Not a ‘ship date,’ not ‘available soon’ – Blackmagic have just announced that the highly anticipated Ursa Mini 4.6K camera is now shipping and will be in the hands of people who have pre-ordered it soon.
Just one wrinkle – the global shutter setting has been removed from both cameras. Blackmagic’s Grant Petty discusses why the company decided to make the change in a video on Blackmagic’s support site here. Apparently both the Ursa Mini 4.6K and the Micro Cinema Camera were having different ‘issues’ with the global shutter mode – he doesn’t go into exactly what these were.
This is a touch disappointing as a global shutter on a camera at this price point would have been unprecedented, as well as banishing the dreaded jello wobble from fast-moving footage.
Petty says that Blackmagic are building cameras ‘as fast as [they] can get sensors into the factory’ – hopefully this will mean not too much longer to wait for anyone who has pre-ordered.
For those who have back-ordered a 4.6K and no longer want it if you can’t have a global shutter, Blackmagic say they will ‘fully support’ anyone who wants to ‘alter their order.’
This leaves the existing Ursa Mini 4K being repositioned by Blackmagic as a slightly different flavour of Ursa – one with slight less dynamic range but with the option of a global shutter. The new 4.6K is being touted as more of a digital film camera, where this functionality isn’t as important as the dynamic range of the image.
We haven’t tested the Mini 4.6K here at Newsshooter yet – we’ve covered the gradual emergence of footage from other shooters and DPs though, and we’re looking forward to putting one through its paces.
