BMPCC 6K G2 battery life sucks?

I recently got this camera and I haven't shot anything remarkable yet, just some tests to become familiarized with it. But one thing seems clear to me: the battery life is terrible. Sure, this camera consumes a lot of power compared to a DSLR or a video camera. It has a fan for cooling, and it shoots 6K video in RAW, so I don't have to be an engineer to realize those things suck more power.

But I will charge each battery to full, at least per the LED in the charger, and I can barely use it like half an hour. Sure, I can spend a lot of money on the grip, but the grip doesn't allow you to use the large Sony batteries for this series, which I used to use in my Sony AX2000 and it would give me like a full day of shooting easily. Even if I could use that battery, I bet with this camera it would last an hour, maybe hour and a half at best.

So just to confirm, is the battery life with the brand new NP-F570 Blackmagic brand batteries between 30 and 40 minutes? Or is my camera sucking much more power than it should?

The user manual should say what the camera draws. At least, that info is in the BMPCC 4K manual.

From that information, it’s easy to figure out roughly how long the batteries that you’re using should last.

I see a few items regarding the battery in the manual, but not how much power it consumes, or more importantly, how long does it last.

The power consumption of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K can vary depending on various factors such as recording format, frame rate, use of accessories, and settings. Blackmagic Design power consumption can be found in their product specifications, and you can calculate it as per what Rob said. I believe it has a power consumption of something shot at a 4K@24fps with a power OIS lens, for instance, would use approximately 26W/hr.

I wonder if I have the same manual as you guys. Mine like a common manual for all the Cinema Pocket line cameras, both 4K and 6K, 2419 pages long because it's for several languages, and my search in the PDF for terms like "consumption" or "specifications" don't tell me anything the power it uses.

But again, I don't care about the nominal number in Watts because it doesn't tell me anything. I posted this because I was simply looking for other owners of these cameras to tell me if they are as power hungry as mine, and if their batteries last between 30 and 40 minutes, when shooting 6K video, which is assumed because why would you pay the extra money for a 6K camera to shoot 4K? Unless of course you have a large selection of Canon EF lenses.

I don't care about the nominal number in Watts because it doesn't tell me anything.

Except how long the batteries will last.

...which is assumed because why would you pay the extra money for a 6K camera to shoot 4K?

The only assumption I'd make here is that a camera with a larger sensor, higher recording bandwidth, and a brighter screen would consume batteries faster than it's 4K counterpart.

I'll agree the manual isn't very searchable but the information you're looking for is on pages 33-34.

Good Luck

I'll agree the manual isn't very searchable but the information you're looking for is on pages 33-34.

Then we definitely have different manuals because those pages in my PDF show aspect ratios and grids.

But honestly the support area is not very user friendly. Clicking on the Professional Cameras and typing manual doesn't achieve anything, you have to scroll and scroll until you find the manual. And having done that just now, I downloaded what shows as the latest manual for the BMPCC 6K G2, from Sept 13, 2023, and it's the same exact manual I already had, where pages 33-34 are for the things I mentioned.

Now, scrolling further back I get to the April 2023 version, which is probably the one you have, because it does show all this:

The battery input connection is rated from 6.2V to 10V max.
– The DC input is rated from 10.8V to 20V max.
– The camera requires 16W when in standby and is not charging the battery.
– The camera requires 30W when charging its internal battery.
– When powering your camera with a custom made power source, we recommend removing its internal battery.
– When recording to external media with an active lens, full screen brightness, full tally brightness, high frame rates and not charging the battery, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2 requires approximately 23W and Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K requires approximately 22W. Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and 6K G2 in the same configuration with the addition of the viewfinder requires approximately 26W.

However, maybe I'm stupid because I still can't figure out how long the battery is supposed to last. All I get from reading this is that my camera requires 23 Watts. But I'm not an engineer nor particularly good with Watts, Volts, Amps and all that stuff. So again, I would like simple answers from other owners of this camera saying "In mine a full battery lasts 45 minutes" or another saying, "in mine it lasts 20 minutes." Just looking for an idea to know if my camera is defective or not.

And here's why I ask. We take for granted electronics usually will work perfectly out of the factory, and if any camera eats batteries too fast, it's because the life of the battery has decreased. But I have come across a few cameras in my life (granted none as sophisticated as this one), that used alkaline batteries. And when those cameras started to suck batteries dry in a few minutes, even brand new batteries, it became obvious that the battery wasn't the problem. So it's not impossible for any electronic device to be defective or become defective and suck a lot more power than it should.

Oh, come on, that's not rocket science, but primary school math! Do you know how to multiply and divide?

The camera needs a certain amount of Watts and the size of a battery is usually written in Amperehours. Well, for smaller batteries it's usually in Milliamperehours (mAh), because it looks more impressive. You multiply the voltage of the battery by Ampere and get the Watthours. Then divide by the load.

Sebastian,



As Howard says, these are the relevant statements in the manual (page 34):

The camera requires 16W when in standby and is not charging the battery.

When recording to external media with an active lens, full screen brightness, full tally brightness, high frame rates and not charging the battery, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2 requires approximately 23W and Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K requires approximately 22W. Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and 6K G2 in the same configuration with the addition of the viewfinder requires approximately 26W.

The F970 battery you mention is 7.4V, 3500mAh.

3500 x 7.4 = 25,900
25,900 ➗ 1000 = 25.9 Wh

My experience is that Blackmagic’s numbers on draw result in somewhat conservative estimates of runtime. Assuming that you’re operating the camera in accordance with the statements above, there’s something wrong with your watch, the battery, the battery charger or the camera.

Are you using an F970 battery, or Canon LP-E6 batteries? The latter happen to make sense with the runtime you say that you’re getting. If you’re using LP-E6, are they Canon or knock-offs?

If you’re using an F970, I suspect that there’s something wrong with the battery (how old is it?), the battery charger or your understanding of how the charger works/how long a full charge takes.

I might add that there are many sites on the internet that show how to do Wh arithmetic and that explain what’s behind it.

So just to confirm, is the battery life with the brand new NP-F570 Blackmagic brand batteries between 30 and 40 minutes?

The Pockets and Cinema Cam 6K literally suck when it comes to internal battery life.

So just to confirm, is the battery life with the brand new NP-F570 Blackmagic brand batteries between 30 and 40 minutes?

The Pockets and Cinema Cam 6K literally suck when it comes to internal battery life.

Yeah, well meanwhile the runtime that he says he’s getting doesn’t make sense. He says that he’s using an NP-F570 battery, but he’s reporting the runtime of a Canon LP-E6.

The latest user manual for all Blackmagic cameras has also been linked on the respective product page under tech specs (below the description):
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/produc ... s/W-CIN-16

At the bottom of the spec list it also says:

Battery Life
Approximately 60 minutes
(recording 6K RAW at 24 fps to CFast 2.0 with screen brightness at 50%)

I’ve found that to be too optimistic. One reason is that the camera internally is running at higher voltages and needs to up-convert the 7.2V to its internal value. Up-converting always leads to conversion losses, so you will never reach the nominal runtime.

If you are recording to a USB-C drive, you need to add its power consumption too.

Another thing with batteries is that the higher your power draw, the less you can use of the full nominal capacity. When you put a load on a battery, the voltage drops. But Watt is the product of voltage times amperage and the power draw stays constant for a device. Because the voltage drops, the amperage has to rise. But that will cause the battery to reach its point of self-shutdown faster.

So to give you some helpful points:
Don’t charge the battery in-camera - charge batteries in a high-quality charger. I’ve never found the camera to be particular good in charging the battery to its full potential capacity.
I’ve found the Blackmagic NP-F570 batteries very good, compared to their LPE6 versions from the Pocket 4K.
Batteries do age and will lose from their potential capacity a few percent per year. Heat will increase that loss. Storing for longer periods at very low charge will increase the loss.

As a charger I can highly recommend the Hawk-Woods DV-MC2.
An alternative to the Blackmagic battery would be the Hawk-Woods DV-F590.

This post and following have detailed information on the standby and recording runtime of a Pocket 4K using a new Hawk-Woods Mini V-Mount battery: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=105319&p=709927&hilit=hawk+woods#p675178

In my tests:

Battery run time
6k raw 8:1
Screen brightness 25%
Brand new battery (Blackmagic brand)

1:16:55 TRT

The Blackmagic battery that came with the Pocket 6k Pro is 3500mAh 7.4v 25.9Wh. The one came with the 6k FF is 3350mAh 7.27v 24.35Wh. If the readings are to be believed then the Pocket 6kPro battery should have a longer life. The 6kFF battery at 7.27v would turn red on the camera battery indicator sooner than the 7.4v battery of the BMPCC6kPro. Cant really do a proper side by side test because my Pocket 6k Pro battery is already been used and recharged mutiple times however I might be able to compare the 6KFF battery which is still new with the Kinefinity battery I have on order.

Oh, come on, that's not rocket science, but primary school math! Do you know how to multiply and divide?

Wow. Just saw this. Yes, I know primary school math. My question to you is, do you know how not sound patronizing? And I thought my people skills were bad.

Battery Life
Approximately 60 minutes
(recording 6K RAW at 24 fps to CFast 2.0 with screen brightness at 50%)

I’ve found that to be too optimistic. One reason is that the camera internally is running at higher voltages and needs to up-convert the 7.2V to its internal value. Up-converting always leads to conversion losses, so you will never reach the nominal runtime.

If you are recording to a USB-C drive, you need to add its power consumption too.

Yes, I guess that Samsung T7 is sucking some power. But if you want to record in BRAW, that's the only choice, right? Not even the fastest cards can keep up with that, correct?

So to give you some helpful points:
Don’t charge the battery in-camera - charge batteries in a high-quality charger. I’ve never found the camera to be particular good in charging the battery to its full potential capacity.
I’ve found the Blackmagic NP-F570 batteries very good, compared to their LPE6 versions from the Pocket 4K.
Batteries do age and will lose from their potential capacity a few percent per year. Heat will increase that loss. Storing for longer periods at very low charge will increase the loss.

As a charger I can highly recommend the Hawk-Woods DV-MC2.
An alternative to the Blackmagic battery would be the Hawk-Woods DV-F590.

Actually I use the charger that came with the camera. It's a small one that plugs to USB A, which is great for me.
But I wonder, these NP-F570 batteries, are they all the same? Would a Sony be any better? I don't particularly like Sony, but I guess I would buy one if it's going to have more running time. And is there only one capacity at that same size? You know, it's like AA lithium batteries that come in different capacities, some last longer than others.

Yes, I guess that Samsung T7 is sucking some power. But if you want to record in BRAW, that's the only choice, right? Not even the fastest cards can keep up with that, correct?

Because the USB-C port of the camera is only 5 Gbit/s it isn't any faster than the CFast2.0 slot, which is Serial ATA 6.0 Gbit/s. I record BRAW onto CFast 2.0 cards all the time.

Actually I use the charger that came with the camera. It's a small one that plugs to USB A, which is great for me.
But I wonder, these NP-F570 batteries, are they all the same? Would a Sony be any better? I don't particularly like Sony, but I guess I would buy one if it's going to have more running time. And is there only one capacity at that same size? You know, it's like AA lithium batteries that come in different capacities, some last longer than others.

The Blackmagic NP-F battery is currently one with the highest capacity available so far. Sony's original NPF-570 does offer only 15.8 Wh.

Because the USB-C port of the camera is only 5 Gbit/s it isn't any faster than the CFast2.0 slot, which is Serial ATA 6.0 Gbit/s. I record BRAW onto CFast 2.0 cards all the time.

I guess the problem there is cost and capacity. Just quickly browsing Amazon for CF cards, I don't even see a 1 TB one, and the 512 GB cards are insanely expensive. I can buy a Samsung T9 4 TB SSD for less than the price of a 512 GB CF card. B&H has 1 TB cards at $700!!! Holy crap, that's insane.

So yeah, I'll have to buy a lot more batteries. I thought 3 was more than enough, silly me.

Because the USB-C port of the camera is only 5 Gbit/s it isn't any faster than the CFast2.0 slot, which is Serial ATA 6.0 Gbit/s. I record BRAW onto CFast 2.0 cards all the time.

I guess the problem there is cost and capacity. Just quickly browsing Amazon for CF cards, I don't even see a 1 TB one, and the 512 GB cards are insanely expensive. I can buy a Samsung T9 4 TB SSD for less than the price of a 512 GB CF card. B&H has 1 TB cards at $700!!! Holy crap, that's insane.

So yeah, I'll have to buy a lot more batteries. I thought 3 was more than enough, silly me.

If you think $700 is insane - I bought two 1TB Angelbird cards in 2019 for $1.800 each.
But there is a reason for the price - the Samsung T9 uses 128-layer and 136-Layer V-NAND, while the CFast cards use much more expensive TLC NAND. The more layers, the cheaper but also the worse write performance gets per cell.

Aspects influencing the performance consistency include SLC caching and thermal throttling / firmware caps on access rates to avoid overheating. This is important for power users, as the last thing that they want to see when copying over 100s of GB of data is the transfer rate going down to USB 2.0 speeds.

The T9 can draw up to 6.7 Watt - compared to 2.8 Watt max from the Angelbird 1TB CFast2.0

You can also look up the forum for dozens of user reporting all kind of problems with the T5 and T7.
Why one wants to cheap out on the most important aspect of recording - I don’t know.

Because the USB-C port of the camera is only 5 Gbit/s it isn't any faster than the CFast2.0 slot, which is Serial ATA 6.0 Gbit/s. I record BRAW onto CFast 2.0 cards all the time.

I guess the problem there is cost and capacity. Just quickly browsing Amazon for CF cards, I don't even see a 1 TB one, and the 512 GB cards are insanely expensive. I can buy a Samsung T9 4 TB SSD for less than the price of a 512 GB CF card. B&H has 1 TB cards at $700!!! Holy crap, that's insane.

So yeah, I'll have to buy a lot more batteries. I thought 3 was more than enough, silly me.

If you think $700 is insane - I bought two 1TB Angelbird cards in 2019 for $1.800 each.
But there is a reason for the price - the Samsung T9 uses 128-layer and 136-Layer V-NAND, while the CFast cards use much more expensive TLC NAND. The more layers, the cheaper but also the worse write performance gets per cell.

Aspects influencing the performance consistency include SLC caching and thermal throttling / firmware caps on access rates to avoid overheating. This is important for power users, as the last thing that they want to see when copying over 100s of GB of data is the transfer rate going down to USB 2.0 speeds.

The T9 can draw up to 6.7 Watt - compared to 2.8 Watt max from the Angelbird 1TB CFast2.0

You can also look up the forum for dozens of user reporting all kind of problems with the T5 and T7.
Why one wants to cheap out on the most important aspect of recording - I don’t know.

Well, not everybody can afford $700 per TB, much less $1,800. And I wouldn't call buying the Samsungs T7 and T9 "cheap out" exactly. I don't like Samsung much as a company, but they make decent SSDs and whatever NAND whatever they put inside, I don't care as long as they're fast, and they are.

Now, I haven't tried the T9 in my BMPCC 6K even though that was the original purpose for it, because my cage had come with an SSD holder that was only for the width of regular T5 and T7s, but I've been using the T9 with my Mac Studio with zero issues, and the T7 with my BMPCC 6K G2, also without issues. Doesn't mean that there are no bad units out there. I just happened to get two good ones. And a T5 1 TB that I bought in 2019 is still working fine. I think back then I paid about the same for that one than I paid for the 4 TB T9 a month ago.

I don't trust the capacity written on the battery. Ideally the battery should last long and able to sustain many recharges with minimal loss to battery life.

Well, not everybody can afford $700 per TB, much less $1,800. And I wouldn't call buying the Samsungs T7 and T9 "cheap out" exactly. I don't like Samsung much as a company, but they make decent SSDs and whatever NAND whatever they put inside, I don't care as long as they're fast, and they are.

Now, I haven't tried the T9 in my BMPCC 6K even though that was the original purpose for it, because my cage had come with an SSD holder that was only for the width of regular T5 and T7s, but I've been using the T9 with my Mac Studio with zero issues, and the T7 with my BMPCC 6K G2, also without issues. Doesn't mean that there are no bad units out there. I just happened to get two good ones. And a T5 1 TB that I bought in 2019 is still working fine. I think back then I paid about the same for that one than I paid for the 4 TB T9 a month ago.

I don't know why people go out the way and use a Samsung Drive when cheaper faster alternatives exist.

$12 - ORICO Enclosure
ORICO 2.5'' USB C External Hard Drive Enclosure, SATA 3.0 to USB 3.1 Gen2 6Gbps
https://www.amazon.com/ORICO-External-E ... 01MYTZW5R/

$79 - Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA
Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD, up to 560MB/s - CT1000MX500SSD1
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX500-NA ... 078211KBB/

I don't know why people go out the way and use a Samsung Drive when cheaper faster alternatives exist.

$12 - ORICO Enclosure
ORICO 2.5'' USB C External Hard Drive Enclosure, SATA 3.0 to USB 3.1 Gen2 6Gbps
https://www.amazon.com/ORICO-External-E ... 01MYTZW5R/

$79 - Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA
Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD, up to 560MB/s - CT1000MX500SSD1
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX500-NA ... 078211KBB/

Well, the 4 TB version of that crucial is $280, + the enclosure, and I doubt that combo is in the BMPCC 6K approved list. But even if it were, you're talking about a kit that adds up to $293, and per the description, the speed is up to 560 MB/s, which realistically never happens or it does when the SSD is brand new and very empty.

The Samsung T7 Shield 4 TB is $300, and is advertised at 1050 MB/s, but it's a bit less than that, and because I've been filling it up for months and it only has 57.6 GB of free space. Still, it's really fast:


So, why would I buy a Crucial internal SSD with some $13 enclosure I never heard of and have with luck, about 450 MB/s when for $7 more I can have the Samsung which is not a kit, and it's twice as fast?

Don't get me wrong, I hate Samsung. I bought two Samsung 4K monitors a year and a half ago and macOS was assigning the main and extended roles to them after each wake up from sleep, reboot or power on as a game of chance, so I spent countless hours when I add up all the times I had to go into the System settings and click about 7 times to have to drag and drop the monitor on the left to the right of the other one, then right click to set as main display.

And eventually I found out that Samsung is one of some lazy manufacturers that assigns the same serial number in the EDID to entire batches of monitors, so if you bought two of the same model and batch, you're screwed. So I hate Samsung, but I'm a bit old, and I learned that sometimes certain companies suck but they make a product that's good and you just have to suck it up, even if ideally you wouldn't buy anything from that company again (and I don't plan on buying any more Samsung monitors or TV sets ever again), but you need something they make that works well, and that applies to many things in life.

I wouldn’t trust Orico, their support sucks.
Acasis is better, but why bother? Get the T7 shield and you’re set.
@Sebastian
TVs and storage are probably completely separate branches of that huge company.
That said, I had a great customer experience when our Samsung The Frame got damaged by a Tornado. Samsung supplied a replacement panel instead of forcing a new unit on us, as it happens most of the time these days.

I don't know why people go out the way and use a Samsung Drive when cheaper faster alternatives exist.

$12 - ORICO Enclosure
ORICO 2.5'' USB C External Hard Drive Enclosure, SATA 3.0 to USB 3.1 Gen2 6Gbps
https://www.amazon.com/ORICO-External-E ... 01MYTZW5R/

$79 - Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA
Crucial MX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD, up to 560MB/s - CT1000MX500SSD1
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX500-NA ... 078211KBB/

Well, the 4 TB version of that crucial is $280, + the enclosure, and I doubt that combo is in the BMPCC 6K approved list. But even if it were, you're talking about a kit that adds up to $293, and per the description, the speed is up to 560 MB/s, which realistically never happens or it does when the SSD is brand new and very empty.

The Samsung T7 Shield 4 TB is $300, and is advertised at 1050 MB/s, but it's a bit less than that, and because I've been filling it up for months and it only has 57.6 GB of free space. Still, it's really fast:


So, why would I buy a Crucial internal SSD with some $13 enclosure I never heard of and have with luck, about 450 MB/s when for $7 more I can have the Samsung which is not a kit, and it's twice as fast?

I've used this enclosure in my Pocket 6k since 2020 with no problems. If I need more space, I just buy another drive. That's it.

With the Samsungs the drives lack sustained write speed, so all of that advertised space is for nothing. Samsung doesn't get Q0 speeds. This set up does. How do I know? I've tested it.

When you buy a Samsung external drive, if something goes wrong, you have to replace the entire drive. Good luck with getting your data off. With an enclosure if something goes wrong, replace the enclosure.