The Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive is now available to pre-order direct from Blackmagic Design offices with delivery starting late Q1 2025. The camera retails for $29,995 USD. Delivery will start in late Q1 2025.
Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive is the world’s first commercial camera system designed to capture immersive 3D content for Apple Vision Pro.
Blackmagic Design teased the URSA Cine Immersive way back in June. The camera was designed to capture content for Apple Vision Pro with 8160 x 7200 resolution per eye. It has a claimed 16 stops of dynamic range for 90fps stereoscopic 3D immersive cinema content. At WWDC, Apple also referred to the camera in their presentation.
The camera is presumably based on the Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K platform. You require at least 100 megapixels to create content for the Apple Vision Pro, and the URSA Cine Immersive will be capable of more than doubling that figure.
Key features
- Dual custom lens system for shooting Apple Immersive Video for Apple Vision Pro.
- 8K stereoscopic 3D immersive image capture.
- 8160 x 7200 resolution per eye with pixel level synchronization.
- Massive 16 stops of dynamic range.
- Lightweight, robust camera body with industry standard connections.
- Generation 5 Color Science with new film curve.
- Each sensor supports 90 fps at 8K captured to a single Blackmagic RAW file.
- Includes high performance Blackmagic Media Module 8TB for recording.
- High speed Wi-Fi, 10G Ethernet or mobile data for network connections.
- Optional Blackmagic URSA Cine EVF.
- Includes DaVinci Resolve Studio for post production.
The Blackmagic URSA Cine also features a custom lens system designed specifically for Blackmagic URSA Cine’s large format image sensors with extremely accurate positional data which is calibrated at the time of manufacturing. There is no current information about the focal length or T-stop of the lenses.
The camera captures content into a Blackmagic RAW Immersive file. The new Blackmagic RAW Immersive file format is an enhanced version of Blackmagic RAW that’s been designed to make immersive video simple to use through the post production workflow.
The immersive lens data is mapped, calibrated and stored per eye into the Blackmagic RAW file so it travels through the post production process in the Blackmagic RAW Immersive file itself. That eliminates the need for multiple files to capture an immersive scene.
“We are excited to begin accepting pre-orders for the new Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive camera and preview a true end-to-end workflow for Apple Immersive Video with DaVinci Resolve. We are looking forward to working closely with filmmakers and production companies on the Blackmagic production workflow for Apple Immersive Video before releasing the camera to a wider audience later in 2025. We can’t wait to see the amazing action, drama, concerts, sports and other incredible experiences our customers will capture in this powerful new format pioneered by Apple.”
Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO
Blackmagic Design also updated DaVinci Resolve back in June, which at the time, made it the world’s first immersive video editor. A new version of DaVinci Resolve Studio set to release in Q1 next year will include new features to help filmmakers edit, color grade, and produce Apple Immersive Video shot on the URSA Cine Immersive camera for Apple Vision Pro. Key features include a new immersive video viewer, which will let editors pan, tilt, and roll clips for viewing on 2D monitors or on Apple Vision Pro for an even more immersive editing experience. Additionally, transitions rendered by Apple Vision Pro will also be able to be bypassed using FCP XML metadata, giving editors clean master files. To complete the workflow, export presets will enable quick output into a package which can be viewed directly on Apple Vision Pro. But what’s most exciting is we can even allow clips to be adjusted and monitored on Apple Vision Pro itself for a complete immersive editing experience.
The URSA Cine 17K features a whopping 65mm sensor, with a horizontal size of 50.80mm and a vertical size of 23.32mm. It has 15,520 x 8,040 pixels. The URSA Cine Immersive sensors are probably a variant or the exact same sensor. I wouldn’t imagine that Blackmagic has come up with a brand new sensor for this camera given how niche it is, but I could be wrong. Blackmagic Design uses two sensors in the camera, one per lens.
The camera body is built with a robust magnesium alloy chassis and lightweight carbon fiber polycarbonate composite skin. Customers also get 12G‑SDI out, 10G Ethernet, and USB-C, XLR audio. The fold-out monitor has a large 5″ HDR touchscreen on one side and an external color status LCD on the other. The right side of the camera features a dedicated assist station with a second 5″ HDR touchscreen that allows crew to work around the camera without needing external monitors.
An 8-pin Lemo power connector at the back of the camera works with 24V and 12V power supplies, making it easy to use the camera with existing power supplies, batteries, and accessories. Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive comes with a massive 250W power supply and B mount battery plate, so customers can use a wide range of high voltage batteries from manufacturers such as IDX, Blueshape, Core SWX, BEBOB, and more. Customers will also receive a top handle, antennas for high speed Wi-Fi, baseplate, 24V power supply and high voltage B mount battery plate for quick set up.
Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive comes with 8TB of high performance network storage built in, which records directly to the included Blackmagic Media Module, and can be synced to Blackmagic Cloud and DaVinci Resolve media bins in real time. This means customers can capture over 2 hours of Blackmagic RAW in 8K stereoscopic 3D immersive, and editors can work on shots from remote locations worldwide as the shoot is happening.
Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive is the first commercial, digital film camera with ultra fast high capability Cloud Store technology built in. The high speed storage lets customers record at the highest resolutions and frame rates for hours and access their files directly over high speed 10G Ethernet. The camera also supports creating a small H.264 proxy file, in addition to the camera original media when recording. This means the small proxy file can be uploaded to Blackmagic Cloud in seconds, so media is available back at the studio in real time.
Blackmagic Media Dock accelerates post production workflow by making it faster and simpler to start editing and performing color correction. Customers can mount up to three Blackmagic Media Modules for high speed access to media from multiple URSA Cine Immersive cameras all at the same time. The four high speed 10G Ethernet ports allow up to four separate edit workstations to connect directly and is extremely fast, even when a lot of users are connected at the same time.
The URSA Cine Immersive is a pretty niche and specialized camera, but it will be interesting to see how it is put to use.
