Our New Favorite Camera - Blackmagic URSA Mini 4.6K Review
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,836 words · ~9 min read
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I have a wonderful electronic invention I want you to see it looks something
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like you
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so last year in April I saw the Blackmagic URS mini 4.6k for the first
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time and I was surprised by what Blackmagic was attempting to achieve in
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a lowbudget production camera so can the UR mini live up to all the hype
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surrounding it since release or is it another Blackmagic release late and
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buggy it's definitely one of those things let's find out if it's both
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cooler Masters Master Cas maker 5 features their free form modular system
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allowing you to customize adjust and upgrade make it yours at the link below
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to start things off black magic has essentially taken their original Ursa
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form factor and shrunk it down to in my opinion something that is much more
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sensible for the Target and user at the back the Ursa has a lanc connection an
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STI out an STI in time code in a 4 pin
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XLR port for power and a headphone jack moving to the right of the camera we
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have a second sdio and four pin XLR Port made specifically for use with black
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Magic's electronic viewfinder an optional accessory then on the top of
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the camera we have two 3 pin XLR ports for audio along with 4420 mounting
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points for accessories such as black Magic's top handle at the very front we
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have a much appreciated Blackmagic staple a built-in mic for Scratch audio
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on the left of the camera we meet the 5-in 1080p capacitive touchscreen which
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opens up away from the the camera camcorder style directly to the right of
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the monitor we have the audio dials and other controls as well as two dual cast
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2.0 slots a tough decision that Blackmagic made with a lot of pros and
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cons let's start with the cons seast 2.0
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cards which may be the wave of the future you can learn more about them here are not cheap right now a 64 gig
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card one card runs north of $200 making
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matters worse that 64 gig card gets you about 6 minutes of record time at 24 FPS
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in the ARs Minis highest prores recording setting and even less in
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uncompressed raw before you even need to offload my solution has been to use the
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atos c2s a cfast SSD adapter that allows
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you to seamlessly use ssds in place of cfast cards without getting into too
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much detail my experience was usable at
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best you you can't close the LCD many ssds even ones that should probably work
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are detected inconsistently and The Upfront cost of the box is frankly
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ludicrous but I would still recommend it or something similar over loading up on
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cast cards at this time because ultimately I didn't lose any footage and
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I did find some drives that worked well and thanks to the much higher available
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capacities of ssds Samsung's 3.84 TB
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pm863 worked really well for me I didn't have to constantly be concerned with the
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dreaded countdown timer with that out of the way let's get into what makes this
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camera really special that wonderful super 35 4.6k sensor so let's shoot some
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resolution charts right no black magic
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also boasts that the Ursa mini delivers a whopping 15 stops of dynamic range and
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if you're not sure why that's important you can learn more about that here so
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instead I took the Ursa out on a date in the real world covering lighting
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situations from harsh Noonday sun to Sunset along the water and look at this
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from the darkest Shadow to the brightest highlight nothing in this image is
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clipped I love our daily driver the a7s2 but compared to its roughly 12 stops of
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dynamic range the Ursa Mini's capabilities are noticeable as much more
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than a spec sheet on paper and when reviewing the footage after each day I
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was truly astonished by some of the results black Magic's color science this
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time around has taken a huge leap forward compared to their previous
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cameras which always had strong green casts in their film setting making it
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much more difficult to grade them and this is not the case with the Ursa mini
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viewing the footage in re 709 while shooting in the camera's film setting
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was a pleasure skin tones for me in particular really came to life and gave
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the footage a really natural feel something that has been much more
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difficult with our current staple of Sony cameras usability is a solid point
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for this camera you'll need to find your own battery plate and batteries either
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vlock or gold Mount and like a lens but
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it's basically grab and go from there when recording you can choose between a
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wide range of options with every flavor of prores from their 444 xq down to
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prores proxy as well as compressed 3:1
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and 4:1 raw recording though looking over the footage I could not tell the
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difference visually between raw and prores 4444 so you can't really do wrong
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either way it is a shame that in order to access the camera's full 4.6k
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resolution you are required to shoot in one of the raw recording options but
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this is a minor complaint in my eyes considering how good the UHD image
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already is even the built-in 5-in monitor is pretty darn good the touch
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interface is both responsive and simple to use almost to a fault as it hides
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fairly basic camera controls Beyond aperture behind two button presses and
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takes over the entire screen making previewing your adjustments a bit of a
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pain the two mapable buttons on the side of the camera will hopefully help with
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this but in the current frameware that I'm using they don't do anything so I'll
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just keep waiting black magic but for the best results I'd still recommend
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something a bit better to make judging exposure easier black Magic's evf while
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pricey at $1,500 was an absolute treat to use if you shoot Outdoors a lot but
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the built-in monitor really is very good and i' considered an upgrade to be a
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nice to have not an absolute need to have but that's all fine and good
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tooling around downtown Vancouver by myself how does it hold up in more
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realistic Cinema style applications where I have a decent sized crew I
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wasn't sure so I gathered a few friends and we shot a short on Saturday to my
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surprise the camera held up very well once I found the right combination of
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rigging Parts I was able to keep focused on the content of the short instead of
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thinking about any technical issues of the camera High Praise indeed and the
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monitor showed us its strength when we put it up on the jib in the middle of
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the day without a second monitor use allowing us to get this shot and the
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praise keeps coming initially when I heard the URS mini would include up to
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120 FPS slow motion I didn't give the feature much thought but after trying it
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out damn in the past we've always had to use external devices and media to record
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slow motion continuously rather than only in short bursts the Ursa handles a
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60 FPS recording at 3:1 compressed raw and up to 120 FPS at 2K with a windowed
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sensor to internal media what is even better is the fine control that you have
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over frame rate we use 35 fr per second on a recent Channel Super Fun Shoot to
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get the desired effect and the fact that it records audio why doesn't every
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camera do this however it's not perfect at 1080p with a Windows sensor exposing
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at 800 ISO the image gets a bit too noisy and soft to be usable but if you
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can avoid shooting at higher isos in this mode specifically there is a lot to
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love here and on the subject of high isos Blackmagic designed the URS need to
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be used with lighting or ample natural light this is not I repeat not intended
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to be a low light camera which is how I plan to convince lonus to get me to keep
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the a7s2 fs5 and this new toy different
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jobs need different tools Linus wouldn't use an iFixit kit to repair his car
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would
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he maybe he would which brings me nicely into my conclusion Blackmagic has been
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changing the camera industry since 2012 their style of delivering unheard of
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features and performance at unbelievable price points have made their customers
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Linus Media Group included forgive some of their fault and none of that changes
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today the URS mini 4.6k is a camera that to me unlocks creative Avenues I never
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would have dreamed of possible at a price point under $10,000 from the
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improved color to the reasonable size to the excellent codec support I think QC
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issues aside and I've got a little post under the video with my experiences with
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that Blackmagic has a true winner of a camera on its hands and going forward
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once we get our own unit to keep the LTT Studio has its new a camera it's just
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such an astonishing image to work with
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