Australian company Blackmagic Design has announced a 4K pocket cinema camera for $1,295. This is the successor to the original Blackmagic pocket cinema camera, which was more of a ‘pocket’ camera than this one.
The new 4K pocket cinema camera records 4K video in the 10-bit ProRes and 12-bit RAW formats at 60 fps (without the 5-minute limitation imposed by smartphones), which are important in the movie industry (especially RAW for video editing). It has a Micro Four Thirds (MFT) lens mount, four microphones, a full-size HDMI port that can output HDR video, and a mini-XLR input to connect professional boom microphones. It is also equipped with a relatively large 5″ screen.
The camera now comes with a USB-C port, which provides a massive benefit in the form of high data transfer rates. USB-C can transfer data at 10 Gbps, vs the 5 Gbps offered by USB 3.0, and the 480 Mbps offered by USB 2.0. This is especially needed for 4K RAW videos, as RAW files tend to be enormous.
The new USB-C port also allows you to record videos directly to an external hard drive. Considering the external SSDs on the market now (like the Samsung T5 USB-C SSD), that’s tempting!
They said ‘It’s also the first camera that lets customers record directly onto the same exact external USB-C media drives they use for editing and color correction. That means customers can turn projects around much more quickly because they don’t have to transfer files. All they need to do is unplug the USB-C drive and then connect it to their computer to start editing.’
If you aren’t looking to spend that much, it has card slots supporting CFast, UHS-II, and SD cards.
Related: New External SSDs Can Transfer 1TB Of Data In Under 7 Minutes
Slide show images obtained with thanks from Blackmagic Design.
