Keep in mind that these tests don’t show what the Ursa Mini is really capable of. Nonetheless the results are interesting.
Blackmagic
Ursa Mini 4.6K with GoPro-like Field of View
These videographers attached an 8-16mm sigma lens to their Ursa Mini 4.6K and got some interesting results. The aerial footage looks beautiful. It would be interesting to see a comparison against the Panasonic GH5.
Panasonic GH5 Versus Ursa Mini 4.6K Indoors: Can You Tell the Difference?
Do see the comments for this footage at Vimeo. These two video samples have been color graded to match each other. There’s no doubt that the Blackmagic is the better video camera, but this shows you just how good the Panasonic GH5 is:
DaVicini Resolve 14
Sony Vegas used to be the poor man’s goto video editing software but it hasn’t been kept competitive and MAGIX hasn’t worked their magic on it yet to bring it back to the forefront of viable alternatives to Adobe Premiere Pro.
Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve is a serious product, and given the improvements to playback in version 14, along with a slew of other wonderful useability improvements and hardware accessories, it’s hard to ignore. We’re all hoping for a viable alternative to the $50 a month Adobe tax and Blackmagic may have given it to us. Time will tell to see how version 14 progresses.
For $299 for the pro version (and dongle-less), we will be giving Davinci Resolve a try now that it can playback 4K footage smoothly.
Blackmagic Ursa Mini Pro Review
Early indications make me wonder if Blackmagic did some tweaking with the sensor for the Blackmagic Ursa Mini Pro as fix patterned noise issues and magenta issues seem to be significant reduced. More time is need to be sure, but some of those issues were overemphasized and did not necessarily present a problem after post processing. Regardless, we’re happy for the seeming improvement.
Panasonic GH5 versus GH4 versus Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K
Creative Planet Network rented the Panasonic GH5 and compared it to the GH4 and the Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K. Stronz has lots of experience with Panasonic products and this is one of the better, short reviews (~12 minutes).
More about the Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K
Well, I’m glad I didn’t pick up my Ursa Mini 4.6K now. For $1000 more the Ursa Mini Pro 4.6K has so many more features. Let’s hope they’ve improved the firmware in regards to the fix patterned noise (that said, don’t expect this to be a low light camera).
Blackmagic Announces the Ursa Mini Pro
Take the Blackmagic Ursa Mini and add in a ton of desirable additional features and you have the Ursa Mini Pro. Well we were hoping for a new, smaller, more affordable high-dynamic range video camera, this is hard not to like too.
The camera will be $6000 and uses the same sensor that is in the Ursa Mini 4.6K.
Some of the desirable additional features include:
- Built-in ND filters
- CFast and SD Card Slots
- Interchangeable lens mount (including a forthcoming Nikon mount)
- Optional SSD recorder module that attaches to the back of the camera
- Side LCD panel
- Upgrade price is $3500 if you already have the Ursa Mini 4.6K
See the Blackmagic website for more.