Canon Announces the R1 and the Crowd Goes WILD

It’s been rumored that during the “Olympics year” that the fine folks at Canon would announce its flagship mirrorless camera body. Granted, some of us thought it would have been announced sooner, but instead we ended up getting the R3*. Not that the R3 isn’t a great camera body, but it didn’t quite sit in the usual branding and SKU of Canon being a “flagship.” With this announcement, what are we as consumers and pro-sumers expecting to get win an R1?

Image via Canon

What to expect in the R1

In Canon’s press release, the company spoke in generalities. But it’s safe to say, the body will be an upgrade over the existing R series camera bodies. Not necessarily in megapixels, but definitely in performance.

“This camera employs the newly developed image processor DIGIC Accelerator in addition to the pre-existing processor DIGIC X. The new image processing system, composed of these processors and a new CMOS sensor, enables large volume of data to be processed at high speeds and delivers never-before-seen advancements in Auto Focus (AF) and other functions.” - Canon

This says a lot considering how fast the current cameras are. I’ve not shot on an R3 as of yet, but the R5 and R5 C* that I own are ridiculously fast on capture and writing to my card. Not to mention the video capabilities. When the Canon R3 was announced, the lower megapixel count (24) wasn’t ideal for some portrait photographers, but the video capability of 6K 60fps and 4K 120fps makes videographers drool. I would assume this new body would have something close to that. At the very least, 4K 120fps for great slow motion action sports. And maybe 30 megapixels for image stills. Better yet, what about pricing? My guess would be $7000. Considering the last flagship (a DSLR) was roughly $6500 for the 1DX III. New tech, would probably cost a little more now a few years later. Right?

What are you thoughts? Interested in the new body? Happy with your current camera body? What are you shooting with these days and if you’re thinking of an upgrade, would it be to this or another camera body. Let me know.

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New G2 Blackmagic Design Pocket 6K Cinema Camera and Updates

VidCon is going on this week, so content creators are all hyped about new product announcements and potential new partnerships. Today, Blackmagic Design announced some updates to its pocket cinema camera family with the new Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2. Also known as the #bmpcc6k.

Image: Blackmagic Design

What’s New?

The Pocket 6K G2* has been redesigned to look very similar to that of the 6K Pro, while still allowing it to feel familiar to the original 6K that some of us own. The LCD is now a flip down/up version like the 6K Pro, additional mini XLR audio inputs, EF lens mount and the battery is now the NPF style of battery instead of the Canon LPE6 battery. Granted, you should probably invest in a better way to power the device with something like a FXLION* pack or a/c. You do not get internal ND filters on the G2, though. Makes sense. You’re still getting a great 6K super 35 image sensor with an alleged 13-stops of dynamic range. But you’re also getting an updated camera operating system (OS).

Image: Ant Pruitt

If you’re like me and running an existing #bmpcc, you can still update your camera OS by downloading the software from Blackmagic. It’s an easy process to update the camera, it’s just a bit slow.

Image: Ant Pruitt

The updated OS includes some useful features to go with the new UI and also unlocks gyroscope information. The gyroscope information will be be used in Davinci Resolve v18 to aid in image stabilization. The stabilizer in Resolve isn’t bad, but it’s nice to see that Blackmagic is working to make it even better. I’ve not installed the beta version of Davinci Resolve 18 yet. Granted, the features sound GREAT in it, but I’m just not mentally prepared to have beta software running on client work.

Image: Ant Pruitt

It’s nice seeing this camera get an update. The 6K is a very nice camera for the amount of money, but it’s not perfect. I’m looking forward to seeing the new OS as well as trying out the stabilization within Davinci Resolve whenever the production version is released. If you’re interested in getting started with Davinci Resolve, I created a quick tutorial to get you rolling. Watch it here. Get the 6K G2 for $1995 available today.

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