NAB 2013: Blackmagic shows Pocket Cinema Camera
April 8, 2013

NAB 2013: Blackmagic shows Pocket Cinema Camera

LAS VEGAS — Blackmagic Design introduced the Pocket Cinema Camera at NAB on Monday. The pocket-sized digital cinema camera features a Super 16mm sized 1080HD sensor, 13 stops of dynamic range, a built-in SD card recorder for Apple ProRes, lossless compressed CinemaDNG RAW capture capabilities and an active Micro Four Thirds lens mount.

Priced at $995 and anticipated for release this summer, the Pocket Cinema Camera can shoot imagery with the look of feature film. It includes many of the same features found in its big brother, the Cinema Camera, but in a dramatically smaller size that is less than an inch thick. Its compact design allows the Pocket Cinema Camera to be used in situations where a larger camera would not be practical. 

The Pocket Cinema Camera features a Super 16 sensor size and works well with Super 16 cine lenses via MFT adapters. The 13 stops of dynamic range is almost identical to shooting on a professional Super 16 film camera. The Micro Four Thirds lenses offer a wide range of low-cost lenses with high image quality, and are compatible with mount adapters such as PL mounts for large lens and professional motion picture film rigs.

To eliminate the damage that low bit depth and high compression video storage creates, the Pocket Cinema Camera includes an easy to use SD card recorder that allows the full sensor dynamic range to be recorded in professional ProRes 422 (HQ) format, as well as 12 bit Log RAW lossless compressed CinemaDNG format. These files can be read by high-end video software as they are all open standard. In addition to the regular CinemaDNG RAW format, Blackmagic Design will also be implementing a QuickTime wrapper for the open standard CinemaDNG and companion codec, allowing the camera to record in a format that allows RAW editing in popular editing software.

Blackmagic sees the Pocket Cinema Camera as the perfect companion to editing software such as Final Cut Pro X and Avid Media Composer. A large, built-in LCD display makes focus easy, and allows playback of captured files. A stereo microphone is built in. The camera supports 1080HD resolution capture in 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97 and 30 fps. Footage is compatible with DaVinci Resolve Lite color grading software.