17K for $30k: Blackmagic reveals price of URSA Cine 17K 65

Blackmagic has revealed that the Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K 65 will cost $29,995 when it hits the market which it should do by the end of the year.

The Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K 65 is available to order now from $29,995, excluding local duties and taxes, from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide. And the Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K 65 + EVF will also be available to order soon from $31,495.

We guessed that the company would try and bring the camera in for around $25k when we first reported on it back at NAB, and while it’s overshot that by around 20%, it still represents a lot of camera for the money when measured up against some of its competitors at the pricey end of the market.

It features a new large format 65mm format RGBW 17520 x 8040 sensor with larger photo-sites for 16 stops of dynamic range, interchangeable PL, LPL and Hasselblad lens mounts, and industry standard Lemo and Fischer connections. Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K 65 comes with 8TB of high performance storage built in and also includes high speed networking for media upload and syncing to Blackmagic Cloud.

Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K key features

• Cinematic ultra large format 2.2:1 aspect sensor with a massive 16 stops of dynamic range.
• Lightweight, robust camera body with industry standard connections.
• Blackmagic RAW for real time 17K editing.
• Generation 5 Color Science with new film curve.
• High performance OLPF for reduced moire and aliasing.
• High performance Blackmagic Media Module 8TB for recording included.
• Recording media compatible with the Blackmagic Media Dock.
• High speed wifi, 10G Ethernet or mobile data for network connections.
• Built-in RTMP and SRT live streaming.
• Optional Blackmagic URSA Cine EVF.
• Includes DaVinci Resolve Studio for post production.

So, the price is fixed and pre-orders are open. The main question now, apart from other things like how robust is the high-end market in the current climate, where it slots in with the high-end competition etc etc, is when will it arrive. The other cameras announced by the company at NAB — the PYXIS and Cine 12K — were optimistically aimed at June. And while we understand that they have now entered into the global distribution system, at the moment they seem to be more in transit rather than on shelves and available for purchase. Fingers crossed that this arrives sooner rather than later because it certainly looks like an interesting beast.