Seeming like they skipped a year, Blackmagic Design stole the show at NAB 2015, which kicked off today with their press conference (and a few strung spoiler banners the night before), announcing new cameras that aim to be as revolutionary as their Pocket Cinema Camera and their flagship wedge thingie you couldn’t hand-hold. Countless blog posts/Tweets/Facebook posts have reported on the basic specs already; and now, away from that frenzy of the convention floor, it’s time to process it all. In no particular order, this write-up tries to fill the gaps (not wasting your time with what’s already been said, at the usual bigger sources).
THERE’S NO DISPLAY ON THE MICRO CAMERAS
Gotta start with this: I hope everyone realizes, the Micro cams do not have any integrated display! I’ve seen a ton of coverage today, but the issue never came up (as an “obvious” matter, yet still). It’s no small thing, because the Micro Cinema and Studio cameras are getting launched with presumptions about you: that you’ve already got an external monitor to hook in, and/or you’ve got a switcher/wireless transmitter to feed the camera signal somewhere else for monitoring/recording. The Micro Cinema Camera records internally to SD card media, while the Micro Studio Camera doesn’t — yet the lowest common denominator is that you still need a monitor/viewfinder: to pull focus, frame your shot, adjust exposure, etc. How will this play out during a shoot? Well, I’ve got an Atomos Shogun, and I could see myself temporarily plugging it into the Micro Cinema Camera to get everything set at a B-camera location, then re-mount the Shogun onto my A-camera before everything starts rolling. Or, I could pair the Shogun with the Micro Studio Camera on a brushless motorized gimbal stabilizer. But I could also see myself being in too much of a hurry for all that, and resorting to my trusty old Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera which is an all-in-one solution. It depends. But these new Micro cams aren’t out-of-the-box ready for shooting, that’s for sure.
IT’S UNCLEAR HOW THE NEW MICRO SENSORS WILL PERFORM
Blackmagic has conversationally alluded to the Micro Cinema sensor being a little better than the Pocket Cinema sensor. The big difference is adding global shutter, which eliminates a jello effect during shaky motion, at frame rates up to 30p. But the old and new sensors are spec’ed at the same dynamic range of 13 stops, which implies that low-light sensitivity won’t be much improved. And when we’re talking about the Micro Studio sensor, since it shoots in Ultra-HD, you’ve gotta think there are compromises by jamming more resolution into a sensor that’s just one-half millimeter wider than the Pocket/Micro Cinema Camera’s Super 16mm sensor. As I understand things, Blackmagic has previously offered 4K resolution in a Super 35mm sensor size (the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K, and the original URSA), and could only manage a natural ISO of 400 — after that, the rest is noise. Ultra-HD squeezed into the Micro sensor will be even less low-light sensitive at a natural ISO of merely 200. And what about aliasing artifacts when down-sampling to 1080p? Am I missing something?
BLACKMAGIC IS GETTING EXPENSIVE, AND YOU’VE GOTTA “RED-UP” TO GET THE URSA MINI ROLLING
When I say RED-up, most of you know what I mean. After all their testosterone about starting an indie revolution, RED cameras cost more than double the body price (not even talking about lenses yet) when you factor in media costs, batteries, necessary adapters, proprietary accessories and so on. The RED-ification of Blackmagic is underway with this sorta pricey URSA Mini, though you’ll still hear their talking point that it’s “modular.” Firstly, unlike, say, the PXW-FS7, you have to buy a $1.5k viewfinder to fulfill the whole point of the URSA Mini’s form factor — not so on the Sony. As for getting power (which is kinda necessary), you get nothing out-of-the-box other than a DC power input. If you want to mount a VLock battery, you’re out another hundred bucks. Next, just to mount the camera on your shoulder, you’ll need to buy a shoulder kit for four hundred bucks — and while you get a top handle too, there’s no mention of the extender that Blackmagic themselves said is included, necessary to finish off shoulder mounting with the original handgrip in its right place. We’re up to $7k at a minimum (you want that new 4.6k sensor, thinking of the negative reviews on last year’s 400 ISO URSA 4k sensor being re-purposed for the cheapest Mini now); and that’s before getting overpriced, mandatory CFast 2.0 cards which cost about $1k for 256gb of media (pretty limited space for high-bitrate UHD capture). From my perspective, it’s $10k for a minimum shooting package. Sure, that’s cheaper than what Canon and RED offer, but it ain’t no indie revolution. Blackmagic is getting expensive.
LENSES ON THE EF-MOUNT URSA MINI WILL BE COMPROMISED
Blackmagic went with the Canon EF lens mount on their new URSA Mini (PL too, if you’re in that rare elite class of five-digit lenses), rather than Micro Four Thirds. Filmmaking “professionals” are trigger-happy with the notion that auto-focus is evil, but sometimes it helps in a pinch (documentary running-and-gunning, flying on gimbals, etc.). Blackmagic has never accommodated auto-focus, and probably never will — the URSA Mini is no exception. Also, most Canon EF-mount lenses require electronic aperture control (or bust), and while that’s in the URSA Mini specs, it’s no sure thing. Lens incompatibilities with non-Canon bodies are notorious (ask Metabones), and no one ever mentions the image stabilization factor which doesn’t go away just because you mount a camera on your shoulder: and, to the extent a Canon lens actually offers I.S., compatibility with the URSA Mini is a lens-by-lens question. I would have preferred an active Micro Four Thirds mount, like Blackmagic uses on their Pocket and Micro Cinema Cameras, but those lenses aren’t big enough to cover the URSA Mini’s Super 35mm sensor. And hell will freeze over before anyone other than Sony uses E-mount. Basically, we can expect to see lots of shaky footage with shallow focus hunting on the URSA Mini, because of this lens format compromise.
CONCLUSION (FOR NOW)
Does this all sound negative? Embarrassed disclosure: I leapt today the first chance I could, and pre-ordered all three. I see myself deprecating my beloved low-light workhorse A-cam at last, the Sony NEX-FS100, with this new URSA Mini whenever it arrives (not holding my breath for July). And, adding a second camera location with a matching look, I’ll plunk down a Micro Cinema Camera (maybe pairing it with the auxiliary new Video Assist monitor). And when I’m Steadicam-ing around with my CAME-TV 7800 gimbal, I’ll mount a Micro Studio Camera there for UHD capture, with my Atomos Shogun strapped to the top bar as usual for monitoring and recording. That said, all these issues bum me out. It was a good day for NAB razzle-dazzle, an OK day for indie filmmakers, and a bad day for bank accounts.
PRE-ORDER ROUND-UP
Blackmagic URSA Mini 4.6k Cinema Camera (EF-mount) ($4,995 delivered end of July 2015)
Blackmagic URSA Mini 4k Cinema Camera (EF-mount) ($2,995 delivered end of July 2015)
Blackmagic URSA Viewfinder
Blackmagic URSA Mini Shoulder Kit
Blackmagic URSA Mini V-Lock Battery Plate
Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera ($995 delivered mid-July 2015)
Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K ($1295 delivered mid-July 2015)
Blackmagic Video Assist monitor/recorder ($495 delivered mid-July 2015)
BLACKMAGIC CINEMA CAMERA USER GROUP
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The URSA Mini and Sony FS7 are really comparable cameras when it comes down to it (including price). I purchased the FS7 and after media costs and an additional battery and case, I ended up spending about $10,000 which is what any real user will end up spending on the Ursa Mini as you said. However – the FS7 viewfinder, media, and batteries are all proprietary. I think blackmagic is doing the right thing making their system modular and “a la carte”. And remember the price of CFast 2.0 cards last year when the original Ursa came out? The prices are half what they were and are getting better.
Lots to agree on. “Proprietary” is sort of hard to define, and very relative, I suppose – by going with Canon EF mount, the URSA Mini may suffer from that format’s compatibility quirks and smaller feature set (e.g., no auto-focus and poorer image stabilization compared to your FS7, for those occasional situations when they would come in handy running-and-gunning). Regarding CFast 2.0, I have no optimism at all about market forces swinging it down to Earth orbit – until there’s a marketplace full of consumer devices like point-and-shoots or even GoPros using CFast 2.0 media, we won’t see the same competitive pressure exampled by the SDXC and even Compact Flash legacy. The market is extremely small for CFast 2.0 in market terms, even if the convention floor looks packed! The manufacturers have a comfortable road ahead of fat profit margins there. As you say, the FS7 is great, and if you’ve got anything to share, look forward to seeing it (via http://www.focuspulling.com/blog/fs7).
Sorry about the late discussion addition but I just found this blog through the wonderful youtube videos.
While I agree the price range for the mini is high and I agree from later posts “pro-price creep” is real. I can’t help but feel very excited for the camera. There is no way I am paying that much but as it hits upon everything I could want in a camera currently, I pine anyway. Years of buying cameras that failed on some points and not others was the name of the game and learning to live and work around them was part of the fun, I suppose. It’s all about balancing that mass market price point in a competitive market. If it had everything, what would they make next year and how much would that actually cost to make?
The idea of “RED”, which was lost as they missed deadlines and had to quickly make a profit, was a camera that could grow with you and grow as technology gets better and cheaper. I compare Red to Tesla in some ways. They cracked a hard market to penetrate and started with the high-end. I always assumed they would eventually make affordable mass market cameras with the technology they progressed. You can get a scarlet “brain” for a grand now but that still a chunk of money for yesterday’s tech that won’t do much with just a brain.
Blackmagic on the other hand has dropped their prices on their products to make them more affordable when they can. The Blackmagic Cinema was originally 3k and now 2k for the MFT and EF. Hopefully it happens for the URSA Mini. Now you said “you have to buy a $1.5k viewfinder” is that true or could I use what I already have like any video monitor and use that instead? I hope that latter is the case and you can bring your old toys to the party because that makes collecting more fun. As proprietary is the devil of discarded hardware.
Sadly, we are talking about this even as the grand finale of the URSA Mini line still isn’t out yet, many months later. Considering that the 4K URSA Mini is merely three-fifths the cost of the 4.6K URSA Mini, all eyes will be on the 4.6K sensor’s practical superiority. For some folks who light up sets/studios anyway, perhaps the less light-sensitive 4K model at $3k is adequate with all the other URSA Mini benefits (and that 0.6K extra cannot possibly be dispositive).
I really appreciate the Blackmagic attitude and philosophy; though I also think they you are seeing some cross-subsidization from their profitable line of on-set production gear which empowers them to sell cameras at friendly prices. RED just makes cameras, and dramatically overpriced matching accessories, but doesn’t create anything besides those camera packages to stimulate an ecosystem of overall health like Blackmagic. Yet I fear for their future as ironically the big giants, stubborn at first to accept the sophistication of indie filmmakers, have finally been catching up to Blackmagic’s innovations.
Regarding the viewfinder, you certainly don’t need it if you’re comfortable looking at the oversized flip-out LCD screen. But it’s an investment that can port to future cameras too as it takes from its SDI inputs any source (with nuanced exceptions).
Thanks for your comments; let’s hope for more options down the road that do exactly what you want!