Blackmagic Introduces Pocket-Sized Cinema Camera

Today at NAB Blackmagic announced its $995 Pocket Cinema Camera with an MFT mount for interchangeable lenses.

It looks a lot like any pocket camera, but it’s much more exciting than a point and shoot from the local electronics store. You can use this camera to make a real movie that looks like it’s shot on film.

According to Blackmagic, regular video cameras shoot in a limited dynamic color range, and that’s why your home videos look different than movies. The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera packs a lot of technology into it’s solid magnesium alloy chassis to deliver results that look like they are shot using expensive professional gear.

The camera has a Super 16 size 1080p sensor, 13 stops of dynamic range and shoots either high quality ProRes 422 (HG) or lossless CinemaDNG RAW file formats. Digital film is recorded to SD cards with the filmmaker’s choice of 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97 and 30 fps.

Footage is ready to edit as soon as it’s recorded. A shooter can move the SD Card from the camera to a laptop and edit in Final Cut or AVID without the necessity to convert the file into a format that plays nicely with editing software.

The camera works with a wide variety of low-cost, interchangeable Micro Four Thirds lenses from different manufacturers.

On the back of the Pocket Cinema Camera is a high resolution 3.5″ LCD display both for shooting and playback. Iris and Focus controls are to the right of the LCD along with menu, power, and navigation buttons.

On the side, you’ll find connections for a micro HDMI cable, a 3.5mm stereo mic, headphones, remote control, and a 12V power source.

One of Blackmagics goals has been to create a professional quality camera that can be used in the smallest shooting environments, and in places where larger cameras would be dangerous.