Due to ship in March, the Kinefinity MAVO LF mark2 and the Kinefinity MAVO S35 mark2 look set to occupy an interesting niche below the company’s Edge 8/6K cameras.
Not one but two new cameras from Kinefinity were announced yesterday, the MAVO S35 mark 2 and MAVO LF mark 2, updating cameras that were originally released in 2018. And both look to further Kinefinity’s ambitions on the world stage by being very aggressively priced.
The MAVO mark2 S35 is probably the most interesting of the two as it is equipped with a new 6K S35 CMOS imaging sensor. As the name indicates, it has been designed to cater for those wanting to use use S35 glass and builds on the MAVO Edge high-performance computing platform with that new S35 3:2 CMOS imaging sensor, allowing users to capture up to 6K Wide at 96fps, and 4K Wide at 150fps. The new sensor also features dual native ISO 800/3200 similar to the MAVO Edge 8K, providing less noise than the previous generation.
Kinefinity promises cleaner shadows, better highlight details, a wide latitude to 14 stops, and higher frame rate no matter low light conditions or studio shooting.
The MAVO mark2 LF, meanwhile inherits the full frame 3:2 CMOS imaging sensor from the MAVO Edge 6K, maintaining a high frame rate of up to 75fps at 6K Wide, 150fps at 4K Wide, and a dual native ISO 5120/800.
Both of the cameras record in ProRes ranging from ProRes 422 LT up to ProRes4444XQ and on to proprietary KineMAG Nano 1TB/2TB SSDs. These have their quirks and are expensive, but their read-only and RAID 5 architecture does make them extremely reliable and robust while a built-in USB-C port enables you to directly offload data at up to 10Gbps.
MAVO mark2, as we can refer to them both, inherits the integrated body design of the MAVO Edge and the camera body weighs in at 1.35kg (2.98lbs). Its equipped with a host of general control ports, dual SDI outputs embedded metadata and audio, and high-quality multi-channel audio recording.
A hybrid battery plate supports 14.8V V-mount batteries such as the KineBAT PD 75w/150w. It also supports BP-U type batteries such as the GripBAT 4S to meet the power demand of complicated camera setups that require a light build.
So, to that aggressive pricing. The MAVO S35 mark2 will hit the streets for $3999 while the MAVO LF mark2 RRP is set at $5999.
There is definitely stuff that’s been cut out of the Edge range to reach those prices, such as built-in motorised eND, but they will support a lot of the same accessories, such as cages, produced for the Edge. Lots of stuff can be added, in other words, including EF and PL mounting adaptors with added e-ND; it costs but it does make features optional for those on a budge. Kinefinity also has an Agile Kit it’s launching with them that includes a new carbon fiber top handle, a 2000nits KineMON-5U2 that can rotate 360 degrees, a set of new dual-D and dual-C KineBAT99s, and the safe and reliable KineMAG Nano 1TB SSD. That adds about $2300 onto the price.
Lastly, one of the key benefits of the MAVO mark2s are that they offer more comprehensive lens options via the introduction of a new mount that can work smoothly with virtually all cine PL/LPL lenses, DLSR EF lenses, and modern E mount glass.
This is not the end of the short flange distance native KineMOUNT, which first debuted in 2012, though, which allows you to mount adapters for EF, PL and LPL without tools. Rather two new lens mounts, an Active PL Mount and Active E Mount, have been added, which the company reckons can be installed and detached without additional flange distance calibration.
Both feature a robust cine-style locking mechanism. The Active PL Mount supports the Cooke/i protocol, while the Active E Mount allows users to tune the iris, focal length and focus of these electronic E lenses in camera control or manually, also the lens optical stabilization can be activated if the lens has the option.
Preorders get a free Active E Mount thrown in. Those are open now and, as mentioned above, the cameras should be shipping by the end of March.