LANC Control Camera Settings Request

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Csaba Nagy

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LANC Control Camera Settings Request

PostFri Apr 28, 2017 11:52 pm

With what seems to be end of the BMCC / BMPC, I'm hoping Blackmagic can hear out a big concern I've had with these camera's.

The camera's are essentially a paper weight / bricked without a functional touch screen. Which is too bad, because they would otherwise be more than usable if the camera settings could be changed without the touch screen.

Since I imagine they will no longer be replacing parts for these outdated camera's I'd love to still see a small update for the BMCC/BMPC to update their LANC capability to change Frame Rate, ISO, Codec, WB and Shutter Angle. ( Frame Rate, Codec, ISO, Shutter Speed would be the most important to me )

I'm not aware of the camera being able to change these settings via LANC currently?

Just a week before these camera's disappeared off the site, the BMPC got a silent update for improved touch screen performance, so I'm hopeful they haven't totally stopped development on these older camera's.

I'd love to hear something from Blackamgic Themselves about the issue, I understand this is likely a concern dealing with a small fraction of those camera owners. But with support ending for these camera's and as they get older I can imagine it will become more an issue, leaving some people with functioning camera's that are completely unusable.
Csaba Nagy
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Denny Smith

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Re: LANC Control Camera Settings Request

PostSat Apr 29, 2017 12:49 am

Camera menu settings from what I understand are not accessible via a LANC interface. LANC is a Sony protocol for making lens setting changes, like Iris, zoom and focus. In BM cameras it can also perform a push to focus and instant Iris setting to the f/stop closest to prevent sensor clipping, and stsrt/stop recording. LANC was developed for prosummer tape-based cameras having a built in zoom lens originally, and was extended to support removeable lenses on some Panasonic and Sony cameras. Panasonic and Sony each have their own set of LANC protocols, and most cameras today use one or the other.

The camera menus on touch screen cameras are tied to the video processor controlling the screen. This is a hard wired setup, not changeable via firmware. That said, firmware changes to the menus and how they are accessed by the touch screen can be changed via firmware, adding or removing camera control features. Not sure you can do this via a LANC control. The Micro camera's use the SBus remote to access some menu settings, that do not required a camera reboot, like white balance, shutter angle/speed, lens settings (overlap here with LANC) and ISO. Camera resolution/frame rates are not accessible via remote SBus control.

Hope this helps, this was asked when the camera came out, and BM did not respond to this request.
Cheers
Denny Smith
SHA Productions

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