Blackmagic URSA First 4K Footage By John Brawley

Australian, DP and Blacmagic Design’s “go-to” cinematographer – John Brawley go this Blackmagic Design URSA PL mount camera earlier in the week and teased some photos on Twitter, effectively putting an end to all speculations that the camera does indeed exist. We covered the event in our post here on 4KShooters.net.

And just today, he released the much awaited first official footage from BMD’s latest 4K camera, which was originally due to arrive in July.

The Blackmagic 4K URSA footage he shot was all shot in 4K UHD (3840×2160) at 60fps capturing the majestic magic hour atmosphere of Bronte Beach near Sydney, Australia. The footage from the URSA is absolutely breathtaking and impressive.

Here’s what he said about the shoot on this blog:

Although I’ve been involved in other behind the scenes testing at BM, this was the first chance I’ve had to take a camera out and do my own thing.

I start shooting “Hiding”, a new ABC TV series tomorrow morning so I’ve been flat out getting ready for “Hiding”, but I managed to sneak out early this morning before sunrise to the wonderful Bronte beach.

Image courtesy of John Brawley

Image courtesy of John Brawley

The Blackmagic URSA was outfitted with a Panavision supplied Cooke 25-250 MK3 T 3.7 zoom lens.

Everything was shot at:

  • 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) ProRes HQ
  • ISO 400
  • 60 FPS
  • True ND 9 and 1.5 

This clip was shot over a period of about 90 mins.  I filled three of my four 128Gb SanDisk CFast 2.0 cards and did it on two Vlock batteries. Many of the shots were done before sunrise.  Pretty impressive for 400 ISO @ T4 at that frame rate.

Here’s what John wanted to note about using the vintage Panavision zoom lens:

The Cooke 25-250 zoom is a vintage lens that’s over 30 years old.  It’s quite soft on the edges even when the centre is sharp.  You’ll also see a lot of chromatic aberration.  It’s hardly what you’d call a modern lens design.  But I like it for it’s personality.

Here is the 1st Official Blackmagic Design URSA 4K Footage. All shot by John Brawley.

[via John Brawley’s blog]

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