Blackmagic Design has announced the availability of pre-orders for its groundbreaking Blackmagic Ursa Cine Immersive camera. This innovative system marks the first commercially available camera specifically engineered to capture Apple Immersive Video, designed for use with Apple Vision Pro. Deliveries are expected to commence in early 2025.
To complement the camera, DaVinci Resolve Studio will receive a significant update early next year, incorporating comprehensive support for editing Apple Immersive Video. This ensures a seamless, professional workflow for filmmakers creating content for the Apple Vision Pro platform. Apple Immersive Video is a revolutionary 180-degree media format, utilizing ultra-high-resolution immersive video and Spatial Audio to fully immerse viewers within the action. "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," stated Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. "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."
The Ursa Cine Immersive boasts a unique fixed, custom lens system pre-installed, optimized for capturing Apple Immersive Video. Its sensor delivers an astounding 8160 x 7200 resolution per eye, with pixel-level synchronization and an impressive 16 stops of dynamic range. This enables cinematographers to shoot 90fps 3D immersive cinema content to a single file. The custom lens system, designed for the Ursa Cine’s large-format image sensor, incorporates extremely accurate positional data recorded and stored during manufacturing. This lens projection data—calibrated and stored on the device—remains embedded within the Blackmagic RAW file throughout post-production.
A new iteration of DaVinci Resolve Studio, scheduled for release in Q1 of next year, introduces powerful features tailored for editing, color grading, and producing Apple Immersive Video captured using the Ursa Cine Immersive camera. Key additions include a dedicated immersive video viewer, allowing editors to pan, tilt, and roll clips for review on 2D monitors or directly on Apple Vision Pro for an enhanced immersive editing experience. Furthermore, Apple Vision Pro-rendered transitions can be bypassed using FCP XML metadata, resulting in clean master files. To streamline workflow, export presets offer quick output to a format directly viewable on Apple Vision Pro.
The Ursa Cine camera platform, a foundation for several models offering diverse features for high-end cinema, is built with a durable magnesium alloy chassis and a lightweight carbon fiber polycarbonate composite skin, enhancing mobility on set. It includes 12G-SDI out, 10G Ethernet, USB-C, XLR audio, and more. The fold-out monitor features a large 5″ HDR touchscreen alongside an external color status LCD. A dedicated assist station on the camera's right side, equipped with a second 5″ HDR touchscreen, allows crew members to operate around the camera without external monitors. An 8-pin Lemo power connector supports 24V and 12V power supplies. The Ursa Cine Immersive includes a 250W power supply and B-mount battery plate, compatible with various high-voltage batteries.
The camera incorporates 8TB of high-performance network storage, recording directly to the included Blackmagic Media Module and synchronizing with Blackmagic Cloud and DaVinci Resolve media bins in real time. This enables capture of over 2 hours of Blackmagic RAW in 8K stereoscopic 3D immersive video, allowing editors to work on footage from remote locations concurrently with shooting. The new Blackmagic RAW Immersive file format simplifies immersive video handling in post-production, including support for Blackmagic global media sync. Blackmagic RAW files maintain camera metadata, lens data, white balance, digital slate information, and custom LUTs. The Ursa Cine Immersive is the first commercial digital film camera with integrated high-capability Cloud Store technology, allowing high-resolution recording and real-time access to files via high-speed 10G Ethernet. It also generates a small H.264 proxy file alongside the original media, facilitating rapid cloud uploads.
Blackmagic Media Dock streamlines post-production by allowing high-speed access to media from multiple Ursa Cine Immersive cameras. Its four 10G Ethernet ports support up to four separate edit workstations. The Ursa Cine Immersive is available for pre-order at $29,995 (US), with deliveries starting in late Q1 2025. Reseller availability follows later in the year.