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Author Topic: Download some Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K footage  (Read 10629 times)

John Brawley

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Download some Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K footage
« on: March 20, 2016, 09:24:21 pm »

Hello.

I've been shooting with the Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K and wanted to share some RAW footage with you.

Be aware these are rather large files and you need the current version of Resolve to open them.

Have fun !

Here's some more DNG's for downloading. There's a mix of evening and dusk shots here with tricky and mixed lighting. Compressed RAW as well.
https://johnbrawley.wordpress.com/2016/03/21/ursa-mini-4-6k-carnival/

jb
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Chris L

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Re: Download some Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K footage
« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2016, 04:55:30 pm »

Hey thanks John. These look great.

I am very interested in this camera but am I was planning on shooting Pro Res primarily. Am I correct that the only way to keep the camera to shoot in Super 35mm is to shoot 4.6K raw? If I switch to Pro Res I will inherit a larger crop factor?

I have a set of Cine Modded Leica R lenses and the widest I have is the 19mm ( Version2 ) , which is great, but the crop factor of my BMCC has been an issue and I am trying to get away from that.
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John Brawley

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Re: Download some Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K footage
« Reply #2 on: April 10, 2016, 09:15:55 am »

Hi Chris.

No there's no crop. When you shoot ProRes it creates a UHD container that scales the whole sensor.

So same sensor size scaled into a slightly smaller resolution file.

It's brilliant.

The only time it ever crops or Windows the sensor is when you go above 60fps.

JB.
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Chris L

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Re: Download some Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K footage
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2016, 03:57:16 pm »

Hi Chris.

No there's no crop. When you shoot ProRes it creates a UHD container that scales the whole sensor.

So same sensor size scaled into a slightly smaller resolution file.

It's brilliant.

The only time it ever crops or Windows the sensor is when you go above 60fps.

JB.

Thats great news, thanks. My plan is to buy the Ursa shoulder rig for it, shoot 3.8K Pro Res without tripod in most cases, stabilize in post software ( FCPx ), and deliver 1080p.
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John Brawley

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Re: Download some Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K footage
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2016, 07:28:53 pm »

Thats great news, thanks. My plan is to buy the Ursa shoulder rig for it, shoot 3.8K Pro Res without tripod in most cases, stabilize in post software ( FCPx ), and deliver 1080p.

Not sure if you saw the new UI announced at NAB, but they've added a lot of other ProRes resolutions too including 4.6K

JB
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John Brawley

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Re: Download some Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K footage
« Reply #5 on: April 26, 2016, 08:46:58 pm »




You shot raw, conformed out to what? . . .  ProRes.  After setting your gamma and grade what is the approx. processing time in Resolve, 1 to 1, etc. and if so were you using large graphic cards?

Hi, thanks for the kind words.

So, when you say REEL are you talking about the footage from the pier ?  Or the first link with the short film that was done for Blackmagic? All of this was shot RAW uncompressed or 4:1 (for the pier).  It was edited in Resolve (not by me) using the proxxies tool using a MAC based single GPU Resolve system.  My early 2011 Macbook Pro can run Resolve and processes / render's single node grades at 2 FPS, so pretty slow and not fast enough to grade from, but Resolve has some pretty good proxy systems now.  My macbook is 6 years old and "only" has an old 1Gb GPU.  Resolve is very GPU dependent and many that want fast RAW will want to look towards PC based resolve systems with a couple of GPUS and drives fast enough to serve those large file sup.

So the film was edited in Resolve, and I then took the finished EDL to Company 3 in the US.  They conformed the files in Resolve and we spend a couple of nights grading the film.


With the Mini how pronounced is the rolling shutter?



Like any RS camera it's there if you go looking for it and in the right circumstances.  But you can also see RS on an Alexa in the right situation too.

Here's the integration times compared to a few other popular cameras.

Ursa Mini 4.6K 15ms

Sony FS 7 15ms

RED ONE MX 16.6ms

Canon C300 16ms

Sony A7R II 33ms

Canon 5D Mark II 26ms



What is the real world sensitivity of the sensor in iso and the suggested base iso?  (just guessing on the SM Pier images but it looks quite high, around 2,000?


ISO 800 is the base, and I mostly don't change that.  On the short film EVERYTHING was shot ISO 800, including the night footage.  On a few shots at the the pier in Santa Monica at VERY END of the day I went to ISO1600.  That's the highest in camera ISO you can choose, but you can also push it much further with a bit of noise reduction.  12.5 Resolve has some excellent noise reduction that competes well with other well known solutions like Neat Video.

The camera is good in low light because it has a huge dynamic range.  That's the key really.  It's not like a Sony or Canon and once you lift it a couple of stops in underlit or dark situations you'll start to see some FPN.  You can see this in some of the night shots I shot for yourself if you download them.

How does it push and what is the highest sensitivity that is useable (I know useable is very subjective)?

I don't go past 1600.  With noise reduction you could go further, but I don't need to in the work I do and it's diminishing returns for me past 1600.


How is the stability of the cameras operating system?

Never had it crash EVER.  It starts up in about 4 seconds (depending on media size) and is ready to shoot.  I find more instability from cameras like the Alexa, the F55 and especially RED.  ONe thing that is solid is the camera's OS and start up times, and record latency.

How is the build quality?  Is this a camera you would count on for heavy production?

Pretty good.  It's a bit hard for me to comment because I tend to have hand made prototype cameras, not cameras that have come from the factory floor.  They're not exactly indicative of the release quality.

Generally the body and physical stuff is good.  A lot of people dismissed their first camera, the 2.5K BMCC has being a toy, but you could honestly bash in tent pegs with the body.

Where I've seen failing especially with the little pocket is connectors.  Things like the HDMI port failing, but I think that's more to do with the actual connector rather than BM's implementations of it.  I have three pockets and have had years of using them without the HDMI failing, but I also use a cage with cable locks religiously.

I've had the same UM4.6K body for over 6 months of DAILY work on episodic TV series and it's got a few honest dings but nothing's failed.  It's had multiple assistants and grips handling it.  So far so good.

So I HAVE used it on heavy production and it's been good so far.  In fact it saved my arse on a show I was doing when we smashed our Alexa Mini to pieces when it fell from the roof on a rig shot.  Luckily noone was killed.  We were shooting a massive day with a very expensive location, an aircraft hanger with a 747 parked in it.  I had a lot of hand held running backwards work to do which I didn't want to do with a regular Alexa.  When the Alexa mini got smashed I changed to the Ursa mini and it worked great.  A lot of that sequence went to air as UM4.6K.

JB
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smthopr

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Re: Download some Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K footage
« Reply #6 on: April 27, 2016, 07:10:31 pm »

I looked at the mini at NAB last week.

Beautiful looking viewfinder ....  But, there is a significant delay in viewing the image in the finder. I tried following the Blackmagic model as she moved around the show set, and found it rather difficult to frame well when she changed direction.

A rep from Blackmagic suggested that they are working on minimizing the viewfinder latency, but as of now, I think I'll avoid using this camera, even if the images look spectacular...
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John Brawley

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Re: Download some Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K footage
« Reply #7 on: April 28, 2016, 08:55:28 pm »

I looked at the mini at NAB last week.

Beautiful looking viewfinder ....  But, there is a significant delay in viewing the image in the finder. I tried following the Blackmagic model as she moved around the show set, and found it rather difficult to frame well when she changed direction.

A rep from Blackmagic suggested that they are working on minimizing the viewfinder latency, but as of now, I think I'll avoid using this camera, even if the images look spectacular...

I don't think it will get much lower on the UM4.6k.

It's at about 2-3 frames right now.  Which is also the same on the screen when you flip that out and look.  So I mean the EVF and the screen are the same.

There's always a 1 frame delay for reading the sensor :-)

I really really really hate how the GIANT LEMO EVF connector on the Alexa is right in the worst position right next to the lens mount, and it's so in the wrong place they CHANGED the way the unlock points on the PL mount work.  When I was moaning to the Arri sales manager he told me very politely that's where it had to go to get the least latency...ie right next to the sensor !

I don't think that it would go much faster than it is now and if it did it would only be a small-ish improvement.

JB





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John Brawley

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Re: Download some Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K footage
« Reply #8 on: April 28, 2016, 09:04:59 pm »





I'm looking at alternatives to either supplement or replace my 2 RED 1's and/or Scarlet. 

I appreciate your real world feedback, because even talking to crew, you hear stories, usually bad on every camera and unless they are Start to Finish operators I usually take most with a grain of salt, knowing that most, especially younger operators, are not that invested in learning a system.




Hi Again.

Yes I agree totally.  I was one of the first in Oz to shoot TV drama using RED and there were a lot of ignorance hurdles to overcome.  We also had our problems, but you learnt to workaround those.  That's one of the unspoken "crafts" of being a professional in my view.

I can't speak to the difference between RED and the UM4.6K.  I guess on one level it's so inexpensive relatively, it's hard to go wrong.  There do seem to be a few users who have had some issues with a unevenness in sensor response, with the left hand side of the sensor taking on a magenta tinge. 

I feel sure this is teething problems that seem to happen with a lot of new cameras. There also seem to be many users with "good" cameras so I guess it's a case of making sure you can return if you happen to get one that's not working as expected.

But it's hard to argue with the specs, especially when you get all the ProRes flavours to UHD (and more soon with the new UI).

I'd say for post, given you're comfortable with RAW from your RED experience you shouldn't have too many issues.  It's more taxing on drive bandwidth and many underestimate what's required there, expecting to be able to edit uncompressed 4.6K DNGs.  it's not going to happen without significant hard drive / raid investment.    Redcode has the advantage here with smaller files, but you can of course also shoot 3:1 or 4:1 RAW on the UM4.6K camera as well.

It's either this or maybe an FS7 or maybe a C300 as a C camera ?  I've been very happily using them alongside Alexa's for some time and mostly it's very hard to pick.

This was from set yesterday.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEuq3gjqmXg/?taken-by=johnbrawley

jb




 
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Chris L

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Re: Download some Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K footage
« Reply #9 on: April 29, 2016, 12:00:59 pm »

I don't think it will get much lower on the UM4.6k.

It's at about 2-3 frames right now.  Which is also the same on the screen when you flip that out and look.  So I mean the EVF and the screen are the same.

There's always a 1 frame delay for reading the sensor :-)

I really really really hate how the GIANT LEMO EVF connector on the Alexa is right in the worst position right next to the lens mount, and it's so in the wrong place they CHANGED the way the unlock points on the PL mount work.  When I was moaning to the Arri sales manager he told me very politely that's where it had to go to get the least latency...ie right next to the sensor !

I don't think that it would go much faster than it is now and if it did it would only be a small-ish improvement.

JB

I have been using the Ursa viewfinder on my BMCC even though it is not made for it, the latency seems negligible but perhaps its better on this camera because the less info to read out to for the 2.5K sensor than the 4.6k? I do not know how things like that work scientifically, just a guess.

BTW, Adorama has them in stock and is throwing in the shoulder mount kit for free, which is tempting me but I am gonna hold off for a bit so if someone wants one it sounds like you can get one today.
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Chris L

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Re: Download some Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K footage
« Reply #10 on: May 04, 2016, 05:23:06 pm »

Just a heads up for anyone that wants to buy this camera; I did not pre-order, and was not on a waiting list, but this morning I saw that Adorama still has them in stock ( EF Mount ) so I simply added one to my cart and bought one! Arrives in 1-3 days, free shipping. The website is showing they still have more in stock.
« Last Edit: May 04, 2016, 05:29:03 pm by Chris L »
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