Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive Camera Revealed by Apple at WWDC 2024
Just as we saw when Apple used the Blackmagic Camera App to help shoot their Apple Event, Apple is again using Blackmagic products to help them push their own technology forward. According to social posts made by Blackmagic Design, the mysterious new camera referred to by Apple during WWDC 2024 was a new camera that BMD has been developing set to be called the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive.
While Blackmagic is still developing this camera, they did share some more info about how the company is developing a full end-to-end workflow with DaVinci Resolve to produce cinematic Apple Immersive Video on the Apple Vision Pro—which itself is set to get some major updates as well.
Let’s take a quick look at this new Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive and what it could mean for the future of immersive video.
The Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive
Designed on the new Blackmagic URSA Cine platform (which is led by the URSA Cine 12K, which we covered at NAB 2024), this new Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive model is set to feature a fixed, custom lens system with a sensor that features 8160 x 7200 resolution per eye with pixel level synchronization.
It will also reportedly sport an extremely wide 16 stops of dynamic range, and shoot at 90 fps stereoscopic into a Blackmagic RAW Immersive file. What’s that you’re asking? Well, 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 URSA Cine will also feature 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. BMD has also shared that immersive lens data will be mapped, calibrated, and stored per eye in the Blackmagic RAW file so it travels through the post-production process in the Blackmagic RAW Immersive file itself.
DaVinci Resolve Set to Become World’s First Immersive Video Editor
All of this appears to be a play by Blackmagic to make DaVinci Resolve the world’s first immersive video editor. And while there’s still a way to go, Blackmagic shares that there are a lot of updates and changes to support immersive workflows set to come, including a new immersive video viewer that will let editors pan, tilt, and roll clips for viewing on 2D monitors.
And, perhaps most exciting overall, is BMD’s report that users will be able to adjust and monitor clips on Apple Vision Pro itself, which would indeed be a complete immersive video editing experience.
More to come as we Blackmagic shares more details.