Blackmagic Forum

I'm confused.

I have an ATEM Television Studio HD and wanted to buy an SDI camera for it. Since I do not want to spend money for old-fashioned FullHD cameras, I considered the BM Studio Camera 4K. Just to make sure I've asked BM pre-sales whether these two devices work together. The ATEM is limited to HD, but the product description of the camera says it does support 1080p*.

Now the BM Technical Sales Specialist told me, that they do not work together over SDI. I would have to abuse the HDMI output, which is always FullHD, although not recommended. I wasn't even aware that the Studio Cameras (the regular, not the micro) have an HDMI output and don't see one in their description. Maybe the sales representative confused it with the micro studio camera.

A german dealer was suprised. He thought the cameras would output just what is chosen in the menu, i.e. when choosing 1080p50, you get 1080p50. He said that should work with the ATEM.

(He, however, strongly recommended the HD over the 4K camera, because the light sensivity of the 4K was dramatically reduced.)


Currently I am a little bit confused since there is no reliable statement.

Which of the Studio Cameras and Micro Studio Cameras can be used with a ATEM Television Studio HD over SDI?

Hadmut Danisch wrote:Which of the Studio Cameras and Micro Studio Cameras can be used with a ATEM Television Studio HD over SDI?

All do! They are all be able to output 1080P50/59.94 And most if not all will do 1080I too..

The Atem TVS HD will not run 4K offcoarse..

I agree with the German dealer about HD vs 4K. But if you running a studio enviorement where lighting is no issue, it all depends on the size of your wallet.. Fact is that the 4K sensor does need more light.. But both need a certain amount of light to get a nice picture.

Hello Hadmut. Daniel is correct. All of our Studio type cameras will output SDI in HD. The HD Television Studio Camera has a little more light range, while the 4K Studio Camera makes a better HD image due to oversampling. Hope this helps.

Regards, Gary

For HD broadcast the HD Studio version is maybe a stop cleaner at any given ISO. In every other way the 4K cam is superior.

Another consideration is amount of lag in a camera. 4K cameras have had significantly more lag than hd cameras in general. If you are going live to screens or video walls this might be something to double check with the particular model you are looking for.

Lance Lewis wrote:Another consideration is amount of lag in a camera. 4K cameras have had significantly more lag than hd cameras in general. If you are going live to screens or video walls this might be something to double check with the particular model you are looking for.

You know that since the December camera update all ursa cameras went down to less then 1 frame delay on the SDI output??
So between the HD and 4K cams is not so much difference anymore in delay.. They are both under 1 frame.