A Coming Experiment - Blackmagic Design 6K / G2 Camera

I bought into Canon’s C300 video camera when it came out. It is a lovely product and has a Super 35mm Sensor and uses all my existing Canon lenses. It shoots wonderful 2K video and cost a lot of money. As much as I like it, I have never gotten enough out of it to return the investment made. So it goes.

Consequently, I have been reluctant to get a newer video camera. I have a few DSLRs that are now five years old or so that shoot video, but only one shoots 4K and does so in a very goofy format. My tests with it were underwhelming, but as a stills camera it has been my primary body since I got it.

Still I did want to get a proper video camera capable of both DCI 4K and UHD 4K. Blackmagic Design has their 4K Cinema Camera but my issue with it is that I would need to buy new glass for it as it uses the M4/3 type lenses.

Over the holidays, I learned about two new cameras from Blackmagic Design, one less new and one very recently released. The 6K / G2 has the functionality of the 6K Pro other than the built in ND filters and the brighter LCD. A sunshade is inexpensive and I already have a full set of pro grade ND filters for my Canon EF glass. Which is very handy because the 6K /G2 takes Canon EF lenses directly.

I started looking around and discovered one on Amazon located here in Canada that was selling for far below every other retailer. I did some research and found that this seller sells many legitimate products below MAP and also made certain that the sale was fulfilled by Amazon Canada, so all of Amazon’s buyer protection features would apply.

So I bought it, and have received notice that it has shipped and should arrive the week of January 9th 2023. My good friend and cohost Fernando from KelbyONE CommunityLIVE! owns the 6K Pro and was positive about the camera. We both like that it can be remotely controlled over HDMI from the Blackmagic ATEM controllers that we both own.

Rather than just repeat the specs that are well documented on the Blackmagic Design web site, I will wait until I have some hands-on real world work done before a formal review, but there are some things that I do like about the products as generalizations.

I use DaVinci Resolve Studio for all my video editing work. The camera comes with a license for this software, so no additional software costs. It can read and write to both CFAST 2.0 and UHS-II SD cards. It can also write directly to a USB-C SSD drive like the Samsung Shield T7. It has the same size Super 35 sensor as my existing Canon C300. It uses all my existing Canon EF lenses. It is powered by AC or by the standard NP-570 batteries available widely and does not require me to buy Blackmagic branded batteries because of annoying lock out chips. I can also use it as a streaming source camera.

Plainly, the proof will be in the real world work.

The camera has arrived, the battery is now charged, I have the CFAST card and SDXC cards loaded and prepped a Samsung T7 Shield for direct SSD connection. I’ve decided to start with my 16-35 /2.8 L lens and see what I can do.

Thanks as always for reading! You can support the channel by using our link if you shop with B&H Photo Video. Until next time, peace.