At the live presentation of the new URSA Cine 12K with full-frame sensor, Grant Petty, CEO of Blackmagic Design, acted unexpectedly: he announced another URSA Cine model for the end of this year.
This URSA Cine 17K is to be equipped with a truly gigantic 65mm sensor, also developed in-house, in a similar housing. Due to the size of the sensor, it will not be possible to install an ND filter as with the URSA Cine 12K, but otherwise the camera will actually be almost identical in terms of its features.
The URSA Cine 17K could arrive at the turn of the year
The sensor will be 50.1 mm wide, 23.3 mm high and therefore have a diameter of 55.9 mm. Although this is still somewhat smaller than the sensor of the ALEXA65 (with 54.1 mm × 25.6 mm), it is of course already clearly in its league. Due to the extraordinary sensor size, it is also planned to use LPL and/or Hasselblad mounts.
The sensor of the URSA Cine 17K
In contrast to the 6.5K of the ALEXA65, the resolution of the Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K will be an incredible 17,520 x 8,040 pixels. This means that the debayering philosophy of the URSA 12K models will also be transferred to the 17K model - which could perhaps even qualify as an IMAX camera.
However, since the pixel pitch will not increase any further, it will remain at 16 f-stops as with the URSA Cine 12K - which should nevertheless promise remarkable results: Because even ARRI has not yet converted its ARRI65 to the new ALEV-4 sensors of the ARRI35, but still uses three ALEV-3 sensors "stitched" together by stitching. It is therefore possible that the dynamic range of the URSA Cine 17K could even surpass that of the ARRI65 when it is released, as the latter is "only" classified with over 14 f-stops.
There was already a working prototype on display at NAB 2024
Of course, Blackmagic also has to stay on schedule. When switching on an already operational prototype, Grant Petty mentioned that the camera should be expected by the end of the year at the earliest. Grant also commented on the price: "Obviously a lot more than the 12K model", but we won&t know what the cost structures will look like until the end of the year...
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