Blackmagic Design does a lot of things well, and the Blackmagic Cinema Camera is going to join the compliment of mixing software, 3D processors, hubs, and converters as another fine product. The quality of this high-end camera is in the compliment of Canon’s EF-mount and Zeiss ZF lenses, 2.5K (2592×2192) resolution and uncompressed file formats.

The form is strangely similar to other Blackmagic Design products with solid, rounded edges forming a sort of DSLR prism. Or you could say it appears similar to an external SSD, but wait, that’s it, the Blackmagic Cinema Camera records directly to SSD! The 5-inch touch LCD screen takes on a bulk of your usage since the external buttons are minimal. The sides of the camera house the removable SSD and the assortment of connections for the likes of an external mic, headphones and Thunderbolt.

The SSD gathers video in the form of open standard CinemaDNG RAW, DNxHD or ProRes. The video playback uses SDI which also holds lots of camera data including transport control, shutter angle and color temperature. The metadata entry is similar to the method found in smartphones, and will make searching for files easier in post.

During shooting, bring along your laptop with Thunderbolt and you’ll have yourself a monitor with UltraScope which brings to you waveform, vectorscope and histogram among others.

There are strong visuals to be made with 13 stops of dynamic range and 12-bit RAW. There are equally strong sounds to be captured with two 1/4-inch mic inputs. The battery is integrated and there are three 1/4-inch threaded mounts on top of the camera.

No camera does a complete job without editing software, so Blackmagic includes DaVinci Resolve 9.0, so color correction will be a tool you’ll want to use.

We’re excited to see the Blackmagic Cinema Camera at work, and for $3,000, this will be a huge addition to the cinema marketplace. It is set to ship in July, with optional grip handles for $195.

Please discuss this camera in the Videomaker forums…

Reprinted from a Blackmagic press release:
Blackmagic Design today announced HDLink Pro DisplayPort, a new model of the popular HDLink Pro monitoring converter range that allows new low cost deep color DisplayPort computer monitors to be used for SDI monitoring.

HDLink Pro DisplayPort allows any supported DisplayPort monitor to be used for incredible HD-SDI monitoring.

HDLink Pro DisplayPort supports 3 Gb/s SDI for twice the SDI data rate than normal HD-SDI while retaining full compatibility with regular HD-SDI and standard definition SDI equipment. 3 Gb/s SDI is required for new video standard support, such as 1080p50, 1080p/59.94, RGB 4:4:4 video using a single BNC type connection, or 2K via SDI for high resolution real time 2048 x 1556 feature film editing. Read the rest of this entry »

Reprinted from an Blackmagic Design press release:

Blackmagic Design today announced a new lower price on its popular Studio Videohub 3 Gb/s SDI router with 16 x 32 SDI routing, 16 x 16 RS-422 deck control, full SDI re-clocking all in a compact design less than 1 inch thick.

Studio Videohub is perfect for small post production workgroups where people need to share a broadcast deck as well as system integrators who are building custom video facilities. Studio Videohub can also be used to compartmentalize sections of a facility from the main router such as a small graphic design group in a large broadcast facility. Studio Videohub is available now for US$2,995 or €2095.