The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro: First Impressions

For the longest time I've been wanting to upgrade from my trusty old Sony A7S. It's served me very well and been with me through a lot of live event capture whilst I've filming countless shows, short films and music videos. For sentimental reasons will still always have a place in my arsenal as I've loved it for photography and it's compact nature but it was definitely time for a shake up. It was at this point I was looking all over the web for something that would enhance the quality of video that I could put out. After hours and hours of Youtube comparisons and creating pros and cons spreadsheets I finally landed on it. The BlackMagic Pocket 6K pro.

Disclaimer: I am no expert on cameras but here's what I personally found!

The BUILD

It's hard not to look at any new gear after getting used to a very specific set up and finding it a little overwhelming. It's also a lot bulkier than most cameras I've had an extensive experience with meaning that holding it was a little of an exercise after my first few days of shooting with it. I luckily set aside a budget alongside my purchase to leave room for some essentials to make my overall setup operate in aid of my skillsets as a run and gun filmmaker and solo videographer. With this I will say that it's definitely worth investing in a cage and some decent handle accessories as while I usually like a smaller camera I think this easily bypassed that initial hurdle going in.

The Setup

I found that the menu layout at first overwhelmed me but within an hour I found it to be so intuitive that this was not an issue on the camera in anyway. It's incredibly user friendly with so many settings being very easy to find on the high quality touch screen. It's definitely nice to be able to change my settings whilst looking at my potential footage, removing my need to jump into a black menu screen as I can see the changes very clearly in real-time. This was made even better knowing that the screen size really does boost my confidence in knowing how it's going to look. No more loading up footage that I've seen on a small monitor that looses it's quality when I see it blown up onto the editing suite.

the IMAGE QUALITY

The quality of image is astounding! It feels like I've unlocked an entirely new standard of video footage. I understand that it's an unfair comparison when put next to my decade-old A7S but the crispness and and versatile settings have helped me elevate my content quality to heights that I thought impossible for such a short turnaround time. Straight from the box from the moment i turned it on even getting some test shots felt so much more cinematic and made even some of the more mundane frames just look 10 times better.

Battery life and memory

I've found that one of the only issues that I have come across is that depending on the job and quality you choose to film it in the batteries die often and the cards fill up fast. After a few conversations with friends who are more experienced than me as well as watching some Youtube videos going into deep dives about it, it really seems like it's dependent on what you are shooting. Without an AC adapter or a fair few spare batteries it'd be very ambitious to get hours of footage without interruption so I've found it worth thinking about the optimum times to change batteries and cards as well as investigating what extra accessories you may need depending on the project. It's so much a limitation as it is just retraining the way I think with certain projects which overall is helping me grow.

The Verdict

Coming from a place of wondering whether it was going to be worth shelling out this money for a camera and where it would lead me I can safely say that I'm happy to have parted with it as it has added a lot of value to every shot that I have gotten since buying it. So far I can confidently say it was worth the jump for me and that i'm glad I did so much research beforehand. If you're in a similar position and looking to make a big upgrade it's amazing to see the amount of content out there from tutorials to comparisons to test reels that can get you the information you need to make the right choice. I'm very excited to get stuck into this camera a whole lot more and see where it takes me!