URSA Mini Pro, Canon EOS C100 Mark II & Sony PXW-FS5 XDCAM Reviews

Trevor Weir, Chief Technology Officer at The American Movie Company contributed heavily to this three camera comparison.

He is in preproduction for a documentary feature to be shot in Jamaica. The theme is the recent high tech thrust with huge foreign investment and its effect on the people and the old economy.

In preparation he exhaustively tested all three cameras.

URSA Mini Pro

The Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 4.6K has really come a long, long way since I first saw the original URSA at NAB 2014 in Las Vegas years ago.   It was an impressive beast with a huge slide out viewfinder / touchscreen.  It was user upgradable and you could swap out the sensor.

Three years later Blackmagic Design produced the URSA Mini Pro.  It has several cool features like accessible controls when used in a shoulder rig configuration.  They added a new internal neutral density wheel, a much smaller 4” touchscreen. And the sensor is now 4.6K

The URSA Mini Pro can record onto SSD and SD Cards which makes for really convenient and inexpensive media.  The URSA Pro shoots 120 Frames per second when capturing in 2K mode.

I really like it and consider it the best entry level totally professional camera.

In my opinion the URSO Pro Limitations have largely to do with low light situations Naturally this is not a problem if you use it primarily for studio situations where proper lighting is not an issue

Canon EOS C100 Mark II

•  
• Extended ISO range: 320 to 102,400
• Supports continuous recording allowing the operator to create “In and Out ” cut points each time the START/STOP button is pressed.
• All internal camera menus are now controllable from buttons on the body.
• The operator can manually move the center of the camera’s magnification viewing area to one of 25 different areas throughout the image frame using the joystick
• Key Lock setting now makes it possible to lock all operations, including the record button.
• Super 35mm-sized sensor provides an angle-of-view and depth of field that equals traditional Super 35mm film.
• DIGIC DV 4 Image Processor uses proprietary circuits and architecture to deliver the highest possible image quality at high speeds, with lower power consumption and less heat output.
• The super 35mm sensor and DIGIC DV 4 Image processor achieve a high signal-to-noise ratio that allows recording in  great detail and dynamic range..
• Canon Log Gamma enables 5.3 stops of latitude above optimal exposure (and 6.7 stops below.
• Camera supports a full 12-stops of dynamic range
• Accepts rthe standard Canon EF mount lenses as well as specialty lenses, such as Canon’s 24mm f/3.5L II tilt shift lens or the 8-15mm f/4L Ultra-Wide Zoom fisheye lens.
• Supports AVCHD bit rates up to 24 Mbps (LPCM) at a maximum resolution of 1920×1080
• Supports recording in 1920 x 1080p recording to MP4, at multiple frame rates, and also supports 720p and 640 x 360 frame sizes.
•  Camera comes with two XLR connectors and a microphone shock mount.
• Built-in 3.5″ 1.23MP equivalent OLED panel tilts 100 degrees and can rotate 180 degrees to protect the screen.
• Records video to SDHC/SDXC cards using AVCHD, a high-efficiency codec.
• Intuitive focusing aids in both the EVF and LCD monitor
• Built-in ND filters in three densities, which make for four ND configurations (OFF, 2 stops, 4 stops, 6 stops)..

Sony PXW-FS5 XDCAM

•  
• The new , lightweight Sony’PXW-FS5 is 4K-capable and packs a lot of camera into a relatively small size.
• the 3.5 inch LCD display panel is able can also be easily relocated to different places along the camera body or handle for more flexible ease of video or photo recording.
• The PXW-FS5 can create stunning video and amazingly still images as well..
• In-camera editing features are very, very robust.
• Compact and highly ergonomic design.
• Camera is capable of 4K UHD at 8 bit 4:2:0 at 100Mb/s and at a base frame rate of 30fps.
• Super35 ExmorTM CMOS sensor with a total of 11.6 million pixels and 8.3 million effective pixels.
• Records both AVCHD and XAVC-L codecs.
• 4K video records in 8 bit 4:2:0 at 100Mb/s