Kinefinity MAVO Edge | 8K ProRes RAW Cinema Camera

Kinefinity has graced us with the latest addition to its cinema camera line up, Kinefinity MAVO Edge cine camera. A full-frame Cinema Camera that is capable of shooting 8K footage at 75 frames per second! This alone is enough to turn a lot of heads, but Kinefinity MAVO Edge has many more aces up the sleeve that makes it a worthy contender next to big names like Sony FX9 and Canon EOS C500 Mark II. Even big names like Alexa and RED are seeing competition now! So let’s dive into it and see what is up with this new cinema camera by Kinefinity.

Key Features:

• Full-Frame 44.7 MegaPixel 8K sensor (36 x 24mm 3:2 CMOS)
• Dual native ISO at 800/3200
• 8K Wide at 75 fps
• 8K Open gate at 48fps
• 6K Wide at 100fps
• 4K Wide at 160fps
• 14+ stops of dynamic range
• Built-in ProRes RAW recording
• Built-in ProRes4444/XQ, ProRes422HQ, and H264 proxy recording
• Dual M.2 NVMe Storage
• Full-Spectrum e-ND System

36×24 mm full-frame CMOS sensor

Kinefinity MAVO Edge is equipped with a 44.7 MegaPixel 8K full-frame 36 x 24mm 3:2 CMOS sensor that gives the astonishing ability to capture 45 million pixels. Natively, Mavo Edge supports KineMOUNT but with adapters, you can also use PL, LPL, Active EF, and passive E lenses. The camera CMOS sensor has a dual native ISO at 800 and 3200 with up to 14 stops of dynamic range. Despite these huge numbers, the processing unit inside MAVO Edge is so powerful that it can easily reach frame rates up 75 at 8K Wide, and even at a demanding 8K Open Gate setting, 48fps is still reachable with ease! All while keeping the noise at a minimum and dynamic range as high as possible. Kinefinity themselves claim “MAVO Edge ensures natural color, pleasing skin tones, low noise, high dynamic range, and stunning details in an organic and delicate way, cinematically.”
A full spec sheet of different frame rates and resolutions is provided in the following section.

ProRes RAW, which is developed by Apple for the filmmaking industry, is a very versatile and flexible codec that makes the post-production process much more pleasant especially if you are dealing with HDR (High Dynamic Range) footage. For now, ProRes RAW is supported on Apple Final Cut Pro X, Assimilate SCRATCH, Filmlight Baselight, and also Adobe products in the near future.

Full-Spectrum e-ND System

For the first time in a Kinefinity camera, MAVO Edge has put an internal motorized electronic ND system into the body of the camera. The e-ND filter covers 2 to 7 stops of dynamic range. This can come in really handy when shooting in the field because with e-ND filter fine adjust to the exact point that suits your taste and the style of the footage you are taking.

Audio Connectivity

Kinefinity MAVO Edge supports multi-channel 24-bit 48kHz audio. It already has a built-in Microphone but it is mono so if you want to record audio in stereo you can take advantage of the 3.5mm jack that is provided for adding stereo microphones. But if you want to go full-on with your audio, MAVO Edge has got your back with the inclusion of two XLR ports that support 48V Phantom Power.

M.2 NVMe Storage

Handling all the massive data produced from the Full-Frame CMOS Sensor inside MAVO Edge requires massive speeds in the storage department and that is where NVMe protocol comes to play. NVMe which stands for Non-Volatile Memory Express is a NAND based form of storing data capable of blisteringly fast speeds. Kinefinity MAVO Edge offers this form of storage in the shape of the new KineMAG Nano which has moved from SATA 3.0 to M.2 NVMe which means it takes advantage of PCIe 3.0 protocol that can move data at the speeds of up to 10Gb/s. MAVO Edge has two SSD slots for the KineMAG Nano drives. The benefit of that is that you can either use these two either as redundancy, for peace of mind when recording because data loss is something that can always happen you need to make sure you have backups, or you can record your ProRes RAW on one drive and set the other one record the proxy H.264 proxy file.

Power Solutions

By taking a look at the MAVO Edge battery compartment, you can see that it can support both 14.8v V-mount batteries, which is sweet, and also smaller Sony style BP-U30 batteries. This is absolutely amazing. This not only makes the choice of batteries a more flexible decision making but also gives the user the freedom to decide whether they want to use more power-dense but bulky and heavy V-mount batteries or use smaller BP-U30 batteries based on the situation they are filming. This becomes more apparent when using cages and gimbals for the camera.

MAVO Edge also has a D-Tap port, 12v RS, and 12v Lens port so powering up external accessories such as wireless video transmitters and lens motors are as easy as it can be.

But the power solutions do not end here! Kinefinity, with the help of Movcam, has designed a KineKIT system for MAVO Edge. This unit has a 15mm baseplate that houses a universal power supply (UPS) that’s powered by two NP-F550 type batteries. Through this baseplate, you can easily power the camera when you need to switch batteries and still keep the camera rolling.

Network and Data Connectivity

Kinefinity MAVO Edge has an RJ45 port for wired Gigabit Ethernet for the times you want to live stream or control the camera remotely. You can also transfer files through this connection which as the name implies is a fast way of doing so!

Wirelessly, MAVO Edge has WIFI 5 as a means for live streaming and controlling the camera. Bluetooth 5.0, 3-axis accelerometer, and GPS are also the other sensors and connections that are included with the camera.