Last Updated on 04/17/2012 by Chris Gampat
Perhaps some of the most exciting news from NAB is the announcement of BlackMagic’s new Cinema Camera. What makes it so special? Well: it is under $3,000 and shoots video at 2.5K resolution. Oh, plus it uses Canon EOS mount lenses. But there is lots more to love about this new little magic box.
Specs on the camera include:
– 12 Bit RAW recording in ProRes and Avid DNxHD.
– The sensor measures in at 16.64 mm x 14.04 mm, although the recording area for video is 15.6 mm x 8.8 mm.
– Capacitive LCD Touchscreen like the iPhone (which is honestly quite excellent and desirable for videography)
– Simple entering of metadata (which translates into easier organization during editing. Anyone else who has sat in a room in front of a Mac Pro editing a piece for an entire night will know how critical this is.)
– Built in SSD recorder
– HD-SDI and Thunderbolt outputs
– 1/4″ audio jacks. Thought not XLRs, they’re better than nothing.
And once again, this all comes in at less than $3,000. It looks like this and the digital bolex may really start to shake up the industry since all the bigger players don’t seem to want to make a sub $3,000 camcorder with all this power. There are tons of enthusiasts, indie videographers and students that would enjoy using a device like this. And that’s why so many people seem excited about it: because it will force the bigger guys to create a camcorder to compete in this segment.
That is…if they eat into sales.