Thoughts (and hopes) on the Blackmagic pocket cinema camera. By: JosephBarrett

Hey guys! I wanted to talk about Blackmagic Designs newest addition to its family of cameras. "The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera". First, lets go over some technical specs... The camera uses a mirrorless super 16 sensor to shoot Lossless Cinema RAW and Apple ProRes 42 High def video at an effective definition of 1920 x 1080p (which is absolutely amazing for a camera that fits in your palm) and with 13 stops of dynamic range.  As far as glass, It has an active MFT (Micro four thirds) mount. Micro four thirds aren't exactly a common consumer lens to my knowledge, but there are plenty adapters so you can use your own glass on the mount if you own something like Canon or Nikon lenses . It has an integrated microphone, although it is recommended you use a high quality external microphone (As early reports suggest the internal microphones quality isn't amazing...

The first thing you might ask about this camera is. What does RAW mean? Unlike ucompressed video, Raw footage is the pure data out of the image sensor which, until run through a program like "RedCine-X" or "Adobe Camera Raw" wont look like anything, whereas most cameras process this into a usable image for you. You'll get high quality files but they wont look right at first. The white balance will look odd and there wont be set color temperature at which point you can bring your footage into a program like Blackmagics Davinci Resolve and color correct to get beautiful, full detail, cinematic looking footage as seen in the images below from Blackmagic designs website.

Raw Wide dynamic range. 

Final Color graded shot.

As far as actual design goes, you would never guess this little thing could produce video like this. It looks like a little power shot or something at first glance. But the camera body is supposedly nice and rugged with a full metal shell, convenient removable battery, good array of ports (micro HDMI, Stereo audio input and output, LANC, and 12v  direct power) and standard tripod mount.

I can only speak from what I've read but; The convenience of this camera is just beautiful. It would be perfect for a documentarian. Its active mount means autofocus capabilities and you being able to adapt to whats going on quickly. At first I was a bit dismayed to see it had a mount I had never heard of but with a little research I found MFT lenses can be obtained at some very reasonable price ranges.  I was also very pleased to hear that this thing records right to a standard SD card. I heard that the compatibility is limited though so check the Blackmagic website to see if your cards are compatible. (SanDisk Extreme or ExtremePro recomended)

Overall first thoughts; I REALLY want to pick one of these cameras up. In a price range of $1000, its really quite attainable for someone who wants to up the quality of their footage from a standard DSLR or basic camcorder. The progression in technology for these cameras over the past few years has been incredible to watch and this is just the latest in a line that im sure will keep progressing and improving. And Im exited for it. Boom. First entry. Yours truly -Joseph Barrett.

*UPDATE*

This is a little blurb about MFT lenses from 

my friend; Remsen Allard:

*Just some background on micro four thirds lenses, they were pretty much the standard lens for old 16mm film cameras back in the day. So although they aren't around as much anymore, they used to be the creme of the crop. (Some professional film cameras use them.)