First footage from new URSA Mini 4K!

Looks like the shooters who make up "The Dreamers", a wedding video production house in the Netherlands, are the first customers to take delivery of a couple of $2995 4K Blackmagic URSA Minis (plus accompanying $1495 Blackmagic viewfinders) - and they've been good enough to take the camera out on a couple of wedding shoots and share the results.

They shot the first wedding in 10-bit 4:2:2 ProRes HQ at 1080/60p rather than 4K, but I have to say that it looks pretty good - except for the moire on the groom's jacket at 1:10.



The second wedding was shot in 3840x2160 Ultra High Definition, again in ProRes.

This video has been password protected as private, but you can still see it in the URSA group I moderate over on Vimeo:

A Styled Shoot with the Ursa Mini 4K (in UHD)

This one looks a lot cleaner. If you have a Vimeo Plus or Pro account, you can download it and see for yourself (if you don't, you can sign up for a Pro account here).

The best news, however, is ergonomic.  After a couple of generations of Blackmagic cameras that have either looked like toasters or cellphones or weighed too much to carry, the Dreamers say "[The Mini] is incredibly well designed -- everything is exactly where you expect it to be..." (hat tip to nofilmschool.com for the quote).

At $2995 body-only, this camera is a pretty amazing value for the money.  For those who can't afford the extra $2000 for the 4.6K version, this is going to be a great, 10-bit entry-level cinema camera.

Blackmagic is clearly going to have to drop the price of the vanilla $2995 Production Camera 4K when URSA Mini 4K starts shipping in volume.

Is the 4K Sony FS5 a 1080p Canon C100 Mark II killer?

After yesterday's chart comparing the specs of the new Sony FS5 and the Blackmagic URSA Mini, I received feedback from a reader who thought a better comparison might be with cameras such as the $3495 JVC LS300, $4195 Panasonic DVX200 and $5499 Canon C100 Mark II.

I thought this was a good idea, and wanted to take a look at how the new Sony stacked up against the other non-RAW cinema camcorders in its price class, so here is part deux of the "affordable cinema camcorder side-by-side comparison" between the FS5 and its sub-$6000 competition.  The most interesting part of this comparison (for me, at least) is on the right side of the chart - between the similarly priced 4K Sony and 1080p Canon:

	JVC LS300	Panasonic DVX200	Canon C100 Mark II	Sony PXW-FS5
Street Price (Body-only)	$3495	$4195 (w lens)	$5499	$5599
OEM Viewfinder	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sensor Size	Super 35 w var. crop	MFT	Super 35	Super 35
Lens Mount	MFT	Fixed	EF	Sony E
Max Recorded Resolution	3840x2160 (free 4096x2160 upgrade)	4096x2160	1920x1080	3840x2160 ($ 4096x2160 upgrade)
Max HD Frame Rate	60fps	60fps	60fps	240fps
Codec	MPEG4 8bit 4:2:0 (4:2:2 HD)	MPEG4 8bit 4:2:0 (ext. 10bit 4:2:2)	MPEG4 8bit 4:2:0	XAVC 8bit 4:2:0 (4:2:2 HD, $ ext. RAW upgrade)
Shutter	Rolling	Rolling	Rolling	Rolling
Mic Input(s)	2xXLR w phantom	2xXLR w phantom	2xXLR w phantom	2xXLR w phantom
Headphone Output(s)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SDI Out(s)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Storage	2xSD	2xSD	2xSD	2xSD
In Body Stabilization	No	Yes	No	No
ND Filter	Yes	Yes	Yes	Electronic
Native Power Zoom	<$300 (3x)	Fixed (13x)	$31K	$548 (6x)
Still Photos	No	No	No	No
Weight	3.6 lbs.	5.95 lbs. (w lens)	2.5 lbs.	1.8 lbs.

Of course, specs alone don't tell the whole story. Manufacturer support, personal preference, ergonomics, legacy lenses and other factors all weigh heavily on the final decision whether to buy one camera rather than another. All of that said, based solely on specs and price, the C100 Mark II seems to be the clear loser here.

Sadly, despite its lack of competitiveness in resolution and frame rates, Canon continues to sell $5000+ 1080p, 4:2:0 Super 35 camcorders into what is increasingly a 2160p 4:2:2 marketplace.  With the introduction of the $2998 Sony A7s Mark II, the situation is arguably worse for them in the full frame DSLR arena.

Canon has successfully ridden their breakthrough 2008 video success with the 5D Mark II for 7 years. It will be interesting to see how long that ride continues.

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