BMPCC dropping frames at around 32mins consistently.

While filming a series of interviews today my black magic pocket cinema camera started showing the dropped frames indicator light at around 32mins or so. So, I had to stop the interview for a moment and start recording again for another 32mins. I did 7 of them today and each time the dropped frames indicator came on at around 32mins. A bit embarrassing. You get the point. Is anyone else experiencing this or know of a solution?

Sandisk Extreme Pro 64gb
ProRes 422 (not even HQ)
Formatted card in camera to HFS+ and tried a test on Exfat. No difference.
Latest firmware

Any ideas?

While filming a series of interviews today my black magic pocket cinema camera started showing the dropped frames indicator light at around 32mins or so. So, I had to stop the interview for a moment and start recording again for another 32mins. I did 7 of them today and each time the dropped frames indicator came on at around 32mins. A bit embarrassing. You get the point. Is anyone else experiencing this or know of a solution?

Sandisk Extreme Pro 64gb
ProRes 422 (not even HQ)
Formatted card in camera to HFS+ and tried a test on Exfat. No difference.
Latest firmware

Any ideas?

There's an ongoing thread about this: http://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=25902&start=50

Try LT or HQ for prolonged recordings using the 64 GB cards, I get dropped frames with 422 after 21 minutes with both my pocket cameras. My 128 GB 45 MB/s card doesn't suffer from this.

My 128 GB 45 MB/s card doesn't suffer from this.

Same here. The 128 gb 45 mb/s card seems best suited for longer recordings - not only due to the larger storage.

Ah, and don't let anyone tell you that this camera isn't supposed to take shots that long, that's rubbish! The dropped frames with lower rate recordings are clearly a firmware fault, and not caused by a hardware limitation.

I only use the 128 GB 45 MB/s Sandisk Cards for over 1hour recordings in ProRes HQ

And did you experience dropped frames lately?

As mentioned with another thread, never had any issues with dropped frames.. I know it can be frustrating for some with the 64GB 95 Mb/s cards because technically it should be faster, but you have to know your camera before bringing it to a shoot. That's why participating in these forums and doing research is so helpful and necessary. This is the case for any camera..

Thanks for the replies. It's interesting that the longer cards don't seem to suffer the dropped frames like the 64gb ones. Hopefully it gets addressed in the next firmware release. I'll try HQ for now I guess.

So, yeah. It seems switching to HQ doesn't have the dropped frames as 422 did. I'll stick with that for now until it's resolved.

I'm not experiencing any dropped frames on any level setting on my Pocket cam, I'm using the Extreme pro 95/mbs 64Gb cards which I purchased at the beginning of this week from CVP. Is it possible that the new firmware was optimized for the most up to date manufactured cards which may have been modified lately without any release notes?

[Kristian Lam]

Hi,

Yes, this is a strange one and we're looking into it.

Yes, this is a strange one and we're looking into it.

Thank you for acknowledging the problem!

What absolutely makes no sense is that only the lower ProRes flavours tend to drop frames but not 422HQ. As far as i understand the only difference between 422HQ and lets say Proxy, is a lower Data Rate. The compression algorithm itself is the same.

And how can a Sandisk Extreme Pro record RAW without dropped frames but drop frames in ProRes Proxy?

I have tested my BMPCC with the Sandisk 85mb card and I'm getting dropped frames in ProRes LT and Proxy, but not in 422 or RAW at around 20+ minutes. Since the camera is new the firmware is 1.9.8.

Any news from support?

So any update on the issue of dropped frames? I read through all the threads I could find, and at least one of them seemed to (mostly) conclude that the problem had been solved.

Just now, I put a SanDisk Extreme 45 card into a BMPCC with the latest firmware (a card that's given me trouble in the past) and it instantly started dropping frames the second I pressed record. So I then formatted it on my computer using the SD Foundation's software in its quick format mode. I put it in the BMPCC and it started dropping frames immediately as well.

So, the last thing to check was formatting the card using the BMPCC in-camera formatting option. I formatted it in-camera and it took probably 30 seconds (longer than any of my other cards have taken in0camera) and after that format it seems to be recording fine (I'm 30 minutes into a ProRes LT test).

I hope that the in-camera formatting has solved the frame dropping issue. If so, what a relief. Whatever kind of format the BMPCC does, it seems to be much more thorough than the recommended SD Foundation software (for this purpose at least), and I will always format in camera from now on.

Has anyone else found this to be the case?

So any update on the issue of dropped frames? I read through all the threads I could find, and at least one of them seemed to (mostly) conclude that the problem had been solved.

Just now, I put a SanDisk Extreme 45 card into a BMPCC with the latest firmware (a card that's given me trouble in the past) and it instantly started dropping frames the second I pressed record. So I then formatted it on my computer using the SD Foundation's software in its quick format mode. I put it in the BMPCC and it started dropping frames immediately as well.

So, the last thing to check was formatting the card using the BMPCC in-camera formatting option. I formatted it in-camera and it took probably 30 seconds (longer than any of my other cards have taken in0camera) and after that format it seems to be recording fine (I'm 30 minutes into a ProRes LT test).

I hope that the in-camera formatting has solved the frame dropping issue. If so, what a relief. Whatever kind of format the BMPCC does, it seems to be much more thorough than the recommended SD Foundation software (for this purpose at least), and I will always format in camera from now on.

Has anyone else found this to be the case?

not really. I used both the 64 GB 95 MB/s card and the 128 GB 45MB/s Sandisk card and got the exact same results with in camera formatting as by using a Windows computer.

The 64 GB card drops frames in 422 after 21 minutes, while LT seems to function properly. As does HQ. Never use RAW or Proxy.

My 128 GB card doesn't suffer from dropped frames.