Blackmagic Forum

Hi,

I know there are some concerns that we are no longer supporting the Blackmagic Cinema Camera or Pocket Cinema Camera. I just want to assure you that this is not the case.

Let me give you some background information about the development and why it is taking longer than expected.

The Blackmagic Cinema Camera was our very first foray into cameras and since then, we have shipped 3 more cameras, the Pocket Cinema Camera, Production 4K and the Studio Camera.

The original 2.5K camera had fundamental architectural differences in firmware compared to the other cameras which doubled the effort when trying to do any bug fixes or add new features to the cameras. As such, we knew we had to re-architect the firmware so as to bring it up to speed with the current cameras. This is not simple and taking longer than we thought. However, we are close now, close enough that beta versions have been seeded to some users for the past few months.

We should be able to see an update, as I'd mentioned in my post, to the 2.5K camera and Pocket Cinema Camera soon with the features below:

1. New debayering for shooting directly to ProRes or DNxHD on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF and MFT

2. Improved MFT lens support on the Pocket Cinema Camera

3. Compressed RAW support on the Production Camera 4K

4. Autofocus support for EF lenses on Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF and Production Camera 4K

What is also in this release are also certain hooks that are required for audio level metering and histogram display. It won't be visible as yet but will allow us to quickly followup with an update to add these 2 tools we know you guys are asking for.

Let me also answer some other questions I've been asked below:

• Formatting of media

Yes, we want to do this. A large part of the work has been completed so I don't believe this will be a big effort to implement. However, it is very unlikely that we will support deleting of clips directly in camera due to the risk of media fragmentation.

• Time Remaining indicator

Yes, this is going to happen. It's probably in the next update or an update after.

• Black Sun effect

This is a fundamental characteristic of CMOS sensors. Some sensors have additional circuitry to try and overcome this and this was available in the Pocket Cinema Camera. Unfortunately, it is not in the 2.5K sensor. Also, black sun correct circuitry is also not an on/off switch and with some sensors, it may result in other unwanted artefacts so we have to be really careful about it. Another method of overcoming the black sun effect is via image processing after the image has been acquired and passed on from the sensor. This is basically running an algorithm to try and detect what looks like the black sun and just clipping the black areas. Again, this could result in false positives and if you have a pattern in the image that is similar to the black sun, it could mistakenly be "corrected" as well. As you can see, this is a tricky situation. We are not ignoring it, but working to see what is the best way to address this.

I hope this gives you more information about what we're currently up to. I'm tempted to keep this thread locked as it tends to go off topic but I'll leave it open for now. Please try and keep on topic.

Thanks

¿What about that middle horizontal line in lightly dark areas, and the grid pattern when some light flares happen with the BMCC 2.5K? By the way, thanks for the 1.8 Firmware, hope the others come soon.

Stupid Question...
But I have to ask. Do I need to install all firmware updates in sequence? or does the newest one replace the old firmware entirely?

-Austin

latest firmware installs all current functions

There are firmware install instructions and such answers at the top of this forum

All explained here:
viewtopic.php?t=28413

Great thank you!

AustinWilliam wrote:Great thank you!

Make sure the battery is fully charged before beginning the update process.

the last update of Blackmagic movie camera was 2.1. We can also expect improvements in the system? black close point when you have too much light, recording at 48 fps or 60 fps.

Kristian Lam wrote:Hi,

I know there are some concerns that we are no longer supporting the Blackmagic Cinema Camera or Pocket Cinema Camera. I just want to assure you that this is not the case.

Let me give you some background information about the development and why it is taking longer than expected.

The Blackmagic Cinema Camera was our very first foray into cameras and since then, we have shipped 3 more cameras, the Pocket Cinema Camera, Production 4K and the Studio Camera.

The original 2.5K camera had fundamental architectural differences in firmware compared to the other cameras which doubled the effort when trying to do any bug fixes or add new features to the cameras. As such, we knew we had to re-architect the firmware so as to bring it up to speed with the current cameras. This is not simple and taking longer than we thought. However, we are close now, close enough that beta versions have been seeded to some users for the past few months.

We should be able to see an update, as I'd mentioned in my post, to the 2.5K camera and Pocket Cinema Camera soon with the features below:

1. New debayering for shooting directly to ProRes or DNxHD on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF and MFT

2. Improved MFT lens support on the Pocket Cinema Camera

3. Compressed RAW support on the Production Camera 4K

4. Autofocus support for EF lenses on Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF and Production Camera 4K

What is also in this release are also certain hooks that are required for audio level metering and histogram display. It won't be visible as yet but will allow us to quickly followup with an update to add these 2 tools we know you guys are asking for.

Let me also answer some other questions I've been asked below:

• Formatting of media

Yes, we want to do this. A large part of the work has been completed so I don't believe this will be a big effort to implement. However, it is very unlikely that we will support deleting of clips directly in camera due to the risk of media fragmentation.

• Time Remaining indicator

Yes, this is going to happen. It's probably in the next update or an update after.

• Black Sun effect

This is a fundamental characteristic of CMOS sensors. Some sensors have additional circuitry to try and overcome this and this was available in the Pocket Cinema Camera. Unfortunately, it is not in the 2.5K sensor. Also, black sun correct circuitry is also not an on/off switch and with some sensors, it may result in other unwanted artefacts so we have to be really careful about it. Another method of overcoming the black sun effect is via image processing after the image has been acquired and passed on from the sensor. This is basically running an algorithm to try and detect what looks like the black sun and just clipping the black areas. Again, this could result in false positives and if you have a pattern in the image that is similar to the black sun, it could mistakenly be "corrected" as well. As you can see, this is a tricky situation. We are not ignoring it, but working to see what is the best way to address this.

I hope this gives you more information about what we're currently up to. I'm tempted to keep this thread locked as it tends to go off topic but I'll leave it open for now. Please try and keep on topic.

Thanks

How about the ursa, can this be confirmed that it is happening? Something like the 4.0 for the mini?

It's great to know that the original cinema cameras haven't been forgotten.
All I can say is that there is no single camera out there that has got all the bells and whistles, but to add on to what I consider a very awesome camera, I'd say THANK YOU BMD, and keep up the good work.

Art Roberts wrote:It's great to know that the original cinema cameras haven't been forgotten.
All I can say is that there is no single camera out there that has got all the bells and whistles, but to add on to what I consider a very awesome camera, I'd say THANK YOU BMD, and keep up the good work.

That quote is from 2014.
This thread is ancient.

Kristian Lam wrote:Hi,

I know there are some concerns that we are no longer supporting the Blackmagic Cinema Camera or Pocket Cinema Camera. I just want to assure you that this is not the case.

Let me give you some background information about the development and why it is taking longer than expected.

The Blackmagic Cinema Camera was our very first foray into cameras and since then, we have shipped 3 more cameras, the Pocket Cinema Camera, Production 4K and the Studio Camera.

The original 2.5K camera had fundamental architectural differences in firmware compared to the other cameras which doubled the effort when trying to do any bug fixes or add new features to the cameras. As such, we knew we had to re-architect the firmware so as to bring it up to speed with the current cameras. This is not simple and taking longer than we thought. However, we are close now, close enough that beta versions have been seeded to some users for the past few months.

We should be able to see an update, as I'd mentioned in my post, to the 2.5K camera and Pocket Cinema Camera soon with the features below:

1. New debayering for shooting directly to ProRes or DNxHD on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF and MFT

2. Improved MFT lens support on the Pocket Cinema Camera

3. Compressed RAW support on the Production Camera 4K

4. Autofocus support for EF lenses on Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF and Production Camera 4K

What is also in this release are also certain hooks that are required for audio level metering and histogram display. It won't be visible as yet but will allow us to quickly followup with an update to add these 2 tools we know you guys are asking for.

Let me also answer some other questions I've been asked below:

• Formatting of media

Yes, we want to do this. A large part of the work has been completed so I don't believe this will be a big effort to implement. However, it is very unlikely that we will support deleting of clips directly in camera due to the risk of media fragmentation.

• Time Remaining indicator

Yes, this is going to happen. It's probably in the next update or an update after.

• Black Sun effect

This is a fundamental characteristic of CMOS sensors. Some sensors have additional circuitry to try and overcome this and this was available in the Pocket Cinema Camera. Unfortunately, it is not in the 2.5K sensor. Also, black sun correct circuitry is also not an on/off switch and with some sensors, it may result in other unwanted artefacts so we have to be really careful about it. Another method of overcoming the black sun effect is via image processing after the image has been acquired and passed on from the sensor. This is basically running an algorithm to try and detect what looks like the black sun and just clipping the black areas. Again, this could result in false positives and if you have a pattern in the image that is similar to the black sun, it could mistakenly be "corrected" as well. As you can see, this is a tricky situation. We are not ignoring it, but working to see what is the best way to address this.

I hope this gives you more information about what we're currently up to. I'm tempted to keep this thread locked as it tends to go off topic but I'll leave it open for now. Please try and keep on topic.

Thanks

Whooo hoooo....we finally somehow manage to receive an update from an actual employee of BMD....keep em coming as I am sure there are customers that have either spent money or are thinking of spending money and really appreciate it.

Andrew Deme wrote:

Kristian Lam wrote:Hi,

I know there are some concerns that we are no longer supporting the Blackmagic Cinema Camera or Pocket Cinema Camera. I just want to assure you that this is not the case.

Let me give you some background information about the development and why it is taking longer than expected.

The Blackmagic Cinema Camera was our very first foray into cameras and since then, we have shipped 3 more cameras, the Pocket Cinema Camera, Production 4K and the Studio Camera.

The original 2.5K camera had fundamental architectural differences in firmware compared to the other cameras which doubled the effort when trying to do any bug fixes or add new features to the cameras. As such, we knew we had to re-architect the firmware so as to bring it up to speed with the current cameras. This is not simple and taking longer than we thought. However, we are close now, close enough that beta versions have been seeded to some users for the past few months.

We should be able to see an update, as I'd mentioned in my post, to the 2.5K camera and Pocket Cinema Camera soon with the features below:

1. New debayering for shooting directly to ProRes or DNxHD on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF and MFT

2. Improved MFT lens support on the Pocket Cinema Camera

3. Compressed RAW support on the Production Camera 4K

4. Autofocus support for EF lenses on Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF and Production Camera 4K

What is also in this release are also certain hooks that are required for audio level metering and histogram display. It won't be visible as yet but will allow us to quickly followup with an update to add these 2 tools we know you guys are asking for.

Let me also answer some other questions I've been asked below:

• Formatting of media

Yes, we want to do this. A large part of the work has been completed so I don't believe this will be a big effort to implement. However, it is very unlikely that we will support deleting of clips directly in camera due to the risk of media fragmentation.

• Time Remaining indicator

Yes, this is going to happen. It's probably in the next update or an update after.

• Black Sun effect

This is a fundamental characteristic of CMOS sensors. Some sensors have additional circuitry to try and overcome this and this was available in the Pocket Cinema Camera. Unfortunately, it is not in the 2.5K sensor. Also, black sun correct circuitry is also not an on/off switch and with some sensors, it may result in other unwanted artefacts so we have to be really careful about it. Another method of overcoming the black sun effect is via image processing after the image has been acquired and passed on from the sensor. This is basically running an algorithm to try and detect what looks like the black sun and just clipping the black areas. Again, this could result in false positives and if you have a pattern in the image that is similar to the black sun, it could mistakenly be "corrected" as well. As you can see, this is a tricky situation. We are not ignoring it, but working to see what is the best way to address this.

I hope this gives you more information about what we're currently up to. I'm tempted to keep this thread locked as it tends to go off topic but I'll leave it open for now. Please try and keep on topic.

Thanks

Whooo hoooo....we finally somehow manage to receive an update from an actual employee of BMD....keep em coming as I am sure there are customers that have either spent money or are thinking of spending money and really appreciate it.

Yes, we did. in April 2014

MarcusWolschon wrote:

Andrew Deme wrote:

Kristian Lam wrote:Hi,

I know there are some concerns that we are no longer supporting the Blackmagic Cinema Camera or Pocket Cinema Camera. I just want to assure you that this is not the case.

Let me give you some background information about the development and why it is taking longer than expected.

The Blackmagic Cinema Camera was our very first foray into cameras and since then, we have shipped 3 more cameras, the Pocket Cinema Camera, Production 4K and the Studio Camera.

The original 2.5K camera had fundamental architectural differences in firmware compared to the other cameras which doubled the effort when trying to do any bug fixes or add new features to the cameras. As such, we knew we had to re-architect the firmware so as to bring it up to speed with the current cameras. This is not simple and taking longer than we thought. However, we are close now, close enough that beta versions have been seeded to some users for the past few months.

We should be able to see an update, as I'd mentioned in my post, to the 2.5K camera and Pocket Cinema Camera soon with the features below:

1. New debayering for shooting directly to ProRes or DNxHD on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF and MFT

2. Improved MFT lens support on the Pocket Cinema Camera

3. Compressed RAW support on the Production Camera 4K

4. Autofocus support for EF lenses on Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF and Production Camera 4K

What is also in this release are also certain hooks that are required for audio level metering and histogram display. It won't be visible as yet but will allow us to quickly followup with an update to add these 2 tools we know you guys are asking for.

Let me also answer some other questions I've been asked below:

• Formatting of media

Yes, we want to do this. A large part of the work has been completed so I don't believe this will be a big effort to implement. However, it is very unlikely that we will support deleting of clips directly in camera due to the risk of media fragmentation.

• Time Remaining indicator

Yes, this is going to happen. It's probably in the next update or an update after.

• Black Sun effect

This is a fundamental characteristic of CMOS sensors. Some sensors have additional circuitry to try and overcome this and this was available in the Pocket Cinema Camera. Unfortunately, it is not in the 2.5K sensor. Also, black sun correct circuitry is also not an on/off switch and with some sensors, it may result in other unwanted artefacts so we have to be really careful about it. Another method of overcoming the black sun effect is via image processing after the image has been acquired and passed on from the sensor. This is basically running an algorithm to try and detect what looks like the black sun and just clipping the black areas. Again, this could result in false positives and if you have a pattern in the image that is similar to the black sun, it could mistakenly be "corrected" as well. As you can see, this is a tricky situation. We are not ignoring it, but working to see what is the best way to address this.

I hope this gives you more information about what we're currently up to. I'm tempted to keep this thread locked as it tends to go off topic but I'll leave it open for now. Please try and keep on topic.

Thanks

Whooo hoooo....we finally somehow manage to receive an update from an actual employee of BMD....keep em coming as I am sure there are customers that have either spent money or are thinking of spending money and really appreciate it.

Yes, we did. in April 2014

Yep....I kinda think I get it.......sometime in the next 3 years they will announce, Magenta is fixed.

Please make the following new firmware release - more Shutter angles for BMCC 2.5K.
Need for 50 Hz (Europe & Most of Asia) - more Safe Shutter Angles: 108, 216, 324° for 30fps.
Or 32-35 fps will be great!

Ha..in April 2014.??
I paid for clean usable RAW.