Design of a Digital Film Camera with Broadcast Camera ergonomics
BSVP On-Site host & video editor, Sue Lawson coverage of NAB 2017 with Blackmagic’s Simon Westland.
The Ursa Mini Pro it got released in March 2017 and has been moving out of the door pretty quickly. NAB now 2017 marks five years since they released their very first camera. So what they’re seeing now is the products of five years worth of learning and talking to customers and listening to what people want how they will use the camera.
So what you see now is the brand-new Ursa Mini Pro.
Ursa Mini Pro features the same 4.6K sensor It ships standard with an EF lens mount. But you can get a PL lens mount or a B4 lens mount to use the the broadcast lenses. Also now is showing for the first time is a Nikon mount for professional film cameras which is which is kind of interesting.
There’s so much Nikon glass around and people love the glass. Responding to feedback from customers, Blackmagic is showing the Ursa Mini with a Nikon mount at NAB for the first time.
Best of Both Worlds
What you see with Ursa Mini Pro is a lot more buttons, switches and a lot more controls.
A number of things they’ve done with this camera in terms of putting the access to some of the key features directly where your fingers would sit on the camera. So a lot about the design of the ergonomics of this camera that it is a digital film camera but it’s got broadcast camera ergonomics. You’re also getting the ergonomics and the features of a broadcast camera, especially when the studio viewfinder is added. It’s the best of both worlds.
The benefits of dynamic range when you need it, when you want it. You’re getting raw recording capability as well as the ProRes. Also on the front of this camera ND filters. Which some people have asked for over the last year or two. The camera has all the professional audio connections as well.
We’ve got the built-in screen. But of course we replicate a lot of those menu functions now directly in buttons on the camera itself. The great thing about the new Ursa Mini Pro is that as well as recording to cFast2 or SD card Blackmagic is also showing a new optional SSD dock. So you have the choice of what you record to. However, they can’t be different in terms of the format. You can still get your V-mount battery onto the back of this extension piece.
Bluetooth
This is the most versatile camera that Blackmagic has ever made. When they shipped the camera, there was a feature within the camera that nobody knew about. Blackmagic added Bluetooth to the camera. What’s really interesting about Bluetooth is, firstly they’ve developed an app for iOS. But they’re also going to release the source code for it and an API so that people can then develop their own camera control technologies using Bluetooth.
What’s great is that when the camera is positioned on a crane, a jib or in a different kind of rig, it’s hard to get access to the power, the menu or the controls. The app now gives the user control over white balance, frame speed, iris, shutter and presets. It’s shows timecode, card status and remaining recording time. You can trigger the camera to go into record. We can put metadata in there. The clip number, was it a good take, add some additional metadata tags that are going to stay with the file. All from an app let’s connect in via Bluetooth.
The Ursa Mini Pro is $5995 and is shipping right now.
It’s time to go ahead and upgrade and again Blackmagic keeps raising it every year on themselves.
For more information visit https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicursaminipro
Producer: Bruce Himmelblau
Host: Sue Lawson
Guest: Simon Wesland