Monday, April 13, 2015

Five 4K camcorders threatened by the $2995 4K Blackmagic URSA Mini

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  1. Probably there are others, but the URSA Mini lacking ND internal filtering still puts it a little in the DSLR field.

    IMHO, there are some areas where every DSLR I know is lacking:

    1) Latitude, where they strain to get to 10 stops. The Mini gets supposedly to 15 in the 4.6K version, which has a rolling shutter. Improvement.

    2) Bitrate, most being 8 bit. The Mini gets to 10-bit, as all BMs I know. Improvement.

    3) Internal ND filtering. External on all DSLRs and also on the Mini. No improvement.

    4) Mic audio input. Mini 1/8" stereo socket and one XLR on hte Mini. Half improvement (?)

    5) Weight. DSLRs are light, but the Mini is not that light. No improvement.

    There are the most obvious ones. Many claim the FS7 is the best deal. but strangely they tag it as an ENG or documentary camera. But

    1. > URSA Mini lacking ND internal filtering still puts it a little in the DSLR field.

      Not really - RED cinema cameras don't have internal ND filters either (unless you buy a RED Motion Ti PL mount) - neither does the Sony F65 (unless you buy the Rotary Shutter option).

      That said, Sony, Canon and Panasonic are all including built-in ND filters on their latest cinema cameras. Blackmagic needs to step up its game and include built-in ND filters in the next URSA.

      Thanks for commenting!

  2. Just mentioning the cameras included on this test. Film cameras didn't have internal NDs, so anyone used to them wouldn't miss that. My complaints were on the URSA and Mini URSA mostly.