NAB ’12: The $3000 Blackmagic Cinema Camera does 2.5K RAW

by Sebastian WöberApril 17^th, 2012

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[Update]: Check out the footage that surfaced above. It shows a very filmic look and ok ISO performance at ISO 800: LINK

New cameras seem to pop up by the minute. Yesterday we saw the Canon 1DC, today Blackmagic Design presented their own version of an HDSLR camera and its specs are very, very intriguing. A 2.5K cinema camera that records RAW or compressed to an SSD drive.

Blackmagic on their “Cinema Camera”:
Some of the reasons why video cameras look like “video” is because they have limited contrast range, are limited to HD resolutions, use heavy compression for file recording, have poor quality lenses and of course they don’t integrate into NLE software with metadata management.
We decided to address these problems by developing a camera that provides feature film quality in an extremely compact portable design.

These are the highlights:
– 12 bit depth when recording cinemaDNG RAW (great for color correction!)
– EF and ZF compatible lens mount
– Writes MetaData to the files
– cinemaDNG, Avid DNxHD, Apple ProRes recording
– SSD drives (I like this. Great, fast storage device, unplug and edit on the disk)
– Sensor size allows use of 16mm glass
– LANC remote control
– Includes a free copy of DaVinci Resolve. (That’s nice, but Resolve Lite, made for HD is free anyway)
– 23.98p, 24p, 25p, 29.97p, 30p
– HD-SDI Port
– Peaking

This could be problematic:
– internal battery (runs for 1.5 hours. And what then?
– micro four thirds sensor (shallow depth of field look)
– double tap to zoom in and check focus. (Neat but won’t the camera be shaking from the tapping?)
– no hdmi

The “only” downside in terms of the specs seems to be its micro four thirds form factor sensor which is about in between 16mm and 35mm size and the lack of an exchangeable battery. The battery is included and holds about 2 hours of use. It’s possible to power the camera externally though.

It will come in July, cost $2999 and B&H is ready to take your pre-orders now:

For European orders get 5% off the Blackmagic Cinema Camera here.

We’re sponsored by B&H, the international reseller of filmmaking equipment we trust. With their commitment to their customers they have also made our NAB 2012 coverage possible. Please say thanks by clicking the B&H links on our site, so they will make more coverages and giveaways for you possible in the future. LINK