News

Press Release

IBC 2014, Amsterdam, The Netherlands - September 12, 2014 - Blackmagic Design today announced the immediate availability of two new cinema cameras, the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K PL and Blackmagic Cinema Camera PL. Both cameras now include PL mount models for using professional cinema lenses or even vintage cinema lenses and are now available from 1815 EUR.

Blackmagic Production Camera 4K PL and Blackmagic Cinema Camera PL will be demonstrated on the Blackmagic Design IBC 2014 booth in Hall 7, Stand H20.

The new PL lens mount options for the classic Blackmagic Cinema Camera design now provides customers with an extremely small and extremely strong design. The strength comes from the chassis which is machined out of a solid block of aluminum. With the combination of the PL lens mount, the whole camera design has enough strength to hold an extremely heavy PL mount lens. This means cinematographers now have a professional PL mount digital film camera that’s so small, the camera body is only a little larger than the lens mount itself. Customers then get a design that can fit into the tightest locations while still allowing decades of classic professional film lenses to be used.

With these 2 new PL mount models, Blackmagic Design customers can now choose from 5 separate variations of this small, tough design. With a combination of 2 different sensor types as well as 3 different lens mounts, customers can now simply select the features they need based on the work they do.

The Blackmagic Production Camera 4K PL gives you a high resolution Super 35mm size sensor with global shutter and a more creative depth of field. Customers get incredible Ultra HD images with 12 stops of dynamic range and a large sensor with minimal crop factor so they can capture amazing wide angle, feature film quality shots. When working in HD, customers can use the high resolution images to reframe and zoom into shots without any quality loss.

The Blackmagic Cinema Camera PL has a 2.5K sensor with a super wide 13 stops of dynamic range that delivers truly cinematic quality images. Both cameras have dramatically wider dynamic range than traditional video cameras that preserves more detail in the blacks and whites of an image. For example, customers can shoot indoors with the correct exposure and still get full detail through windows outside. Every detail captured by the cameras’ sensors is preserved in the RAW files and can be edited and grade natively using the included DaVinci Resolve software for the highest possible quality output!

Both cameras capture CinemaDNG RAW and ProRes files using the built in high speed SSD recorder. Once the shot has wrapped, the disk can be connected to a computer for editing or color correcting straight from the disk using DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro X, Media Composer, or Premiere Pro CC. Working with CinemaDNG RAW preserves the wide dynamic range of the files, allowing customers to open them directly in DaVinci Resolve 11 for editing and grading at the highest quality. That means the final output from DaVinci Resolve is literally a first generation render from the camera original RAW files!

The Blackmagic Production Camera 4K PL and Cinema Camera PL have been designed with portability and durability in mind. They include standard connections so customers do not need to hunt for custom cables, an internal battery, a high resolution 5” LCD touchscreen viewfinder that can be used for entering metadata and that shows settings such as shutter speed, color temperature, timecode and more. Both cameras feature professional SDI connections, built-in Thunderbolt, 1/4” audio jacks for mic/line inputs, 12V to 30V DC input, a 3.5mm headphone socket and LANC for remote control. Blackmagic Cinema Cameras are true digital film cameras that you can hold in your hand, but with the strength to be rigged on cranes, used on Steadycams, in crash cars and more.

“Since the launch of the first Blackmagic Cinema Camera, customers have been asking us for a solution that works with PL cinema lenses. What people don’t know is that when we were originally designing the Cinema Camera, we were designing it as PL mount. But we quickly realized that allowing it to work with photographic lenses was important, so we changed to the EF lens mount for Canon lens compatibility. But you can see from the design of the solid metal chassis, that the camera was way over engineered for the EF lens mount. Now the PL lens mount is completed it’s easy to see what a great combination this strong chassis and the PL mount are. It’s the perfect balance and it’s so strong!” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. “What’s also exciting, is the PL mount lets cinematographers add classic PL mount lenses. That means if you want to shoot something from the 1980s, then you can just choose the lens they used in the 1980’s and shoot with it. There are so many different kinds of classic cinema lenses out there with all types of glass, materials and coatings that the looks are endless. All those can now be used on these new cameras!”

Blackmagic Production Camera 4K Key Features

– Production Camera 4K PL features a large, high resolution 4K Super 35mm sized sensor with global shutter with 12 stops of dynamic range.

– Cinema Camera PL features a large, high resolution 2.5K sized sensor with 13 stops of dynamic range.

– Compatible with extremely high quality PL cinema lenses.

– Built in SSD recorder allows long duration recording onto solid state disks.

– CinemaDNG RAW and ProRes open file formats compatible with DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro X, Media Composer and Premiere Pro CC. No custom file formats.

– Blackmagic Cinema Camera also records in DNxHD.

– Features all standard connections, including jack mic/line audio in, headphone mini jack, Thunderbolt, LANC remote control and standard 12V DC power connection. Blackmagic Cinema Camera supports 3G-SDI output for monitoring with camera status graphic overlay, and Blackmagic Production Camera.

– Built in touch screen LCD for camera settings and metadata entry compatible with popular video editing software including DaVinci Resolve 11 and Final Cut Pro X.

– Blackmagic Production Camera 4K supports 1080HD and Ultra HD, and Blackmagic Cinema Camera supports 1080HD capture, both at 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97 and 30fps.

– Mounting points on top and bottom for connecting tripods, accessories and building custom rigs using industry standard equipment.

– Includes UltraScope software for live scopes via the built in Thunderbolt connection.

– Includes the full version of DaVinci Resolve 11 editing and color grading software.

Availability and Price

Blackmagic Production Camera 4K PL is available now for 2359 EUR and Blackmagic Cinema Camera PL is available now for 1815 EUR.

Press Photography

Product photos of the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K PL, Blackmagic Cinema Camera PL and all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Press Release

IBC 2014, Amsterdam, Netherlands - September 12, 2014 - Blackmagic Design today announced its acquisition of eyeon Software, Inc., a leading developer of high end digital compositing, visual effects and motion graphics software for the feature film, commercial, television and broadcast industries. eyeon, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Blackmagic Design.

eyeon’s Fusion 7 will be demonstrated on the Blackmagic Design IBC 2014 booth in Hall 7, Stand H20.

Fusion 7 is one of Hollywood’s leading visual effects compositing and motion graphics tools and has been used on thousands of feature film and television projects. Most recently, Fusion 7 has been used on feature films like Maleficent, Edge of Tomorrow, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, The Amazing Spiderman 2, Captain America, Gravity and more.

Fusion 7 combines the best in motion graphics and high end visual effects compositing into a single application. In addition to its advanced compositing tools, Fusion 7 also includes comprehensive paint, rotoscope, keying, layering and titling tools, along with an amazing particle generator system. It can import geometry from other applications as well as create its own elements, like text and particles, from scratch. Elements can be composited together and quickly output using Fusion’s GPU accelerated render engine. Multiple renders can be combined in one project to render different aspects of the same scene. Fusion 7 goes beyond just compositing layers and has a full set of creation tools for building objects and scene elements in a 3D system that can handle millions of polygons with complex shading.

“We’re really excited about the acquisition of eyeon,” said Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. “Fusion compositing, 3D and motion graphics software has been used on some of Hollywood’s biggest visual effects blockbusters. When used together with DaVinci Resolve for editing and grading, Fusion also gives customers the world’s most advanced tools for 3D compositing, visual effects, motion graphics design and more!”

“Blackmagic Design is the most progressive company in professional post production today,” said Steve Roberts, CEO and founder of eyeon. “With their focus on developing the best solutions and a global network of offices, Blackmagic gives customers the products and services they deserve. The acquisition of eyeon will provide greater development and support of Fusion and Generation, where customers will now have more dynamic, comprehensive, and faster solutions for their creative needs.”

“Fusion 7’s great 3D improvements have added to our toolkit, giving us options that greatly expand our ability to quickly put together shots and make final adjustments without the need to go back into a 3D app for changes,” said David Stinnett, VFX Supervisor, Blur Studios, Thor: The Dark World and Amazing Spiderman 2. “Fusion 7 expands our ability to stay flexible for whatever the job demands.”

“The great thing about using Fusion for motion graphics is that you have an unlimited number of ways to create and design shots so you don’t have to leave the package to get the job done,” said Dunn Lewis, Motion Graphics and VFX artist. “Fusion can handle it all. With its full true 3D compositing environment, motion graphic tools, Spline editor for precise animation curves, Timeline for timing effects and Node based system for compositing, you can overcome any challenge.”

eyeon will continue to support its customers and expand its sales channels with the added strength of the Blackmagic Design organization. eyeon will also continue developing solutions for the VFX and post production industries, including its flagship application, Fusion.

About eyeon Software

eyeon Software develops Fusion™, an award-winning compositing application that has been used on thousands of feature film and broadcast projects for over 25 years. eyeon artists have contributed significant work to recent box office successes, such as Maleficent, Edge of Tomorrow, Hercules, Gravity, Noah, White House Down, The Hunger Games (1, 2, & 3), The Wizard of Oz 3D, Orphan Black, Star Wars In 3D, The Amazing Spider-Man (1 & 2), Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Prometheus, Immortals, Game of Thrones, Anonymous, Captain America, Priest, Sucker Punch, Unknown, The Social Network, Gnomeo & Juliet, Chronicles of Narnia, Prince of Persia, Avatar, 2012, Alice in Wonderland, New Moon, G.I. Joe, X-Men Origins, Twilight, Iron Man, Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D, 9, 300, Spiderman, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Happy Feet, Sin City (1 & 2), and many more.

In addition to Fusion, eyeon develops Generation® 4K, a breakthrough 4K playback system, Generation® AM, the asset management front end desktop for visual effects, Rotation®, an advanced rotoscoping system, Dimension®, a suite of tools designed for stereoscopic and image improvement challenges, Connection®, a bridge between Avid® and eyeon products, and now EPP®, a host of scripts and workflow solutions.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

The new Adobe CC 2014.1 deskop video application releases introduced at the IBC 2014 feature numerous enhancements. All of the Creative Cloud video applications have been given gentle facelifts, using a more subtle color scheme and simplified UI elements. In addition to the UI refinements, the video apps have all been updated to work with HiDPI displays, including Mac OS X and Windows 8.1 devices.

Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2014.1

– New Search Bins allow users to automatically generate dynamic bins based on search criteria, including new Advanced Timeline Search capabilities. Search Bins update as new content is added to a project, so users can keep projects organized, even as new footage is still coming in.

– Consolidate & Transcode allows users to move all relevant files in projects and sequences to reduce the overall project size. Once the setting is selected in the Project Manager panel, all content is rendered into a single codec and a compact new project file is created.

– Multi-project workflows allow editors to bring everything they need into one workspace. Users can open multiple Media Browser panels for easy access to as many projects as needed. The new Source Monitor Timeline view opens a second Timeline for media and sequences from other projects, making it easy to bring existing clips, edits, transitions, or graphics directly into your current project.

– Premiere Pro CC now offers full support for reading and encoding GoPro CineForm, an easily managed, cross-platform intermediate codec, ideal for high resolution footage. And the Premiere Pro CC engineers keep finding ways to get more out of the GPU with native support for 4K, 5K, 6K (and higher) content, including new GPU-based deBayering for AJA RAW, Canon RAW, and Phantom Cine, as well as RED and Cinema DNG footage.

– Existing features see some significant new capabilities, too, like enhanced Masking & Tracking, that enables users to adjust feathering directly in the Program Monitor, or use the free-draw polygon tool to create complex mask shapes. Use Render & Replace to speed up performance of VFX-heavy sequences by flattening After Effects CC compositions into video clips—and thanks to Dynamic Link, the original comps are always accessible if you need to make further changes. Improved Master Clip effects, Send to Audition, and AAF export to DAWs, are just a few other enhancements coming to Premiere Pro CC this Fall.

Adobe After Effects CC 2014.1

– The 2014.1 release of After Effects CC offers an enhanced Live 3D Pipeline, adding Cineware 2.0 and CINEMA 4D R16 compatibility, so that artists can work faster and more easily with 3D elements in their compositions.

– Broadcasters and large facilities that use Adobe Anywhere for video will benefit from improved Anywhere collaboration to streamline remote workflows with version tracking and project sharing.

– In addition, the new version offers a number of usability refinements, such as more visible anchor points on layers, tracking behavior improvements, and more incremental improvements that make motion graphics and visual effects work easier and more efficient.

The AJ-PX800G is a new-generation camera-recorder for news gathering. It is network connectable and provides superb picture quality, high mobility and excellent cost-performance. Weighing only about 2.8 kg(main unit), the AJ-PX800G is the world's lightest shoulder-type, 2/3-type, three sensor camera-recorder equipped with three MOS image sensors for broadcasting applications. It also supports several AVC-ULTRA codecs - the picture quality and recorded data rate can be selected from one of the AVC-ULTRA family of codec's (AVC-Intra/AVC-LongG) according to the application. Along with a Low-rate AVC-Proxy dual-codec recording ideal for network-based operation and off-line editing. Built-in network functions support wired LAN, optional wireless LAN, and 4G/LTE network connections (third-party module required) enabling on-site preview, uploading data to a server and streaming. The AJ-PX800G is a single-package solution for virtually all broadcasting needs.

Press Release

Blackmagic Design announced the immediate availability of Camera 1.9 software which includes new “heads up display” on screen metering that provides customers with histogram, peak audio meters and recording time remaining for the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K.

Camera 1.9 update is available now free of charge from the Blackmagic Design website.

Using these additional displays for the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K means that customers can easily and quickly check important camera settings such as exposure, audio level and the remaining space on their recording disk.

Using the histogram scope, customers can now easily and rapidly set exposure in a shot as the histogram shows the the distribution of luminance in their images and if highlights or shadows are being clipped. Images with clipped highlights or shadows make it much harder to color grade the shots in post production, so having the histogram feature helps DOP’s shoot with confidence. The histogram scope is real time so highlights and shadows can be adjusted interactively with the lens setting, ensuring images are not clipped and maximum detail in tonal ranges is preserved, critically important for allowing colorists to create amazing grading effects in post production using the full contrast range of the camera.

Camera 1.9 software update also includes a new audio metering with peak hold feature to allow setting audio levels for Channels 1 and 2 when using the built in microphone as well as externally connected audio sources. The audio meters make it fast to view audio levels and adjust camera audio gain so that audio is not clipped or distorted.

The new heads up display also includes a recording time remaining indicator that shows remaining space on the recording disk. The time remaining indicator is automatically re-calibrated to ensure an accurate time remaining value if the either the frame rate or codec are changed, and displays red when the disk is getting full.

This update is available to our Blackmagic Production Camera 4K customers free of charge. Customers can download this update now and install it onto their camera from either Mac or Windows computers using a simple USB cable connection to the camera. Once the update is complete, customers can view the new on screen menus by simply swiping their finger up from the bottom of the capacitative touch screen.

This new heads up display will be released for other models of Blackmagic Design cameras over the coming weeks, so an even wider range of Blackmagic Design camera customers can get the benefits of this new display.

“We are extremely excited that we have been able to provide yet another release for our camera customers ,” said Grant Petty, CEO of Blackmagic Design. “Having this new heads up display with on screen scopes will enable film makers to shoot the most amazing images with confidence that they will get incredible results in post production!”

Blackmagic Production Camera 4K Key Features

– Large high resolution 4K Super 35 mm sized sensor with superior handing of image detail.

– Professional global shutter for smooth pans and image motion.

– Wide 12 stops of dynamic range allows capture of increased details for feature film look.

– Compatible with extremely high quality EF mount lenses.

– Built in SSD recorder allows long duration recording onto solid state disks.

– Open file formats compatible with popular NLE software, such as Apple ProRes and compressed CinemaDNG 12 bit RAW. No custom file formats.

– Features all standard connections, including jack mic/line audio in, 6G-SDI output for monitoring with camera status graphic overlay, headphone mini jack, Thunderbolt, LANC remote control and standard DC 12 power connection.

– Built in touch screen LCD for camera settings and metadata entry compatible with popular video editing software including Final Cut Pro X.

– Supports Ultra HD and 1080HD resolution capture in 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97 and 30 fps.

– Includes UltraScope software for live scopes via the built in Thunderbolt connection.

– Includes DaVinci Resolve color grading software.

Availability and Price

Camera 1.9 is available now for download from the Blackmagic Design web site free of charge for all Blackmagic Production Camera 4K customers.

Press Photography

Product photos of the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K, and all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.