Andrew Reid

  Funny :) Now add 7.5KG + lenses. 10KG on your shoulder and 10" screen in your face. Ergonomics and Blackmagic don't mix do they?

The Ursa is like Blackmagic have acted on a satire and made it real.   It reminds me of that joke ENG box for DSLRs to make them look more 'professional'!

  Unless I fired myself, no it didn't.   And I'm a big fan of Blackmagic which you'd know if you had read EOSHD for more than 5 seconds.   I have done a lot to put Blackmagic in the spotlight. Recently put them in a major print magazine in the UK on every shelf.   Don't lecture me on my opinions... I'm entitled to them... and this camera is just not for me.

It's a divisive camera.   Probably no sure right or wrongs in this. It will work great for some people and for others not.   I still think the trend for cameras in general is to go smaller and lighter though.   Look at Red as they went from Red One to Epic. Look at Sony between F3 and F55. Canon between XL1 and C300.   Lots and lots of people want the convenience.   I just don't see how that iMac screen on the end of a hinge is going to hold up to rough & tumble / rental either.

It looks like the story of 2014 is taking shape in the form of 4K on high end mirrorless cameras. Last year for me it was raw on the 5D Mark III which excited me the most and before that it was the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. This year is more exciting on the tech and creative front than any I can remember. Let's look at exactly how the 4K shooting GH4 and A7S compare. Read the full article here

  In a perfect world? How about in the REAL world. We are talking basic functionality. Stuff that can kill you on a shoot and end up losing you your job. If you have a mega expensive unrepeatable shot ready to roll and the camera just cuts in the middle because the card is full without warning, I'd love for you to come back on the EOSHD forum and sing the praises of your £650 cinema camera.

  I honestly don't see it this way mate.   Trend is to go smaller and lighter.   This goes in complete opposite direction.   We already have the same 4K capabilities and likely even same sensor in the Production Camera. Rig a monitor up to that and you have Ursa without the bulk.   Also those ProRes HQ 4K files are virtually unmanageable when it comes to archiving footage. Be prepared to delete and compress a lot of master files if working with those. I am already dreading it with the A7S... And will be begging all the recorder manufacturers to come out with some lighter codecs for it.   The URSA doesn't suit me as a filmmaker but that's not to say I haven't considered the possibilities and who it WOULD suit.   I just don't think it's well conceptualised or designed to be honest. A massive heavy screen on a little hinge? A 7.5kg camera body? No thank you.   It smacks of greed to go after the production market before you have even satisfied the indie crowd... who are constantly asking for basic features and updates.   I'm afraid I don't be shooting any Blackmagic in 2014. What a shame.

Blackmagic are launching not none, not one but TWO new cameras at NAB 2014. One as you can see packs quite a punch with a quite revolutionary design. The aim of the URSA is to take all the accessories you'd normally rig onto a Blackmagic Cinema Camera and integrate them. That is a sensible idea. However the execution looks to have produced a 7.5KG monster. There's even an HDMI version of the URSA which has no sensor block or lens mount but a cradle on the front for any camera with HDMI output, such as the tiny Sony A7R. That would give you a full frame 4K URSA recording to CFast cards. However the URSA is aimed at a large crew, large scale productions and in doing so completely turns its back on Blackmagic's existing indie filmmaking user base. To make matters worse Blackmagic show no sign of any significant firmware update for the 3 existing cameras at NAB, which is what people REALLY wanted them to announce. Read the full article here

Some more pics here '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>   Discussion continues on that thread :)   This announcement fills me with dread.

I can guarantee this announcement will not please any of Blackmagic's existing user base, unless backed up by some really good news in the form of significant firmware updates for the Cinema, Production and Pocket cameras plus Resolve 11. The latter is definitely coming and takes Resolve's editing capabilities up a notch. Read the full article here

Many in same boat as you, simply edit in 4K and deliver as 2K. Many benefits to it.   Difference is a click of a button and that is it.

  Not quite as clean as FS100 in low light but with some post processing you can get them pretty close to each other.   Shoot 4K on GH4, add noise reduction plugin, downscale to 1080p.

  It's currently so slow as to be of limited use but it does work.

I can guarantee that the internal XAVC-S 1080p from the A7S will not look as good as getting 1080p from the 4K output and doing your scaling in post with all that processing power available on your desktop.   8bit 4K 4:2:0 = 10bit 1080p 4444 remember. If the maths have complications and gotchas, the image to my eyes does not. The GH4's 4K looks like 10bit when you grade it and when you look at it on a 2K display. Gradations are smooth. Colour is fantastic. Sampling shows no signs of pixilation or jaggedness at 2K. At 1:1 at 4K you do see some aliasing and jaggies from 4:2:0 sampling. They disappear when scaled correctly to 1080p or 2K.

  4K = good 1080p.   So therefore you should care a lot Brian!

Raw or ProRes / Pocket Camera vs GH4 and A7S 4K is definitely a topic for a future blog post.   My feeling so far (based on the GH4) is that this compressed 8bit 4K stuff makes for very nice 2K and 1080p indeed, which looks every bit as good colour and dynamic range wise as the Blackmagics or raw on 5D Mark III.   Also GH4 in 4K has far less moire & aliasing than the Pocket Cinema Camera and BMCC, especially when downscaled to 2K.

Atomos have just sent me some info on their upcoming 4K recorder, primarily for use with the A7S and GH4. Read the full article here

A good idea to separate output and recording when speaking of HDMI and the external recorders.   So 8bit out to 10bit is still 8bit.

  Den or the Sony spec sheet? Who is right?   3840 × 2160(30p/24p) / 1920 × 1080(60p/24p) / 1920 × 1080(60i),YCbCr 4:2:2 8bit/ RGB 8bit

  Where's the source of the info please?   Good news if true.

  It will be as moire free as a JPEG still at full resolution. It reads out every pixel from the sensor in 4K video mode.

Looks impressive at high ISOs. Remember the HDMI output in 4K is uncompressed... YouTube does not give you the full image quality.Read the full article here

I am not disappointed in the S-lightest :)   Just picture the full frame 4K image out of the HDMI on this thing... going to look AMAZING.

Breaking news... The Sony A7S has been announced at NAB 2014. It records 1080p internally in XAVC-S format at 50Mbit but the big news is the support for full 4K output via HDMI to an external recorder. Unfortunately it does NOT have an internal 4K recording codec like the Panasonic GH4. Read the full article here

Sony is making some 4K related camera announcements at NAB Watch the live announcement here or scroll down on the home page Here are my running thoughts as we watch the Sony presentations... Read the full article here