Just before Christmas, AJA made some folks pretty happy when they announced that after months of finalising their first foray into the camera world, their crowned jewel – the 4K CION was finally shipping to pre-order customers. As a matter of fact, the camera is shipping worldwide and has been for the last month or so. And today, AJA announced firmware update version 1.1 for the camera, the details of which you can see below. Announced earlier in the 2014 during the premier industry gathering at NAB 2014, the AJA Cion offers a Super 35mm sensor and in camera 4K DCI and UHD recording onto AJA’s own SSD media drives in ProRes 4444 or Apple ProRes 422 (plus all other flavours up to 4444) up to 30 fps, 60fps in ProRes 422, and even a 4K Raw up to 120fps through 3G-SDI to an external recorder.
Requirements and Recommendations
This firmware version is uploaded to the AJA CION camera via the built-in web UI.
Note: AJA recommends performing a Factory Reset under the CONFIG menu prior to performing the firmware update. For detailed instructions on updating the CION firmware, please refer to the CION Production Camera Operations Manual pages 71 and 72. If you are not familiar with the configuration of the web UI, refer to pages 66 through 71 of the CION Operations Manual.
Note: If you change the Static IP address of the CION camera, you may need to power cycle the CION so that the host computer correctly identifies the new IP address.
New Features in Firmware v1.1
• Exposure Index (EI) values have been increased.
The new values are:
• EI 320
• EI 500
• EI 800
• EI 1000
Improvements
• Improved overexposure handling. Prior to this firmware update, very overexposed portions of the image (clipped values) could display a colour shift.
• Fixed an issue where the Unity white balance selection was not correctly displayed when using the Super Out on-screen display overlay information. Prior to this firmware update, “4” was displayed instead of “Unity”.
• Corrected the hyperlink on the CION web UI “Firmware Update” page. When connected to the Internet and the hyperlink is clicked, the correct web page is now opened.
Earlier in December, AJA also release a technical video, which demonstrates the CION Exposure Index, Gamma and In-Camera Colour Correction Comparison.
In case you missed it, check out the AJA CION Ungrade Images Reel below.
CION – Science of the Beautiful; Ungraded Images Reel from AJA Marketing on Vimeo.
The AJA CION was often scrutinised for being a native ISO 400 camera (the CION uses the CMV 12000 Super 35 4K sensor by CMOSIS, same one as in the BMPC, something neither BMD nor AJA have confirmed yet) and so far models displayed at trade shows have had either the ISO locked at 400 as some have reported. Thus the latest firmware update expands the EI and adds more ISO values for situations where they are needed. As we’re nearing NAB 2015 and the market place gets even more competitive, it would be interesting to see what AJA comes up with in future firmware updates.
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