Chinese cinema camera manufacturer Kinefinity has announced its new sub-flagship camera, the Mavo Edge 6K, which is a full-frame 6K cinema camera. The Edge 6K is based on its big brother, the Mavo Edge 8K, but is more sophisticated with a lot of solid features dedicated to high-end cinematography in a multiple of environments.
To take a look at the latest 6K marvel from Kinefinity take a look at the promo below:
This camera really get be stocked about the world of cine cameras, for a long time Kinefinity has been a brand misunderstood by half of the community as it tires to take on cinema camera giant RED, however, on the other side of the camp are filmmakers like me, who love Kinefinity for the sheer engineering miracles they perform to deliver amazing cine products from 4K to 8K, and the new Mavo Edge 6K is here to set the tone..
The Kinefinity Mavo Edge 6K is a new powerful full-frame cine camera that is capable of producing 6K at an astonishing 75fps and 4K slo-mo at 150fps, all thanks to its 6K 3:2 CMOS sensor. But the fun doesn't stop there, this new camera is also equipped with internal motorized full-spectrum e-ND filters from 0.6 to 2.4 and integrates industry standard ports and dual SSD modules that can record codecs such as Apple ProRes 4444/XQ and uncompressed RAW onto NVMe M.2 media.... This camera sounds amazing and you can tell Kinefinity are done with the "RED copycat" speech from the naysayers and are truly going for gold with their latest products.
As a RED user myself, I look at Kinieinfinty the way I first did RED when I wanted to look for a truly professional cinema camera that was dedicated to one specific job, able to capture amazing content, far superior to that of "hybrid" cameras. While I chose RED to be my "weapon of choice" excuse the pun (one of RED's cameras is called Weapon, if you didn't know) - However, with the release of the Red Komodo and the latest 8K box style cine camera, the Red Raptor, the price with each iteration has seen a significant increase over the years.
This is where Kinefinity is making its mark, the same way Red did all those years ago, by offering a great solution, with industry-standard utilities, at a price that is, yes still expansive for most, but more affordable than other offerings on the market, and in some cases making better accessories too
For instance, this new 6K full frame camera from Kinefinity can be bought "brain only" for $9,999 / £10,194 - the equivalent full-frame camera from Red is priced at $24,500 / £17,900 - Yes, it is 8K compared to 6K, but that's a saving of $14,501 / £7,706, that is a massive difference, and when you consider the Mavo Edge 6K now offers two XLR microphone inputs and a clever v-mount battery / compact battery module built-in, along with electronic ND filters, all of which you need to add modules to Red's eco-system, and don't get me started of the highly impressive universal mounting systems that you can simply swap out each unit for either PL, EF, E or LPL mount in seconds, rather than having to take your highly-expensive RED camera apart to change the whole mount when swapping between lens systems - trust me that get's very old and frustrating rather quickly.
With the Mavo Edge 6K offering Pro Res 4444 and uncompressed RAW recording, its ability to buy, use, and record to your own NMVe M.2 drives is a massive bonus, when us RED users still have to buy "RED approved" media, at a significantly higher cost might I add. To me as a loyal RED user, I can see the appeal of Kinefinity and if I was someone wanting to invest into my cinematography career or start a video production studio today, then in all honestly, the Kinefinity line up just seems like the most logical option right now.
Along with this new release, new KineOS 7.0 firmware now supports Cooke/i protocol, which enables the camera to record and save lens metadata into the footage, speeding up VFX workflow. Recording media also supports both NTFS and HFS file systems, for Windows and macOS. The Mavo Edge 6K will also implement the pre-recording function in the anticipated firmware update. It ensures the cinematographer will not miss any shot during unpredictable scenes, providing a useful solution in live events and documentary work, the pre-recording function is expected to be officially launched in a firmware update in Q3 2022.
To wrap up, I would say that Kinefinity is now truly a brand that cinematographers must consider when upgrading to full-frame, or even Super 35 with other offerings from the company. It has proved that it is listening to its core user base an keeps implementing industry-standard utilities and features that are used in indie films, solo projects and all the way to Hollywood in "affordable" offerings that really give the cine camera giants Red and Arri a run for their money in both price and performance and it has really left me with a big question on my mind..
Should I swap my RED for Kinefinity?
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