Kinefinity has announced a 6K version of its MAVO Edge cinema camera, featuring 150fps in 4K and up to 75fps in 6K.
The Kinefinity MAVO Edge 6K looks to be an extremely well specced device, and one that has answered questions arising about in-camera raw recording. But more on that later.
The MAVO Edge 6K features a full-frame 3:2 sensor with dual native ISO ratings of 800/5120. This is fronted by an e-ND filter, which gives almost infinite adjustment between ND ratings of 0.6 to 2.4 (2-8 stops), with full colour calibration. It's interesting to note that aside from Sony, no other manufacturer features electronic ND in their cameras. This could be down to patent issues, however the convenience of such a feature is difficult to ignore. Once you've used one, it's difficult to go back to set ND ratings.
Kinefinity claims that at ISO 800 the camera captures 6-stops of highlight range, with the number of highlight stops changing in Cine EI mode. Additionally, when the camera is in Cine EI mode, if the user places the camera in a setting above 1600 EI, the camera will automatically switch to the higher base ISO circuit.
Recording is laid down to NVMe M.2 2280 SSD drives mounted inside a KineMAG Nano casing via dual SSD slots, allowing for uncompressed raw recording. This is notably in CinemaDNG format, and no doubt ProRes RAW would have been on cards if not for <cough> patents. It is still possible to record in all other ProRes flavours, however, including 12-bit ProRes4444XQ, with the KineLOG3 gamma, which, frankly, will give as near as dammit raw quality as it's possible to get without calling it 'raw'. All of this is possible up to and including the full 6K resolution, as well as those slow motion frame rates. The KineMAG Nano casings feature a USB-C port that provides for direct footage offload at up to 10Gbps.
The camera features KineOS 7.0, which allows all functionality of the camera to be controlled by touch screen. However, the camera still features a more traditional button based set-up and display interface on the left side of the camera. KineOS 7.0 has been designed to support the Cooke/I protocol, so full lens metadata from compatible lenses that use this system will be laid down with recorded clips.
The MAVO Edge 6K has two 48v phantom powered XLR sockets as well as one 3.5mm stereo mic in socket. Whilst we don't know the precise SNR specs, Kinefinity is emphasising that the XLR ports are married to very high quality audio pre-amps. Whilst cinema style production will still often use off-camera audio recording, having a high quality input on the camera itself makes it far more versatile.
Other connectivity includes dual 1.5G/3G SDI outputs with embedded metadata and audio. These give backwards compatibility with older 1.5G equipment, and also function independently of the MAVO Edge's own proprietary video ports, which marry to Kinefinity's own line of high performance monitors.
Additionally there's a timecode port supporting both Jam and regular Sync, and a Lens port supporting the RS232 protocol for communicating with and controlling third-party accessories, as well as an RS port for powering and triggering an external record function.
The camera can also stream pre-compressed H.264 imagery over Gigabit Ethernet on an RJ45 port, WIFI 5, or USB-C. An internal gyroscope records positioning and movement data, which will allow for easy matching of camera movements when it comes to special effects shots.
Power wise, the Edge 6K features a hybrid battery plate that supports 14.8v V-mount batteries as well as BP-U types as well. Users who opt for KineKit-Edge option will receive an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) baseplate option. This has been designed by Movcam, and uses NP-F550 type batteries to provide UPS to the camera while the main camera battery is being swapped over. Finally the camera body features a D-Tap port, 12V RS port, and Lens port (12V).
In what is becoming much more essential these days, Kinefinity has teamed up with Yueliu to bring full remote monitoring and collaborative workflows to the MAVO Edge 6K. This doesn't require any additional hardware. The camera itself will stream H.264 by SRT protocol to authorised websites with low latency for monitoring of high resolution footage from anywhere in the world.
The Kinefinity MAVO Edge 6K will retail at $9,999.00 USD for the deep gray edition. The Core pack, which is essential in the US, is $14,099.00 and the Professional Pack is $16,699.00 USD. The camera will be available from May 2022.
Visit the Kinefinity website for more information.