Blackmagic Design Micro Cinema Camera

Introducing the Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera, a miniaturized Super 16mm, professional digital cinema camera designed to be controlled remotely and capture the action anywhere! A revolutionary built-in expansion port features PWM and S.Bus inputs, allowing you to use a model airplane remote control to wirelessly control the camera. Imagine being able to adjust focus, iris, and zoom wirelessly! The Micro Cinema Camera is a true digital cinema camera with built-in RAW and ProRes recording, 13 stops of dynamic range, a global shutter, and an MFT lens mount. You get a true digital cinema camera that can go where no other digital cinema camera can!

Create incredible action shots
The digital movie camera for action camera recordings

The Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera is an impossibly small, professional digital cinema camera that is perfect for use on drones, as a crash cam or even hidden on set for reality TV. You can mount it anywhere, such as on a skateboard or hang glider for spectacular extreme sports photography, on a drone for panoramic flyovers or even on a helmet for the most amazing point-of-view photography! The Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera will make your audience say, “Wow! How did they get that shot?”

Remote camera management
Wireless control of your camera from a safe distance

When mounted on drones, used as a crash cam, or placed in hazardous locations, you can remotely control the camera, view a live feed, and check its status, all from a safe distance. The expansion port can be connected to aircraft radio receivers, and various camera functions can be assigned to radio channels, allowing you to remotely start and stop recording, adjust the focus, change the iris, and more! The expansion port also has a composite video output that can be connected to inexpensive wireless video transmitters for remotely monitoring the camera's recording status, battery life, and audio levels.

Highly customizable design
The world's smallest fully open and adjustable camera

The Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera combines advanced miniaturization and a unique expansion port design in a digital cinema camera that allows you to create custom rigs for remote control and monitoring. The camera body is not much larger than the Micro Four Thirds lens mount, making it as small as a camera with a professional lens can be. The core is made of lightweight, strong magnesium alloy, making it durable enough to film anywhere from the ocean floor to the stratosphere or beyond! You can control the Micro Cinema Camera directly from the front buttons when mounted, or remotely when out of reach.

Revolutionary expansion port
Now you can create your own custom camera remote

The revolutionary expansion port lets you create custom solutions for remote control, external power, and monitoring. The included breakout cable gives you access to many of the camera's unique features, but you can also create your own custom cables that open up the camera to do even more. In addition to things like LANC, power, video out, and genlock, you also get 4 analog PWM radio remote control inputs, allowing you to assign camera functions to the knobs, buttons, buttons, and joysticks on model aircraft remote controls! For even more control with greater precision, you can use the 18-channel S.Bus control input with Futaba radio control equipment or custom embedded controllers.

View remotely
Send and monitor video wirelessly!

The expansion port includes NTSC and PAL composite video output that can be connected to inexpensive wireless video transmitters for external monitoring. This means you can see exactly what the camera is recording, whether the camera is in the air or hidden on set. For higher quality monitoring, the Micro Cinema Camera also has an HDMI output for wireless HD video transmitters. Both the composite and HDMI outputs can display overlays for camera status, lens settings, file formats, histogram, audio meters, battery life and more!

Super 16mm sensor
Wide dynamic range and global shutter!

The Super 16 sensor features full 1080 HD resolution and an incredible 13 stops of dynamic range and a global shutter of up to 30 frames per second. Most DSLRs and action cameras use a rolling shutter which exposes different parts of the frame in fractions of a second, causing video to appear skewed or wobbly if the camera is moving or shaking. The Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera’s global shutter works more like a still camera, exposing the entire frame at once, giving you distortion and ripple-free video! With an ISO of up to 1600, the Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera also gives you great quality even in low-light locations.

Built-in RAW and ProRes recorder
Record using professional formats without ugly compression artifacts

The built-in recorder captures true 12-bit log digital film-quality footage, without the artifacts you get with the heavily compressed 8-bit H.264 files used on small consumer action cameras and DSLRs. Files can be saved in either Cinema DNG RAW or ProRes. Cinema DNG RAW files are 12-bit log, giving you all the data from the camera’s sensor, giving you the freedom to make changes to things like white balance and exposure long after the camera stops rolling. If you need smaller file sizes and longer recording times, you can use ProRes to get broadcast-quality footage. Both formats can be easily edited and color corrected with the included DaVinci Resolve Lite for Mac and Windows.

Interchangeable lenses
Use a wide range of lightweight professional photo lenses

The Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera features an active Micro Four Thirds lens mount, allowing you to use high-quality photographic lenses including wide angle lenses, prime lenses, standard zooms, telephoto lenses and more. This means you’re not locked into a built-in lens and can choose the best lens for the job! The focus, iris and zoom on active MFT lenses can be controlled remotely via the camera’s expansion port. Many MFT lenses also have built-in optical image stabilization, making them perfect for use in places where there may be a lot of movement, shake or vibration.

Expandable connections
Use microphones, monitor video, and add custom expansion options

The right side of the Micro Cinema Camera houses a full-size HDMI connector for monitoring video output with overlays and embedded audio, along with the expansion port which uses a standard DB-HD15 connector. The expansion port can be used with the included breakout cable or with a custom cable of your own design to give you additional monitoring, control, and power options. The left side of the camera houses the SD card slot for recording and also has a high quality 3.5mm stereo input for connecting microphone or line-level devices.

Simple camera settings
Front panel buttons for quick settings changes

You can quickly adjust camera settings using the row of buttons on the front of the camera. Since they’re on the front, the buttons are always accessible, whether the camera is strapped to your body or mounted in tight spots. Camera settings are displayed on-screen using either the HDMI or composite video output. You also get power, record, stop, fast-forward, and rewind buttons, along with an LED light on top that shows recording status and has warning indicators for memory cards and low battery.

Professional sound
High-quality audio recording with built-in or external microphones

Designed for high-quality audio recording, the built-in high-quality stereo microphone is omni-directional and features a mechanical design to reduce unwanted wind noise, giving you a clear recording. There is also a built-in 3.5mm input jack, allowing you to connect directional or wireless clip-on microphones. The 3.5mm input jack supports both microphone and line-level devices and automatically disables the internal microphone when an external one is connected. The Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera gives you the flexibility to choose the right microphone or audio source for your production!

Battery or external power supply
Use removable batteries or DC power sources

For remote shooting, you can attach any readily available LP-E6 battery to the back of the camera and place it in a variety of locations. The battery level is displayed in an overlay when the camera is connected to an HDMI monitor or the PAL/NTSC video output, allowing you to monitor the battery level even when the camera is being controlled remotely. There is also an LED on the camera to indicate low battery status and recording status. The included breakout cable has a 12V DC input, allowing you to use external power supplies or even install your own durable custom power supplies!

Technical specifications

Technical data

Camera Features

Sensor size

12.48mm × 7.02mm (Super 16)

Shooting resolutions

1920 × 1080

Frame Rates - Global Shutter Speed

1080p23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30

Frame Rates - Rolling Shutter

1080p23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, 60

Dynamic range

13 stops

Focus

Remote focus control via extension connector when using compatible lenses.

iris control

Iris control via the Rewind and Fast-forward buttons, plus remote control via the extension connector when using compatible lenses.

Lens mount

Active MFT mounting

Controls

6 control buttons including record, play, rewind, fast forward, menu and power. 4-channel PWM plus 1× S.Bus remote control via extension connector

Microphone

Integrated stereo microphone, active when the camera is recording.

Mounting options

1 × 1/4" (top), 3 × 1/4" (bottom)

Storage functions

Storage type

Removable SDXC and SDHC cards.

Storage format

Mac OS Extended or exFAT format. SD cards can be formatted in the camera, or on any Mac or Windows computer. In-camera formatting is recommended.

Storage size

1920 × 1080
CinemaDNG RAW - 65 MB/s
Apple ProRes 422 HQ - 27.5 MB/s
Apple ProRes 422 - 18.4 MB/s
Apple ProRes 422 LT - 12.75 MB/s
Apple ProRes Proxy - 5.6 MB/s
Rates based on 30 frames per second.

Compressed recording formats

Lossless CinemaDNG RAW at 1920×1080 with film dynamic range. Apple ProRes 422 HQ, 422, 422 LT, and 422 Proxy at 1920×1080 with film or video dynamic range.

Connections

HDMI video output

1 × HDMI Type A output

Expansion port

The DB-HD15 serial connector supports:
Power consumption
LANC input
1 × S.Bus channel input
4 × PWM channel input
Genlock input
Composite video output

Analog audio input

1 × 3.5 mm stereo audio at line or mic level. Can also be used for timecode input.

HDMI audio output

2 channels 48 kHz and 24-bit.

Remote control

Lens control, shooting parameters and shooting trigger start/stop trigger via LANC and PWM or S.Bus remote channels

Computer interface

USB 2.0 Mini-B port for software updates.

Software

Software included

DaVinci Resolve Lite evaluation software. SD card for Mac OS X and Windows.

Operating systems

Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks, Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite or later
Windows 7 or Windows 8

Power requirements

Battery type

Canon LP-E6

Battery life

About 1 hour and 30 minutes

Current

12V-20V

Physical specifications

Width

3.25 inch

Height

2.74 inches

Weight

10.65 oz

Environmental specifications

Operating temperature

Operating temperature: 0° to 40° C (32° to 104° F)

Storage temperature

Storage Temperature: -20° to 45° C (-4° to 113° F)

Relative humidity

Relative humidity: 0% to 90% non-condensing