At the NAB Show in April 2012, Blackmagic Design announced and demonstrated the Cinema Camera and slated for its release on July with an initial price of US$2,995. However, in August, the release date was delayed for "final stages of Thunderbolt certification and internal testing". A passive Micro Four Thirds model was then announced at IBCin September for release in December, along with a collaboration with Arri for a set of kits exclusively for the camera. Alongside the announcement of the Pocket Cinema Camera and Production Camera 4K at NAB in April 2013, the price was dropped from its initial to US$1,995 on August. It was then given an Arri PL model, as well as the Production Camera 4K, on September 2014. On October, a firmware update allowed the cameras to format solid-state drives within the camera. In March 2015, another update added lossless raw capability. At the NAB Show in April 2018, Blackmagic Design announced and demonstrated the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K at a price of $1,295 USD. In August 2019, Blackmagic Design released the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6k with a Super 35camera sensor and EF mount for $2,495 USD.
Design
Specifications and hardware
The Cinema Camera can be bought in Canon EF, MFT and Arri PL models, although the EF is the only model native to the Carl Zeiss ZE mount. All models include DaVinci Resolve with purchase. The camera is and weighs and the TRS, phone connector, LANC, Thunderbolt and SDI ports are on the right side, while the slot for solid-state drives are on the right. The device also offers 13 stops of dynamic range through every shot. The Camera has a 5" 800x480 LCDtouchscreen display and dedicated buttons that can play and pause, stop, skip, focus and record media, access the menu and to power on the device. It can record raw, CinemaDNG, Apple ProRes and Avid DNxHD onto 2.5K and 1080p resolutions, as well as lossless 2.5K raw, in 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97 and 30 fps.
Software
The device runs on a proprietary software called Camera Utility, which mainly powers the interface and system. However, unlike most systems which update through firmware over the air, updates to the software must be done on a computer through USB and are obtained through Blackmagic's Support Center. Files shot through the camera can be viewed individually and metadata, such as shot, scene and take numbers, can be assigned to each one. The SSD can also be internally formatted, instead of manually removing it and formatting on another platform, into exFAT and HFS+.
