About the project
The Blackmagic Cinema Camera is a cinema quality digital video camera designed for production of feature films, documentaries and episodic television. Costing less than $3,000, it provides Hollywood quality filmmaking capabilities at a fraction of the cost of existing cinema cameras, which cost upward of $15,000. A truly democratising product, it has had significant cultural implications on the global video industry, putting high-end filmmaking within the reach of the mass-market. Designed entirely in Australia, the revolutionary compact design introduces a completely new form factor to the cinema camera industry, overcoming significant engineering challenges including colour science, optics and thermal management.
Why it works
The existing cinema camera market has been dominated by prohibitively expensive cameras that are often cumbersome, intimidating and very complex to use.
This has driven budget conscious filmmakers to adopt Digital SLR cameras for use in cinematography. However, DSLR’s are not designed to be used as cinema cameras, as they record to compressed video formats that limit flexibility in the post-production process, and have a limited dynamic range. An opportunity was identified to create a cinema camera with the beautiful image quality of Hollywood production cameras that was accessible to a whole new user group. To address these challenges, issues such as user interaction, camera architecture and manufacturing techniques needed to be approached in a completely new way.
Insights
Engineering – affordability driven through design and engineering. Revolutionary new engineering approaches to both optics calibration and thermal management have driven significant cost savings and reliability over existing camera designs. Through innovative and careful consideration of manufacturing processes and engineering, part count has been kept to a minimum. Many parts perform multiple functions, enabling a relatively low build cost, yet ensuring very high quality and reliability cinematographers expect.
Further information
http://www.gooddesignaustralia.com/awards/past/entry/blackmagic-cinema-camera/?year=2013
