Pocket 6KPro: UPGRADE or WAIT? A DP Analysis

i was very impressed with the first pocket 6k when it came out in 2019 but i ended up returning it for many reasons that i mentioned in this episode and while waiting for blackmagic to release their next generation of the pocket cinema camera i shared my predictions in this other episode and only three weeks after that release blackmagic dropped the pocket 6k pro with a great deal of my predictions coming true along with the unexpected and most welcome edition of the built-in nd making it the only cinema merits to have this feature at such a low price of 2500 but the bad news this is not a new camera it's the same old 6k with desperately needed improvements that made it more filmmaker friendly so with this major update you're probably asking yourself is this the right camera for me in this episode i'll help you find the answer to that question i'll compare it to the first generation along with the other popular market contenders as well and as usual i'm not here to read you the specs or follow the hype i'm here to analyze and break things down from a dp point of view i bought this camera from my own pocket and as always everything i'm about to share is my honest unfiltered and unbiased opinion hoping this will help you make an informed decision to whether this camera is good for you or not [Music] before we start let's first check the common features between both 6k and the 6k pro they both share the same 6k sensor which is by far my most favorite sensor of all mirrorless cameras subjectively i feel it has the most pleasing skin tones and smooth shadow roll-off compared to both a7s3 and the s1h i won't argue with their claim of offering the hollywood look with digital film and because they share the same sensor i won't be reviewing the image quality as you probably have seen tons of reviews and samples of that already all other major components and features are kept intact but with some new awesome features packed in a bigger shell which takes us to our first topic body and design if you thought the pocket 6k was a big camera think again here's the pocket 6k and here's the outline of the 6k pro if we compare them side by side you'll see how the 6k pro is a much beefier version first thing you'll notice is how it extends upwards with a middle notch and its base falls below the lens mount making it 26 percent taller than the 6k but only one percent wider from the side view you'll see it's 10 percent deeper as well if we align them you can see how much the 6k pro extends beyond the dimensions of the 6k pretty huge difference but that big size is good for handling and stability especially for people with bigger hands but it's bad when it comes to portability and compatibility with smaller gimbals as for the weight it's almost 40 percent heavier it even beats the mirrorless heavyweight champion the s1h which already lost this title to the c70 the only one that beats the 6k pro turning those two cameras into the founders of the heavyweight semi mirrorless camera club i guess with this release it's about time for magic to drop the pocket from the camera's name this big size is justified by first the new bigger npf battery the active cooling system with fan intake and exhaust vents all around the camera the new built-in nd filter mechanism the additional mini xlr input added on the side the new modular evf that fits right above the screen and finally the tilting screen mechanism all are very welcome reasons to add this additional size and weight no complaints here whatsoever i'll be covering all these in this episode anyway another minor yet great improvement is the addition of an extra quarter 20 screw mount at the base a feature typically found in cinema cameras like the alexa and red for example it helps you secure the camera in place and keeping it perfectly aligned onto your base plate it also prevents you from accidentally unscrewing it from its mount if mounted only with one screw i found those base plates with two screws of each size the quarter 20 and 3 8 i bought a bunch of those and hooked them to all my cameras and cages it's a perfect length as it keeps the lens from tipping over when you place the camera down and keeps it balanced on the fluid head only the link down below let's move to monitoring options we have a brand new lcd touchscreen and that detachable evf starting with the touch screen if you go back to my prediction video two of those predictions came true and one didn't but should get fixed soon so let's start with that one i didn't like how inaccurate the previous 6k screen was but unfortunately i'm unable to tell if the 6k pro screen is better or not as it's commonly been found that many units suffer from a bluish tint when compared to my recently calibrated ninja 5 monitor you can see the obvious gluten in the 6k pro even when compared to their own video assist monitor the good news this thing only affects your display with absolutely no effect on your footage i think it's a matter of calibration not a faulty panel as of the date of this episode i got a confirmation from blackmagic that they're aware of that problem and hopefully they'll find a software update solution for it soon no official dates have been given yet but till that happens it will be pretty challenging to adjust to white balance if you're relying on that screen moving on to the good news this is a tiltable screen tilting up to a full flat position perfect for low angles and down by 47 degrees for high angle top shots and just like all other pocket cameras it's a touch screen giving you full touch control over all camera menu settings with such a big and very responsive screen it is by far the best user experience i've ever had in any camera fees like a camera version of an iphone i really hope all other cameras would have menus and controls that would be as intuitive simple and as responsive as this one it's also a full hd 5-inch screen the standard resolution in all high end external monitors of that size this makes it the biggest monitor amongst all mirrorless cameras as well it's bigger and higher in resolution than the fx3 and the a7 s3 and slightly lower than the s1h overall 3x2 resolution but still higher when compared to the 16x9 portion of the s1h screen it's also an hdr display another unique feature only found in this camera it's shining at 1 500 nits of brightness where hdr makes a lot of sense when shooting raw and its high brightness makes it way more visible on a sunny day compared to the old 6k and 4k versions when you come to think of it the 6k pro is an integrated and compact version of the s1h with the blackmagic video assist mounted on top both setups have an hdr 5 inch full hd monitor that can record 6k in blackmagic raw where the difference is the 6k pro has 1 000 nits less brightness but still very bright and of course they're different sensors where the 6k pro size is super 35 versus a full frame sensor in the s1 h which comes down to almost double the price of the 6k pro there's a lot more to these cameras than this but it's an interesting comparison if you're focusing on a compact setup with 5 inch hdr screen and internal 6k recording in that case the 6k pro would probably be a better choice now let's check the evf the most important feature about it is it's detachable the evf tilts by 70 degrees a very crucial feature for the usability of evfs in general as for specs it's an oled panel commonly used in higher quality evfs with a resolution of 1.23 million dots qualifying it as a mid-range level evf compared to other market standards the canon 500 mark ii evf attachment is slightly higher in resolution but more expensive while the new portkeys evf is lcd a pretty old panel technology compared to the new and current oled evf standards it's almost the same resolution and a bit cheaper just for fun let's compare to some of the most popular mirrorless cameras evfs you'll realize the panasonic s5 is almost double its resolution while the sony e7 s3 is close to eight times higher resolution the highest quality evf in the market a bit of an overkill in my opinion so if your eyes are too sensitive and spoiled by the high resolutions of those mirrorless evfs then the 6k pro evf will feel like a low resolution joke to you so make sure you test it before you buy it but as awesome as those mirrorless cameras evfs are none of them fit like the one from the 6k pro they're all fixed in their 90 degree position while the 6k pro has both the horizontal position as well as 70 degrees upward tilt those other cameras evfs are almost flush with the camera screens making them unpractical and hard to use without uncomfortably squeezing your face against the back screen while the blackmagic evf has an egg that sticks out and away from the camera making it way more usable and practical in low angle shots going back to the resolution this 1.2 million dots translates to 1280x96 a 4x3 ratio giving you a 16x9 area in hd resolution dedicated for your video display and two strips of 120 pixels height laid out both on top and bottom of the screen to display the camera and record settings giving you a clean image with no overlays so if we have a quick look through the evf you'll see its layout to be a 4x3 version of the touchscreen with all the infos laid out in the same positions now there's no official information about the evf panel size coverage or magnification but when i tested it out i found the coverage similar to the standards you find in other cameras but the magnification is a bit lower than the usual maybe due to the long neck of the evf that caused those distracting reflections on the side walls giving you this annoying tunnel vision feeling which i personally didn't like the evf comes with four eye cups should be good enough for everyone and just to remind you again the evf doesn't come with a camera it'll cost you an extra 495 dollars pretty reasonable price compared to the market as we saw before but a lot compared to the price of the camera itself especially that evfs are not useful for all projects and not for everyone we mostly needed them back in the day when bright monitors were not affordable or even available or maybe when mounting the camera on your shoulder so with this new hdr tiltable screen and 1500 nits of brightness you probably won't need an evf anymore next comes the built-in nd filters the other main highlight of this camera the 6k pro offers 2 4 and 6 nd stops which falls short against the c70 that offers additional 8 and 10 stops and the fx6 that offers 2 to 7 stops of electronic variable nd no complaints there in all cases as the range of 2 6 is useful in most situations and the 6k is the only camera that offers built-in nd within that price range which is less than half of those other two this is a mechanical endy you'll see and hear filters moving up and down between the lens and the sensor as you toggle between them which obviously means this part of the clip won't be usable unlike the electronic variable nd you find in the fx6 for example which is way more advanced than the mechanical version it's more responsive and has a stepless and smooth transitions between densities so you can use it while shooting with no mechanical obstructions between the sensor and the lens when it comes to quality all we care about in nd filters generally speaking is just what the name implies a neutral density filter should be as color neutral as possible which can be achieved through a high quality filter that can remove any color contamination from uv or infrared that's why blackmagic is using ir and d or infrared nd filters they're designed to filter both optical and infrared wavelength evenly and the keyword here is evenly let me briefly explain why this is important to know you can skip this part but what i'm about to share will help you when buying nd filters in general and how it relates to the problem we're about to discover with the 6k pro our eyes can see the colors in the visible spectrum but digital sensors can see beyond that namely the ultraviolet and the infrared wavelength which cause color shifts in your image that you won't be happy about uv was more of a concern in film cameras as it added a bluish wash over the image but modern digital sensors are pretty impervious to uv almost all lenses and sensors now have uv coating that deals with it but infrared is another beast to deal with it's a bit tricky though without any nds the image would look okay and you won't need any infrared filtering not because there's no infrared in the air but because the ratio between the full spectrum and the infrared is balanced again balanced is the key word here so as you add in these without any ir cut the colors will go down but the infrared will stay unaffected throwing off that balance we're talking about the more you add in these the more that balance gets thrown off this difference in ratios between both infrared and optical colors is what will cause your image to have this red tint that's mostly visible in the shadows and that's where the ir cut coating comes handy when applied to the nd it brings back the balance between both and cleans up that infrared contamination now all that sounds good provided that the built-in ir cut filter within the nd is doing its job while staying neutral enough to keep the color's integrity of the image intact lower quality ir nd could do a great job in cleaning up that red color watch but in the process it could introduce other color washes and that's exactly what's happening with the 6k pro so i tested it out in a controlled environment i shot once on clear with no nds applied then one with two four and six and i can confirm seeing a subtle blue color shift let's go back to clear i want you to focus on this white dot in the vector scope as i add in these it will start moving to the right towards the blue vector here's nd2 and d4 both are almost identical in their blue shift then nd6 jumps another step closer to blue now let's test with other high quality endis to see if we get better results i popped in my freewell nd4 i've been using those for a while now as they're not only pretty neutral in their color renditions but they're also very practical with their magnetic mouth that literally takes a second to mount so i white balance both nd tests to the clear version here's what i got from freewells nd4 and here's the result from the internal nd and side by side freewheel has a very neutral and clean color rendition compared to the internal nd and if i toggle between them keeping your eyes on the vector scope again you can see how white markers move slightly towards the blue vector in the 6k pro version while at the freewell sample it's more in the center and the histogram color channels are more aligned and almost perfectly balanced i know there was some online panic about those color shifts and a whole drama about people returning their cameras but i wouldn't worry that much all this is pretty easy to fix in post takes less than 10 seconds it's much easier to balance color casts from nds than from infrared contamination in all cases after all they managed to fit a whole interchangeable nd mechanism in a 2500 camera this is the same price you paid for the first 6k that didn't have any nd's if you're not happy then the other option you have for a camera with built-in nds with the same form factor is the c70 costing you the same as two 6k pros and an evf on top moving on to power this was the other prediction that came true in my other episode i suggested using the higher capacity sony npf batteries and i'm really glad blackmagic heard our collective cries for help so how much of an improvement is it the first pocket 6k came with a tiny canon lp e6 battery that barely lasted for 30 or 40 minutes in best case scenarios they also introduced a battery solution which had a dummy battery that took the place of the existing battery to hook onto the camera and end up with a total of only two canon batteries so all this contraption was just to add another battery for another 30 minutes not much of a solution honestly but rather an unnecessary hassle so everyone had to find their own solutions i personally found that the tilted rig with the powerside handle to be the most practical and effective solution it holds a sony 970 battery that lasts between two to three hours now comes the 6k pro with two major improvements first let's replace the canon battery with the sony npf 570 by far the most popular affordable and compatible battery out there offering an average of an hour of runtime but there's a catch if you check the back of the battery you realize it's 3 500 milliamps and 26 watt hour a very rare high capacity that's hard to find in this battery size and since the camera apparently has a very high power draw lower capacities might act a bit weird they might die faster or give you false low battery readings in a matter of minutes after use i honestly couldn't find any affordable battery options here in the us that can match those specs or operating time but found a good option that lasted 50 minutes on average pretty decent considering it's half the price of the original that comes in the kit i'll leave a link down below second improvement is the new power grip that can hold two sony batteries without the need to remove the battery in the camera this offers an additional 120 minutes giving you a total of three batteries for almost three hours of runtime the trick here is that this grip uses connecting pins at the base for power delivery instead of the unpractical integrated dummy battery solution they had before there are three advantages in this solution over the older version first since you don't have to remove the camera battery you end up with three batteries instead of two second the grip batteries are hot swappable pretty useful for long and continuous shooting sessions without having to turn off the camera to change batteries and finally the grip size is smaller since it doesn't have that dummy battery sticking out it becomes easier to pack as it will take much less space in the camera bag those connecting pins remind me of the gh5 battery grip actually which makes me wonder why other brands are not adopting such awesome and practical solution now as awesome as this new battery grip is it has a major drawback it will prevent you from rigging the camera with a cage which is something you'll desperately need i'll tell you why in a minute so i hope someone will come up with a version that's compatible with this battery grip unless delta comes back with its side battery grip solution again let's wait and see other general improvements included an additional mini xlr input which is great for a double interview setup potentially preventing you from using an external mixer the other improvement is introducing the ursa mini 12 case gen 5 color science i already love gen 4 on the old 6k without any scientific analysis i casually tested gen 5 and i was happy with what i saw i personally believe the sensors on both versions of the black magic pocket 6k mixed with gen 5 color signs offer the most beautiful image amongst all mirrorless cameras out there the pocket 4k comes as a close second but again that's me the other good thing about gen 5 is that blackmagic rolled it down to all previous pocket cameras with their 7.3 camera update making it much easier to match the 4k to 6k versions now all that sounds great but let me share with you the main drawbacks and missed opportunities i found in this camera and i really hope blackmagic is watching this first all pocket cinema cameras are lacking mounting points they all have the same single quarter 20 screw mount on top and that's it i mean why not at least have airy style locating pins on the sides of that screw like the ones you find in the ninja 5 monitor for example which in fact is a 3 8 screw adapted to quarter 20 to maximize compatibility even further or even better why not follow the fx3 and how they manage to add five mounting points in such a tiny body looking at them side by side the 6k pro is surely not running out of real estate here and that's why i said you'll end up sacrificing the new battery grip for a desperately needed cage also inspired by the fx3 and the s1h both have an additional left side record button but the 6k pro has both record buttons 2 inches apart on the same side of the camera i'm really not sure about the rationale behind that weird decision but it would have been much more useful to have that second button on the left hand side down there where the 6k logo is the left side button is very useful when your right hand is busy with a gimbal or a top handle also watch your cfast as a secondary card slot instead of cf express it's becoming pretty obvious that most if not all new popular cameras are opting for the cf express card so it's more likely to find filmmakers with cf express than with cfast but i won't complain much since blackmagic has this unique and awesome feature of recording directly to ssds and it still has sd card slot available which is good enough for most recording formats after all also the choice of ef mount in this modern mirrorless world we live in now this mount lacks compatibility with all new mirrorless lenses it can take advantage of their awesomeness and missing out on their new features and improvements that camera brands worked hard to bring to us also canon is actively and aggressively phasing out its ef lenses to push for their new and updated rf lenses my personal favorite which is competing with the hugely popular sony's e-mount but let's be realistic it's highly unlikely blackmagic will adopt any of those awesome mounts due to politics and licensing costs and i highly doubt they'll create their own mount to avoid that the market is already saturated with new lens mounts finally the 6k pro doesn't have any form of image stabilization and it suffers from an unreliable and antiquated autofocus system both probably being deal breakers for sony and canon shooters but the awesomeness of this camera and its affordability might push you to practice manual focus a skill you'll still need to acquire if you're planning to eventually move up the ladder and start using cine lenses i believe the 6k pro is what the first 6k was supposed to be once more blackmagic created the best value for money a 2500 camera with internal raw built-in nds 5-inch hdr display and added gen 5 color science that got the best out of this awesome sensor i just wish it was in full frame but it seems blackmagic is still stuck in the super 35 realm for an extra 500 it doesn't make sense anymore to buy the old 6k and if you already have it i'd say 2500 will still be a no-brainer investment for an a-cam to your other 6k of course the lack of autofocus and image stabilization will throw everyone off who was spoiled by the sony's and the canons not to forget the quality control issues of the blue tints found in both the screen and the nds throwing off more filmmakers who seek a perfect out of the box camera so i can't tell you whether it's good for you or not but i hope my analysis here will help you make that decision for yourself i personally bought it and i'm keeping it and i still dream and live with the hope that blackmagic would release a full frame version of this one but before waiting for it i want to remind you that cameras won't make you filmmakers but your passion for filmmaking will don't forget to follow me on instagram to join my live sessions where i'll get to know you better and answer your questions in real time thanks again for watching stay safe i'll see you next time [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: The DP Journey

Views: 45,319

Keywords: pocket 6k pro review, blackmagic 6k pro, built in nd filter, c70 canon, pocket 6k vs 6k pro, 6k pro blue tint, a7iii, a7siii vs bmpcc 6k, Cinema Camera, HDR monitor, best camera, bmpcc 6k pro, bmpcc 6k, bmpcc 6k pro footage, Cine Mirrorless, Battery grip, blackmagic 7.3 update, mirrorless camera, bmpcc 6k cinematic, blackmagic pocket 6k pro review, c70 vs bmpcc 6k pro, s1h vs bmpcc 6k, S1H, bmpcc 6k pro evf, blackmagic pocket cinema camera, blackmagic pocket 6k pro footage

Id: ubs40opaMqs

Length: 21min 36sec (1296 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 26 2021