At the NAB Show in April 2012, Blackmagic Design announced and demonstrated the Cinema Camera and slated for its release on July with an initial price of US$2,995.

[3] However, in August, the release date was delayed for "final stages of Thunderbolt certification and internal testing".

[4] A passive Micro Four Thirds model was then announced at IBC in September for release in December,[5] along with a collaboration with Arri for a set of kits exclusively for the camera.

The Camera has a 5" 800x480 LCD touchscreen display and dedicated buttons that can play and pause, stop, skip, focus and record media, access the menu and to power on the device.

The device runs on a proprietary software called Camera Utility,[12] which mainly powers the interface and system.