Over the past several years, Blackmagic has grown from a company well respected for its broadcast video gear into one of the most exciting and important manufacturers of cinema cameras in the world.
Since its release, the Blackmagic URSA Mini has proven to be easily one of the most popular, and disruptive, cameras to hit the indie filmmaking world in a long time. The camera boasted high-end codecs, frame rates, crazy wide dynamic range, and color science that immediately invited comparisons to higher-end cinema cameras like the Arri Alexa. In fact, the URSA Mini Pro has found a home on the set of feature films like “Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri” and the new “Africa” music video from Weezer.
This month Blackmagic dropped a surprise with the introduction of the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro G2. The new camera features the familiar form factor of the URSA Mini Pro 4.6K while boasting a number of upgrades under the hood. For this First Impression piece we’ll take a look at what’s new with this generation of the URSA Mini Pro and how it could help church film teams.
For filmmakers not familiar with the original Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro, here’s a quick refresher of its impressive feature set. Featuring a super-35mm sensor capable of shooting in 4.6K/60p, the camera also boasts a touchscreen LED, films in ProRes 444, and boasts professional connections like dual phantom-powered XLR audio inputs and dual SDI video out connections. It also employs tactile camera control on the body itself and up to six stops of built-in ND. It’s a robust core set of abilities, and we’re happy to report that each of these features are still intact on the new camera.
Going RAW
The first, and perhaps most important, upgrade to the URSA Mini Pro is the inclusion of the new Blackmagic RAW codec. Introduced in September of last year, Blackmagic is not so subtly announcing its intention to challenge the biggest players in the cinema camera industry. RAW footage allows cinematographers to capture at an insanely high sampling bit rate while still allowing for the adjustment of settings like white balance and ISO in post-production, all without any adverse effects on the end results.
Blackmagic RAW ... allows filmmakers to select 3:1, 5:1, 8:1, and 12:1 compression settings in order to fine tune the essential balance between quality and data storage management.
With Blackmagic RAW filmmakers retain all of the benefits of RAW with the efficiency filming with more traditional compression schemes. Blackmagic RAW even allows filmmakers to select 3:1, 5:1, 8:1, and 12:1 compression settings in order to fine tune the essential balance between quality and data storage management. It’s a scheme users of the far more expensive RED cinema cameras will be familiar with, and one that is astonishing to see in a camera at the sub-$10K price point.
Generation 2
The second major upgrade is a newly designed Super-35mm sensor at the heart of the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro G2. While this new sensor still films in a full 4.6K resolution at 15 stops of dynamic range, the camera will now be capable of pushing up 120 frames per second in 4.6K and a whopping 300 frame per second in HD.
A final, very under-the-hood upgrade to the URSA Mini Pro G2 is a new cooling system that promises to reduce digital noise in the camera’s imagery by keeping the sensors cooler while filming.
Another new addition to the URSA Mini Pro is a USB-C expansion port, allowing the camera to film directly to exterior drives and SSDs for reduced media costs. This is an exciting development, not only because it allows for a degree of future-proofing, but also because it means filmmakers can edit their projects directly from the same drives they shoot to.
A final, very under-the-hood upgrade to the URSA Mini Pro G2 is a new cooling system that promises to reduce digital noise in the camera’s imagery by keeping the sensors cooler while filming. We would imagine this could be essential, as filming at the newly increased higher frame rates will likely affect the internal temperatures of the camera considerably. This could be a significant improvement, assuming it doesn’t introduce too much additional fan noise to the camera while in operation.
Final thoughts
The Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro has already proven to be a popular option for church film teams looking to achieve Hollywood-level imagery without breaking the bank. The original URSA Mini Pro wasn’t quite as competitive in the areas of auto-focusing and low-light filming, and it will be very interesting to see how this new Generation 2 of the camera addresses some of these issues (or doesn’t).
One piece of genuinely good news that’s already been announced by Blackmagic is that the price for the URSA Mini Pro G2 hasn’t changed one cent. The new version of the camera will cost $5,995, exactly the same price point as the previous model. Big kudos go out to Blackmagic for keeping the owner/operator entities like churches in mind with this market positioning.
While we haven’t yet had a chance to test it out, on the surface it seems like Blackmagic has taken something that was already good and made it even more appealing. With that in mind, there are very few cameras this reviewer is more excited to get his hands on and really put through its paces than the new Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro G2.
