BM Camera that can internally crop image

Not a pro here so please forgive my grammar errors.

We would like to have a 4K camera (higher res ok but are trying to minimize costs) statically mounted set to show our full stage, only needing HD resolution at the camera output. We would then like to remotely command the camera to crop the image (focus on a specific region) and send that through its output.

Output may be HDMI or SDI.

Which Blackmagic cameras can do this if any?

Thank you in advance!

You're referring to digital zoom. Why not do that later on in the pipeline?

Thank you for your response.

Church Live Stream application. Trying to reduce cost by having after the camera be HD versus 4K.

Sounds like you need an ATEM Mini.

Sounds like you need an ATEM Mini.

Thank you for your response.

That is the goal.

However when the mini performs "digital zoom" on an HD video, the resultant video quality is lower than if a 4K camera internally performs the same "digital zoom" on the 4K video and sends it to the Mini.

That is the motive for the question and approach, preserving as much image quality as possible by performing the digital zoom on the 4K video not the HD video.

Sounds like you need an ATEM Mini.

Thank you for your response.

That is the goal.

However when the mini performs "digital zoom" on an HD video, the resultant video quality is lower than if a 4K camera internally performs the same "digital zoom" on the 4K video and sends it to the Mini.

That is the motive for the question and approach, preserving as much image quality as possible by performing the digital zoom on the 4K video not the HD video.

Get an Micro Studio Camera 4K G2. It outputs 4k, so you won't have that issue.

Get an Micro Studio Camera 4K G2. It outputs 4k, so you won't have that issue.

Thank you for your response.

Does this mean this camera has a digital zoom? That is a camera we have been looking at. After many review videos and the BM site, I can't determine the answer to this question.

I feel like my original question may not have been clear. So please let me try again.

Simplified, we wish to have a 4K camera cover the entire stage. At some time we wish to zoom into 1/2 of the stage. As I understand it, the ATEM Mini will accept the camera's input and process at HD leaving the resolution at less than HD and thus lower than it's HD output.

If the 4K Camera can perform the same digital zoom (FOV width and height) at 4K then it's resultant video will have superior resolution versus starting with HD. Thus, even if sending this video out at HD its still going to be higher quality / resolution than HD processing.

Let me say the same thing from a different persepective and with numbers:

Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 = 3840 × 2160 (4K UHD) video signal

ATEM Mini Extreme Input = 1920 x 1080 (input and processing)

Using a 4K camera to view entire stage, digital zoomed into 1/2 the stage:

3840 × 2160 pixels at sensor of which 1920 x 1080 pixels are viewed resulting in an 1920 x 1080 output signal going into ATEM, which is the HDMI and processing resolution of the ATEM. There is in effect no loss of image quality by having the camera perform the digital zoom.

Using a 4K camera to view entire stage, digital zoomed within ATEM to 1/2 the stage:

3840 × 2160 at sensor, camera marries HDMI to ATEM at 1920 x 1080. Digital Zoom to 1/2 stage performed inside the ATEM give resolution of zoom of 960 x 540 pixels

Which is now well below the resolution / quality of having done the digital zoom in the camera at 4K versus inside the ATEM Mini.

Returning to the original question, is there a Black Magic 4K or 4K+ camera that has an internal digital zoom, even if its HDMI interface is limited to HD? Thus providing a low cost method of implementing a "virtual PTZ" while preserving more image quality, over digital zoom processing within an ATEM Mini.

Thank you in advance.

I don't think the micro studio 4k has a clean digital zoom, but I could be wrong.

If it can't, you could capture the 4k sdi output into a computer and use OBS. Multiple ways to do that, but the cheapest good option I could find would be to use a BM sdi to HDMI converter and then an Elgato 4k Cam Link to capture with USB. There are cheaper HDMI to USB (as low as $20) capture cards, but I don't know of any that are nearly as good quality as the Cam Link, which is $100.

ATEM 1 M/E Constellation 4K & a Broadcast camera.

Thank you for your responses.

We have found using camlink at 4K on OBS has remarkably higher overhead, also pushing the desire to move zoom on the camera if OBS is used. We eventually want 3 cameras to; left, center, right. It seems we keep being driven into a 1ME constellation between the camera and OBS running at HD for our digital zoom. Having all camera feed into an ATEM seems prefered over a 1ME constellation isolating us to 1 camera feeding the "engine" (ATEM/OBS/Meld).

We also understand that over time old GPU support in OBS ends and a new card is needed. So long term this PC is not investment, its an expense. Versus an ATEM which will always meet its specs, even after updates, and its cost and feature set is far more inviting than a PC.

Having camera digital zoom would seem to lead to a very elegant solution, which I would love to see feeding a ATEM Extreme G2. Ideally digital zoom for virtual "PTZ", not just center biased.

Our tech savvy pastor recently found Meld Studio. From our testing Meld seems to be targeting our use case, more basic features, and lower processing overhead to do the same thing as OBS allowing us to do more. So our plan is to try building on Meld with another camera (giving 2 total) and see what we get. I prefer dedicated hardware (ATEM) versus general purpose PCs (OBS/Meld), as the "issues" of PCs 5 minutes before service "never" show up in dedicated hardware ... I like things that "just work".

We are trying to go slow here and try to get the best feature set and performance for the $$$.

As we have been working on this project I keep finding it remarkable how digital zoom in a camera solves so many issues very elegantly. In effect buy the camera res for the zoom quality you can make work / tolerate, then feed it into an ATEM Mini. Very simple.