After what felt like a brief drought, the floodgates are now opening for Thunderbolt-capable accessories. While the Apple Store is still only featuring the Promise Pegasus RAID Storage Systems, Blackmagic Designs has just debuted UltraStudio 3D ($995), a new video capture and playback solution geared towards high-end video professionals.
The box has everything you need in a convenient aluminum enclosure. Of course there’s a Thunderbolt port for connecting to your Mac, and on top of that, you have Dual Link SDI inputs and outputs, HDMI in and out, and a breakout cable port. It works with most major non-linear editing software such as Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro, and as the name indicates, it supports two streams of HD video for 3D workflows. As with all of the Thunderbolt products we’ve seen so far, Apple’s Thunderbolt Cable is not included, a trend that’s probably going to persist for a while despite the premium accessory prices.
