Meet Blackmagic’s Upcoming 17K Large-Format Cinema Camera

At NAB 2024, Blackmagic Design unveiled a new large-format cinema camera with an incredibly large resolution.

This is the Ursa Cine 17K camera and though it’s just a teaser release that won’t be available until late 2024, what we know about it is impressive enough to be worth describing.

This monster of a cinema camera will come with a comparatively massive 50.8 x 23.3-millimeter image sensor for outputting its crystal-clear professional cinematographic, large-format 17K video footage.

For a bit of perspective, Blackmagic’s newest, now available Ursa Cine 12K has a sensor with dimensions of “only” 35.6 x 23.3 millimeters and a still impressive 12K resolution.

In other words, the upcoming Ursa camera increases the surface area to roughly 30% more.

Specifically, this translates to a surface area of 1,183.6mm2 and 17,520 x 8,040 pixels, or 140.9 megapixels.

According to Blackmagic, almost all of the specs and features of its recently-released Ursa Cine 12K camera will be on the 17K version with only a few exceptions.

These exceptions include the lack of a neutral density filter due to the larger resolution of the 17K version and the lack of an EF mount version for the same reason. The Ursa 17K will however be available in Arri LPL and Hasselblad mount versions.

Blackmagic claims that the 17K Ursa is not so much an immediately upcoming replacement for the new 12K model. This would indeed be a bit odd considering how soon the 17K is coming.

Instead, it’s a sort of complement to the 12K, giving an option to filmmakers who like what the 12K offers but want even more sensor size.  The new camera will also feature 16 stops of dynamic range.

In further comments to CineD during the NAB event, Stuart Ashton, Business Development Manager at Blackmagic Design, also added that the  Ursa Cine 17K’s huge sensor was designed and engineered by Blackmagic itself.

If you’re wondering how much the 17K Ursa Cine will cost, we don’t know, but don’t expect it to be too cheap. The newly released Ursa Cine 12K is priced at $14,995, so the 17K version will doubtles cost a fair margin more.

However, for comparison, Arri’s large-format Alexa 65 camera for Hollywood films costs between $10,000 and $20,000 per day just to rent.

Actually buying one of these large-format Arri cameras would set a film production team back by over $150,000 for just the camera body. With key lenses priced in, an Alexa 65 could cost well over $200,000.

Incidentally, the 50.8 x 23.3-millimeter sensor size on the Ursa Cine 17K is quite similar to that of the super-pricey Alexa 65, which has a 54.1 x 25.6-millimeter sensor.

With those kinds of larger-format camera prices, the Ursa Cine 12K’s price of nearly $15,000 actually makes the camera a very affordable option for filmmakers who want to enter large-format cinematography.

The 17K edition will likely offer something similar at a different level. It won’t be cheap by any amateur filmmaker’s standards, but compared to what most current alternatives cost, it will probably seem amazingly affordable.

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