Pocket 6K Pro

The Pocket 6k Pro eats up power from the Sony battery almost as quickly as it does the Pocket 4k with the Canon battery. Not a proper test but the impression I got is the Baxxtar battery life is on par if not slightly edges Blackmagic battery that came with the camera. It lasted a bit longer after the battery level turned red.
Looks like I need to buy the battery grip.

My 6K Pro came finally in today but had a slightly different experience on the batteries than you WahWay. Are you recording to CFast or SSD? I think that makes a big difference.

At 50% screen brightness recording to CFast I got 65 minutes on the Patona 3500mah and 70 minutes on the Blackmagic branded one which is also rated at 3500. A solid hour - honestly thats good enough for me and I'd rather avoid the bulk of the battery grip.

Now, I'd be interest in the run time people are getting when primarily using the EVF. Mine won't get here until next week unfortunately.

You kind of have to use a cage anyways with all the Pockets because they are too wide to fit on gimbals.

i have used my 4k allways with tilta full cage on the ronin-s, and now with the RS-2

I mostly ignore the battery ratings printed on the batteries because some overstate it claims or does not hold recharge as well as others.
I had IS switched on my Canon lens and half the time I had the built in macro lights on, got about 35 minutes. If I use Sony and other branded batteries they don't last long.

Well seems like Paton's rating is fairly accurate which is why I thought it would be useful to share that information here.

In terms of accessories - can anyone recommend a compact camera cube that fits the 6K Pro? Would love to have something where I can throw the camera, a few batteries and a lens into my backpack with without it looking like I am coming in with a lot of gear.

And someone who already has the EVF - could you measure total camera height? Adding the data from the Blackmagic Website I arrive at roughly 17cm but would love a quick confirmation as my EVF won't get here until next week. Thanks!

I’ve got my 6k Pro and been really enjoying it so far. I haven’t got the EVF yet and wanted to get some feedback from people who have been using it before I decide whether to buy one.

I saw a review saying the EVF isn’t high enough resolution to be useful when pulling focus:

I had planned to use it for handheld shots to give me a third point of contact with minimal rigging. I really enjoy shooting that way with the C100 mkii but I don’t have to use it to pull focus on that camera because of the Dual AF.

Any thoughts/feedback from people that have used it would be much appreciated. I assume the focus assist magnification button still works with the EVF so you can punch in a bit to check focus?

Many Thanks
Matthew

Had a more proper test I got 72 minutes with BMD battery rated at 3500mAh and 70 minutes with Baxxtar rated at 3100mAh. Given the Baxxtar is already several months old and had gone through a few more recharges I say they are petty even. I set the screen to 50% brightness. JB got the same with the screen brightness at 100% so maybe power draw are not much different between 50% and 100%?

Had a more proper test I got 72 minutes with BMD battery rated at 3500mAh and 70 minutes with Baxxtar rated at 3100mAh. Given the Baxxtar is already several months old and had gone through a few more recharges I say they are petty even. I set the screen to 50% brightness. JB got the same with the screen brightness at 100% so maybe power draw are not much different between 50% and 100%?

Were you recording onto cfast or ssd t5, and what compression were you recording at?

My 6K Pro came finally in today but had a slightly different experience on the batteries than you WahWay. Are you recording to CFast or SSD? I think that makes a big difference.

At 50% screen brightness recording to CFast I got 65 minutes on the Patona 3500mah and 70 minutes on the Blackmagic branded one which is also rated at 3500. A solid hour - honestly thats good enough for me and I'd rather avoid the bulk of the battery grip.

Now, I'd be interest in the run time people are getting when primarily using the EVF. Mine won't get here until next week unfortunately.

what compression were you recording at?

Well, I went ahead and purchased one.

Looking forward to using it alongside my UMP G2!

I saw a review saying the EVF isn’t high enough resolution to be useful when pulling focus:

I had planned to use it for handheld shots to give me a third point of contact with minimal rigging. I really enjoy shooting that way with the C100 mkii but I don’t have to use it to pull focus on that camera because of the Dual AF.

I'd personally disagree with that.

I prefer it for critical focussing, and like you I prefer it as a third point of contact for stability.

It's not the highest resolution, but I don't know many that are this small, integrated that are higher resolution EVFs ?

I find with peaking on it works great and BECAUSE you're closing out everything from your periphery it makes it easy to concentrate and "see" the image for composing and focussing.

The only downfalls I've found is that the rubber fell off for me very easily. And wearing a mask, the EVF fogs up very quickly as well, which is a problem with most EVFS wearing a mask.

JB

I'd personally disagree with that.

I prefer it for critical focussing, and like you I prefer it as a third point of contact for stability.

It's not the highest resolution, but I don't know many that are this small, integrated that are higher resolution EVFs ?

I find with peaking on it works great and BECAUSE you're closing out everything from your periphery it makes it easy to concentrate and "see" the image for composing and focussing.

The only downfalls I've found is that the rubber fell off for me very easily. And wearing a mask, the EVF fogs up very quickly as well, which is a problem with most EVFS wearing a mask.

JB

Thanks John, appreciate your feedback. Yeah, the EVF on my C100 isn't very high resolution either. I think I'll give it a try.

By the way, it was an Instagram post from you that first alerted me of the 6k Pro. I had been considering the Pocket 6k but just happened to stumble on your Insta post (must have been on or just after the launch), so thanks for that.

And wearing a mask, the EVF fogs up very quickly as well, which is a problem with most EVFS wearing a mask.

JB

I understand the problem, but when at work one should not wear a mask. Another option is to use a black cloth over the rig and head.

what compression were you recording at?

Q5 constant quality

I was keen to see if there were any signs of IR pollution with the built in NDs. Did a quick test against the C100 MKii (both with 6 stops of ND):


Apologies, that this is an extremely rough and dirty test but I wanted to share the results in case anyone found it helpful. To me, it does seem like there is a colour shift on the blacks compared to the C100.

What do you guys think? Interested to hear other people’s experiences with this.

Thanks,

Matt

So i tested the Blackmagic battery (3500mAh) on my 6K Pro and this is what i got-
1TB samsung ssd drive


BRAW 6k 25fps
16:9
6144 x 3456
5:1 compression
constant bitrate = 1 hour


BRAW 6k 25fps
2.4:1
6144 x 2560
5:1 compression
constant bitrate = 1:06 hour

So far am really happy with the outcome

I understand the problem, but when at work one should not wear a mask.

Are you joking ?

The show I'm on fired someone because they posted photos of themselves unmasked at a party on social media in close company with many people that aren't in their family pod.

I get tested 8 times a week. There's over 400 crew on my show and we all wear masks and so far no one has gotten Covid from work. We've had a few positives, all of which were found before anyone got to set.

Wear a mask. For everyone else's sake.

JB

looking for a small (10sec) BMPCC 6k pro gen5 6k BRAW 3.1 or 5.1 original sample for a personal test.
(25 fps will be not necessary but helpfull)

THANX

I understand the problem, but when at work one should not wear a mask.

Are you joking ?

The show I'm on fired someone because they posted photos of themselves unmasked at a party on social media in close company with many people that aren't in their family pod.

I get tested 8 times a week. There's over 400 crew on my show and we all wear masks and so far no one has gotten Covid from work. We've had a few positives, all of which were found before anyone got to set.

Wear a mask. For everyone else's sake.

JB

I read this in Tom Cruise voice

The Pocket 6k Pro is my first camera with built in ND and here is my opinion. I previousely use vari nds and while it has its negative it was useful in run and gun were IQ don't need to be always the best. Internal ND is useful but I'm finding it limiting because of the two stop different between each strength I'm not even preferring it over vari ND for run and gun. Were I find bulit in ND usefull is emergency situation were sudden extreme changing light situation such as when strong sunlight emerges and you don't want to pause your shoot to put on external ND.
If I can find an external 1 stop IRND that closely compliment the Pocket 6k Pro internal NDs that would be better for me so it give me a 1 stop difference between each ND strength.

The Pocket 6k Pro is my first camera with built in ND and here is my opinion. I previousely use vari nds and while it has its negative it was useful in run and gun were IQ don't need to be always the best. Internal ND is useful but I'm finding it limiting because of the two stop different between each strength I'm not even preferring it over vari ND for run and gun. Were I find bulit in ND usefull is emergency situation were sudden extreme changing light situation such as when strong sunlight emerges and you don't want to pause your shoot to put on external ND.
If I can find an external 1 stop IRND that closely compliment the Pocket 6k Pro internal NDs that would be better for me so it give me a 1 stop difference between each ND strength.

But you're overlooking the nature of BRAW and how it's less critical what ISO you choose in the field, so long as you're in the zone (or two zones really, given dual ISO). As to the related point that you also make, regarding the ability to (undetectably?) shift ND values in smaller increments over the course of a single shot that changes a lot, that's the trade-off of traditional hard-stop ND filters which, on the other hand, have benefits compared to variable ND (cross patterns), and e-ND such as that implemented by Sony with IR pollution and less range.

Changing ISO would that not shift DR? I could tolerate 1 stop of ISO but 2 stop I'm not too keen but that is what I was doing. I want to keep the ISO the same as much as possible.
Higher quality Vari NDs won't suffer from cross points but because they are essentaillay a polariser it does suffer that effect though some Vari ND such as Hoya Solas has a built in depolariser but you still get unwanted colour shift.

... wearing a mask, the EVF fogs up very quickly as well, which is a problem with most EVFS wearing a mask.

JB

John, I recently purchased “medical grade” masks here that have three layers and most importantly they enclose a wire that you press against your nose and cheeks which surprisingly makes a good enough seal to prevent fogging of my glasses. That should also keep humid breath from your viewfinder. The box must specify “medical grade” to be the real thing.

John, I recently purchased “medical grade” masks here that have three layers and most importantly they enclose a wire that you press against your nose and cheeks which surprisingly makes a good enough seal to prevent fogging of my glasses.

Actually even nose clips on a regular mask can prevent fogging of an EVF (or eyeglasses). Google "anti-fog nose clips" and you'll find plenty of options. Nose wires are also available as add-on items that you can clip over a mask; both solutions reduce the amount of exhaled breath that escapes through the top of the mask, which is what causes fogging of eyeglasses and is probably the main cause of fogging of EVFs as well.

My dentist who wears glasses has a face mask that resembles Darth Vader's mouth piece I suppose to prevent fogging his glasses.

Dr. Oz recommends using tape to attach a mask to your cheeks

I figured this camera would be in high demand so I put my order in for it on the day it was announced. Has anyone pre-ordered any Blackmagic products from Adorama before? I’m based in Los Angeles, how many months have folks in the past waited for the past Cinema cameras to shipped out? 3 months, 6 months, a year? Just want to realistically gage the possible wait time.

I know this sounds bonkers but when shooting indoor I find myself dialling the monitor brightness down to just 5% to match what I'm actually recording. With Extended Video Luts and monitor at 50% brghtness its way too bright and too exposed on the monitor but look way too dark when recorded file loaded into resolve but the histogram on the monitor correctly suggest the file is underexpose.
Is this expected?

I prefer keeping my monitor bright but not to judge exposure; always use the exposure guides such as false colour or histogram to judge camera exposure for a scene. Unless you like to use an exposure meter calibrated to your camera, but false colour is much faster.

Are you joking ?
JB

not at all. It was just a general opinion of mine, but I understand the contraints and conditions you are working. Sorry about that.

Are you joking ?
JB

not at all. It was just a general opinion of mine, but I understand the contraints and conditions you are working. Sorry about that.

The "constraints and conditions" he is working under should be the exact same "constraints and conditions" that everyone should be working under during the time of Covid.

Getting the vaccine protects you...wearing a mask protects others.

Are you joking ?
JB

not at all. It was just a general opinion of mine, but I understand the contraints and conditions you are working. Sorry about that.

The "constraints and conditions" he is working under should be the exact same "constraints and conditions" that everyone should be working under during the time of Covid.

Getting the vaccine protects you...wearing a mask protects others.

As someone who got his second shot a month ago, I think that your claim that I should wear a mask to "protect others" rests on a very shaky foundation. In any event, we should know very soon, probably from Israeli and U.K. data, how much validity there is to the hypothesis that people who are vaccinated may be contagious.

I think that there's an emerging divide between people who have been vaccinated and those who haven't. Witness the increasing discussion about "Vaccine Passports", especially discussion about domestic use, which is already a fact in Israel. I am probably not alone in believing that I continue to abide by the "rules" more out of social solidarity than a sense of personal or social need. People who have been vaccinated are not going to abide by them, absent coherent reasons, indefinitely.

Indeed, In the U.S. the C.D.C. knows this. It intends, in the next couple of days, to issue special guidelines for people who have been vaccinated. It is apparently well aware of the fact that those people will not accept the current "rules". There is even real world evidence of this. Last week, the U.K. Government issued a report showing that people who have had a single shot, let alone two, are breaking the "rules", despite knowing that they are committing what is, in the U.K., an offence.

None of the foregoing should be taken as disagreement with the protocol that John Brawley discussed, a protocol that I think is necessary when people of varying or unknown status are working together. Create a team made up of people who have been vaccinated, or who have been reliably tested, once fast, accurate testing is a practical reality, and my view is quite different.

[CaptainHook]

Safe filmmaking during covid is a very relevant discussion at this time but not appropriate for a topic about the Pocket 6K Pro so I would suggest if people want to discuss further to move it to a seperate thread - with the rules of the forum that would be in the off topic section which is for discussions not directly related to Blackmagic products.

Can someone explain why the blue screen issue would be a firmware issue and not hardware related?

Toi get back on track, could you please tell me which bluescreen issue?

Toi get back on track, could you please tell me which bluescreen issue?

To catch you up here, the LCD display on some 6K Pocket Pro units is visibly quite a bit cooler than the D65 that it should be, hence what should appear to be black or white or neutral grey on the LCD appears to be slightly blue tinted on the LCD. It's not an issue with the white balance of the sensor or the recorded images, simply an issue with the LCD display only. It appears to be limited to a batch of cameras that went out, but not all cameras as if you scroll back in the thread you can see examples of units with more or less correct D65 balanced LCD displays. Unfortunately, the unit that I received from my BMD reseller has the issue. As with past manufacturing QC issues on BMD cameras, I'm confident that eventually BMD will issue a remedy, though if the past is any guide it may take a fair bit of time before that happens. The consolation is that besides the LCD white balance, the unit that I have works perfectly, the articulating screen and the ND filters are fantastic additions, and no one should be making any decisions based on the white balance of *any* camera LCD anyway (no matter how accurate it appears to be). The issue is merely a minor inconvenience.

Thanks, got it. Well, my UMP4.6K's screen is greenish-yellow, but I just don't care.

One of the top three selling point of the Pocket 6k Pro is the quality of the new HDR screen so it has been given extra attention. My worry for those who has the problem is BMD never completely solved the red tint issue of their VA 12G HDR and may just as likely to be in the same situation with this.
For those who think this is a minor issue has to remember the Pocket 6k Pro was meant to reduce rigging and adding extra component such as a better monitor screen. If you find yourself needing to rig an external screen because the built in one is flawed and inaccurate then the product is not fit for purpose and need to go back to exchange for one that works.

Cfast cards still too expensive for me in the UK...

whats the consensus on SD cards for the Pro and shooting 6K Braw? is that even an option? - even at 12:1?

I have a Samsung T5 500GB as another option - but wanted to keep my form factor as small as possible so trying to use internal memory options ideally. I have a bunch of Sandisk 170mb SD cards from my BMPCC 4K which worked for BRAW upt to 8:1.

Cfast cards still too expensive for me in the UK...

whats the consensus on SD cards for the Pro and shooting 6K Braw? is that even an option? - even at 12:1?

I have a Samsung T5 500GB as another option - but wanted to keep my form factor as small as possible so trying to use internal memory options ideally. I have a bunch of Sandisk 170mb SD cards from my BMPCC 4K which worked for BRAW upt to 8:1.

You can shoot 6K 2.40:1 60/fps at Q5 or maybe 8:1 on some SDXC V90 cards, if it's a good one. You don't get a lot of shooting time for 128 GB, so not sure if this is saving money or not, I have Delkin that will and a San Disk that won't.

is visibly quite a bit cooler than the D65

I think the difference with the Pocket 6K Pro vs my other Blackmagic cameras is that they are slightly off, where my copy of the Pocket 6K Pro looks about -1000K towards Blue and -15 towards Green. That’s why I’m hopeful there is a firmware fix soon, maybe there is a mismatch someplace in the code vs sending it back.

If you adjust the screen by eye and ignore the numbers you are seeing, the screen looks great and really daylight viewable. The built in ND and working all the controls with my right hand along with the bigger grip and tilting screen all go into it being a screen you want to use and not have to consciously ignore.

One of the top three selling point of the Pocket 6k Pro is the quality of the new HDR screen so it has been given extra attention. My worry for those who has the problem is BMD never completely solved the red tint issue of their VA 12G HDR and may just as likely to be in the same situation with this.
For those who think this is a minor issue has to remember the Pocket 6k Pro was meant to reduce rigging and adding extra component such as a better monitor screen. If you find yourself needing to rig an external screen because the built in one is flawed and inaccurate then the product is not fit for purpose and need to go back to exchange for one that works.

Absolutely!

I ordered my first BM camera last week (6k pro) with all the bells and whistles. I would have thought these issues with this latest model would have been addressed before releasing it, especially since the camera is basically the same as the previous 6k. A bit disappointing however I remain hopeful...

Cfast cards still too expensive for me in the UK...

I thought the same, being located in Germany. But perhaps look into purchasing the Silicon Power ones I listed earlier in the thread from BH. With all customs, taxes and shipping included, I ended up paying 155 EUR each for two 256 GB Cfast cards, which is incredibly cheap. It's convenient, I don't have to worry about data rates and the camera consumes less battery than when recording to an external USB-C drive. And the most insane part was that from ordering to receiving the cards it took less than 48 hours, some of other the accessories I bought from one town over took longer to arrive

One of the top three selling point of the Pocket 6k Pro is the quality of the new HDR screen so it has been given extra attention. My worry for those who has the problem is BMD never completely solved the red tint issue of their VA 12G HDR and may just as likely to be in the same situation with this.
For those who think this is a minor issue has to remember the Pocket 6k Pro was meant to reduce rigging and adding extra component such as a better monitor screen. If you find yourself needing to rig an external screen because the built in one is flawed and inaccurate then the product is not fit for purpose and need to go back to exchange for one that works.

While I normally would agree with everyone else saying not to trust the built-in monitor, WahWay is right that this camera is finally a Blackmagic camera that is pretty much ready to shoot out of the box, so an accurate monitor would be helpful. Although shooting BRAW that obviously becomes less of a concern. But I do like to get the white balance right on set to avoid too much fiddling in post, especially on short turnarounds.

I figured this camera would be in high demand so I put my order in for it on the day it was announced. Has anyone pre-ordered any Blackmagic products from Adorama before? I’m based in Los Angeles, how many months have folks in the past waited for the past Cinema cameras to shipped out? 3 months, 6 months, a year? Just want to realistically gage the possible wait time.

Adorama is one of the bigger retailers, so it will get larger allocations than most and probably ordered earlier, but also get more customers in the Pocket Pro queue. But it's also launching during a slow period, so your wait probably won't be too bad this time around.

It will almost certainly be quite popular even if it does get a slower than usual start. In normal times, the preorder queues would be insane.

But as usual, your best bet for getting it sooner is to go with a smaller retailer that won't have 500 people pre-ordering on day one. And even then it depends a lot on when that retailers got its own order in. It's a complicated distribution chain that Black Magic controls very little of, so it's very difficult to predict.

just picked mine up locally and man, it is BIG.
it's funny to call it a Pocket-anything, really.
Feels hefty, though, like it's worth the price, haha.

ND's feel a little odd, since they are mechanically put in place. I potentially see them getting stuck at some point, or at least the motor possibly needing repaired as an issue that other BMD cameras don't deal with.

i'll try to get some footage shot today to test. Perhaps some 3.7k anamorphic??

I’ve got my 6k Pro and been really enjoying it so far. I haven’t got the EVF yet and wanted to get some feedback from people who have been using it before I decide whether to buy one.

I saw a review saying the EVF isn’t high enough resolution to be useful when pulling focus:

I had planned to use it for handheld shots to give me a third point of contact with minimal rigging. I really enjoy shooting that way with the C100 mkii but I don’t have to use it to pull focus on that camera because of the Dual AF.

Any thoughts/feedback from people that have used it would be much appreciated. I assume the focus assist magnification button still works with the EVF so you can punch in a bit to check focus?

Many Thanks
Matthew

He posted another video on the viewfinder and says he wouldn’t buy one. I ordered one with mine and will try it out. I remain hopeful it will be usable even if it’s not perfect.

just picked mine up locally and man, it is BIG.
it's funny to call it a Pocket-anything, really.
Feels hefty, though, like it's worth the price, haha.

ND's feel a little odd, since they are mechanically put in place. I potentially see them getting stuck at some point, or at least the motor possibly needing repaired as an issue that other BMD cameras don't deal with.

i'll try to get some footage shot today to test. Perhaps some 3.7k anamorphic??

Coming from the 4K the size is starting to worry me a bit.. might stick with the now cheaper 6k... do you think that will get a fw update to allow braw at 4k also like the pro?


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Ok this is the problem of the blue tint:

Whenever I film on a sunny day my images becomes very blue.
My wb is set on 5600.

The next day i made the same shot outside with the same Whitebalance but it was a cloudy day and then the image looked allright not to blue.

So for me not only the screen is the problem but also the images when i watch it on my computer.
Also the rgb curves in resolve shows that the blue colors ar way higher then green and red.

So make sure you test your bmpcc6k pro on a sunny day.
I think theres a problem with the ND filter.