Yesterday, Blackmagic Design held court at the Wyndham New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan for its annual ‘meet the press day,’ where it showcased its award winning color correcting fire power with Davinci Resolve stations galore, and unleashed its highly anticipated new not so pint sized 4K juggernaut camera, theUrsa Mini.
Photo by Jennie M. Bourne
Weighing in at around five and a half pounds unloaded, the Ursa MIni, (or Mini Ursa, depending on who you ask) boasts a 4.6K Super 35 image sensor with a global shutter and a whopping 15 stops of dynamic range. The sleek, magnesium body with an optional grip relocation kit (as demoed) feels natural with the flow of the body and fitting form factor is much more useable than its big brother, The Ursa (or Ursa Major, depending on who you ask). The 5 inch fold out 1080 HD touch screen is very attractive, and not near as intimidating as the 10 inch on the sibling Ursa. Judging on the cosmetic appearance of the demo model, which clearly had some use, it would be wise to be cautiously optimistic about the impact that this camera will have on the cinema market when it hits the shore in the next two months.
To round out the camera showcase, which also featured Blackmagic’s regular staples, the Cinema Camera, Studio Camera, and Pocket Cinema, was the new revolutionary Micro Cinema Camera. Featuring a Super 16 sensor in full 1080 HD resolution with 13 stops of dynamic range and global shutter, this camera sports a micro four thirds mount, and is powered simply by a Canon LPE-6 battery. It’s regarded as the smallest digital cinema camera on the planet, and arguably with its built in Pro-Res and Raw recorder, will become one of the hot sellers this fall when it hits the shelves, not unlike its sibling the Pocket Cinema Camera.
With overly competitive price points and flavors that Blackmagic Design is unleashing onto the filmmaking community this fall, it’s safe to say that they have found their niche market for quality tools for the everyday film maker, let’s just hope that they live up to their hype after the honeymoon phase is over.
Pre-Order the Blackmagic Design Ursa Mininow.
