Just 6 weeks ago, Blackmagic Design’s CEO Grant Petty introduced a bunch of updates to their lineup including a new generation of the popular URSA Mini Pro camera, called G2 (read: generation 2). As you can tell from its name this is not a completely new camera but an update to the existing URSA Mini Pro, which will be replaced by the URSA Mini Pro G2. Watch our interview with Blackmagic’s Craig Heffernan for all the details. Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro G2 This camera is labeled G2, so what’s new here? Well, sometimes when it’s about updating software features, the hardware needs to be upgraded as well to do justice to these improvements and that’s exactly the case with the URSA Mini Pro G2. In order to enable higher fps recording Blackmagic engineers have deployed an updated 4.6K sensor (a different build of the same sensor, as Craig Heffernan puts it). It comes with advanced processing and a streamlined image pipeline throughout the camera. This enables for higher frame rates and faster sensor read-out (less rolling shutter). Furthermore the camera now supports Blackmagic Color Science 4 and it also can handle 3D LUTs now. All the accessories of the original URSA Mini Pro will fit the G2 model, it simply replaces the original model in that respect. Same goes for pricing, the G2 comes in at exactly the same price as the original URSA Mini Pro. Improved High-Speed Recording The new high frame rates include the following modes, depending on which format you’re recording to: Frame rates in Blackmagic RAW: 120 fps in 4.6K in Blackmagic RAW 150 fps in 4K DCI in Blackmagic RAW (windowed) 150 fps in UHD 4K in Blackmagic RAW (windowed) 300 fps in HD in Blackmagic RAW (windowed) Frame rates in ProRes: 80 fps in 4.6K in ProRes 120 fps in UHD in ProRes (windowed) 240fps in HD in ProRes (windowed) There’s already some sample footage to see for yourself, hop over to our article here. Audio Enhancements Blackmagic also worked on the audio section of the camera. The URSA Mini Pro G2 now offers an enhanced audio processing and hopefully the dreaded (and audible) delay when monitoring the audio through the camera is now a thing of the past. Blackmagic RAW vs ProRes RAW Yes, the URSA Mini Pro can record straight to ProRes. But no, it can’t do ProRes RAW. That’s the way things stand at the moment. Blackmagic are quite happy with their own RAW format since it integrates seamlessly with their cameras and their post production tools, namely DaVinci Resolve 16. So there are no current plans to implement ProRes RAW but of course that could change any minute, who knows what the future holds. If you’re in the market for a new camera, this might be worth a ver close look. The URSA Mini Pro G2 is a significant update to the original camera and establishes a base for further firmware updates in the future. Link: Blackmagic Design What do you think about the URSA Mini Pro G2? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!

As Nikon and Atomos have announced, the Nikon Z 6 and Z 7 full-frame mirrorless cameras will output RAW video signal via HDMI and the Atomos Ninja V will record it in high-quality ProRes RAW format. During CP+ we spoke with Shoji-san from Nikon, about this new capability. Please note that CP+ is a local show taking place in Japan and as such, most Japanese company representatives speak Japanese only. We chose to highlight this subject and bring you the video in Japanese with English subtitles. (Please turn CC on if needed) As you might already know, in January 2019 Nikon and Atomos have announced that the Nikon Z 6 and Z 7 full-frame mirrorless cameras will be able to output RAW signal through HDMI and the Atomos Ninja V recorder will be able to record that stream as a high-quality ProRes RAW video. My colleague Olaf wrote a nice article about the announcement titled “Why Atomos ProRes RAW Recording for Nikon Z7 and Z6 Could Change our Industry”. Give it a read if you haven’t already. Shoji-san states that Nikon received feedback from their pro photographers, who are being asked to also shoot video next to photo, by their clients, nowadays. That’s why Nikon decided to include pro video features in their cameras. As the company does not have any cinema cameras range to protect, they can include whatever innovative feature they can, in their mirrorless cameras. At the moment, both Nikon cameras record in 8-bit H.264 internally and up to 10-bit with N-log externally in ProRes 4:2:2. Soon, these cameras will be able to output 12-bit RAW signal and the Atomos Ninja V will record the footage into ProRes RAW. The function was developed together with Atomos. We didn’t get any information on when exactly the RAW output will be available, yet. One important piece of information Shoji-san did share with us (without disclosing too much about future plans), is that Nikon is closely looking at the possibility of including high-quality internal recording in their future cameras. Reading between the lines, we won’t be surprised if some sort of internal high quality recording will be available within a reasonable timeframe… What do you think of Nikon cameras outputting high-quality RAW signal? Would you consider buying one of their cameras because of the new feature? Let us know in the comments underneath the article.

Blackmagic Design just announced the URSA Mini Pro G2, the second generation of its flagship shoulder camera, plus the long sought-after Blackmagic RAW update to the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. To get an extensive run-down of all the new products and features that Blackmagic Design introduced today, watch CEO Grant Petty in this 35 minute video below: But if you want to save some time, you can also read my summary here: Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro G2 This is the new second generation of the popular URSA Mini Pro. It replaces the previous model and while it looks similar, Blackmagic have redesigned all the electronics inside the camera and it includes a new generation 4.6K sensor. Blackmagic claims that this camera has 15 stops of dynamic range. (Here’s our dynamic range test of Blackmagic RAW on the original URSA Mini Pro in case you missed it.) The new electronics allowed them to ramp up the camera frame rates. They have doubled the frame rate in Blackmagic RAW and in ProRes. Frame rates in Blackmagic RAW: 120 fps in 4.6K in Blackmagic RAW 150 fps in 4K DCI in Blackmagic RAW (windowed) 150 fps in UHD 4K in Blackmagic RAW (windowed) 300 fps in HD in Blackmagic RAW (windowed) For the higher frame rates, you will need 12:1 compression. Frame rates in ProRes: 80 fps in 4.6K in ProRes 120 fps in UHD in ProRes (windowed) 240fps in HD in ProRes (windowed) The read-out from the sensor is faster which results in less rolling shutter. Image calibration on the camera was upgraded: new black calibration, improvement to the Version 4 Color Science and 3D LUTs are now integrated. The camera already runs Blackmagic RAW 1.3. This version integrated 3D LUTs into the Blackmagic RAW footage itself, which can be read out by the latest version of DaVinci Resolve. It’s in the file, but it’s not burned in, it can be switched on and off. This feature can be accessed by any software that uses the Blackmagic RAW SDK 1.3. Blackmagic have also improved the audio circuitry for quad-XLR audio inputs. I really hope that means that also audio monitoring will be improved with this new camera because I think one of the biggest downsides of the original URSA Mini Pro was the noticeable lag in audio monitoring through the mini jack, which made monitoring audio on this camera (while recording) a quite jarring experience. The URSA Mini Pro G2 can also do USB-C recoding to flash disks now, just like the Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. With regards to lenses, the EF Mount is interchangeable to PL (optional purchase mount) and even B4 broadcast lenses. In addition to the improvements above, Blackmagic has enhanced the displayed information on heads-up display (like for example ND status), and it’s now also easier to format media. Here’s my review of the original Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro, in case you missed it: Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K goes Blackmagic RAW When first introduced in September last year, Blackmagic RAW was only made available for the URSA Mini Pro. It’s a compressed 12-bit RAW format that’s easier to use than traditional RAW formats – footage comes in a single file and it uses about as much (constant) data as a ProRes 422 HQ file (which is only 10-bit and a much older format). Of course, everyone wanted to see Blackmagic RAW on the long-anticipated Pocket Cinema Camera 4K as well, and now is the time that Blackmagic is introducing it to that camera. The Blackmagic RAW update for the Pocket 4K comes as part of the Blackmagic Camera 6.2 update which is freely available from their website. The new format means that you can record the highest available quality and resolution on that camera at a lower data rate – for example, you can fit 2 hours of Blackmagic RAW footage in 4K on one 256GB SD UHS-II card. Blackmagic RAW 12:1 makes it even possible to record 4K DCI images to an SD card, which wasn’t possible before. The RAW compression rates that are available in the camera are 3:1, 5:1, 8:1 and 12:1 in constant bit rates, or alternatively you chose constant quality between “Q0” and “Q5” settings. That means that you can prioritize either image quality or file size by choosing one of the two options to set your quality – essentially toggling between a constant and a variable bitrate mode, while still remaining in the (supposedly) superior Blackmagic RAW codec. Here’s our initial video about Blackmagic RAW from IBC 2018: Blackmagic Design Generation 4 Color Science The update also introduces Blackmagic Design Generation 4 Color Science into the camera, which, according to the company, “is used for superior imaging that results in extremely accurate skin tones and gorgeous, lifelike colors”. We’ll take a look at how it compares to prior versions, but I personally was pretty happy about Blackmagic skin tones all along. If you haven’t seen our full extensive Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K video review before, please watch it below! No More DNG RAW on URSA Mini Pro G2 and Pocket 4K What comes as a bit of a surprise is that Blackmagic will no longer offer cinema DNG recording on the new URSA Mini Pro G2, the Pocket 4K or the original URSA Mini Pro, with the new camera update. Grant Petty mentions some patent issues in the video above, but quickly moves on to say that cDNG is an obsolete format anyway, considering the file size of the individual DNG files that are generated. While he might be right (DNG is eating up storage in no time which makes it really hard to shoot even for a lot of professional productions), there certainly will be a considerable disappointment by many users who have had to rely on this feature in the past. After all, the USP of Blackmagic cameras has been their ability to record RAW footage at a very low hardware cost … and while it’s true that now we have Blackmagic RAW as the new codec, some people might still prefer the individual still photo file structure of DNG files for their workflow, especially when we are talking about CGI intense post-production workflows. We’ll see how the market and the communities react to this announcement. Are you a Blackmagic camera user? Do you have or plan to own a Pocket 4K or URSA Mini Pro G2 in the future? What do you think about their discontinuation of DNG in their cameras? Let us know in the comments below!

A seemingly small announcement by Atomos and Nikon during this years CES show could generate enough impact to affect future roadmaps of other mirrorless camera manufacturers: The Nikon Z 6 and Z 7 will be able to output a RAW video stream to the Atomos Ninja V which will record that stream as high-quality ProRes RAW. That’s the news and the development is still in progress so it’s just that: an announcement. Time to move on then? Not so fast: This collaboration marks the point in time when RAW recording (internal or external) in a mirrorless camera has become a de facto standard! Filmmakers always strive for maximum quality. SD, HD, 4K.. 8K? 8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit.. 16-bit? Sure, bigger is better. Why should one compromise on quality if the other make and model has it? Do you always need RAW? Of course not but isn’t it nice to have it handy if you need it? Yes, sir! Atomos Ninja V & Nikon Z: ProRes RAW The Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 4K (BMPCC4K) does record RAW internally or externally already (cDNG now, Blackmagic RAW later). Even the original BMPCC did cDNG but both cameras sport comparably small sensors. The Nikon Z 6 and Z 7 feature full frame sensors. In order to accurately judge critical focus, an external monitor seems appropriate. If you happen to choose the Atomos Ninja V monitor/recorder you end up with this: A full-frame camera which records ProRes RAW, in a nearly pocket-sized package. For Nikon this business move should have been relatively straightforward: They don’t have a cinema line of cameras they have to protect. They are free to boost the still fresh Z line of mirrorless cameras as far as possible. Things are different with Canon, Panasonic or Blackmagic. But since this Nikon/Atomos collaboration is happening, the other manufacturers will have to make a move. Let’s see what the upcoming Panasonic S1(R) has up its sleeve. The EVA1 does sport RAW recording for quite some time now so Panasonic knows how to do it. Canon has Cinema RAW light in their C200 cameras, so plenty of know-how there. Will they do it? That’s the big question here. How Does it Work? The Nikon Z 7 or Z 6 camera outputs a stream of RAW data to the Ninja V using a 4K HDMI cable. Since RAW data just contains the unprocessed sensor read out, it’s all about transfer speeds and not so much about processing horsepower. Incoming data is repacked into the ProRes RAW format by the Ninja V. From there the resulting video stream is recorded to the removable SSD drive just as any other video stream. The heavy lifting of debayering and processing is outsourced to the editing computer, which usually has a lot of processing power both in terms of CPU and GPU. Furthermore, ProRes RAW helps to keep file sizes reasonable – uncompressed RAW results in lots of SSDs in no time. What’s up, 2019? A mirrorless camera with a full-frame sensor, recording RAW? Back in the days, Magic Lantern laid the foundation with their Canon 5D mk.II hack, enabling RAW recording. It wasn’t perfect but it worked (still does). Now, in 2019, RAW recording becomes mainstream. Other manufacturers will have a hard time explaining why any of their upcoming cameras won’t have RAW capabilities and as always this competitive pressure is to the benefit of us, the indie filmmaking community. Sure, we don’t need every feature all the time but for me personally, RAW is more important than –let’s say– 8K. Quality over quantity (of pixels). RAW for the masses is a welcomed improvement, at least to me. I’m very curious how all this will impact the higher-end market of (proper) cinema cameras. Features like an interchangeable lens mount, internal ND filters, modular design or a variety of powering options are still a thing for bigger and more expensive cameras and sometimes there are very good reasons not to use a tiny mirrorless camera. However, the gap becomes smaller and that’s probably a good thing! Protecting their higher end models and still deliver satisfying (smaller) mirrorless cameras is a huge challenge for most manufacturers, let’s hope they get it right. Prices will drop, higher end features will trickle down the line, the possibilities will grow. We still have to wait for that perfect camera because there is no such thing as the perfect camera but we’re heading in the right direction, I’m sure. links: Atomos | Nikon What do you think? How does RAW in every mirrorless camera sound to you? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

EDIT: Based on multiple comments made by our audience suggesting that the original results of the URSA Mini Pro 4.6 Dynamic Range tests may be flawed since we did not execute camera black shading prior to the tests, we decided to rerun it. Our workflow was as follows: Let the UMP 4.6 warm up for about 15min, perform black shading in the menu with the lens cap on and then repeat the tests at 5600k WB. As can be seen from the above IMATEST screenshot, we are getting exactly the same results as before (SNR = 2): shooting ISO 800 BRAW 4.6k (scaled to UHD) gives us 12.6 stops of dynamic range at a signal to noise ratio of 2 (13.7 for a signal to noise ratio of 1 without further post processing like highlight recovery or noise reduction in DaVinci Resolve 15.2. Shooting ProRes also gave the same results as in the initial test. One thing however did change after black shading – the shadows that were a bit blueish in the original tests became black. (Thanks to doing black shading). Nevertheless, thank you all for your suggestions, keep them coming in the future as we all can learn from each other! Original Article: When Blackmagic RAW (BRAW) was announced a while ago, I was curious to get my hands on a BMD URSA Mini Pro and test it’s dynamic range with this new codec. The combination of having the full flexibility of 12bit RAW and smaller file sizes at the same time is a real innovation of BMD. How does it fare on the UMP 4.6? A while ago BMD was so kind to send us the URSA Mini Pro 4.6 but unfortunately, we were all out traveling yet there was time to install the new firmware 6.0 and test the dynamic range at ISO 800 and 3200 using our test setup described here. One note upfront: I was very surprised to see the playback performance of BRAW in DaVinci Resolve Studio 15.2. I am using an I7-4720HQ Laptop with 16GB RAM and a GTX980M graphics card, and 4.6k ProRes XQ resulted in ~7 frames / second playback (fps), 4.6k RAW DNG (lossless) resulted in ~11 fps, whereas BRAW had smooth 24 fps playback in a UHD timeline! Hence, not only smaller filesizes with BRAW but also vastly improved playback – a real winner combination. 4.6k ProRes XQ ISO 800 dynamic range results As a baseline, we started first with our standardized testing procedure analyzing the 4.6k ProRes XQ dynamic range. Here, at ISO 800 the UMP 4.6 does not disappoint and comes in with a strong 12.5 stops of dynamic range at a signal to noise ratio of 2 according to our IMATEST analysis (13.6 stops at a signal to noise ratio of 1). I also tested ISO 400, which yielded slightly lower results. This is the best result in our recent 2018 testing, coming in half a stop higher than the Sony FS7. However, quite far from the 15 stops that Blackmagic Design claim. Anyways, we are going to test BRAW subsequently, so let’s see. The noise floor looks very clean, looks like some internal noise reduction is going on here. Fig.1: Step chart waveform plot of the UMP 4.6k ProRes XQ at ISO 800: a little more than 12 stops can be discerned above the noise floor (code values scaled to 8bit). 4.6k BRAW dynamic range results Now, there is a little issue with BRAW and our standardized testing workflow, as we usually try to avoid any 3rd party software when extracting keyframes for our IMATEST analysis (other than FFmpeg) to avoid any kind of manipulation/influence of this software to the image. With BRAW this philosophy doesn’t work, as we have to use DaVinci Resolve to develop the files – the latest version 15.2 Studio in our case. ISO 800 BRAW constant bitrate 3:1 4.6k scaled to UHD Now, using ISO 800 yielded again the best results, with the dynamic range coming in at an even stronger 12.6 stops at a signal to noise ratio of 2 (13.7 stops for SNR = 1). However, this slight difference to ProRes might be also a result of scaling the 4.6k BRAW file to UHD (3840×2160) – as there is no 4.6k timeline preset in DaVinci Resolve (for exporting keyframes to IMATEST). Fig.2: Step chart waveform plot of the UMP 4.6k ISO 800 BRAW. Again, a bit more than 12 stops can be identified visually above the noise floor. NOTE: DaVinci Resolve offers a “highlight recovery” option for BRAW, which can reconstruct the RGB channels even if one channel is already clipped. Together with the noise reduction features, you can heavily post-process the BRAW files – I just tried around a little bit and was able to reach around 13 stops for SNR = 2 (14 stops for SNR = 1). However we don’t count this result as our intention is to test the untouched files straight off the camera – this is not a post-processing contest, it is about a standardized result using a standardized workflow for all the cameras we test. ISO 3200 BRAW constant bitrate 3:1 4.6k scaled to UHD For ISO 3200 we counted 11.7 stops for an SNR = 2 (12.9 stops for SNR = 1), again without post-processing. Playing around with the highlight recovery option and noise reduction, I was able to get around 12 stops for SNR = 2 (13 stops for SNR = 1). Noise kicks in, hence about one stop is lost vs ISO 800. This is still a very good result. Fig.3: Step chart waveform plot of the UMP 4.6k at ISO 3200: noise kicks in, and about one stop is lost vs. ISO 800, leading to around 12 stops of dynamic range. 4.6k RAW DNG (lossless) dynamic range results Similar to BRAW, we have to develop the RAW DNG files in DaVinci Resolve in order to export keyframes for analysis in the IMATEST software. Interestingly, the dynamic range results of the Cinema DNG files without postprocessing are lower than with ProRes and also BRAW, coming in slightly above 11 stops untouched (SNR = 2). The DNG files exhibit much more noise than BRAW and ProRes, hence leading to a lower dynamic range reading in IMATEST. This is a similar phenomenon as we observed with the BMPCC 4k. Using postprocessing like the highlight recovery feature in Resolve along with noise reduction lifts it above ProRes and BRAW (I played around and was able to get more than 13 stops at an SNR = 2, and almost 14 stops for SNR = 1). Fig. 4: dynamic range comparison of the UMP 4.6k (BRAW) ISO 800 result with other cameras. It fares very well, coming in one stop higher than the BMPCC4k. Conclusion When testing the various codecs on the UMP 4.6k there are clear signs of internal noise reduction going on in ProRes and BRAW, very similar to what we observed with the BMPCC4k (please watch particularly the end of our BMPCC4K review for an insight into our testing procedure for dynamic range). Speaking of the BMPCC4k, the UMP4.6k overall comes in one stop higher with regards to the dynamic range. Impressive. However, I cannot reproduce the 15 stops dynamic range that Blackmagic Design are claiming, even at a signal to noise ratio SNR = 1 the maximum I was able to squeeze out by heavy post-processing was about 14 stops. In contrast to this, I was able to confirm the 13 stops for the BMPCC4k at SNR = 1, thereby confirming Blackmagic’s statements. Therefore the untouched BRAW ISO 800 SNR = 2 (or 1/SNR = 0.5) dynamic range result will be the cinema5D reference for future dynamic range comparisons with other cameras. We know that many of you are waiting for an overview chart of all our dynamic range and other technical tests, and please stay tuned for a bit, we are still working on it. There’s a lot of parameters to think about, and also it’s not so easy to display elegantly on our site – however it won’t be long until we will share it with you! You can find Nino’s Ursa Mini Pro Hands-On video review by clicking here and Johnnie’s review and “real world footage” by clicking here. Did you already work with the URSA Mini Pro 4.6 in RAW recording mode? If yes, What is your impression? Please share your experience with us in the comments below.

At this year’s Inter Bee show in Tokyo, our own Johnnie Behiri met with Blackmagic Design in order to discuss their latest updates for both DaVinci Resolve 15.2 and firmware version 6.0 for URSA Mini Pro cameras. We already reported about the updates to DaVinci Resolve 15.2 and Camera 6.0 in detail here. Here’s a round-up including the interview with Blackmagic Design. With version 15 of their popular editing/grading/audio mastering/delivery suite Blackmagic Design added a new tab to their one-app-for-all approach: Fusion FX. Now, just a few months later, Resolve 15.2 hits the streets and it comes with a lot of improvements to almost every aspect of this software. One part of Resolve to which special attention has been paid is the Edit tab. DaVinci Resolve 15.2 Improvements Blackmagic Design really pushes hard in order to get the editing part of their software right. In Resolve 15.2 the editing timeline renders much faster, resulting in a smoother look and feel. Also, a lot of animations within the UI have been improved. As a general improvement the part of DaVinci you are currently working in is being highlighted which makes it easier to keep track of what’s going on. Speaking of visual feedback: You now can easy track down bits of the timeline which contain duplicate frames (pieces of footage you actually have used before within the same timeline). Furthermore clips in the media pool show a visual indication if (and which parts) are being used in the current timeline. You now can load a second timeline or compound clip into the source viewer and send clips straight to the active timeline. This should increase the speed of your workflow! Two bins now can be viewed and accessed at the same time as well. Another nice improvement is the freshly implemented keyboard shortcut manager which is now a visual tool just like in Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro X. You even can emulate keyboard settings to the aforementioned NLE’s. Furthermore you now can assign items from contextual popup menus to keyboard shortcuts. New FX Plugins & Audio Tools Additionally DaVinci Resolve 15.2 features new FX plugins such as Beauty (Studio version only) or Blanking Fill. More advanced plugins for the color page include ACES transform and Gamut Limiter. Edits and transitions applied to audio clips on the Edit page now can be further tweaked on the Fairlight tab of Resolve 15.2. Furthermore you now can edit multiple audio clip at the same time. A cool new feature is called Stereo Fixer. It helps you map your audio to the appropriate channels in order to avoid bad audio mixing. Common mappings such as stereo, reverse-stereo, mono and others are built right in. There are really a whole bunch of new features and a lot has already been covered by Nino in this article. If you want to dive deeper in all the new features make sure to watch the following intro video by Blackmagic: It’s Still Free Although Blackmagic tries hard to convince users to buy the Studio version by limiting certain features such as noise reduction or the new Beauty FX plugin, you must not forget that DaVinci Resolve 15.2 is still free to download. This is actually pretty incredible. You get a full-fledged piece of post-production software which gets frequent updates for no money at all. If Blackmagic maintain their current development speed, this suite of tools might get pretty dangerous for a lot of other (paid) NLE’s out there pretty soon. While it might not be the first choice for serious editing work right now, let’s wait and see how Resolve 15.2 will impact the market. I’m really curious what future versions of Resolve will bring. How about you? URSA Mini Firmware 6.0 This new firmware adds two important new features to the URSA Mini Pro camera: Blackmagic RAW and ISO 3200. Read all about this new RAW format in our initial coverage here. The new ISO doubles the current limit of ISO 1600 and should be a useful tool when shooting in difficult lighting conditions. When does the new Blackmagic RAW codec hit the popular Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K (BMPCC4K) you ask? The answer is: It will but it’s not yet certain when. That’s not exactly what we wanted to hear but at least it’s coming! Need a refresher on this new RAW format? Watch Blackmagic Design CEO Grant Petty’s introduction here: CinemaDNG might be cool but you’ll end up with lots of GB worth of data and it really demands for a mighty powerful computer to cope with it so Blackmagic RAW might be the better choice offering a very good balance between quality and size. Plus it offers a much more modern approach to metadata handling. Links: Blackmagicdesign.com (DaVinci) | URSA Mini Pro | Blackmagic RAW Are you digging the all-in-one approach of Resolve? Or do you prefer Adobe’s take of individual software tool working together? What do you think about v6.0 for URSA Mini Pro? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Swiss manufacturer ALPA is showing off the ALPA PLATON, a camera cage for medium format video at Photokina 2018. The cage works with the Hasselblad H6D-100c, making it able to shoot 4k RAW video at 3.2 Gbps. Here’s what you need to know. Who is ALPA? ALPA got their start in the late 30’s manufacturing 35mm SLRs and continued to do so till the 90’s, when the company had to declare bankruptcy, having produced more than 40000 cameras over the years. In the late 90’s the brand was bought by a Swiss company and returned to Photokina 1998 presenting two new medium format film cameras, mainly for industrial usage. Today, twenty years later, ALPA has reestablished themselves as a maker of premium bodies and accessories, housing the digital or film backs of other medium format manufacturers, such as Hasselblad, Pentax and Phase One, without producing their own sensors. Medium format video Technically larger-than-35mm video is nothing particularly new or special in itself of course, having been around since the earlier days of cinema in the form of 65mm or 70mm film, while the Arri Alexa 65 and the RED MONSTRO present currently available digital options. So what’s special about the ALPA PLATON using the Hasselblad H6D-100c back? Well in regards to sensor area it even out-measures the Alexa 65’s huge ARRI A3X sensor by over 30% and it shoots 16bit RAW video. All of this in a small package and on CFast 2.0 cards, or to SD cards if shooting HD in H.264. Any more questions? Of course the Hasselblad H6D-100c has its own set of problems, which we’ve talked about at length in our initial review as well as our workflow review, but it produces stunning imagery nonetheless. See some footage below (used in the initial review by Christoph Tilley): What does ALPA PLATON do? To clarify: the ALPA PLATON doesn’t add shooting capabilities, a new interface or a recording solution. As is customary with medium format cameras the back (the back being the sensor, all the circuitry behind it, as well as the touch interface and main button controls of the camera) can be rehoused into the ALPA PLATON, which is effectively a new body, providing the following features: Lens mount: in this case a PL-Mount Power supply: NP-F style battery solution Cage with lots of 1/4″-20 and 3/8″-16 attachments and an ARRI Rosette on each side Integrated monitor sun shade Flap to access the controls on top of the camera 15mm rod system (which the power supply unit is mounted to) The overall goal is to make the Hasselblad H6D-100c’s back into a more workable production camera, for example as a B-Camera to a 65mm system. To achieve that goal, ALPA is also cooperating with Erns Leitz Wetzlar (the newly rebranded lens division of Leica), as well as Hasselblad and the ETH Zurich. New mounts under development In addition to the already developed PL-mount version, there will be versions of the ALPA PLATON in Canon EF mount and also Pentax 67, further opening up the possibilities for video usage  (edited  due to outdated information – to clarify: there are currently no other mounts under development). A V-Mount battery solution is also in development. We will keep you posted. What do you think about the ALPA PLATON? Do you think it will be part of a new medium format revolution? Are you even interested in medium format video, and why? Let us know in the comments!

On the heels of IBC 2018, the cinema5D team has decided to give their IBC 2018 Technological Innovation Award to Blackmagic Design for their newly released Blackmagic RAW technology because of its wider implications to filmmaking and its power to further democratise high-quality image acquisition. The Outset – ProRes RAW Less than 6 months ago at NAB in Las Vegas, Apple announced ProRes RAW together with Atomos as their first partner that was implementing the technology into their products. RAW codecs that were user-friendly before that introduction were rare – in all honesty, I think REDCODE RAW was probably the only RAW flavour that was widely used, but of course only in RED cameras. Suddenly having the post-flexibility of RAW combined with the widely recognized ProRes ecosystem was worth one of our Best of Show Award at NAB 2018. Nevertheless, ProRes RAW has some shortcomings that severely limits its current use: only compatible with Mac so far only available on Atomos Recorders – and not in cameras only two compression settings – “normal” and HQ so far only works with Final Cut Pro X In comes Blackmagic RAW By introducing their own user-friendly compressed RAW codec with Blackmagic RAW (read all details here!), Blackmagic Design poses a significant threat to Apple and their ProRes RAW standard. Why? First of all, it’s implemented on a camera-level without the need for any external recorders at all. Admitted, that’s true only for Blackmagic’s own cameras right now (starting with the Ursa Mini Pro), BUT as you can see in our interview below, Blackmagic is open and willing to give it to other camera and software manufacturers for free too. Manufacturers that have “nothing to lose” in the video field (no higher end line to protect) like for example FUJIFILM with their X-T3 should theoretically be very motivated / excited to implement it into their cameras. We will see who goes first. Secondly, I already mentioned software: the newest version of DaVinci Resolve supports it already, and it’s free in its quite powerful basic version, both for Windows and Mac. And they already published the SDK that will allow other NLE software providers to implement support as well, without licensing fees. Adobe and Apple would have a hard time explaining why they don’t want to implement it, in case they wouldn’t. Thirdly, Blackmagic RAW is available in various compression settings in the Ursa Mini Pro, quite similar to what RED is offering with REDCODE. That really allows flexibility when it comes to storage consumption and will help the codec to go mainstream. Other IBC Innovations As usual, we had 3 awards in our baggage to give at IBC 2018, however, we really ONLY found this technology be worthy of a price. IBC 2018 had no camera announcements, not even non-exciting ones, no major lens announcements nor anything else REALLY noteworthy other than the announcement of Blackmagic RAW. It’s sad to see that manufacturers seem to be ignoring big shows like IBC more and more in favour of finding their own dates for big product releases, including big press trips. That is really not great at all because it can easily become a way to prevent real hands-on reviews before a release or to squash critical questions. Congratulations Anyway, we congratulate Blackmagic Design on the technical achievement with Blackmagic RAW and really give this prize in hope that many other camera and software makers will implement the standard into their products in order to allow us filmmakers greater flexibility and better quality in our productions, at no extra cost. Will you be using Blackmagic RAW with your URSA Mini Pro camera or in your other Blackmagic cameras? Would you use it in your other cameras if manufacturers would support it? Let us know in the comments below!