Here’s what will get tongues wagging about the new competitor for the cheapest 4K cinema camera.

-USB stick/drive recording
-4K log
-….. that’s all

For most people, there’s just general improvements, except the sideways move with the power adapter. You’ll note that no other company implements locking power, as this tends to lead to broken cameras when someone inevitably trips on the cord.

The second downside is the (once again) half arsed audio port. Most cords that we already have at full XLR, so why don’t we have a small port with a large adapter, with an even larger chord that’s very heavy? Hmmm… A lot of people that this was meant to be marketed to, will just use the 3.5mm jack with Rode’s pro mics.

Problematic crop, and high frame rates are not new to this company. There’s also some confusion on their compatibility with existing Metabones SpeedBoosters. My 0.58x Metabone SpeedBooster could work with lenses that weren’t wide, on a 2X cropped GH3, but this new camera is 1.9X. I’ve requested information on why their cameras crop in with high frame rates, but a 4X crop is quite ridiculous, though 120fps is nice.

The last point I’m going to make is that I have no idea what BlackMagic’s fascination with large, cumbersome screens is. The Ursa was the first, and most people still ran their own externals for many reasons, and here it’s even worse. They are targeting this to vloggers now, so this fandangle screen is not helpful with it fixed in place where it is. Some vloggers already deal with this issue, but they are using cameras that are not targeted at vloggers….. but this one is! (also still bad battery life, and sub par auto focus)

My thoughts in this camera? BlackMagic are a company that tries things that no other company doesn’t, and that’s because most companies have tested those ideas and realised how bad they are, and BlackMagic doesn’t learn from their examples. Is this camera worth it though?…..  It is cheaper than its closest competitor, the GH5, but be prepared for the nuanced workarounds that are inevitable with all BlackMagic cameras that we buy….. If it had a tiltly-flippy screen, I’d give a definite thumbs up for this price.