Blackmagic Design Studio Camera 4K Pro G2

The Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro G2 tucks the benefits of a large studio camera into a single compact design. Its lightweight carbon fiber reinforced polycarbonate body provides innovative technology in a miniaturized design. The camera is designed for live production, so it’s easy to track and frame shots with its large 7″ viewfinder. Control is provided via your switcher or software or by using the touchscreen menus for camera settings and knobs for brightness, contrast, and focus peaking. The included tripod mount with 15mm LWS rod ports and mounting plate speeds your setup.

With 12G-SDI, 10GbE Ethernet, talkback, and balanced XLR audio inputs, the Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro G2 model is designed for use with robust SDI switchers workflows. Interfaces designed for both broadcast and consumer components include HDMI with tally, camera control, a record trigger, and headphone and mic connections including dual XLR ports, and two USB Type-C expansion ports. The 10G Ethernet allows all video, tally, talkback, and camera power via a single connection, so your setup is fast and more affordable.

Built-in live streaming means you can use the Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro G2 as a remote camera anywhere in the world and generate an H.264 live stream sent via the internet back to your studio. You can even back up your Ethernet link by connecting your 4G or 5G smartphone to one of the USB-C ports. The live stream is converted back to video in the studio by an ATEM Streaming Bridge, which also supports tally, talkback, and camera control.

The Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro G2 features gain from -12 dB (100 ISO) up to +36 dB (25,600 ISO), so it’s optimized to reduce grain and noise in images while maintaining the full dynamic range of the sensor. The primary native ISO is 400, which is ideal for use under studio lighting. The secondary high-base ISO of 3200 is perfect when shooting in dimly lit environments. The gain can be set from the camera or remotely from a switcher using the SDI or Ethernet remote camera control.

The amazing 4K sensor combined with Blackmagic generation 5 color science gives you the same imaging technology used in digital film cameras, producing cinematic images for live production. Plus, when combined with the built-in DaVinci Resolve primary color corrector, you get much better images than simple broadcast cameras. The color corrector can even be controlled from the switcher. With 13 stops of dynamic range, the Studio 4K Pro G2 camera has darker blacks and brighter whites, perfect for color correction. The sensor features a resolution of 4096 x 2160, which is great for both HD and Ultra HD work. Plus, all models support from 23.98 up to 60 fps.

With the popular MFT lens mount, Studio Camera 4K Pro G2 is compatible with a wide range of affordable photographic lenses. Photographic lenses have incredible quality because they’re designed for use in high-resolution photography. Plus, the active lens mount lets you adjust the lens remotely. To eliminate the need to reach around to adjust the lens zoom and focus, the optional focus and zoom demands let you adjust a compatible lens from the tripod handles, just like a large studio camera. This means you avoid camera shake when adjusting the lens, so you can track shots and operate the camera without taking your hands off the tripod. It gives you the same feel as an expensive B4 broadcast lens.

The large 7″ high-resolution screen will totally transform how you work with the camera because it’s big enough to make framing shots much easier. The Pro model features an HDR display with extremely high brightness, perfect outdoors in sunlight. On-screen overlays show status and record parameters, histogram, focus peaking indicators, levels, frame guides, and more. You can even apply 3D LUTs for monitoring shots with the desired color and look. The touchscreen also has menus, and you can load and customize presets for different jobs. The included sunshade can be folded to protect the screen for transport, plus it’s compatible with sunshades from the Blackmagic Studio Viewfinder.

Blackmagic Studio Cameras feature physical buttons and knobs as well as touchscreen controls. Knobs on the right side of the camera allow adjusting of the brightness, contrast, and focus peaking. The focus peaking knob is incredibly useful as it lets you fine-tune the detail highlight, so you can get perfect focus as you zoom. Buttons on the left can have functions like zebra, false color, focus peaking, LUTs, and more assigned to them. You can change the function assigned to each button using the menus. The touchscreen also includes a heads-up display with the most important shooting information as well as menus for all camera settings, LUTs, and custom presets.

Unlike consumer cameras, the Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro model has SDI connections that include talkback, so the switcher operator can communicate with cameras during live events. That means the director can talk to the camera operators to guide shot selection, eliminating the problem where all cameras could have the same shot at the same time. The talkback connector is built into the side of the camera and supports standard 5-pin XLR broadcast headsets. Talkback uses audio channels 15 and 16 in the SDI connection between the camera and the switcher, and in the program return from the switcher to the camera. This means any embedded SDI audio device can work with talkback.

Blackmagic Studio Cameras can be connected in lots of different ways. All models feature HDMI, so they are perfect for HDMI switchers such as the ATEM Mini. The HDMI supports video, tally, control, and record trigger for a broadcast-style workflow using a single HDMI cable. The Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro G2 has 12G-SDI, so you can connect it to SDI-based switchers such as the ATEM Constellation. There’s a 12G-SDI connection for camera output video, and one for program return. The program return also includes tally, talkback, and remote camera control. Or you can use 10G Ethernet to get camera video, program return, tally, talkback, camera control, and even power using a regular Cat 6a Ethernet cable.

Blackmagic Studio Cameras feature a very large tally light that illuminates red for on-air, green for preview, and orange for ISO recording. The tally light also includes clip-on transparent camera numbers, so it’s easy for talent to see camera numbers from up to 20′ away. The Blackmagic Studio cameras support the SDI tally standard used on all ATEM live production switchers and the HDMI tally used on ATEM Mini switchers. This means a director can cut between cameras and the tally information will be sent back to the cameras via the SDI program return feed, lighting up the tally light on the camera whenever it’s on air. SDI tally eliminates complex wiring, so job setup is faster.

The Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro G2 model supports connecting cameras via a single Ethernet cable. It’s so simple; just plug it in and you’re ready. Traditional broadcast studio cameras use SMPTE fiber to communicate and power cameras; however, SMPTE fiber is very expensive. Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro G2 model has 10G Ethernet as an alternative to SMPTE fiber, so it’s much lower cost. The Ethernet includes all camera video, program return feeds, tally, talkback, camera control, and power. The Blackmagic Studio Converter handles all video conversions at the switcher end plus adds power to the Ethernet cable. That means you don’t need to connect power to the camera.

This camera features a high-speed USB Type-C expansion port that allows you to record to external disks or connect to a wide range of accessories. Plug in an external USB flash disk and the camera can record high-quality 12-bit Blackmagic RAW files for later editing and color correction. That means you can just move the disk to a computer to work, and you don’t need to waste time with file copying. You can even plug in optional focus and zoom demands to allow full lens control of compatible lenses. Plus, the USB port will power any phone or disk that’s plugged in.

Blackmagic RAW is a revolutionary new format designed to capture and preserve the quality of the sensor data from your camera. Unlike highly compressed formats such as H.264, Blackmagic RAW eliminates compression problems, so you get stunning images with incredible detail and rich color throughout the whole postproduction pipeline. Blackmagic Raw also saves camera settings as metadata, so you can change ISO, white balance, and exposure later in DaVinci Resolve. Plus, the files are small and fast, so editing responsiveness is incredible.

The Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro G2 incorporates built-in microphones, so you get sound included in the design, making setup much faster. The built-in microphones are shock and wind resistant, so you get great sound, even in tough conditions. With each microphone placed at the edges of the screen, you get the advantage of the studio camera design for better stereo separation than what is possible on a regular video camera. There’s also a 3.5mm audio input for connecting video camera microphones as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro G2 model, you get professional XLR audio inputs and a built-in speaker for listening to the program return audio.

The Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro G2 lets you view program video from the switcher at the press of a button. Simply press the camera’s PGM button, and the viewfinder will switch from the camera display to the program return feed from the switcher and monitor the switcher audio. Program return is a fantastic feature as sometimes on large live shows, camera operators can be left waiting a long time for their camera to be used, so program return lets them watch the show while they wait. This means that even if the camera operator is a large distance away from the switcher, they can still keep up with what’s happening and remain alert.

When Blackmagic Raw files use logarithmic film gamma to preserve the camera dynamic range, 3D LUTs can be used to convert the images on the viewfinder display from looking flat and washed out. The 3D LUTs solve this problem because they convert the image just before it’s displayed on the LCD. This allows the film gamma images being recorded to be converted to nicer-looking images on the LCD. The 3D LUTs are also saved into the Blackmagic Raw files, so they can be used in later postproduction, but they are never burned into the Blackmagic RAW image data, so you always have the option to disable them. This means the 3D LUT is transported in the Blackmagic RAW file, but only used when you enable it.

The Blackmagic Studio Cameras are designed to be used worldwide, so they support 13 popular languages. When setting up your camera, you can choose to work in English, German, French, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Ukrainian. It’s easy to switch to another language simply by going into the menu settings. When switching between languages, the on-screen overlays, heads-up display, and setup menus will be displayed in the selected language, and you can change languages any time you like.

Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro G2 has several power options, including a 12 VDC locking power connector that prevents the cable from being accidentally pulled out. The camera includes a power supply with five different AC socket adapters for different countries. However, if you’re using a single Ethernet cable to connect to the Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pro model, then the whole camera and its accessories can be powered from the Ethernet connection. The Blackmagic Studio Converter has a large power supply that adds PoE power to the Ethernet cable, so you don’t need any power connection to the camera. That’s a great solution when there’s no power available where the cameras are placed.

You can utilize the Focus and Zoom demands to remotely control your compatible lens and the Blackmagic Studio Converter for a single Ethernet connection to the camera.