Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K Price Reduction from $9,995 to $5,995

Camera News

by Jakub HanAugust 20^th, 2021

Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K camera just got a price reduction from $9,995 to $5,995. This 40% price drop made possible by efficiencies in manufacturing combined with an improved supply of 12K sensors (according to Blackmagic Design) is effective immediately.

URSA Mini Pro 12K – One Year Later

The high-resolution beast URSA Mini Pro 12K from Blackmagic Design was announced back in July 2020. Offering a whopping 12,288 x 6,480 (80 MPx) in up to 60fps on a Super35-sized sensor, the camera came as a surprise. It further offers 8K (8192 x 4320) video in up to 120fps, 8192 x 3408 in up to 160fps, or 240fps in 4K with Super16 crop – all in Blackmagic RAW format with Generation 5 color science. According to Blackmagic Design, the sensor is capable of achieving 14 stops of dynamic range. Of course, we had the URSA Mini Pro 12K in our Lab Test – you can take a look at the results here:

• URSA Mini Pro 12K Lab Test Part 1 – Rolling Shutter and Dynamic Range
• URSA Mini Pro 12K Lab Test Part 2 – Latitude Results

Keep in mind that you have to provide enough storage for this camera – the bitrates of the high-resolution footage can get as high as 963 MB/s which will fill a 1TB media in only around 17 minutes. The camera offers dual CFast and UHS-II SD card slots, as well as a SuperSpeed USB-C expansion port. The URSA Mini Pro 12K also features an interchangeable PL mount and built-in ND filters. More information about the camera’s specs and features can be found directly on the website.

$4,000 URSA Mini Pro 12K price reduction

Up until today, the camera was selling for $9,995. As of today, Blackmagic Design lowered the price to $5,995. That is a massive $4,000 (or 40%) price reduction. The company states that this price reduction has been made possible by efficiencies in manufacturing combined with an improved supply of 12K sensors.

Along with the launch of the new DaVinci Resolve 17.3 and the new rendering engine, users should see speed improvements up to 3x when working in 4K and 8K resolutions. It seems that Blackmagic Design really wants to democratize high-resolution workflows.

While this is definitely good news for people who were planning on buying the camera, it might not be very good news for people who recently purchased it at full price. The resale value of the URSA Mini Pro 12K just dropped significantly. On the other hand, camera bodies never really held price over time very well as opposed to, let’s say, lenses that don’t get obsolete that fast. What do you think?

Do you have experience working with the URSA Mini Pro 12K? What do you think about the price drop? Is it time to invest in this high-resolution workhorse? Let us know in the comments section underneath the article.