Blackmagic Mini Ursa 4.6K New Footage looks darn good.

[John Brawley]

Are you sure about that? And that it's merely a coincidence that the Ursa camera line was unveiled shortly after the acquisition of Cintel (thus giving BM rights to the name)?

Yeah.

Ursa means Bear.

JB

 

[Eren Ozkural]

Lets not forget the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor (that's how I refer to the 2 camera models in my head).
I'm really excited by the imagery. All previous BM cameras were a no go for me. I like that they have 3:1 and 4:1 compressed raw, switchable global shutter, inexpensive media... a lot to like on these cameras. I've lugged around a lot of kit in my time so i'm not too concerned about the size.
The only thing keeping me from buying a couple is the question of reliability. By all accounts, they have been terrible in that department but I have hope that they're going to improve. Maybe with this generation of cameras or the next. the sooner the better for them.

Now it's easy for us all to tell them how to run their business, I admit I could be totally wrong, but if I were them i'd concentrate on one maybe two camera models MAX. They seem a little...scattershot with their releases.
Still, I'm rooting for them. If for nothing else they've been great at motivating other manufacturers in the sub £10K field to provide more features/quality.

 

[Hans von Sonntag]

Yeah.

Ursa means Bear.

JB

In Latin bear is in most cases ursus. However, if it is for some content reason a female bear its called ursa. Is a camera female? Probably...

--

I'm with M. Most that the BM cameras are probably named after the famous Rank telecine systems from the nineties. Remember well how we put ProMist filters in the scanner of the Ursas. You couldn't do that with the Spirit from BTS (I think) that became a very successful competitor to the Ursa Diamond. Wouldn't be surprised if the next generation BM cameras will be called Spirit.

Hans

 

[John Brawley]

In Latin bear is in most cases ursus. However, if it is for some content reason a female bear its called ursa. Is a camera female? Probably...

--

I'm with M. Most that the BM cameras are probably named after the famous Rank telecine systems from the nineties. Remember well how we put ProMist filters in the scanner of the Ursas. You couldn't do that with the Spirit from BTS (I think) that became a very successful competitor to the Ursa Diamond. Wouldn't be surprised if the next generation BM cameras will be called Spirit.

Hans

OK, I guess you know it all friend.

You could do filtration in the spirit, it just wasn't as effective being a diffuse light source, unlike the "flying spot" of the Cintel machines. And the new film scanner that Cintel / Blackmagic are now making also has the same diffuse light source, much nicer for hiding scratches. Inexplicably they didn't name it after a defunct telecine.

JB

 

[Brett Harrison]

What would John Brawley even know about BMD cameras. I mean seriously.

 

[Matthew Quinn]

I'm assuming that is sarcastic. after all he is a moderator on the BMD forum.

 

[Bob Gundu]

I'm assuming that is sarcastic. after all he is a moderator on the BMD forum.

Oh it's dripping with Sarcasm. If there's anyone who knows anything about BlackMagic, it's John.

 

[jake blackstone]

OK, I guess you know it all friend.

You could do filtration in the spirit, it just wasn't as effective being a diffuse light source, unlike the "flying spot" of the Cintel machines. And the new film scanner that Cintel / Blackmagic are now making also has the same diffuse light source, much nicer for hiding scratches. Inexplicably they didn't name it after a defunct telecine.

JB

To my knowledge, it was not practical to do a traditional filtration in Spirit scanner for one simple reason- Spirit utilized a Line Array - CCD for image scanning, which meant image had to be moving through that line array to create an image. Unlike with flying spot scanner CRT-type light source, where image was always "live", even when film was stationary and therefore RANK-type telecine could use standard type filters.

 

[M Most]

Yeah.

Ursa means Bear.

JB

Ursa means beer? No wonder an Aussie company chose that!

Oh........ sorry. You said BEAR.

Never mind.


Mike Most
On Location Services Director
Technicolor
Los Angeles, CA.

 

[John Brawley]

To my knowledge, it was not practical to do a traditional filtration in Spirit scanner for one simple reason- Spirit utilized a Line Array - CCD for image scanning, which meant image had to be moving through that line array to create an image. Unlike with flying spot scanner CRT-type light source, where image was always "live", even when film was stationary and therefore RANK-type telecine could use standard type filters.

Hey we're going way OT here but yeah you could use the filter tray on a spirit. It had one...From their data sheet....

"The optical system also includes
a filter drawer to allow the use of standard camera
filters for optical effects during scanning. "

Like I said. You could do it but it wasn't the same as doing it on a Cintel.

jb

 

[John Brawley]

Ursa means beer? No wonder an Aussie company chose that!

Oh........ sorry. You said BEAR.

Never mind.


Mike Most
On Location Services Director
Technicolor
Los Angeles, CA.

A much better camera naming system ! One that everyone could understand !

JB

 

[Jiri Vrozina]

Aussie company by name only.
Everything else is Chinese.
Who else would design monster like Ursa?
Definetly not designed with input by Pro Cameraman?
Ursa Mini bit different but still, crushed blacks, bad in low light,is it reliable?
I for one would not buy any camera from BMD. I rather pay more.

 

[John Brawley]

Aussie company by name only.
Everything else is Chinese.

Nope.

JB

 

[jake blackstone]

Hey we're going way OT here but yeah you could use the filter tray on a spirit. It had one...From their data sheet....

"The optical system also includes
a filter drawer to allow the use of standard camera
filters for optical effects during scanning. "

Like I said. You could do it but it wasn't the same as doing it on a Cintel.

jb

BTS promised many things with the original Spirit, like 2k scanning with Bones, which in reality was just an upscale from 1920...

 

[jake blackstone]

Aussie company by name only.
Everything else is Chinese.

Actually, more like company from Singapore, owned by an Aussie...

 

[John Brawley]

BTS promised many things with the original Spirit, like 2k scanning with Bones, which in reality was just an upscale from 1920...

Sure. But they were the first to offer the Datacine concept if I recall. And the first feature DI was done using a Spirit no ? And they had a softer light source so things like scratches were more easily hidden....Cintels were OK as long as it was well maintained and they company wasn't trying to wring every last drop out of the tube....CRTs were better for crops and punch ins....and they also had a very different look....

Plusses and Minuses if I recall depending on what you wanted...

Blackmagic have multiple sites all around the world but no manufacturing in China. Not that where's it's made should matter.

JB

 

[Jiri Vrozina]

Blackmagic have multiple sites all around the world but no manufacturing in China. Not that where's it's made should matter."

Sure it does.
People have certain skills in certain industries which take years and decades to acquire
Just because you move manufacturing to another country , you get results overnight.

 

[John Brawley]

Sure it does.
People have certain skills in certain industries which take years and decades to acquire
Just because you move manufacturing to another country , you get results overnight.

Sure thing.

As I said, they don't manufacture in China.

If that's your main criteria for judging a piece of equipment you're all good now.

JB

 

[Jiri Vrozina]

You said it does not matter where equipment is made.I respectfully disagree.
So where is it made? Melbourne?

 

[Wayne Morellini]

Bottom line is that they're cheaply made with zero support. Fine for hobbiests. And they'll probably showcase a new product at NAB too that they'll struggle to ship.

I agree. The only way to get that image at that price point is to cut all possible corners when it comes to design and reliability.

If they were made cheaply they could he half the price and more reliable. Putting a FPGA in a pocket camera was not the best idea, but many phone chips could have done it, and some, 4K raw I think. One that can do 8k might already exist. In the coming year there likely will be more arm based chips that could he used to record 8k uncompressed, as we now have a flash alternative that can do it and can be more cheaply made. Compression is ejst requires the real horsepower.