Kinefinity Terra 5K/6K – A Closer Look at The Chinese Mini Cinema Camera
Lots of new and exciting products are being discovered and examined at this year’s NAB. One of the most promising new cameras could be the new Kinefinity Terra, which comes in two flavours – 5K and 6K.
Meet the Kinefintiy Terra
Jihua Zheng of Kinefinity was kind enough to take us through their new and updated range of cameras, namely the Kinefinity Terra. The camera body itself is surprisingly small and compact in size—and with a weight of only 920 grams, you might be forgiven for thinking it is a DSLR body. One of the predestined areas of application could be a gimbal or—on the heavier side of things—a drone.
If you intend to use this camera on a gimbal, the Kinefinity Terra camera pretty much works right out of the box. All you need is a battery, a lens and some form of HDMI monitoring solution and you’re good to go. For more demanding applications, you might need the KineBack ($1200), it offers dual SDI output, Timecode in/out, DC power out, an integrated V-mount for powering the camera and two balanced XLR audio inputs with phantom power enabled. Even without the KineBack the Kinefinity Terra camera is capable of recording audio with its built in microphone as there is a 3.5mm jack audio input available too.
The Kinefinity Terra records to SSDs, and the respective slot is built right into the camera body. Kinefintiy recommends the use of so-called Kinemags but any off the shelf SSD will get the job done, as long as they are fast enough. Controls in the form of buttons and dials are built-in to the chassis, as well, only a monitor or a viewfinder is needed for basic operation. The optional Kinegrip is also available for convenient handheld operation and will serve as a powering unit for the camera with its built-in power pack.
The camera comes with a native electronic EF mount or a KineMount which is a mount with a short FFD (flange focal distance) so it can be adapted to a wide range of mounts quickly, such as PL, Nikon F, or Canon EF mount.
The video stream is being recorded to 12-bit KineRAW or various flavours of the ProRes Codec, such as 422 HQ, 422 LT or proxy. Additionally, several Log curves—such as a KineLog3 curve—are implemented.
Two versions of the Kinefintiy Terra
There are two models of the Kiniefintiy Terra camera available, the 5k and the 6K. The only difference between both models is the implemented S35 CMOS sensor and actually, the 6K sensor is the same which is build into the Kinemax camera. So it is capable of recording 6K footage with 25 fps, 4K footage with up to 100fps and 2K footage up to 225fps.
The 5K version of the camera sports two shutter modes; you have the choice of either a rolling or a global shutter mode. This is the one feature Blackmagicdesign failed to deliver with their Ursa mini 4.6K camera. Kinefinity claims that even without the rolling shutter enabled, the jello effect is less severe than in previous cameras built by the company. It is capable of recording up to 60fps at 5K resolution, up to 100fps at 4K resolution and up to 200fps at 2K resolution. With the global shutter enabled the dynamic range is reduced from 15 stops down to 13 stops. We definitely will keep an eye on these values and will try to get our hands on one of these cameras for extensive testing in our test lab.
Different packages of the Kinefinity Terra camera
The 5K version of the Kinefintiy Terra is scheduled to be shipped for $4,999 at the end of June. If you are feeling more comfortable on the high-end side of the resolution race, the 6K version will be ready to be shipped already at the end of may for $5,999. Other packages are available, too.
Learn all about the Kinefinity Terra (and preorder) on their website.
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no thanks
“No thanks” based on what???
based on Internet ignorance
Doesn’t have a RED label: can’t be very good then, right?
They absolutely have to get this camera into the hands of high profile DPs or directors so we can see the possibilities of the quality of footage it produces.
Philip bloom would seem to be a no brainer. The lack of any really compelling footage examples and comprehensive reviews really hurts their cause.
It looks brilliant on paper.
I would rather support domestic camera manufactures the Chinese! Buy local and support local!
Who would you consider a “local” manufacturer?
uhm,well… these guys ARE my local camera manufacturers, since I AM based in China now lols..
oh and when I’m back in my own home town, Melbourne Australia…
I’m two suburbs away from Black Magic Design’s HQ ha ha ha..
I remember couple decades ago it was “Japanese crap”. It never ends. I’m interested to know what’s your local camera manufacturer ’round the corner.
Please, show me the “local” cameras you own! HAHAHAHAHAHA…
wheres local? canon, nikon, fuji, panasonic, sony are japan companies, manufacture in japan/china/Vietnam/thai.
Carl Zeiss, Contax, Leica are german companies
ARRI , panavision are german
which domestic camera manufactures you are supporting?
I bet people preaching ‘buy local’ own Chinese DJI products.
And what camera manufacturer is there in Germany except for Arri whom no one can afford?
The correct thing to say would be “Whom no one can touch”
The African Attachment, including myself as cinematographer/director, have been shooting on Kinefinity for a couple of years now on our mountain sport films.
Check these links to see what we’ve done with the previous 4K and 6K versions:
http://www.christiandenslow.com/project/trail-dog-season-5-episode-2-of-salomon-running-tv/
http://www.christiandenslow.com/project/outliers-salomon-running-tv-season-05-episode-04/
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdI5i_U9v6yfYsBu8R84TOA
I would definitely look at buying the latest 5K Terra
initially no USA way to purchase, slow implementation, and several purchasers remarked there were color science glitches that needed firmware revisions. That said they remarked how the service was good, that improvements have been implemented and that the company is sound and that the product looks to now be worth a serious review as a purchase. I am going to take a hard look at it now that Black Magic has unfortunately faltered and Canon remains out of reach. Sony is coming on strong but there are things about the price and separation of function between the 5 and 7 that make neither of them right for us, and well and the color science which is good but leaves us a bit cold, not a criticism just our taste and artistic preferences.
Christiano Taferni
hawa!!! 6K
Christiano Taferni 6K braucht ka mensch haha
YESS I was waiting for a more compact very small Kinefinity!!!! and its 5-6K??? for sure I am purchasing one for myself to film my new show with my friends.. Cant wait.. for now IM using my rigged uP Blackmagic 4k Cinema Camera with Kowa 2X anamorphic Beautiful Lens…the bell&howell edition. but yea thats for right now wich is absolutely spectacular but i am going to step my game up and fly past Red and even the Arri Alexa Mini and cop a Kinefinity Terra
I would rather support domestic camera manufactures the Chinese! Buy local and support local!
Arri, Canon, BMC, Sony, are not local (for US buyers). So what does that leave me? Red and Go Pro? No thanks.
If I can get an amazing image, small body, record on to off the shelf SSD for less the 10k, why not?
If local for you is Arri, then you must have some deep pockets.
cause even if on paper is a good camera and produce very nice images .. the workflow is a pain ..
I used few times the kynemini and cinemax a couple…
really nice quality but guys never use in a professional environment, you’re editor colorist etc etc will be slowed down a lot .. and since this camera is not well known as the other more commercial ones you’ll find yourself teaching people how to post produce your files.
plus every nice sensor camera have they’re own way of reading light and your job is to adjust the environment to make happy the sensor… with this one is the same but carefull, you have a lot more to do on set .
at the end i’m not saying is not a good camera , actually the opposite , quality build is really good , is surprisingly quite and not heavy at all .. is nice the possibility of having off brand products working as good as the original.
To me is a professional camera but it reminds me the very first period of the red one where everything was beautiful but extremely messy with workflow..
think before you buy …. or better rent it first.
hope this help
mat
Hi Mat.
The days of painful workflow should be a thing of the past now that in camera ProRes recording is being implemented with the new models.
Thanks.
Johnnie
probably … I’m not using the KINE for a while now ..
but as long as you want to work raw, you still need to go through that type of workflow .
prores is not ideal unless is one like the Arri one
please correct if im wrong anyway
MAT
What’s so messy about the workflow? Their raw files need to be converted .. That’s it, one step. Or is there something else I’m not aware of?
You’re right Patrick. I recently watched a video on how to convert the files and its beyond easy. Kinefinity includes the converting software for free and you just pick the files you want converted and press GO and that’s it. Most simple interface I may have ever seen. Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think you can work on the RAW files in any NLE. Even if you record in RAW you still need to convert them via the software into ProRes, etc.
Converting is easy but it is never the less an extra step. Also sometimes you face issues with a bad frame here and there and in general it is always nicer to just import edit :).
For non US residents almost every camera equipment are foreign designed and made….makes no diff to us….ultimately it is a matter of who can provide the most value for money for product and service.
Matteo
Ho appena visto una ARRI mini circa 50000euro
Can you even purchase these in the states? I was never able to before…
What an amazing company. They need more tech presence in the US. I’m so very curious what 6k frame grabs look like. This camera can do 12 bit color at 6K. No other camera in this price range is any where near capable of what this camera can do.
Flix Seeberg
nice! :O :) aber immer noch etwas teuer leider
This reminds of the smartphone manufacture Huawei, who’s copying apple. It’s still Chinese tradition to copy a susccessful product and sell it for the half. When will they become authentic and proud of the products? Is this the mentalitity of Chinese people? Do they learn this at school?
Any ways, looking forward to see the image :)
It is a cultural phenomenon called “Shanzhai”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanzhai
Many companies copy Apple products, don’t tell me Hewlett-Packard, Samsung are Chinese companies. No need to single out Chinese companies.
And I think companies like DJI are trying to produce some of their own designs. Every country go through corner cutting periods. Japan, Korea companies went through a period of churning cheap copycat designs too.
Don’t forget China is still a developing country with many desperate people trying to get out of poverty.
as i am a Chinese (actually hong kong, different culture to mainland china), i despise copycat company in china, especially those product presentation copy from steve jobs… not creative and non respect.
but some of them are exception, like DJI, and this Kinfinitly company. they are producing some innovative products, their own design, i think these should be respectful
similar products are different to “direct copy”, “stealing design”
BMW – mercedes benz, audi are similar
ferarri – Lamborghini are similar
canon – nikon – sony are similar
safari – firefox – chrome are similar…
they are doing same business but not just copy
if this chinese company is copycat, what about the “steal the NAB show” last couple years company Blackmagic design? they produce RED alike RAW cameras for 1/5 price…
and what about RED itself? when RED first come out, they just copy tradition ARRI, Panavision’s market with their relatively cheap RED Cine cameras compare to those existing big film companies. Kinfinlity doing the same way but ONLY because they are from China?
In the case of kinefinity, the housing design is a red look a like…the did not invented their own design, their just took RED Cameras design, even the details like mounting points :D.
Don’t get me wrong, i believe that they did a great product, huawei produts a great products too, but there are not unique/authentic.
BMW Audi Mercedes and so on, these are tradional car makes and everyone got their own design and philosophy.
And if you look at ARRI, RED, Sony, Blackmagic, Panasonic…They different.
Your right with DJI, great company, they do great products, authentic :)
But just take a look side by side at the the kinefinity and the new RED DSMC2 line ;)
Actually Steve Jobs copied Microsoft to begin his so called revolution LOL. All inventions by the way if you look historically are incremental, on the shoulders of others with very few exceptions really. And it is a tradition for artists to deliberately with respect first copy those who have gone before and study and copy them and then strike out and go forward. There is nothing wrong about this folks.
And by the way we all do this whether we admit it or not in our own work. It is how we all start and learn and then become our own selves.
It’s a lens mount on a box. Not like Red invented the most novel idea in industrial design . Did Alexa design the first shoulder mount camera? The user interface is also completely different than Red. Concerning Chinese design, they are leading gimbal and aerial tech. DJI, has actually found a way to make LIPO’s less of a pain in the ass and way safer than MOVI bare lipo easily damaged system. All the best cages for mirrorless / dslr are Chinese made. Also, Kinefinity’s speed reducer design is by far the best out there, much better than Metabones (another Chinese company). In two years, I wouldn’t be surprised if Chinese become leaders in camera tech.
Apple “copied” the mouse and the GUI from xerox.. copying is good for business and aids progress.. nobody works in a vacuum or doesn’t stand on the shoulders of giants
I’ll pass.
I’ve had the Kinemini 4K from the 1st batch. I live in Finland. They listen to customers and try to be as agile as a small company can. Sure they don’t have perfect cameras but who has?
I have personally asked for two features and both have been implemented over reasonable stretch of time. I also just received a spare part that I broke myself accident Philly from the camera. The spare parts came two days after shipping and they only made me pay for the shipping the parts were free even though I told him that I broke the part myself. Noticed my camera is out of warranty. About a year and a half ago I had a very serious software issue with the camera. The team in China fixed overnight with software. I guess I was lucky.
We have a strong English writing community on Facebook I suggested anyone who is interested joins takes a look at the footage asks people around and figures out for them self if this is a camera/company they should invest into.
You all have a great weekend and thank you for the wonderful coverage of NAB.
Excuse my spelling but my phone does some weird things to the text :)… Freaky Friday.
George Atanassov: Thanks for your comment. I think it is very importand not to judge a company just because it is small and from a foreign country. Your bulletin shows very clearly that they do care. Which is great!
No thanks. For 5999 i would rather buy a RED Raven…
You haven’t really priced out what it takes to get going on a Raven. You’ll spend closer to 10 grand if not more.
agreed
Exactly, which tells a lot about the person that made the comment, $7K is basically just the brain and a power adapter. For the same $7K you can get the 6K Terra plus storage, monitor, grip, etc.
plus, isn’t the Raven a GH2-like 1.87x crop?
10 grand? i would said 20.
for those 64gb mags, need at least 4 to film a half day
Those Chinese
xenophobia is quite strong in this comment section
This is by far the most exciting thing to come from NAB this year!! Was planning on purchasing a Scarlet-W but once I saw this I had to pause. The camera and accessories resemble RED but the price does not. This definitely seems like a company worth supporting. If the images from the Terra 5K are killer I will definitely buy one. One thing to note, the 5k version will have one more stop of dynamic range (15 stops) than the 6k version (14 stops).
I’ll wait 6 months after release and see what the impact is, if I like what I see I’ll probably go for one.
I realize there is not much info out there on these Terra models, even though they are due to be shipped at the end of the month (6K), and the end of June (5K), but I’m wondering if anyone out there can offer a guess/opinion as to why the Terra 6K is limited to 14 stops of dynamic range at 6K and 4K, but offers up 16 stops of DR at “Golden” 3K and 2K?
Thanks!
which cine camera is the best of moive production ?
$6000 Camera LOL
Can’t buy a Red or an Arri, rent one chinese crap no tech support? No thanks!
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