Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K helps explore the microscopic world

Protist Lab Films has paired a Conception Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K with a microscope to sample images of protist organisms, one of the smallest living things on the planet.

Fabian Weston, a former lab technician and sound engineer, is the director of Protist Lab Films. Having worked for 25 years as a sound technician and music producer alongside some of Australia’s leading musicians and colleagues, Weston decided to return to his passion for microscopy and the fascinating creatures it reveals. It was then that Weston decided to set up Protist Lab Films equipped with only a microscope and his phone camera. However, the quality was not good enough.

Fortunately, during his career in the music and entertainment industry, he became familiar with Conception Blackmagic products: “I was familiar with Blackmagic Design from when I was working on live stream audio mixing at the Sydney jazz club The Basement some years back. We used to do live streams of shows from the production studio one floor above the venue straight to YouTube. It was all run with Blackmagic, the cameras in the venue and switchers upstairs, and via a MADI connection for a separate live audio mix in the studio,” explains Weston.

When a close friend recommended the brand, Weston began to consider the range of options on offer and soon realised that the Melbourne-based company’s products could be a great partner for his microscope projects.

Pocket Cinema Camera 6K and DaVinci Resolve

Since early 2022, Weston has been using the Caméra de cinéma de poche 6K model to film the amazing world of these tiny creatures. Thanks to the camera’s compatibility with different types of high-quality microscope lenses, he was able to connect his microscope directly to the unit. Once the images have been captured in Blackmagic RAW format, the footage is edited and graded in DaVinci résoudre. As a final touch, using his musical talents, Weston creates a soundtrack for some of the footage before uploading it to the Protist Lab Films YouTube channel: “It’s an unbroken end to end process, and it’s just great to work within the single domain. Plus, the tech support is lightning fast. Blackmagic Design has definitely made the whole workflow very easy and smooth,” says Weston.

Weston’s recorded material has already caused a sensation. In 2021, he won Nikon’s Small World in Motion competition by documenting protist organisms living in the gut of Australian termites.

“Very few people are making music from scratch and putting it to footage of microscopic organisms, so what I’ve been able to achieve so far is something that is both unique and engaging. I’m a big fan of Blackmagic Design’s philosophy and industry focus, and I’m sure people like me will continue to use its gear for new and wonderful projects in the future too,” concludes Weston.