Blackmagic Announce URSA Mini Pro Camera and Two Resolve Control Panels

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by Ollie KenchingtonMarch 2^nd, 2017

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During their much anticipated live stream today, Grant Petty from Blackmagic Design announced the brand new Blackmagic Design URSA Mini Pro camera, along with two new control panels for DaVinci Resolve.

Looking essentially like a beefed up URSA Mini, the Blackmagic Design URSA Mini Pro has several key updates over the original, making it a compelling new addition to their line up.

Blackmagic Design URSA Mini Pro – Key Features

• Built in 2/4/6 stop, colour shift free, ND filters.
• 4.6K Sensor with 15 stops of dynamic range.
• Super wide color gamut and DaVinci color science
• Similar size and construction to the URSA Mini.
• Camera control, talk back and tally for studio work.
• 2 x CFast cards and 2 x SD cards built in.
• Cinema DNG RAW.
• Pro Res all the way up 4444XQ in 4.6K, UHD, and HD.
• Swappable EF, PL, B4 and Nikon lens mounts, the latter featuring a mechanical lens mount with a smooth iris aperture control ring on it (available later in the year).
• PL lens data communication support.
• EF lens control communication support.
• Built-in stereo microphone at the front, with lower noise and a wider, flatter frequency response.
• HFR (high frame rate) button for instant, one-push, slo-mo shooting.
• 4 channels of audio recording.
• Dedicated stills button (Features still in beta testing).
• Optional SSD recorder bolts on to the back and communicates over the 12G SDI to record straight from the sensor (Available “mid-year”).

With the key features of swappable mounts, an affordable shoulder rig and accessories, built-in ND filters, and a wide choice of recording media ranging from a humble SD card for fast turnaround HD capture to more capable SSDs just to name a few, the Blackmagic Design URSA Mini Pro certainly promises to be a flexible platform ideal for crossing the border between cinematic narrative productions and broadcast ENG-style ergonomics.

In addition, Blackmagic CEO Grant Petty mentioned In the live stream that owners of the original URSA will be able to upgrade to a URSA Mini Pro for $3495. All you need to do is provide proof of purchase of your URSA. According to Blackmagic that $3495 price gets you a new URSA Mini Pro and you still get to keep your old camera”  We will attempt to get clarification from Blackmagic if this deal is for the original URSA or URSA mini too. We can now confirm that this deal is for the original URSA only. 

Also, unlike previous Blackmagic Design announcements, the great news is that this new camera is shipping now! It is available from the links below for $5995. Lens mount pricing: PL mount $245, B4 mount $385, EF mount $175.

Blackmagic Resolve Panels

Blackmagic also announced two new small form-factor colour control panels for use with DaVinci Resolve – the DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel and the DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel. These panels are almost certainly going to make a major dent in the control panel market currently dominated by Tangent.

Blackmagic Resolve Micro Panel

The Mini Panel puts all the main primary colour tools from Resolve at your fingertips. The ergonomic design is optimised for comfort, despite its small size. Blackmagic see this panel being a travelling companion to colourists and DITs on sets, in post houses and in client studios.

Their well-made die-cast aluminium body provides a premium feel in a small and compact device. Powered by USB-C, which is quite a feat, given it’s range of features, I can see the simple design and powerful features of this new hardware being very attractive to Resolve users. Here are some of the features it supports:

• RGB balance balls with RGB Luma adjustment rings around them.
• Buttons above the track balls allow switching between Log and Offset grading
• Knobs for making Y Lift, Gamma and Gain adjustments, plus contrast, pivot, MD (mid-tone detail) controls, colour boost, shadows, highlights, saturation and hue are also conveniently placed on the new panels. The knobs all have 4096 levels of control, which is the same as their advanced panel, just a little smaller. This allows for fine control and push resetting of parameters.
• Direct action transport buttons allow for next clip, previous clip, next node, previous node etc.

Blackmagic Resolve Mini Panel

The Resolve Mini Panel is a larger (though still compact) control panel that adds a second tier for screens and additional controls, like page displays, qualifiers, power windows, curves, sizing, etc. Basically a lot more controls for running almost all the parameters of DaVinci Resolve, just like the advanced panel can. The added features of the Mini Panel include:

• AC power input as well as 4-pin XLR power.
• 2 x Ethernet for loop through that support POE (Power Over Ethernet)
• USB-C port will charge your laptop while it’s connected.

The Mini and Micro Panels are shipping now for $2995 and $995 respectively, and are available from the links below.

What do you think? Have Blackmagic Design hit the nail on the head with today’s announcements? Let us know in the comments below!