Here’s a new cinema camera, the Maestro by French electronics firm NexVision. They’re building a Super 35mm 4K camera backed by NVidia image processor and the same sensor as the AJA CION. The design concept is also very similar.

Currently this is an R&D project at NexVision believed to have started a few months ago.

NexVision currently sell a reference board based around the Blackmagic Production Camera / AJA CION sensor by CMOSIS.

This is Super 35mm, 4K, with global shutter. I believe this reference board (the camera’s core circuitry) is already available to buy from NexVision if you’re one of their clients.

Interestingly the board uses a NVidia Tegra X1 processor for image processing and encoding, which is capable of 4K H.265.

The design is also capable of raw output, 3G SDI and USB 3.0.

The camera will of course have an interchangeable lens mount though it’s not clear which one.

It’s quite interesting to see quite a few other companies doing what Blackmagic started, with ‘off the shelf’ scientific CMOS sensors and ARM or NVidia processors.

These projects still require a large budget but they’re becoming more doable for the non-major players.

What is needed though is some product differentiation. Why not just buy a CION? I’d much prefer to have their expertise on the codec and ProRes than H.265 for now, not that I am writing off the Maestro. It looks great.

It would be nice to see power consumption come down as well, so we can use smaller batteries. The C300, Sony FS7 and DSLRs are a perfect example of how smaller batteries make for a more versatile camera, I dislike lugging so much weight around.

Anyway – best of luck to NexVision and their attempt at a cinema camera.

It’s not every day a new one is built. You can follow their efforts here.