Blackmagic Design announced that its new URSA Cine 17K 65 camera is available for orders from resellers worldwide, starting at $29,995. The cinema camera, which includes a massive 65mm RGBW 17,520 x 8,040 sensor with larger photo-sites for 16 stops of dynamic range, was previewed in April at NAB. Its features include interchangeable PL, LPL and Hasselblad lens mounts and industry standard Lemo and Fischer connections. The base model comes with 8TB of internal storage and also has high-speed networking built-in for media uploads and syncing to Blackmagic Cloud.

“The $30,000 price may sound high, but it makes the URSA Cine 17K the most affordable ultra high-resolution medium format sensor cinema camera in the market — made more attractive given its connectivity and versatility,” writes PetaPixel.

“Most other cameras of this capability are only available to rental houses” and are “exceedingly expensive” to rent or purchase from the manufacturer, PetaPixel reports, noting that some high-end packages rent for “upward of $10,000 per day.”

The URSA Cine 17K’s built-in connectivity and other advanced features make for “total integration into the post-production workflow,” especially the company’s own DaVinci Resolve, Blackmagic explains in a news release.

“The ability to transfer media directly into the DaVinci Resolve media bin as editors are working is revolutionary and has never before been possible,” the announcement points out. That makes possible real-time editing in Blackmagic RAW at 17K.

The new sensor is designed for imaging at all resolutions from 4K to 17K. Blackmagic says the 2.2:1 sensor “builds on the technology of URSA Mini Pro 12K with larger photo-sites” delivering the impressive 16 stops. “The unique RGBW architecture provides equal amounts of red, green and blue pixels,” which means “it is optimized to deliver incredibly rich colors at all resolutions,” Blackmagic says.

Digital Camera World notes that “with its 12G-SDI outputs, 10G Ethernet and USB-C, the camera provides extensive connectivity options, while industry-standard Lemo and Fischer connectors enable seamless integration with external accessories including lens motors and focus controls.”

Newsshooter provides a list of features, including Blackmagic Gen 5 color science, complete with new film curve, and “high performance OLPF for reduced moire and aliasing.”

The URSA Cine 17K sensor has “a horizontal size of 55.9mm and a vertical size of 23.32mm,” making it “smaller than the IMAX 70mm 15-perf size,” Newsshooter notes, going into detail on the lenses, explaining that “the full active pixel area of the 17K 65 sensor has a 55.9mm diagonal so if you want to use the full sensor area then you will need to use a lens that covers this or an optical adapter like a focal expander.”

Related:
Blackmagic Design PYXIS Monitor First Look, Newsshooter, 9/15/24