I’m currently reviewing the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 6K G2 for Digital Camera World and it’s been an eye-opening experience. It’s reminded me that not every videographer is a vlogger.
So right now there’s a big tendency to rate video cameras according to their stabilization and AF systems. This is where most of the differences are and where most of the advances are being made, so it’s probably natural for reviewers and buyers to home in on these as key points of difference.
These features matter a lot to vloggers, and a lot of independent reviewers are by the very nature of their publishing channels, i.e. social and YouTube, vloggers and solo shooters.
If you are a vlogger, you are probably also a solo shooter, so face tracking, eye AF and flip-around screens are going to be crucial because you probably do your own presenting too. And if you like run and gun style shooting as part of your style, then stabilization will be a key factor too – though I do have some opinions about stablization too.
There are other filmmaking styles too
But vlogging is only one type of filmmaking. Commercial videographers and filmmakers are just as likely to be working from a tripod and operating the camera themselves to film others in a more controlled environment. Here, stabilization doesn’t matter and focusing will typically be under manual control anyway.
So a camera like the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 6K G2, with no stabilization and no continuous AF, might look impossibly primitive to a vlogger or a mirrorless camera user, but it meets the needs of a different set of filmmakers that just doesn’t happen to be quite as vocal!
I’m used to using mirrorless cameras, action cameras and even 360 cameras for video, but not cinema cameras – and while the 6K G2 is not exactly a high-end cinema camera, it is aimed squarely at these users. And using it has been a bit of an epiphany.
What I’ve realized from using this camera
First, the 5-inch screen. At last – a video camera with a proper screen! It makes your scene easier to see, obviously, but it also makes the interface much easier to see and to operate with touch control. It also gives the various focus aids and information displays room to breath.
Ah yes, the interface. Dear mirrorless camera makers, this is how it should be done. Blackmagic presents it file format, quality and frame rate options in a clearly laid out grid of buttons big enough that they’re hard to miss, even with a lazy stab of your finger.
What else do I like? It works via shutter angles, not shutter speeds, so that once you’ve set your frame rate you’ll probably default to the regular 180-degree shutter angle, which means your exposure control is just via the iris setting and the ISO.
And I like that. Shooting video is complex enough, so something that removes one of the variables suits me fine. It’s also a reminder to get some ND filters, or a variable ND, as this model doesn’t have them built in. You’ll need this to shoot in bright light without super-fast shutter speeds (or very narrow shutter angles) – these can make your footage look ‘brittle’ (there must be a better word).
Shooting with the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 6K G2 has made me stop, think and take some care over my video, the composition, the exposure and the point of focus. Which is probably what proper filmmakers do, right?