Blackmagic Design announced its Cinema Camera at the 2012 NAB Show. The camera includes 13 stops of dynamic range; a large 2.5K sensor; an integrated SSD recorder that has the bandwidth to capture CinemaDNG RAW, ProRes and DNxHD files; an integrated capacitive touchscreen LCD for direct metadata entry; standard jack audio connectors; and a refrigerated sensor.
The Blackmagic Cinema Camera is fully compatible with EF and ZF mount lenses. It also includes SDI and Thunderbolt connectors and comes with a full copy of DaVinci Resolve and UltraScope software.
The camera records into CinemaDNG format for RAW files, and DNxHD or ProRes for HD resolution files compatible with Avid Media Composer and Apple Final Cut Pro.
Users can play back all recorded files on the LCD, and there is a built-in microphone and speaker for reviewing audio. The integrated LCD has a touchscreen and when tapped, a window called the "slate" appears, where users can type in shot information just like typing on a smartphone. This is then recorded into the file as metadata in the Final Cut Pro X and DaVinci Resolve format. Common data like shot number can auto increment to save time.
Users can also change camera settings on this touch LCD, such as frame rate, shutter angle, color temperature, dynamic range, focus assist settings and more. The SDI output has overlays showing users all the camera data when monitoring on set, and even the same data when playing back recorded files.
