Blackmagic's new $1,295 compact shoots 4K RAW movies

The Pocket Cinema Camera 4K is now the cheapest 4K RAW camera by far.

As it teased, Blackmagic Design has unveiled a 4K version of its popular portable RAW camera at NAB 2018. The Pocket Cinema Camera 4K packs a full-size, dual native ISO Micro Four Thirds sensor and can internally record 4K HDR RAW at 4,096 x 2,160 and 60 fps in 12-bit RAW or 10-bit ProRes. Best of all, it costs $1,295, nearly half the price of Panasonic's video-oriented GH5s, making it the cheapest 4K RAW camera available by a long ways.

The Pocket Cinema Camera 4K (let's call it the BMPCC 4K) sports an all-new body that's lot more modern than the original. It's built using carbon-fiber, rather than metal, which makes it lighter, Blackmagic Design said. It's also got a bigger grip and a larger array of physical dials and buttons for recording, ISO, shutter, aperture, white balance and other features. Most of those things were controlled from the rear display before, so the new model should handle much better.

The original BMPCC had a Micro Four Thirds mount but used a reduced-size sensor. Luckily, the BMPCC 4K has a full-sized Micro Four Thirds sensor with native DCI 4K (4,096 x 2,160) resolution and 13 stops of dynamic range. Much like with Panasonic's GH5s, it uses the full sensor width to maximize the field of view, and dual native ISO with a top ISO setting of 25,600 for better low-light performance. It has autofocus with compatible lenses, but no in-body stabilization -- something that's not a deal-breaker for the BMPCC 4K's filmmaker market.