Blackmagic Camera 7.7 Update – Improved Demosaic Algorithm for URSA Mini Pro 12K

Firmware Update

by Francesco AndreolaDecember 21^st, 2021

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Blackmagic Design has just announced Camera 7.7 update. It further improves the capabilities of the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K’s sensor. A refined demosaic algorithm will now offer better color balance and enhanced sharpness. The update is now available as a free download.

First announced back in July 2020, the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K really shocked the market with its super-high-resolution 80MP sensor. Even more surprisingly, the camera’s initial price point of $9,995 was dropped to $5,995 over the summer, thus making this tool even more appealing.

Moreover, my colleague Gunther also run the camera through our Lab Test procedures. You can find the results of the tests he conducted here.

The camera now receives a fine-tuned demosaic algorithm that should give an extra boost to its image quality. Let’s take a closer look.

Blackmagic Camera 7.7 update: what’s new

The Blackmagic Camera 7.7 update brings better color reproduction and improved sharpness to the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K.

As a result, colors should now look even more balanced than before, while still retaining all the dynamic range that the camera can offer. This improvement is particularly useful for having natural-looking skin tones as a good starting point for building your look upon.

Since the demosaicing process has a direct impact on the sharpness of the image as well, you should also experience an enhancement of fine detail in shadow areas. Moreover, as the extremely high resolution 12K sensor is more likely to introduce moirè, the new update should also reduce this effect.

What’s demosaicing?

If you’re not familiar with the demosaicing process, let’s do a quick recap. A digital sensor is essentially colorblind. In fact, every pixel of the sensor only records the intensity of the light it receives, but knows nothing about its wavelength (or in other words, its color).

For this reason, a red, green or blue filter sits above each pixel, creating an RGB mosaic pattern over the sensor. For example, a red filter only lets red light passing through.

In this way, every pixel gains information about one of the three color channels (Red, Green or Blue). By interpolating this data with those of the pixels nearby, all three color channels become available for each pixel. This processed is called demosaicing and it has a direct impact on color balance and image detail.

When shooting RAW, the demosaicing process happens in the RAW development software on your computer. However, the Blackmagic RAW format works a little differently, since the processing power of the camera hardware is exploited to do part of the job, thus providing a faster playback in the video editing software.

Price and availability

The Blackmagic Camera 7.7 update is now available for free. You can download it form the dedicated Support Center on the Blackmagic Design website. If you are updating from Camera 4.0 or above, don’t forget to backup your presets and LUTs prior to installing!

Are you a Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K owner? Install the new update today and share your experience in the comments below!