Blackmagic Introduces its First Ever Full-Frame 6K Cinema Camera
News | By Stephan Jukic | September 15, 2023
Ahead of the IBC 2023 Show in Amsterdam, Blackmagic Design announced a range of new products, but the most notable is its new camera.
This new device is called the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K and it’s a departure from this brand’s usual shooting technology.
The Blackmagic 6K has an L-mount and is the company’s first-ever full-frame cinematic camera, aimed at “Introducing a new generation in cinematography,” according to the company.
To achieve this lofty goal, the new camera comes packed with advanced cinematic technology in a compact package.
Blackmagic Design is framing it as a device that dramatically redesigns the direction of products at this highly-regarded video tech company.
Thus, while the Blackmagic 6K may look like many of the brand’s other Pocket Cinema Cameras, inside it’s quite a bit more.
The most obvious design features of the new camera are its full-frame sensor and its L-Mount for lenses. These are entirely new for Blackmagic Design.
Moving beyond these broad innovations, the camera packs in excellent performance specs.
Its 6K image sensor is 3.6 x 2.4cm across and delivers a native resolution of 6,048 x 4,032 pixels. This by the way is three times the size of what a Super 35 image sensor can manage.
According to Blackmagic Design, the new, much larger sensor design lets the camera capture video with a much more cinematic look thanks to a shallower depth of field. It also offers a native ISO of 25,600 for excellent low-light shooting, along with 13 stops of dynamic range.
As Blackmagic Design’s own press release states,
“The new Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K is an extremely high-end digital film camera that produces precise skin tones and rich organic colors. The camera features a massive full-frame 24 x 36mm 6K sensor with wide dynamic range, a very flexible L-Mount for lenses, and a built-in optical low pass filter that’s custom-designed to match the sensor,”
For video recording, the 6K is quite robust, being able to shoot video in a full 3:2 aspect ratio that covers the shape of its whole sensor and can also handle true 6:5 anamorphic shooting crop-free.
This is an improvement from the more common 21:9 and 16:9 aspect ratios of other cameras and allows for more flexible shooting, post-production editing and video scope.
At its full native 6K resolution, the new Blackmagic camera can work at 36fps but can be slowed down to 24fps. Or users can take shooting all the way up to 120p if using the 6K’s windowed option.
With the Blackmagic 6K, users can also work with other resolutions and shooting speeds for different workflows and storage capacities.
Thus, aside from the above-mentioned 36 fps at 6048 x 4032 3:2 open gate, the camera can handle 60 fps at 6048 x 2520 in 2.4:1 or 60 fps at 4096 x 2160 4K DCI. These however are just its ultra HD resolutions.
The Blackmagic 6K can also deliver video at 100fps with 2112 x 1184 resolution Super 16 video or true anamorphic 6:5 at above-average resolutions through anamorphic lenses. These shooting resolutions include 4.8K 4838 x 4032 at 24fps or even. 120 fps in 1080P.
Thanks to the new L-Mount in the Blackmagic 6K, users can work with native full-frame lenses from other premium brands like Leica, Sigma and Panasonic.
However, for a whole range of other lens types, the 6K also works as long as adapters are used. This includes optics for smaller sensors.
As Blackmagic Design CEO Grant Petty explains in the brand’s PR release, “The L-Mount also opens up some amazing creative options like using the latest Leica lenses or using vintage lenses customers already own in an entirely new way.”
For handling all the diverse video resolutions that the Blackmagic 6K is capable of, users can use a built-in CFexpress card recorder and a USB-C port for direct transfer to external media.
Internally though, the camera can also manage 12-bit Blackmagic RAW files. It also comes with an HDMI connector, a USB-C expansion port and independent ports for both microphone and headphones.
Build-wise, the new camera is fairly compact and surprisingly light considering all its specs and tech. This is partly because it’s built from lightweight carbon fiber polycarbonate composite and has been specifically designed for easy handheld use.
The new camera also comes with an adjustable 5-inch LCD screen and a large, control button-filled front grip.
Finally, the price of the new Pocket Cinema Camera isn’t bad at all considering all of its performance metrics and the brand name behind it.
In fact, it’s probably the most affordable full-frame cinema camera on the market right now at $2,595. You can order it already.
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Stephan Jukic is a technology and photography journalist and experimental photographer who spends his time living in both Canada and Mexico. He loves cross-cultural street photo exploration and creating fine art photo compositions.
