USER REVI EW | BLACKMAG I C POCKET 6K PRO
a blanking panel – a screw keeps it secure. This compact EVF costs £510/$495 and is a neat solution, turning off the rear screen when in use. It has a 1280x960 colour OLED display and swivels through a 70° range. There is an adjustment for different dioptres and it comes with four different styles of eyecups for left and right eyes, though these fall off easily. The view is small and largely unimpressive, certainly compared to peering through a mirrorless camera EVF. But when you need a viewfinder in bright sunshine, it does the job. The old Canon LP-E6 battery has been dropped for a Sony-fit NP-F battery. It’s an improvement, but you’d still need two or three batteries for a full day of shooting. The camera also accepts an optional £138/$145 battery grip that screws on to the bottom plate. This accepts two NP-F batteries, but adds bulk. A big bonus is the new large and tilting HDR touchscreen. It’s bright and easy to use. However, many video-focused cameras now have fully articulating screens – Blackmagic is a step behind again. The camera is an odd mix of mirrorless style and cinema camera
RIGHT The body is best described as anything other than pocketable – dwarfing every camera in its category
as a real cinema camera, best used in manual focus and manual exposure, rather than a run-and-gun documentary machine. A push of the AE and AF buttons sets focus and aperture to what the camera thinks is right. You can then manually tweak it to perfection. It’s very useful, and is found on lots of high-end cinema cameras. Nonetheless, the one-shot, contrast detection AF is worlds apart from continuous AF that tracks a moving subject – or an advanced phase detection system that detects faces and does clever touch-to-focus pulls. To track anything moving with the 6K Pro camera, it’s time to practise manual focus pulls.
controls. One great addition is the built-in ND filters. At the touch of a button, the NDs can be set and are very neutral. These are proper optical filters, rather than some electronic trickery. Being able to change aperture for some thin depth-of-field by quickly dialling in ND is glorious. It really speeds up the handling. The ergonomics take some adjusting, but become very natural and easy. The controls are clear – there’s a big Rec button on the top and control dial on the front to adjust iris. It’s simple to change ISO and white-balance, and three customisable function buttons are ideal to set aspects, such as false colour, the effect of the display LUT and frame guidelines. At the camera’s rear, there are instant autoexposure and autofocus buttons, employing the slow and old-school contrast detection AF system. And that’s a gripe we have with the camera – as is the total lack of any autoexposure settings and in-body image stabilisation. However, the clue is in the name, backing up its designation “YOU CAN’T FAIL TO BE IMPRESSED BY THE CODEC OPTIONS WHEN RECORDING”
SPECI F I CAT IONS SENSOR FORMAT AND SIZE: 23.1X12.99MM SUPER 35 CMOS EXPOSURE LATITUDE: 13 STOPS LENS MOUNT: CANON EF FRAME RATES: 6144X3456 (6K) UP TO 50FPS. 6144X2560 (6K 2.4:1) UP TO 60FPS. 5744X3024 (5.7K 17:9) UP TO 60FPS. 4096X2160 (4K DCI) UP TO 60FPS. 3840X2160 (ULTRA HD) UP TO 60FPS. 3728X3104 (3.7K 6:5 ANAMORPHIC) UP TO 60FPS. 2868X1512 (2.8K 17:9) UP TO 120FPS. 1920X1080 (HD) UP TO 120FPS. RECORDING OPTIONS: BLACKMAGIC RAW 6K 6144X3456 50P/30P/29.97P/25P/24P/23.98P 49-483MBPS, 6144X2560, 5744X3024 60P/59.94 P/50P/30P/29.97P/25P/24P/23.98P 37-395MPBS. PRORES 422HQ, 422, 422LT, 422 PROXY, DCI 4K 4096X2160, 4K 3840X2160 60P/59.94P/50P/ 30P/29.97P/25P/24P/23.98P 22.2-118MPBS. 2.8K 2868X1512, FHD 1920X1080 120P/60P/59.94P/5 0P/30P/29.97P/25P/24P/23.98P 5.6-27.5MBPS. 3.7K 3623X3020 ANAMORPHIC 60P 2.4:1.
38 DEF I N I T ION | JUNE 202 1
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