control over their productions.
The 10-bit ProRes files grade beautifully, so even if you need to underexpose to preserve highlights, you will have little trouble lifting the shadows and midtones in post. The colors, in everything from highly saturated elements to delicate skin tones, respond very well to adjustments. There is simply much more information in the files than what you get on other $1,300 cameras.
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