Blackmagic Design has revealed full specs and details for its new URSA Cine Immersive camera, specially designed to shoot 8K VR180 footage for the Apple Immersive Video format. Pre-orders for the $30,000 camera are open now, with shipping planned for Q1 2025. A forthcoming update to DaVinci Resolve Studio (also made by Blackmagic) adds editing tools specifically for Apple Immersive Video, including support for calibration data from the camera.

Apple Immersive Video is a 180° 3D video format intended for playback on Apple Vision Pro. Early versions of Blackmagic’s URSA Cine Immersive are likely the cameras used to film Apple Immersive Video content currently available on the headset.

Now the camera is being made available commercially, with pre-orders available for a cool $30,000. Though certainly expensive, this is in-line with many other high-end cinema cameras.

The URSA Cine Immersive is specially made to capture Apple Immersive Video, featuring a pair of 180° stereo lenses, capturing 59MP (8,160 x 7,200) each, with 16 stops of dynamic range. The camera can shoot up to 90 FPS in the Blackmagic RAW format, which also embeds calibration data (unique to each camera) that’s carried into the editing process for more precise and stable footage.

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Image courtesy Black Magic Design
Image courtesy Black Magic Design
Image courtesy Black Magic Design

The forthcoming update to the DaVinci Resolve Studio editing software will include features specific to editing footage from the camera:

  • Immersive Video Viewer: Pan, tilt, and roll clips on 2D monitors or directly on Apple Vision Pro
  • Seamless Transitions: Clean master files using metadata-based bypass for Apple Vision Pro transitions
  • Export Presets: Streamlined delivery to Apple Vision Pro-ready packages

Both Blackmagic and Apple hope the release of the camera and streamlined editing workflow will make it easier for filmmakers to capture and release content in the Apple Immersive Video format.

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It’s unclear if the camera and editor will work equally well for capturing VR180 footage for playback on other platforms and headsets, or if there’s something proprietary to the Apple Immersive Video format that would prevent straightforward compatibility and multi-platform releases.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."

  • Nice!
    But I see no reason why this camera wouldn't "work" for other HMDs.
    []^ )

  • Sofian

    Does it fly?

  • xyzs

    Beautiful:
    16 stops
    8k per eye
    large sensor
    good price (yes, for professional production, that's a very good deal)
    That's what was needed for high quality VR video production.
    This is gonna set a new default high quality standard.

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      Similar cameras are often rented for a project base instead of bought, esp. for shorter ones like most 180° productions will be. The first search result checked for a similarly priced Red V-Raptor 8K listed rental rates between USD 800/day and USD 2400/week, and there should be cheaper offers. With the market for this type of content still minuscule, only a few studios/film makers will have both enough matching projects and/or faith in near future growth to justify outright buying one.

      • xyzs

        Yes indeed, renting is the main way to access gear in professional productions, still, I meant the price is a great deal for production because buying thus renting will be much cheaper than the RED/ARRI world. And the all-in-one, ready to go form factor of this cam, is making is a no-brainer.

  • dextrovix

    Put me down for two of them.

  • sfmike

    My dream camera. As terrific as this is I predict it will fail as the Western entertainment industry, as well as the electronics manufactures, have a visceral hate of anything 3D. Only their disdain for anything involving a VR headset compares. It will be up to Asia and Europe to make any progress in 3D hardware.

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      As far as I can tell it uses the same camera body as their URSA Cine cameras available from 4K to 12K, but with a stereo lens setup mounted. The 12K version records up to 12,288*6480, while the URSA Cine Immersive lists 8160*7200 per eye, or 16320*7200 total, so there might also be an upgraded sensor involved. All this paired with software enhanced for handling 180° content, half sensor/per eye calibration etc.

      This will certainly be an extreme niche product, but it's not like cameras for professional film production are selling in huge amounts anyway. So with most of it being based on an existing product, the number of units they have to sell for this to not be consider a failure should be rather low.

  • Christian Schildwaechter

    The camera of course won't be limited to creating content for only AVP. It records in a format that neither AVP nor Quest would natively play, which both use the very efficient MV-HEVC, a multi-view video standard dating back to 2014.

    It's up to the DaVinci Resolve Studio video editing software to export the finished project to a format suitable for HMDs, and even the free DaVinci Resolve (not Studio) limited to 4K has been able to create 180° or 360° content playable on Quest for years.

    The special connection to AVP here seems to be mostly that DaVinci Resolve Studio will get an editor extension that not only allows for the 180° content to be for example panned on a 2D monitor, but also live inside AVP during the editing process without having to first export the project, which could improve the workflow a lot.

  • STL

    I‘m sorry, while the resolution sounds impressive, it is extremely low at a closer look. The raw format of a simple iPhone 16 Pro already comes with 48MP. To picture the full 180° at a comparable resolution, one would need 576MP (!) and in 3D incredible 1152MP. While this might be possible in 10 or 20 years from now, all 180° or 360° cameras deliver BLURY photos and videos, as of today, without exception. And online streaming such content is nearly impossible due to the ultra high data throughput required.
    So for now, the spatial video approach with the small yet clear windows in an immersive world are all what‘s possible!

    • xyzs

      If 8k per eye is not enough (I think it is if the lense/encoding quality is top notch), never heard of video upscaling anyway?

      Also, possible in 10 to 20 years? lol..

      15 years ago, a phone could barely do 640*480 crappy quality videos, today they can shoot in 8k hdr for some, you really think it will take 10 to 20 years to get 16k videos with professional cameras ???

      • Christian Schildwaechter

        8K/eye equals 131MP total. With current HMDs only going up to about 4K/eye (32MP total) with about 90° FoV, 8K covers the whole 180° of the video while providing the largest possible pixel size.

        Blackmagic are certainly aware of phone sensors like the Sony IMX903 48MP sensor with 1.4µm pixels used in the iPhone 16. But those don't offer anywhere near the light sensitivity they need, which is why the URSA Cine Immersive uses a massive 141MP 65mm sensor (50.81*23.32mm) with twice as large 2.9µm pixels capturing 4.3 times as many photons.

        Sensors are basically silicon chips, and pixel count increased like with CPUs. But shrinking structures mean smaller pixels capturing less light, causing very noisy pictures in low light conditions. Phones compensate by merging several images from multiple cameras with tons of signal processing for impressive results, but you never see the real image, only an interpretation. Not an option for professional video captured in raw formats for fine grained post processing, requiring the actual colors to be recorded. Excellent phone cameras seriously lowered the entry bar for film makers, but comparing phones to professional cameras featuring insanely expensive sensors and lenses makes little sense.