Blackmagic Design has been on a roll this past few months, rolling out steady firmware updates ever since the beginning of the Summer. With the latest update, the 4K URSA ups the frame rates to 80fps at 4K for some incredible slow-motion shots, as well as a new compression ratio of 3:1 in 4K Raw.
Just last week, Blackmagic Design released their latest free firmware update for their camera line-up, this time affecting primarily their flagship 4K URSA cameras.
The new Camera Utlity firmware update 1.9.9 mainly for the Blackmagic URSA camera features:
- • Adds new compressed RAW 3:1 support
- • Enables 80 fps support in 4K for ProRes and RAW 3:1
- • Enables variable frame rate feature so off-speed clips now playback in project frame rate
- • Enabled phantom power support
- • Added more frame guide options
- • Enabled in-camera formatting for CFast 2.0 media
With these significant additions, the URSA 4K camera becomes even more appealing. Before the firmware update, the camera was limited to 4K at 60p in both ProRes and Raw, however now with the 3:1 compression, the camera can do even more slow-motion at 80 frames per second.
The addition of the new compression, although it is lossy, unlike the mathematically lossless 4K raw compression present still on the camera, the drop in quality is very insignificant and hardly apparent to an untrained eye. The benefit of the 3:1 compression doubles the amount of recording time one can fit on 128GB card to about 14 minutes of 4K raw in the new compression, compared to the 7 minutes of 4K raw with the original lossless compression
At Visual Impact our specialists are available to assist you with your requirements so give us a buzz at 0208 977 1222. Or you can always send us an email at sales@visuals.co.uk.
