Blackmagic Camera App - Issues/Bugs

The developer responded very quickly that Tentacle Sync is not supported. I lobbied to get PQ in 10bit instead of only 8bit. We shall see what comes of that.

I’ll be shooting 30 fps ProRes 422 HQ 10 bit HDR HLG tomorrow unless anyone suggests a better option.

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Purchased and installed Cinema P3 this afternoon.

Once I figured out how to use manual ISO and shutter speed, a half dozen time lapse tests so far show
no flickering or focus jumps whatsoever. Not sure if I've invoked MF lock or not, but I see no focus artifacts.

All shot in Apple Log H.265 4K 60.

It's a very comprehensive app, well laid out and easy to use. It includes lots of still photo capabilities, too. I've not tried any of those.

For some reason, the time lapse function is buried under Display Settings.

So far, I'm not sure which one of the supplied LUTs to use, or whether they work in the record display mode or are just for post. I'm just using the default log view. Flat and ugly. Good thing the scopes are so good. They're similar to those in Resolve (ie luminance, parade, even a vectorscope, and scalable. They'll apparently even disappear during recording, although I haven't tried that.

And, wonder of wonders, switchable roll/cut audio notifications in time lapse and regular video shooting. THANK YOU!

I did manage to crash it once. "Unable to record media" said the little box in the center of the screen. Nothing would restore it other than an iPhone reboot. This followed a media transfer session and deletion from the phone in the Files app. File transfers to USB SSD are identical in function to those with the BMD app. Fast and easy.

It does seem to use more power. I'll have to test this more.

So far, an excellent investment. Now, I have to go and re-shoot all those moving clouds.

Try checking power use for one of the ProRES options and compare to h265 for timelapse use. There is a reason behind ProRES being easy on the system for editing.

I’m simplifying things to the extreme in the following to illustrate the difference between h265 and ProRES

ProRES is essentially a (compressed) frame oriented protocol. When a new frame is complete, it can “just” be compressed and then added to the file (ahem, illustration!!)

h265 is a streaming oriented protocol, where a “group” of frames is collected, and organised into a sequence of (again very simplified) one full frame (compressed) followed by a sequence of partial (compressed) frames, each only holding the “difference” to the preceeding complete frame state. In essence each added frame collected needs to be compared to the previous frame content, the difference calculated, compressed and then added to the stream. After a certain amount of “partial frames”, a new “group” is started, beginning with one complete, compressed frame followed by a number of successive and compressed “difference frames” (ahem, illustration!!)

Now… a timelapse is not “group” or stream oriented in the collection phase, and maybe - just maybe - that may affect power use.

Regards

Regarding LUTs in Cinema P3: most are a bit vintage if you have an iPhone 15.
Simply use ProRes with Apple log. Under the box symbol for LUTs you’ll find two display logs then, for Rec 709 and for HLG. These are not baked in.
All the other creative LUTs are in 8 bit, AFAIK, and get baked in.

Please report back regarding power consumption with HEVC and ProRes.

Thanks for your insight and advice, boys.

Uli, CP3 has apparently solved all my flicker and focus irregularities, so thanks for that especially. It was quite disheartening to shoot all that stuff and find that it was mostly loaded with problems. I guess that's true of any brand new software.

I only suspect that Cinema P3 is using more power than BM Camera. This after just a few hours with the app.

kfriis: it's probably true that long GOP encoding would use more power than Pro Res. All my shooting so far has been H.265.

My use case today consisted of a few hours of shooting time lapse sequences, viewing them, spelunking around in the CP3 app, learning the app and doing some file transfers, so it wasn't typical of what I've been doing with the camera in the last few days.

My previous use case consisted mainly of just shooting. A few hours intermittent shooting would use maybe a third of a battery. Today's varied, arguably more intense efforts used more than half. That's where my suspicion came from. Still, miniscule power consumption compared to what I've been used to.

All the shooting in both situations was using 4K H.265 Log, so no Pro Res at all except for one group of tests a week or so ago. Live video, not time lapse.

It is nothing short of astounding how fast those media files copy from the iPhone to the USB T7 SSD.

I see very little, if any, on-screen difference between H.265 log and Pro Res LT. Those files are ten times bigger, for no real benefit - to me at least. Note that I'm not doing any VFX work and I'm willing to tolerate the slight timeline laggyness that results from the compressed footage. I'm able to edit directly off the T7 SSD, amazingly.

I have 42% left after shooting for two hours in ProRes 422 HQ Apple log, while supplying power to a Samsung T5 as well. Shooting higher frame rates is using considerably more juice and is more prone to overheating. This was a test with BM's app and a Pro Max.

BTW, if you'd rather like to record HEVC, CinemaP3 allows you to up the data rate massively. This has very positive consequences for the signal quality, as seen on the scopes. At the highest rates it gets very close to ProRes without needing as much space. I have not yet tested power consumption for this.

This is quite important, actually, even if not visible right away. If you get your exposure always right, you may not see much of a difference. But if you need to pull it up or down by only one stop, you'll introduce visible banding to that meagre signal the default setting is recording. It's about 10 times smaller than what a Sony A7IV is recording for the same resolution and codec. I was positively surprised by that capability in CP3. The highest data rate is even a bit higher than in the Sony and both are much more forgiving in post.

I didnt even expect the HEVC encoder in the A17 to be that flexible.

Good observation, Uli. There seems to be no end to testing how to wring the most quality out of the most efficient codec! I got approval to shoot a show with the iPhone 14 Pro recording ProRes 422 10bit HLG this evening using Cinema P3 Pro. If there’s a break, I might be able to switch to the Blackmagic Cam app to continue recording after break. Then I could compare images in post.

Edit
Removed PQ reference as it’s not available.

Good observation, Uli. There seems to be no end to testing how to wring the most quality out of the most efficient codec! I got approval to shoot a show with the iPhone 14 Pro recording ProRes 422 10bit HLG this evening using Cinema P3 Pro. If there’s a break, I might be able to switch to the Blackmagic Cam app to continue recording after break (possibly using PQ instead of HLG). Then I could compare images in post.

I may be blind, but… how do you activate PQ instead of HLG?

Genuinely interested in testing the waters with that option too.

Regards

(Uli) CinemaP3 allows you to up the data rate massively.

How? I only have a few hours on this interface.

(Uli) CinemaP3 allows you to up the data rate massively.

How? I only have a few hours on this interface.

Start in Video Settings:

Video settings

IMG_5808.jpeg (260.82 KiB) Viewed 5665 times

Continue in Video Properties:

Video properties

IMG_5809.jpeg (248.82 KiB) Viewed 5665 times

Aaand make your choices.

Regards

Progres indicator problem on external drive (2TB)

Recording starts on ProRES 422HQ 50 fps (1/50s) etc.

Top two indicators (00:02:31:01 and 00:29:13:35) show the initial available space (no need to know after recording has begun) but NO progress indication in form of updated remaining space available (which may come handy in some cases). Checking once a second would be fine, once a minute would also work.

Indicator problem 1

Indicator problem.jpeg (599.05 KiB) Viewed 5647 times

When recording stops the indicator shows the complete duration (00:32:04:03) and as indicated below, the remaining time goes abruptly from 2:59:06 to 2:29.53 and available space falls from 2000GB to 1674GB. Still nice to know, but if I only had had 300 GB left, it would have been nice to watch progress (some situations may be tighter, than this example).

The recording data are as follows:

Indicator problem 2

Indicator problem 2.jpeg (204.11 KiB) Viewed 5647 times

Functionality update request: That at least remaining space is updated each time per second (a simple system call could be posted without upsetting the recording in any way).

Regards

… I may be blind, but… how do you activate PQ instead of HLG?

Genuinely interested in testing the waters with that…

Apologies for that. I was talking to Tom and he said he hasn’t implemented PQ because he feels the greater amount of data in HLG indicates it’s a better choice. He will look into implementing PQ in the future.

My addled brain had noticed in the lower level of ProRes options the option of formatting the video with P3 8bit, but I must have thought it offered PQ 8bit. Sorry, I’ll fix the error. I’m using 10bit HLG which Tom told me is accurate even though ProRes 422HQ may report it as 12bit: there’s only 10bits of real data.

… I may be blind, but… how do you activate PQ instead of HLG?

Genuinely interested in testing the waters with that…

Apologies for that. I was talking to Tom and he said he hasn’t implemented PQ because he feels the greater amount of data in HLG indicates it’s a better choice. He will look into implementing PQ in the future.

My addled brain had noticed in the lower level of ProRes options the option of formatting the video with P3 8bit, but I must have thought it offered PQ 8bit. Sorry, I’ll fix the error. I’m using 10bit HLG which Tom told me is accurate even though ProRes 422HQ may report it as 12bit: there’s only 10bits of real data.

No worries…

I also contacted Tom re the 12-bit info. Got the same answer.

Regards

(Uli) CinemaP3 allows you to up the data rate massively.

Thanks, Uli. Upped it to 8MB/sec. Two more questions if I may.

To get a Rec 2020 preview in the viewfinder, Tom suggests:

The “HLG View Assist” and “709 View Assist” options when using Apple Log are for display preview only.

I can't find those "View Assist" options.

Second, to check for updates, how do I tell what version I have?

Thanks!

You have to be on "Creative" (tap the camera symbol in the lower left).
You should see a cube in the lower middle then. Tap that.

@ Kurt, regarding update of remaining storage: BM also doesn't update that display while recording, marking it in red to remind you. When you stop, it's updated and goes blue again. Maybe an iOS limit?

Not that I’m complaining, but it’s odd that the available storage doesn’t appear to agree with what iOS tells me. I think I’ll be okay in any event this evening and it’s just a production test, but I don’t want to run out of the internal storage: iOS says I have 915 GB free but Blackmagic Cam says low 800s.

I do like that Cinema P3 Pro lets me record either 3840x2160 UHD or 3840x1606 Wide 2.39:1 whereas Blackmagic just says 4K.

Both apps have their strengths and weaknesses but it’s early days.

The system is telling you remaining storage including temp files it’ll delete on itself if necessary.
The app sees only what’s really empty at that moment.

And then, UHD is not really 4K. Nobody would label HD in 1920 as „2K“.

Both apps have their strengths and weaknesses but it’s early days.

As I understand it, Cinema P3 was launched three years ago.

I'm curious to see what Halide releases in February.

Yeah, CP3 is not really new. But the new phones and their computing power offer new potential.
That EDR trick would have been a domain of high-end cameras not long ago. And did you know that the motion blur option for time-lapses is actually frame averaging? And then, the results are CFR.

cut… @ Kurt, regarding update of remaining storage: BM also doesn't update that display while recording, marking it in red to remind you. When you stop, it's updated and goes blue again. Maybe an iOS limit?

No. Not in the latest version.

The image collage is made from the actual screendumps while recording on BlackMagic Camera most recent version 1.2.10003.

The indicator for remaining storage and recording time remains static white, before, during and after recording as shown. Remaining storage/recording time is updated only after recording has stopped. It doesn’t help, that the record indicator on top switches to red (other than I now know recording is happening).

Behavior is identical for internal recording, where available space usually is far more restricted.

A quick check: Cinema P3 has a (far, far too small) tally of remaining gigabytes (just tested internal recording). I haven’t even noticed it before today (my old eyes only see a smear, if not held up to the face - not my usual recording posture

I’ve sent a request to Tom for an option allowing a larger, actually readable tally!

Regards

You‘re on the Pro, right? Max here and I got the same version of BM camera, but the line in the middle of the storage indicator shows the colors as described.

You‘re on the Pro, right? Max here and I got the same version of BM camera, but the line in the middle of the storage indicator shows the colors as described.

When I start recording, the line switches to red - fine - I can see the time used info far better on the top of the screen, but the white numbers - in this moment - stay glued at “14:16” and “62%/159GB” in clear white, until I stop the recording, or the recording is forced to stop due to “missing storage”!

AFTER stopping (AFTER 5 minutes recording) the display shows “09:41” and “42% 108 GB” in clear white lettering.

Why no running tally?

With a running tally, I do not need a “paper conversion table” citing “average storage use” per minute depending on actual settings, in order to guesstimate remaining storage. Never that reliable.

If a running tally shows “05:00” and “??% 50GB“ remaining during a shoot, I know, that during the next natural pause within 5 minutes, I should switch media PDQ. Or holler “CUT!” if I suspected that would work.

If my guestimate says 10 minutes or more and I only have 5 minutes, then what?

The BlackMagic Camera App should be able to do a running display of remaining “runtime” (Cinema P3 displays remaining storage in real time), so…?

The App’s presumed main purpose, “distributed” World wide footage (someone thinking news) gathering more or less on the fly content Exchange more or less real time via cloud based project integration to a DaVinci Resolve editing facility somewhere in the world, is probably what initiated the development in the first place.

Forgetting one of the most important real time visual indicators (after “no media”) is hard to accept in an app designed for use in the rough and tumble of ordinary “information gathering”.

I repeat: Why not in the App?

Regards

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to justify what we see. I’m just trying to speculate what might be the cause.

… UHD is not really 4K. Nobody would label HD in 1920 as „2K“.

Of course you’re right, but that doesn’t prevent every 3840x2160 television in North America being marketed as 4K. I sometimes say 4K UHD. My Samsung HDTV plays true 2K media just fine, but it’s never called 2KTV.

When ‘K’ was first used in data processing 60 years ago, it meant 1024 and everything respected that convention without any confusion. However we live in a time when the tendency is to dumb down everything; talking about media capacity for example, today KB often means 1000 or MB means 1000000 and so on. Even BMD called their 4000x2160 camera 4K. If you see a performance label GB/S or TB, you can’t be positive what it means.

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to justify what we see. I’m just trying to speculate what might be the cause.

Smile... I'm not speculating on a cause.

After far more than 30 years of bug hunting (20+ as "final straw/backstop") - secondary task - I do NOT speculate anymore.

When creative stupidity enters any endeavor, you'd be surprised of the methods actually employed to get things wrong in the real world. Ask any supporter in an end user oriented department. Then multiply by ten or a hundred, what (so-called?) competent developers can be "inspired" to come up with - I was not innocent either, just seasoned enough to admit, that I was not perfect. Simplifying bug-hunting somewhat, since I've done lots of the "badies" before in person. Recognition is simpler then

Murphys law is far too tame on that front!

Regards

Last night’s test recordings went off without a hitch. Recorded unattended on iPhone 14 Pro for about 45 minutes in Camera P3 Pro ProRes 422HQ HLG 3840x1606 and an hour with Blackmagic Cam 4K Rec.2020, which is actually 3840x2160. Except for the issue of the uncertainty regarding storage, no concerns recording. I won’t be bringing these into Resolve Studio on the Mac for a week or more. Shooting tonight with UM4.6K and BMPCC4K and editing that’s a higher priority.

You have to be on "Creative" (tap the camera symbol in the lower left).
You should see a cube in the lower middle then. Tap that.

Excellent, Uli. Thanks!

Last night’s test recordings went off without a hitch. Recorded unattended on iPhone 14 Pro for about 45 minutes in Camera P3 Pro ProRes 422HQ HLG 3840x1606 and an hour with Blackmagic Cam 4K Rec.2020, which is actually 3840x2160. Except for the issue of the uncertainty regarding storage, no concerns recording. I won’t be bringing these into Resolve Studio on the Mac for a week or more. Shooting tonight with UM4.6K and BMPCC4K and editing that’s a higher priority.

I trust, that you will tell us, how it went. The good, the bad and the average results, as well as your personal, subjective conclusion (you don’t have to

It never hurts to hear fact and real life based opinions - different or not.

Regards

Sure will report back.

I could add the phone footage as Video Track 3 to my edit of the UN4.6K/BMPCC4K camera footage, but that might reveal startling results! Easy enough to toggle the V3 track On/Off.

One think I noticed was the audio levels seemed to be higher on the Cinema P3 Pro footage compared to the Blackmagic Cam footage. And I do prefer the Tentacle Sync Timecode integration only available with BCam.

I’ll post anything noteworthy in the Facts and Findings thread.

Sure will report back.

I could add the phone footage as Video Track 3 to my edit of the UN4.6K/BMPCC4K camera footage, but that might reveal startling results! Easy enough to toggle the V3 track On/Off.

One think I noticed was the audio levels seemed to be higher on the Cinema P3 Pro footage compared to the Blackmagic Cam footage. And I do prefer the Tentacle Sync Timecode integration only available with BCam.

I’ll post anything noteworthy in the Facts and Findings thread.

That may be the case, where the standard BMC default level was -18 dBFS, where the Cinema P3 doesn’t specify anything (I may have overlooked a detail or two). Did you use IEEE Float in BMC, or 16-bit? Cinema P3 “only” lets you select PCM or AAC plus “standard” sample rates.

Look at audio properties in QuickTime or MediaInfo for details.

If you remember, I made a simple 1kHz test on ProRES 422HQ (or was it ProRES 422), and read it into a Brazilian origin audio editor (with built in analyzer and all that jazz). I love it. Well maintained over the years, I’ve used it. Mac Apple Silicon version. Called “ocenaudio” (“ocenaudio.com”). Platform support is broad. Seems to be contribute-Ware (can’t remember what I paid years ago).

The analysis of the audio parts of the ProRES recordings (extracted as read-only info), indicated that the iPhone actively and automatically adjusted recorded audio levels down, to obtain the same average max levels; details see the actual post.

My tests were based on a simple and constant 1kHz source level for each test. No dynamics, but what if… what if you analyze the same or a similar sequence from each app? If a compressor feature was activated in the iPhone, did it affect each App equally (indicating different target output recording levels set or… or…)?

If you run a simple statistic in the app above, it may show a difference. If that is the case, also look at the signals from the two apps. Are there any “limiter” effects cutting in in one or both apps, or… or…

Marking an identical portion of audio and getting the FFT analysis from each recording from each app, may also show “interesting” differences on identical music. If recordings are “sequential” on same iPhone, anything goes… really….

Regards

My audio for both iPhone 14 Pro apps used the Linear PCM 48kHz and default to only 16bit depth for LPCM, rather than allowing any other better options. On the Sound Devices I always use 32bit float. On the DaVinci Resolve timeline, both phone apps have usable audio levels so not a deal breaker.

Loaded into Resolve, Camera P3 Pro shot Act 1 and Blackmagic Cam shot Act 2. One actor does a soliloquy in both acts from a similar part of the stage but somewhat different lighting I think. Still that similarity does aid in comparing the two apps.

You can see both apps’ software image processing do a good job of protecting the highlights (likely it’s the iPhone’s internal image processing doing that). I may be wrong but it appears the BCam has stronger sharpening but the difference may be due to different lighting in the different scenes rather than anything. BCam is shooting 4K with 2020 colour. P3Pro is shooting 4K with HLG colour so that may account for some of the differences I see.

There is one scene where the lighting is intentionally quite a bit lower. That can be somewhat challenging for the BMD cinema cameras, but due to intense image processing in the iPhones, the dark area does a very good job of seeing the actors in lower light. I probably don’t need to do much in Resolve for that scene which would require some work from the BMD cinema cameras due to their absence of anything to automatically adjust to lower levels. I’m still copying last night’s media from the BMD cameras so I’ll especially look to see how the cinema cameras cope.

My audio for both iPhone 14 Pro apps used the Linear PCM 48kHz and default to only 16bit depth for LPCM, rather than allowing any other better options. On the Sound Devices I always use 32bit float. On the DaVinci Resolve timeline, both phone apps have usable audio levels so not a deal breaker.

Loaded into Resolve, Camera P3 Pro shot Act 1 and Blackmagic Cam shot Act 2. One actor does a soliloquy in both acts from a similar part of the stage but somewhat different lighting I think. Still that similarity does aid in comparing the two apps.

You can see both apps’ software image processing do a good job of protecting the highlights (likely it’s the iPhone’s internal image processing doing that). I may be wrong but it appears the BCam has stronger sharpening but the difference may be due to different lighting in the different scenes rather than anything. BCam is shooting 4K with 2020 colour. P3Pro is shooting 4K with HLG colour so that may account for some of the differences I see.

There is one scene where the lighting is intentionally quite a bit lower. That can be somewhat challenging for the BMD cinema cameras, but due to intense image processing in the iPhones, the dark area does a very good job of seeing the actors in lower light. I probably don’t need to do much in Resolve for that scene which would require some work from the BMD cinema cameras due to their absence of anything to automatically adjust to lower levels. I’m still copying last night’s media from the BMD cameras so I’ll especially look to see how the cinema cameras cope.

You need to download and use MediaInfo (free) to obtain the info of the formats actually used in each file. Sometimes formats are called different things in options, but deliver same formats in the recorded file - and vice versa.

I have also been VERY surprised on how well my iPhone 15 Pro handles low light. Especially really, really, REALLY low light situations.

We’re currently down to 7 hours of… ahem… something called daylight, where I live, so it’s easy - often necessary - to make real life low light outside recordings; typically “assisted” by cold winds, rain, sleet or snow. Lots of unwanted “extra detail”!

Neither fit for man nor phone. Especially not phone, until now!

I’m plain flabbergasted. In a pinch, I could use most recordings rendered directly to a target format for publishing, and no one would probably complain.

IF - as rumored - all three lenses in a coming iPhone 17 Pro (Max) get decent sized 48 megapixel sensors, “real cameras” will be in for some stiff competition on many fronts outside the “no holds barred, big budget segment”.

Regards

… You need to download and use MediaInfo (free) to obtain the info of the formats actually used in each file…We’re currently down to 7 hours of… ahem… something called daylight, where I live…

MediaInfo found a 370 GB recording from Blackmagic Cam because I recorded that ‘production test of a theatrical performance’ in the BCam app. It finds all my clips that have been recorded in the library of the respective app such as Filmic Pro. However MediaInfo, doesn’t look in the Photos app library! My large Camera P3 Pro app recording is in Photos as that is one of the destinations allowed. And the MediaInfo app doesn’t ask for permission to look in Photos. And the MediaInfo app does not have the ability for me to add access to Photos via Apple Settings.

When I opened the 370 GB video, it immediately crashed.

Then I bought the $.99 app on the Mac App Store. It opened the Camera P3 Pro clip I had transferred to the Mac, but told me very little that I already knew. Then I opened the BCam video 346 GB on the Mac and did point out that the average bit rate was 799 Mb/s which is much higher than the Camera P3 Pro at 564 Mb/s.

What level of Mac in-app purchase do I need to buy in order to see the details you have been providing to us?

Thanks for your help.

Have you tried this:

https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo

Regards

Thanks for the link.

After subscribing to the iOS app it still crashed on the Camera P3 Pro clip! Waste of money for that one. On the Mac version of the app I added the Mac subscription and all is well.

After subscribing to the iOS app it still crashed on the Camera P3 Pro clip! Waste of money for that one. On the Mac version of the app I added the Mac subscription and all is well.

Forgot to press “submit” before closing my eyes, but here’s my take:

The iOS version of MediaInfo is badly maintained. Version 22.12 was released 11 months ago.

This version has a lot of “weird behaviors” and many unsupported iOS methods for exchanging/opening files selected (share/open interface).

I test it infrequently, and delete it soon after.

Recently I installed the version again to check a few around 5GB test files. The App consistently crashed out of memory without warning.

Removed from iPhones and iPad. Behavior reported. No answer received.

I usually only use the much more powerful Mac (or Windows) version downloaded directly.

Regards

I can recommend the reasonably priced Invisor (not for phones). It makes it easier to spot differences between video files.

Is there any talks of a "Select all" "Slide to select" feature to be added when exporting media? This would be great rather than having to tap files individually.

Also has anyone else notice a lag when filming with a LUT ON or LUT OFF? Before it would only lag on the preview monitor when LUT was ON. Now it lags even when this feature is turned off.

Further to my time lapse testing: I shot a sunrise TL with Cinema P3 this morning. Aside from some silly operator errors, it recorded perfectly for a little over three hours before mysteriously stopping the recording.

Some obvious focus and exposure problems were my fault, but there were no exposure flickers or focus jumps throughout the file.

The recording used about 50% of the iPhone's battery. Screen was on and airplane mode was off, so no attempt at limiting power usage on my part. Camera was indoors in a dark room.

The resulting 1.4GB H.265 Apple Log file copied to the USB 3 T7 SSD in less than a second. Amazing.

Further to my time lapse testing: I shot a sunrise TL with Cinema P3 this morning. Aside from some silly operator errors, it recorded perfectly for a little over three hours before mysteriously stopping the recording.

Some obvious focus and exposure problems were my fault, but there were no exposure flickers or focus jumps throughout the file.

The recording used about 50% of the iPhone's battery. Screen was on and airplane mode was off, so no attempt at limiting power usage on my part. Camera was indoors in a dark room.

The resulting 1.4GB H.265 Apple Log file copied to the USB 3 T7 SSD in less than a second. Amazing.

Where you present, when the stop happened?

Did anything force the Cinema P3 App into the background?

Did an alarm, timer etc. go off on the iPhone?

Regards

No, no and no.

No idea why it stopped. No flags or notifications.

No, no and no.

No idea why it stopped. No flags or notifications.

The first "No" is important.

In some (albeit extreme) situations (excessive temperature comes to mind), the recording is stopped. No sound. Just a "silent, extremely simple text".

When the "excessive temperature" warning is shown, recordings stop. This does not always leave a warning for posterity (since further processing would only exacerbate the problem). Screen goes off, presumable lots of internal processing is halted, and nothing more is seen. When temperatures come down to safe levels again, everything looks normal.

I experienced it on an earlier iOS and iPhone 12 Pro, and when I repeated the task, and actually looked at the iPhone screen periodically the problem was easily spotted. You wouldn't like to even touch the iPhone, when everything shuts down (not the same as rebooting).

The problem was caused by recording a video (at very high bitrates), and it seemed to turn up after roughly the same time, where the recording was terminated (not in an orderly fashion). It allowed me to concentrate on a narrow(er) time band, to spot the goings-on in real life.

You state: "recorded perfectly for a little over three hours before mysteriously stopping". Was this the actual length of the recording saved or was it the time to discovery that the recording had stopped?

You also state: " I shot a sunrise TL with Cinema P3 this morning".

Did you take any precautions on dimming the lens? You know, humans go blind, when looking unprotected into the sun for some time. How about the the temperature behind the lens, on the sensor and electronics and whatnot behind that inside the iphone? There is no aperture, that can lower the amount of light entering the lens, so...

Even a winter sun can deliver heat (even if you only read the sensor - let's say 1/30 sec - each minute or so, the sun hits the sensor constantly - there's no aperture or mechanical shutter to prevent that, as is normal in "real cameras".

Regards

There was no heat problem from the sun, nor was there any problem from imaging the sun. I live in Western Canada and I was shooting northwards. The sun rises in the SE at this time of year.

It's possible that the phone overheated, but I doubt it. It certainly showed no signs of it when I returned. The software quit again while shooting TL this evening and the camera was outdoors in -1C temperatures so there's very little likelihood of overheating on those shots. Some other TLs were successfully recorded without failures, leading me to believe that there's more to this than simple overheating.

I did increase the H.265 data rate to 8mbps before this morning's TL and the resulting file sizes show that this was successful. They are twice as large for the same time duration as what they were previously. It's possible that this change initiated the failure. More testing required.

The good news is that there are no glitches in the files. They're rock stable. Any problems beyond the early shut downs are my fault alone.

One characteristic mentioned by Tom is that the software does "soft ISO adjustments". Since the light levels vary widely with a sunset/sunrise TL, some kind of dynamic exposure adjustment is necessary. I could see the program incrementing the ISO by a single digit approximately once every few seconds as the light levels dropped. Those changes were invisible in the resulting 30 second file. Excellent coding, I'd say.

Thanks for your interest.

This week I shot non-stop 30 fps ProRes 422HQ 4K, 45 minutes on Cinema P3 Pro and over an hour with Blackmagic Cam without any overheating. I’d think that a good stress test and more demanding than a three hour Timelapse although I don’t recall the frequency of the Timelapse. Perhaps Tom has some insights into his app and long Timelapse recordings as it does seem a mystery.

Did you have motion blur activated? It’s doing frame averaging, which might be even more demanding than regular recording.
And then, there’s a huge difference between 30 fps and 60 fps regarding power and heat.
At 30 the attached SSD is consuming more power than the app, at 60 it’s the inverse. And I got a heat shutdown at 50 fps with the iPhone still in its sleeve.

Using iPhone on 17.2.1. Shooting 4k to internal memory. Camera stops recording after 6 minutes which is about 125 frames. Recording looks fine. Just want more. Any clues. Thanks.


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This week I shot non-stop 30 fps ProRes 422HQ 4K, 45 minutes on Cinema P3 Pro and over an hour with Blackmagic Cam without any overheating. I’d think that a good stress test and more demanding than a three hour Timelapse although I don’t recall the frequency of the Timelapse. Perhaps Tom has some insights into his app and long Timelapse recordings as it does seem a mystery.

That’s not quite the same, as aiming your iPhone into a sunrise and gradually catching the full blast of the critter, that keeps earth inhabitable, drives the weather also on this planet at a distance of 150 million kilometers or so, allows us to use various forms of Sun collectors to get electricity without end (unless clouds prevent the photons from hammering the silicon).

There is a reason behind the requirement of using very potent welders glasses, when watching a solar ellipse (daily sunrise could be likened to the latter part of an eclipse, streiched out a bit).

Even if the “electronic shutter” reaches a maximum of 1/16000 second (whatever, only an example), it’s only the amount of time used for reading (!) each line making up the image; the whole image taking 5ms or so, but the sensor still baking at “full blast” for up to three hours with the sensor gradually emulating a full time Sun collector (counting the frames will tell, when the phone shut down for whatever reason. The last frames may even indicate a reason, if they were saved at all).

Does soaking comfortably in a well tempered jacuzzi on “full bubble” tell anything about stresses during windsurfing?

Regard and a big smile

That’s not [i.e. Rick's description] quite the same, as aiming your iPhone into a sunrise and gradually catching the full blast of the critter, that keeps earth inhabitable, drives the weather also on this planet at a distance of 150 million kilometers or so, allows us to use various forms of Sun collectors to get electricity without end (unless clouds prevent the photons from hammering the silicon).

There is a reason behind the requirement of using very potent welders glasses, when watching a solar ellipse (daily sunrise could be likened to the latter part of an eclipse, streiched out a bit).

Even if the “electronic shutter” reaches a maximum of 1/16000 second (whatever, only an example), it’s only the amount of time used for reading (!) each line making up the image; the whole image taking 5ms or so, but the sensor still baking at “full blast” for up to three hours with the sensor gradually emulating a full time Sun collector (counting the frames will tell, when the phone shut down for whatever reason. The last frames may even indicate a reason, if they were saved at all).

Does soaking comfortably in a well tempered jacuzzi on “full bubble” tell anything about stresses during windsurfing?

That's not the scenario that's being discussed. This is what Peter wrote:

There was no heat problem from the sun, nor was there any problem from imaging the sun. I live in Western Canada and I was shooting northwards. The sun rises in the SE at this time of year.

Yes, I saw that later.

This was not mentioned in the original post, that I answered (I was not there, you see).

It does not alter the general need for precautions, IF you create time lapse sunrise recordings aiming a modern camera WITHOUT mechanical shutter into the sun (with a light collector - aka lens - in front) over several hours.

Regards