{"id":112744,"date":"2021-12-31T19:51:50","date_gmt":"2022-01-01T00:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmmakermagazine.com\/?p=112744"},"modified":"2022-01-03T14:52:43","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T19:52:43","slug":"indie-camera-of-the-year-blackmagic-delivers-small-in-a-big-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmmakermagazine.com\/112744-indie-camera-of-the-year-blackmagic-delivers-small-in-a-big-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Indie Camera of the Year: Blackmagic Delivers Small in a Big Way"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Since forever, I\u2019ve gotten the question, \u201cWhat camera should I buy?\u201d

This always comes from someone not in the market for an Alexa Mini or 8K RED, but instead something recent, capable, and cheap. Did I mention cheap?

There\u2019s no slam-dunk answer to this question, obviously, and never will be. No single camera is right for everybody or every situation. But among the wonderments of our 4K moment is the fact that virtually all 4K cameras make good pictures, taking into account their intended markets and price points.

To wit, you only have to reach for that iPhone Pro in your pocket, the one with a turret of wide, ultrawide, and 3x zoom lenses that captures HDR (high dynamic range), or a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra with its four<\/em> lenses and 8K capture, or a Sony Xperia PRO-I with its outsize 1″ sensor\u2014how did they fit it inside?!!

It\u2019s hard to imagine we won\u2019t be seeing fresh trends in documentary-making based on these pocket cameras, which are running away with the goal posts again, as they did with still photography.

But to those asking in 2021 \u201cwhat camera should I buy?\u201d, the affordable pocket camera I recommended more than any other is of a different category: Blackmagic Design\u2019s Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro.

I spent much of the past year investigating the latest wave of \u201cmirrorless\u201d cameras. These are mini motion picture cameras derived from DSLRs. As was the case with their still-photo antecedents, controls and ergonomics are tailored to individual use, not crew use. As seen in the following photo, DSLR design cues manifest in Blackmagic\u2019s PCC 6K Pro are clear.<\/p>\r\n

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An indication of scale: my mirrorless Sony A7S from 2014 next to a Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Practical field use of these mirrorless cameras for video production typically requires mounting them inside a skeletal \u201ccage\u201d with plenty of mounting holes. Attached peripherals often include an LCD bigger than the camera, an outboard recorder for ProRes or RAW files, audio items like an XLR input adapter, mic, shock mount, wireless receivers, and sometimes a small digital audio recorder. Such \u201cFrankencameras\u201d are a common sight these days in low-budget production.

What Blackmagic Design has delivered in the PCC 6K Pro is a compact Super35 camera that already incorporates much of what you\u2019d otherwise need to add to a mirrorless rig. First and foremost is a tilting 5\u201d HDR screen with a blinding 1,500 nits peak brightness, easily visible in bright daylight. This makes unnecessary, say, an Atomos Ninja V for monitoring, along with the extra weight of its battery.<\/p>\r\n

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PCC 6K Pro with tilted LCD and optional viewfinder.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

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5-inch High Dynamic Range (HDR) LCD is not washed out when viewed in bright daylight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n


No audio input module is required. Two channels of audio are always being recorded, either from the PCC 6K Pro\u2019s built-in mics, through dual mini-XLR inputs with phantom power, or through a 3.5mm stereo mini phono jack. Through this mini phono jack the PCC 6K Pro can also record external timecode. Its own internal high-resolution timecode clock is accurate to within a frame over six hours and can be jam-synced to other devices.

The PCC 6K Pro is EF-mount only. Here I might cite Orson Welles: “The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.\u201d However an EF-mount is hardly limiting: besides Canon\u2019s classic L-series, you can attach Zeiss CP.2 lenses or Sigma Art lenses. The list of EF-adapted lenses is lengthy. The camera\u2019s 6K sensor is superb can capture the quality of any lens put in front of it. Some in the Hollywood community have described its look as \u201corganic\u201d and \u201cfilmic.\u201d As with the very latest sensors, it provides a dual native ISO: 400 and 3200. In front of the sensor, the PCC 6K Pro incorporates an internal 2\/4\/6-stop ND filter wheel that suppresses unwanted IR (infrared) transmission, which can discolor dark objects.<\/p>\r\n

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Video outputs include USB-C and HDMI. At right, an SSD using USB-C to record.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n


Internally the PCC 6K Pro records Blackmagic RAW and ProRes to high-speed SD cards or CFast 2.0 cards. Externally it records to affordable off-the-shelf SSDs by using a USB-C cable, which also powers the SSD. As an alternative, you can also use the full-size HDMI port to record externally or stream live. Each of these media types can be formatted in-camera, or you can format then on your computer as either HFS+ (Mac) or exFAT (Windows). The camera doesn\u2019t care which. For both RAW and ProRes, maximum frame rates for 6K, 5K, and 4K are 50 or 60 fps, depending on aspect ratio. 2K and HD offer 120 fps.

I can\u2019t say enough good things about the care Blackmagic has invested in designing a user interface (UI) that is simple and easy to operate. If you\u2019ve tangled with endless menu trees full of poorly-explained functions in other cameras, you\u2019ll appreciate the simplicity of a large touch-screen with well-organized, generous-sized selections that are clear and well laid-out \u2014 in any one of the eleven<\/em> languages you can choose from.

If you want an uncluttered viewing screen with no data overlays, just swipe up or down. If you want to magnify the image to check focus, double-tap the screen and zoom in with the front scroll wheel. If you\u2019re using an autofocus lens, you can touch the screen to select an object to focus on. The touchscreen can also control the iris of an autofocus lens. For that matter, so can an app called Bluetooth+ on an iPhone. And not just the iris\u2026 I experimented using this app to accurately pull remote focus on Canon L-series lenses, and I got pretty good at it while eyeing the red peaking on the PCC 6K Pro\u2019s screen.<\/p>\r\n

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A Siemens star focusing aid can be displayed inside the optional viewfinder for quick adjustment of diopter for your eye.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n


If you are a viewfinder person like I am, the PCC 6K Pro has you covered. Blackmagic designed an excellent modular viewfinder for the PCC 6K Pro that attaches to the top of the camera. It provides a feature I\u2019ve never seen before, a Siemens star for adjusting with confidence the viewfinder\u2019s diopter for your eye. Otherwise it displays the same image and data found on the LCD. It costs an additional $495, but I consider it an essential.

As mentioned above, no camera is perfect, and the PCC 6K Pro has shortcomings. Location and feel of physical buttons are disadvantageous for handheld work when the viewfinder is in use. Absent are popular functions like continuous autofocus, auto white-balance tracing, auto ISO, in-body stabilization, and more. (Canon lenses with optical image stabilization will offset lack of in-body stabilization.) And to be clear, you\u2019d actually need a pretty big pocket for this camera. The PCC 6K Pro is noticeably chunkier than most mirrorless cameras, in part to accommodate that five-inch LCD. Indeed, the PCC 6K Pro reminds me of a 1960\u2019s VW bug or Citro\u00ebn 2CV: homely yet beautiful in its simplicity and reliability.

Unlike those air-cooled vehicles, however, the PCC 6K Pro must use a cooling fan to expel the considerable heat generated by pushing around so much internal data. This can be softly audible while the camera is powered, and it can be turned off entirely during filming if desired. But heat always implicates battery drain, and the PCC 6K is indeed battery-hungry. Happily there are various ways to power the camera, including USB-C and a dedicated power adapter with a locked connector.<\/p>\r\n

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An optional Pocket Cinema Camera Battery Grip ($145) adds two extra Sony-style L-series batteries for extended recording times.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n


Lastly, purchase of a PCC 6K Pro includes a full license to the Studio version of DaVinci Resolve ($295). Especially for an indie filmmaker just starting out, using the PCC 6K Pro in tandem with Resolve opens a gateway not just to a fun production playground but also an advanced curriculum in post. Resolve\u2019s well-written manual can introduce you to the wonders of professional grading, effects (Fusion), audio post (Fairlight), and modern wide-gamut color management. With the friendly help, of course, of countless YouTube how-to videos.

That\u2019s a heck of a lot of value for $2,495 \u2014 and why, in 2021, I could readily recommend the PCC 6K Pro to any indie filmmaker, regardless of experience level. My choice for indie camera of the year.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since forever, I\u2019ve gotten the question, \u201cWhat camera should I buy?\u201d This always comes from someone not in the market for an Alexa Mini or 8K RED, but instead something recent, capable, and cheap. Did I mention cheap? There\u2019s no slam-dunk answer to this question, obviously, and never will be. No single camera is right for everybody or every situation. But among the wonderments of our 4K moment is the fact that virtually all 4K cameras make good pictures, taking into account their intended markets and price points. To wit, you only have to reach for that iPhone Pro in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":112750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_column":0},"categories":[9281,4],"tags":[13122,22763],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmmakermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112744"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmmakermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmmakermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmmakermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmmakermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/filmmakermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112751,"href":"https:\/\/filmmakermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112744\/revisions\/112751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmmakermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmmakermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmmakermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmmakermagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}