I was told that a prominent Youtuber for a competing website was annoyed that a camera couldn’t record more than 10 minutes of video footage without killing the battery totally. When the engineers and product managers replied with, “Well, this camera is designed for stills,” I rolled my eyes. But it begs a deeper question: why do we demand so much video performance from stills cameras and not the reverse? After all, video and cinema cameras are more expensive and more complex in different ways. I know; for most of us, this sounds crazy. But it prompted me to ask Blackmagic to try their Blackmagic 6k FF for still photography. What ensued was quite an eye-opening review session.
Because of what this camera is, I’m not going to write a full review of it. But instead, it’s a mini review. Here are my pros and cons from the entire experience.
The Big Picture: Blackmagic 6K FF Review Conclusions
It goes without saying, the Blackmagic 6K FF was designed for video shooters first and foremost. But cameras like this also have features that may appeal to photographers with the addition of a stills-capture button, a huge screen, L-mount, and a full-frame sensor. It’s also very affordable for what it is. Truly though, this isn’t a stills camera. In fact, it can’t do what most photographers need to do at all. There isn’t even a full swathe of shutter speeds available for stills-capture. And perhaps most frustrating of all, it holds a single CFExpress card slot and requires you to get really specific about what cards to use.
In a world where manufacturers are trying to smush stills and video into one device, the Blackmagic 6K FF reminds me to lay deeply into m fervent belief that we need dedicated and separate devices. Trust, I miss the day of good handheld camcorders.
If you’re a photographer that wants to shoot stills, then stay away from the Blackmagic 6K FF.
Pros
- It feels like a DSLR, and I kind of missed having and working with cameras of this size
- Big giant LCD screen that is probably one of the best I’ve used
- Beautiful menu system, but it’s tough to navigate for photo-speak. Shutter angle is basically shutter speed
Cons
- Though it feels like a DSLR, it feels like a plasticky one
- No easy way to delete stuff or format the memory card
- The viewfinder makes the frame so much smaller and there isn’t a way to make it much larger
- No autofocus
- Only 24MP
- No weather resistance
- Single CFExpress card slot
- It’s easy to press the video button by accident
- You have to shoot to the SSD in order to record images.
- No hot shoe for a flash
- BRAW isn’t supported by Capture One
Let me be frank here, most of my time with the Blackmagic 6K FF was complete frustration. When I first took it out of the box, I admired the big giant screen and how detailed it is. This, perhaps more than anything, is something I believe manufacturers in the camera-world need to adopt. Plus, I can attach a viewfinder to it, but the viewfinder isn’t all that great.
I went around the world taking photos and saving them to my CFExpress card. Unfortunately, the two I used ended up not being supported or recommended. So eventually, I had no choice but to hook up an SSD to the Blackmagic 6K FF. And this is where the entire thing becomes so cumbersome. I didn’t feel confident taking this thing out for street photography, on photo shoots, for landscape photography, etc. Part of that comes with the fact that it isn’t weather resistant. When Blackmagic told me that it’s because it’s a video camera, I kind of scoffed.
In a parallel life, I’m sure I decided to stick with video journalism right out of college. And I doubt I’d use this camera for news gathering. Instead, I’d find the peak camera to be the older Sony VG-900. In all truth, I really wish Sony hadn’t killed this series.
Once we solved all the problems, I realized I had to edit the BRAW photo files in DaVinci Resolve Studio. That works much more like video editing software that I don’t miss. Sadly, I couldn’t edit in Capture One.
Look, all I’m saying is that the Blackmagic 6K FF could’ve and should’ve built out the photography features a bit more. They would’ve been a welcome addition to the photo world where the industry needs much more diversification.
Obviously, there’s a lot more that I could get into about the world of stills and video. But that’s all for other articles.