Blackmagic Design and Z CAM have announced new cinema cameras. While these announcements aren't related, the announcements do fall very close to one another. Both companies compete in similar markets so it's not surprising to see them makes announcments at the same time. Blackmagic and Z CAM showed off their new cameras at IBC in Amsterdam and CineD has posted interview videos.

If you’ve been paying attention to ZCAM then you probably noticed how quiet they’ve been for the past 6 months or so. Even Kinson Loo, the notorious CEO who often replies to questions in the Facebook group, was notably quiet during this time. Many people, including myself, assumed that they were secretly working away on some new product. Well, that’s exactly what they were doing. Z CAM has announced a new camera!

Today Blackmagic Design announced the release of a new camera. The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2 is essentially the same camera as the 6K Pro, minus the internal ND filters. It replaces the previous 6K model and still comes in at the same $1,995 USD price.

The long rumored Canon R5 C has finally been announced. At first glance it looks very much like the original R5 hybrid camera, but when you spin it around to the back it becomes obvious that some physical changes have been made. Most notable is the addition of a cooling fan behind the flip-out screen. This is a direct action to mitigate overheating issues. The R5 C can now record 8K60 non-stop. This means the artificial 30 minute record limit has been removed. It also adds a timecode connector and hot shoe support for XLR adapters. This places the R5 C somewhere between the R5 and C70.

Just when you think you’ve seen everything in the world of cameras, a company like DJI comes out with the Ronin 4D. If a gimbal and a camera had a baby it would look like the 4D. It's essentially a high quality cinema camera with a built-in gimbal. The gimbal portion sticks out from the main body of the camera providing stabilization. Not only do you get the standard roll, pan, and tilt stabilization, you also get z-axis stabilization with the addition of a Steadicam style arm. That's why it's called 4D, because it has a fourth axis of stabilization. Read the official news release: https://www.dji.com/newsroom/news/dji-ronin-4d

High Dynamic Range (HDR) is a great color space to work with. It allows for much greater saturation and luminance compared to the common standard dynamic range (SDR) Red.709 color space. Eventually you might need to upload your video on a platform that doesn’t support HDR. Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram currently don’t support HDR. That’s where the Flannel Ninja custom conversion LUT comes in handy.

RED Digital Cinema announced their next generation digital cinema camera, the V-RAPTOR. It boasts a large format 8K (8192 x 4320) 35.4 Megapixel CMOS sensor with numerous frame rate and resolution options up to 600 frames per second. Jarred Land, the president and co-owner of RED, had been teasing photos of the new camera over the last couple of days. The new V-RAPTOR camera follows the lizard naming scheme like the DRAGON and KOMODO cameras. Just like the KOMODO, the new V-RAPTOR has a Canon RF mount, 12G SDI outputs, wifi control, and a relatively compact size. It's currently available for pre-order and is expected to begin shipping in October 2021. It is available in a limited edition white ST (Storm Trooper) version directly from RED and other retailers. A black version is expected to follow shortly after, just as RED did with the KOMODO. The V-RAPTOR comes in at $24,500.00 for the base camera and $29,579.99 for the starter pack which includes the following.

• 1x V-RAPTOR ST 8K VV Camera System
• 1x DSMC3 RED Touch 7” LCD
• 1x RED PRO CFexpress 660GB
• 1x RED CFexpress Card Reader​
• 2x REDVOLT MICRO-V
• 1x RED Compact Dual V-Lock Charger
• 2x V-RAPTOR Wing Grip
• 1x RED EXT-to-Timecode Cable 3'

I've had the opportunity to spend some time with three of the best electronic view finders in what I consider the mid-tier. While they aren't exactly cheap, they also aren't crazy expensive. They are all quite comparable in features and size.

Sony has announced the release of the tiny FX3 cinema camera. It features unlimited 4K recording, 5 axis IBIS, 16 bit raw output over HDMI, multiple 1/4" 20 mounting points, and an included handle with dual XLR inputs. This camera has been popping up in a lot of rumors lately, and everything leaked about it seems to be true.

Blackmagic Design has announced a new variant of the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K, adding the word "Pro" to the end of an already long name. This new camera has the same 6144 x 3456 Super 35 sensor and EF lens mount as the previous 6K, but adds a number of new features. Coming in at just $2,495 USD, it delivers a lot of camera at an amazing price. Read the press release here.