MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.
Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1299064
Sensor’s Sensibility When it has made its way through whatever fine piece of optics you’ve selected, either PL, EF, or F-mount, your image will hit the new 12,288 x 6,480 12K Super 35 sensor that can handle a full 14 stops of dynamic range. (To save you the arithmetic, this comes out just shy of 80 megapixels per frame.) The sensor was developed in Blackmagic Design’s own labs with an architecture that’s focused on a Blackmagic RAW workflow as well as the URSA’s unique hardware. The sensor has an equal number of red, green, and blue receptors, so there’s no need either an optical prism or the space and cost of multiple sensors. This would also be part of the reason that the URSA 12K shoots at a native ISO of 800. From the super-sensor, your image is handed off to the URSA 12K’s powerful and versatile processing hardware. And here lies the answer to the question on the lips of a lot of folks: Why 12K? Before the editors in the crowd jump in with answers, we need to speak to the photographers and directors. This kind of megapixel overkill gives you a lot of versatility in the field. You not only have the ability to record a huge amount of detail, it also means that you are recording an exceptional amount of tonal and color information that provide startlingly lifelike renditions of scenes. The other big benefit comes in the form of frame rates. In 12K, it’s perfectly comfortable shooting at 60p. Dialing back to 8K or 4K will get you up to 110 and 220 fps respectively. When a scene calls for super slo-mo, the URSA Mini Pro 12K is ready. Color processing is handled by what Blackmagic is calling Generation 5 Color Science, the system that creates the updated Blackmagic RAW output. As should be obvious, the technology also lets you output to virtually any aspect ratio.