Monday, March 27, 2017

Does Atomos' free CinemaDNG RAW upgrade mean trouble for the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro?

Looks like the $5995 Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro is no longer the only way to get 4K RAW (with built-in ND filters) for less than $6000.

As of March 27th, 2017, when the free Atomos Shogun RAW upgrade becomes available for download, shooters can also record 4K RAW with a $3999 Sony FS700 and a $1795 Atomos Shogun Inferno.

Nice run-through of Atomos CinemaDNG RAW workflow with Resolve and Adobe CC in this video from Atomos and Sony:


For a total cost of $5794, the FS700/Inferno combination not only costs less than the URSA Mini Pro - it also delivers 240 fps RAW slow motion at 1080p (the Blackmagic maxes out at 120 fps).  

Plus, the FS700's base ISO is 2000 (S-Log2), compared to the URSA Mini 4.6K's ISO 800.

The FS700 also includes a battery - and the Inferno provides an SSD storage solution - which means no expensive external battery solution, CFast 2.0 cards or $599 SSD adapter required.

To be fair, adding in the $945 price of DaVinci Resolve Studio (included with the URSA) makes the total price of the two alternatives about the same - but doesn't erase the FS700's low light and slow motion advantages.

For current FS700 owners, this is almost a no-brainer - and for shooters thinking about stepping up to 4K RAW, this is a great new option.

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