With the introduction of the upcoming URSA Cine 17K, we can surely say that Blackmagic is disrupting the medium format cinema camera market, as it did post-production. The URSA Cine 17K will be Blackmagic’s new high-end top-notch flagship, counterattack the ARRI ALEXA 65, and will bring medium format cinematography and IMAX filmmaking to the masses.

Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K

Blackmagic was a camera company that specialized in Micro 4/3 cameras. However, “Was” is the key word here. The company jumped straight to massive sensors developed in-house. Yes, you heard right. The mighty medium format 65mm sensor implemented on the upcoming URSA Cine 17K has been developed by Blackmagic. It’s not a Sony sensor. The sensor presents ultra specs: 17K, 65mm, 50.808mm X 23.316mm. The diameter is 55.9. Resolution is 17,520 pixels X 8,040 pixels. That a sensor similar to the acclaimed ARRI ALEXA 65, and it’s dedicated to IMAX style production, VFX plates, replacing an array of cameras, and in one sentence: Made for high-end cinema applications, just like the ARRI 65, but with a much much much more affordable price, so you can buy this camera (as opposed to rental-only of the ARRI 65). Moreover, Blackmagic says that the dynamic range is 16 stops, and the imagery looks best of the best.

Full 65mm sized sensor

This is what Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO, said about the URSA Cine 17K:

It’s a 17K sensor and that’s the current 12K sensor from the URSA Mini Pro. It’s a full 65mm in size. It’s 50.808mm by 23.3mm. It’s a similar size as a 70mm 5-perf film. It has the same photo sight as the new full-frame 12K sensor, so this larger size means the sensor is 17K. Its resolution is actually 17,520 pixels by 8,040 pixels at 16 stops of dynamic range. The camera is very similar to the 12K and both models were developed at the same time. This model doesn’t have ND filters built in because the sensor is so large the filters don’t fit, Otherwise, the features are the same, It’s an amazing camera. Now, it won’t ship until close to the end of the year because the lead times are so long and we’re still working on tweaking the software but I think it’ll be really exciting to shoot with it. Imagine if every film could be shot in IMAX style resolutions without being a complex process and that’s our dream, to make high-resolution shooting really easy. As far as cost goes we’re not exactly sure what the price of this will be at. It’ll obviously be a lot more than the 12K model but we should know more towards the end of the year what the price is okay.

Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO

IMAX filmmaking for the masses

Now, before IMAX calls us to tell us that the URSA 17K is not an IMAX-certified camera, and has nothing to do with the IMAX brand, we just want to say that for us, IMAX filmmaking can be done with a 65mm high-resolution digital camera, and that the URSA Cine 17K seems like a perfect fit (so IMAX – don’t call us). You also can claim that Blackmagic disrupts medium format cinematography as we know it. It will be intriguing to make a big screen comparison between the URSA Cine 17K to the ARRI ALEXA 65. Which will win?