Blackmagic Forum

Will the Blackmagic Camera Control also be compatible with iOS for iPhone in the future?

I updated to firmwear to 4.4 today. Mainly done for my canon lens compatibility. I have canon 85mm 1.8 lens. I could not control the iris of the lens in firmwear 4.0. But now in 4.4 update I can control the iris of the lens. But after adjusting iris values the camera got hang. But no problem with my canon 24-105 f4 or Tokina 11-16 2.8 lenses. Any Ideas ?

I'll test this soon to see if last year's Wise CFast 2 cards can once again write with Dual Card Recording. To be fair to Tim, I have not raised a ticket on this item as I'm swamped until July and I want to retest and carefully document for BMD.


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No Android?

We are releasing an SDK soon so anyone will be able to create their own apps and extend the functionality much further. It is all based on our SDI Camera Control protocol which is in the URSA Mini Manual so have a look at all the possible commands in there - the sky is the limit.

We are also not ruling out doing our own version of this for Android or iPhone if there is enough demand but iPad Mini is a good size for the interface and as we announced at NAB, that is what we are starting with.

Anyone know what this update is? "Added safe area guides and false color options to heads up monitoring options."

Whats "heads up monitoring options"?

I think this is it... 2 options added to right of list

When are we getting DNXHD..?

On the subject of requests..... 2.8k Prores (2880 x 1620) Would be an awesome option if possible, halfway between UHD and 1080p. There is even a space for it in the menu between 3K Ana & 2K

There hasn't been a lot of demand for DNx so far...
We get the occasional request for it but there has only been minor interest from a handful of people so far.

Regarding extra resolutions - we already support a massive amount of resolutions and formats on these cameras and are unlikely to add more resolution options.

I would love to see the ability to reprogram the auto focus and Iris buttons on the regular minis in the next update.

I know you guys are ironing out all the bugs in the pro model, but small things like still image capturing: I have friends who make fun of me because I have an expensive camera that can't take still images. And also selecting shutter speeds instead of angles would be absolutely amazing! That options greyed out so I assume its coming down the line?

As always you guys are doing an amazing job. Keep up the good work.

Tim Schumann wrote:There hasn't been a lot of demand for DNx so far...
We get the occasional request for it but there has only been minor interest from a handful of people so far.

Regarding extra resolutions - we already support a massive amount of resolutions and formats on these cameras and are unlikely to add more resolution options.

I have had at least 2 clients who would have preferred recording in the DNx codec. There are some Windows based people I work with who would prefer to also have DNx for Post-Production over ProRes. If you guys could make it available it would at least help in those instances. Otherwise, I see your point about little demand.

I'd like to express my interest in an iphone app - I have the 7+ which I'm sure is an acceptable screen size, still bigger than the ursa mini pro screen, so it would be very useful to me.

Just downloaded and tested with the Canon 18-80. Super pleased! Even ONE-SHOT works from the Canon grip, although it is slow, at least it's there and accurate on a focus chart. And, it now triggers the Video Assist. Many many thanks for this update re this lens. Well done. And for the record, this IS a par focal lens on the UMPro, no adjustments needed.

Tim Schumann wrote:There hasn't been a lot of demand for DNx so far...
We get the occasional request for it but there has only been minor interest from a handful of people so far.

Hello? Nobody was requesting for it because everyone was assuming that it will be implemented anyway because the option is already in the menu.
I can't wait to get rid of ProRes in my workflow. It is a major pita on Windows.
It would be so great to finally have the possibility to record DNx into MXF files.

If it's unlikely DNxHD will be enabled, any chance of removing it as an unselectable option? It's frustrating to be taunted with it and not able to use it.

James_Westlake wrote:I'd like to express my interest in an iphone app - I have the 7+ which I'm sure is an acceptable screen size, still bigger than the ursa mini pro screen, so it would be very useful to me.

+1


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James_Westlake wrote:I'd like to express my interest in an iphone app - I have the 7+ which I'm sure is an acceptable screen size, still bigger than the ursa mini pro screen, so it would be very useful to me.

+1 as well. The iPhone 6S+ is definitely big enough.


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Just got the iPad app and 4.4 on my UMP (or is it BUMP?)

I went to the Blackmagic roadshow here in Portland yesterday, so it was nice to see this update released today.

I know Camera Control is 1.0 software, but here are some observations/missing features that would make this more useful instantly:

1 - Frame rate - can't select 23.976 or 29.97, only even increments

2- No auto focus button

3 - No auto iris button

4 - No audio controls at all

5 - Metadata: no clip naming or keywords; no notes; no alpha-numeric take or scene numbers; no project/cameraperson/director fields

6 - No playback controls. I realize that streaming video over BT is a big ask, but thumbnails or transport controls would help if you've got SDI monitoring available

Otherwise, it is really nice to have remote triggering handy. Good first effort!

Awesome news guys, thanks for continuing to expand on these cameras with firmware updates.

Just some customer feedback on the iPad control app, I don't think I'd see myself using an iPad to control the cameras, it's one more thing to pack. Realistically I would rather use my large screen iPhone to link up and control the cameras so count me and my shooting team as iPhone preferred.

I'm super excited to see progress on lens communication with Canon servo zooms via EF mount. We have the 17-120 Cine servo lens, and would love to see communication with our ursa mini 4.6k.

As of release 4.3, my Wise 3400x CFast 2 256GB cards were failing whenever I tried to use Dual Card Recording regardless of frame rate. Well that's been addressed in release 4.4.

All ProRes performance passes the maximums described in the manual. Raw still has some problems although it has been improved.

To meet all the expectations as described in the manual for all flavones of raw, I'll be sending the cards off in July to be flashed by Wise-Advanced in Taiwan. I was hoping 4.4 would fix things and it has in some respects but not completely so I'll rely on Wise to make things right.


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I agree with David Tharratts comment on programmable focus and iris buttons.

That should be easy to implement and letting me change iris up/down with my right thumb would make the camera so much more convenient to operate when it's on my shoulder.

Please, BM, fix this in the next firmware!

Tim Schumann wrote:We will also be following up with an SDK, as mentioned at NAB, so people can create their own apps to control the camera.

I very much look forward to getting my hands on the SDK!

I hope that the SDK allows for deeper control of autofocus/servo-driven lenses beyond the typical "step" increments, either by:
...allowing control of the focus motor speed
...or by allowing the focus to be set by distance (I realize that not all lenses report focus distance)

paulgolden wrote:1 - Frame rate - can't select 23.976 or 29.97, only even increments

Changing frame rate on the app is changing your sensor frame rate… not your project frame rate.
If you are set to 23.976 as your base rate all you need to do is tap on that field and your camera will switch to ‘Sync’ (23.976/23.976) which is for shooting sync-speed.

Tap it again and you are in Off-speed and can select any frame rate you want.

William McGough wrote:I very much look forward to getting my hands on the SDK!

I hope that the SDK allows for deeper control of autofocus/servo-driven lenses beyond the typical "step" increments, either by:
...allowing control of the focus motor speed
...or by allowing the focus to be set by distance (I realize that not all lenses report focus distance)

Look at the 'SDI Camera Control' section of the URSA Mini Manual on page 192 it has all of the commands available when controlling the camera via SDI In. Bluetooth commands will be very similar to this.

Uh oh. Found a bug. Every time I turn the camera off then on again, the audio levels are reset. I'm using XLR 1, and I normally have the levels set at 70 and the headphones at 9. When I turn the camera off then on, it resets the levels and headphone level all to 50.

I also noticed that the LCD image coming from the sensor looks very red and blown out. When I look in the viewfinder, it looks perfect. It also records as expected.

Adam


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Can we please, please have control of the file names? Even just removing the hours and minutes from the default file names would improve things immensely. Timecode metadata is already baked into the file. There is no need to add it to the file name and complicate workflows that involve external recorders where its very useful to have consecutively numbered files rather than including minutes and seconds that the file recording began which then increments the files with inconsistent gaps.

We will add it to our list of suggestions Jamie. It is a very, very long list though.

Adam we will look into that. Which URSA camera are you seeing this on by the way?

Tim Schumann wrote:We will add it to our list of suggestions Jamie. It is a very, very long list though.

Adam we will look into that. Which URSA camera are you seeing this on by the way?

Hey Tim,

I'm using the URSA Mini Pro.

Adam

Tim Schumann wrote:We will add it to our list of suggestions Jamie. It is a very, very long list though.

Thanks Tim.

Adam Silver wrote:I also noticed that the LCD image coming from the sensor looks very red and blown out. When I look in the viewfinder, it looks perfect. It also records as expected.

Adam

Adam,
My Ursa Mini Pro also has a very noticeable color cast to it. To my eye, it almost looks like the LCD's color temperature is way too warm. Additionally, I get that oversaturated blown out effect you describe. To me, it almost looks as if you applied a film to rec.709 conversion LUT to footage already in Rec.709. I of course eliminated that possibility Like you, the footage itself appears normal.

I have an open support ticket right now about this where the rep said that although their techs analyzed my pictures of the LCD vs a Ninja Blade and found there to be a large discrepancy, that this was within spec. He also stated there may be a possibility of improving LCD color in a future firmware update, but when I asked him if it was in development or not, I never received a confirmation about that.

Additionally, I took my UMPro to the Portland BM Roadshow to have them take a look. They also noticed a discrepancy, but said none of the screens are calibrated (to a standard like rec.709 I assume?), and that my color was not unusually bad.

I still think it looks pretty bad, and I could never trust it for any kind of color reference at this point, unlike my Canon DSLR LCD, which somehow was reasonably accurate.


Personally, I'm really hoping the firmware update is more than just "a future possibility"...

Hi Tim,

I found another bug. Every time I mount the battery, the camera boots up and turns on, even though the physical switch is off. I'm using the Blackmagic V-Mount Battery Plate. I'm using the Core SWX HyperCore Prime 190Wh V-Mount Li-Ion Battery Pack.

I reverted back to 4.3.1, and mounting the battery doesn't make the camera boot while the power switch is off.

I'm on the URSA Mini Pro, just as a reminder.

Adam

I'm not seeing Adam's issue on the URSA Mini 4.6K PL with a fully charged Cinegears 250WH V-mount battery.


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Ditto Rick, I have no issues with my Switronix batteries on my URSA Mini 4.6K EF.


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no problems here with SWIT s-8192S

I have no issues with Juicebox battery plate and either 90w or 150w Juice batts on the UMPro.

Adam, sounds like an issue with your BM battery plate, Ck the wires on the plate connection to make sure the plug is fully seated, and correctly aligned. Dies powering the camera from the mains with the 4-pin XLR turn it on? I would contact BM support if you do not get this sorted. You may have an internal short also.
Cheers

Denny Smith wrote:Adam, sounds like an issue with your BM battery plate, Ck the wires on the plate connection to make sure the plug is fully seated, and correctly aligned. Dies powering the camera from the mains with the 4-pin XLR turn it on? I would contact BM support if you do not get this sorted. You may have an internal short also.
Cheers

Hi Denny,

I can confirm that the plate wires are okay. I checked them. I didn't try plugging in the XLR. I'll upgrade back to 4.4 and see if that does it too.

When I downgraded to 4.3.1, this behavior stopped. I really believe it is a firmware issue with the pro being able to turn off using the switch, button combo and bluetooth, which I did activate but wasn't using at the time.

Any other UMP users here upgrade to 4.4 and see this battery mounting behavior?

Adam

Tim Schumann wrote:There hasn't been a lot of demand for DNx so far...
We get the occasional request for it but there has only been minor interest from a handful of people so far.

Thanks for the info, Tim!
I definitely need DNxHD if at all possible, here. As someone said before, since it was referred to in the past I just thought it was inevitable. I didn't know there was a petition or someone keeping track of requests. Request made .

Adam Silver wrote:Uh oh. Found a bug. Every time I turn the camera off then on again, the audio levels are reset. I'm using XLR 1, and I normally have the levels set at 70 and the headphones at 9. When I turn the camera off then on, it resets the levels and headphone level all to 50.
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I can confirm that this is also the case on mine. have to get back to 4.3.

thomas bruegger wrote:

Adam Silver wrote:Uh oh. Found a bug. Every time I turn the camera off then on again, the audio levels are reset. I'm using XLR 1, and I normally have the levels set at 70 and the headphones at 9. When I turn the camera off then on, it resets the levels and headphone level all to 50.
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I can confirm that this is also the case on mine. have to get back to 4.3.

Okay cool. At least I know I'm not crazy! I did call in to tech support and let them know about my issues. They confirmed that the sound settings revert every time your power cycle the camera.

Thomas, does the image coming into the LCD look blown out in parts or have a red tint to it?

Adam

Adam,
My post above was pending a very long time (I had an old non compliant username) and possibly got lost in the mix when it did get approved.

Have a look at it and let me know if what I wrote is the same as you are describing regarding LCD color.
Thanks!
- Daniel

Adam Silver wrote:Thomas, does the image coming into the LCD look blown out in parts or have a red tint to it?
Adam

I do not see this on mine, sorry. But they did changes to the monitor in trying to get rid of those lines so maybe some models are different.

just for the record, the audio levels are allright on the Ursa Mini non Pro with FW 4.4.

Thanks Thomas!

Adam

Adam Silver wrote:

thomas bruegger wrote:

Adam Silver wrote:Uh oh. Found a bug. Every time I turn the camera off then on again, the audio levels are reset. I'm using XLR 1, and I normally have the levels set at 70 and the headphones at 9. When I turn the camera off then on, it resets the levels and headphone level all to 50.
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I can confirm that this is also the case on mine. have to get back to 4.3.

Okay cool. At least I know I'm not crazy! I did call in to tech support and let them know about my issues. They confirmed that the sound settings revert every time your power cycle the camera.

Thomas, does the image coming into the LCD look blown out in parts or have a red tint to it?

Adam

The audio resetting is a bug in 4.4 for Mini Pro that we are onto.
4.3.3 is the latest URSA Mini Pro camera build pre-4.4 so I would recommend going back to that if you want the latest without the audio reset bug.

Regarding the LCD Adam can you try flashing your camera with Camera 4.3.3 update to see if you still get the LCD tint you are talking about on that software build?

The changes made to our scaling algorithm for 4.4 should not effect your color at all.
If this doesn't help you will need to contact support and get them to look at your unit.

I already went back to 4.3.1, which is where I was before 4.4, but I'll go back to 4.4...just for you Tim. just for you!!!

Really liking the bluetooth control, can't wait to see what kind of applications people come up with the SDK later on. Android/iphone support would be nice, hope to see that one also!

Some suggestions I had in mind and would love to see in the future:
-Option to have selected ND visible all the time on the LCD and EVF.
-Ability to use 4K window while recording prores HD. Some lenses don't cover the whole 4.6k sensor so this would help when shooting HD.
-DnxHD would be nice.
-I heard you are already looking into the SDI latency which is great!

Then of course the fpn in the deep shadows.

Cheeky little 'Edit Reel Number' update in 4.4, really useful thanks Blackmagic. Was a pain doing it in the meta data screen.

Also, the Urs Mini Pro LCD screen, as the other BM c sera monitor screens, are Not color calibrated monitors, and should not be used to judge color of your image. They are camera ops monitors for framing, focusing and setting exposure (using exposure tools like false color. If you need to judge the color during a shoot, you need an purpose made, external calibrated color monitor and use it with the appropriate LUT for best results.

Cheers

Jon O'Neill wrote:Cheeky little 'Edit Reel Number' update in 4.4, really useful thanks Blackmagic. Was a pain doing it in the meta data screen.

Yeah, I like this update a lot. I didn't have complaints about the way it was before, but now that it is set up to work like this I don't know how I could ever go back to the previous method.

This also works better in the order of operations: 1) Fill Cards 1 & 2. 2) Eject Cards 1 & 2. 3) Insert Cards 3 & 4. 4) Format Cards 3 & 4. Edit Reel Name is right there. 5) Repeat.

I also love that the Reel Number in the Metadata screen automatically updates based upon the card. So if you have card 5 & 6 in each slot and you switch to card 6 before card 5 is completely filled it automatically updates the reel number to match that card. Then switching back to card 5 automatically switches the metadata to Reel 5. Love it.

Denny Smith wrote:Also, the Urs Mini Pro LCD screen, as the other BM c sera monitor screens, are Not color calibrated monitors, and should not be used to judge color of your image. They are camera ops monitors for framing, focusing and setting exposure (using exposure tools like false color. If you need to judge the color during a shoot, you need an purpose made, external calibrated color monitor and use it with the appropriate LUT for best results.

Cheers

Hey Denny,

I don't personally use it to estimate color accuracy whatsoever. I shoot a lot of the same stuff in the same environment much of the time. This was just an observation that the image was taking on a reddish tint with all the same settings that I was using in 4.3.1.

I'm going to be shooting on Sunday and will use 4.3.1 first having someone use an iPhone to shoot the LCD while I'm shooting. Then I'll upgrade to 4.4 and shoot again and see if there is a change in the LCD monitor color.

Adam

Adam Silver wrote:I'm going to be shooting on Sunday and will use 4.3.1 first having someone use an iPhone to shoot the LCD while I'm shooting. Then I'll upgrade to 4.4 and shoot again and see if there is a change in the LCD monitor color.
Adam

You'll need to use an app like Filmic Pro that allows you to lock down the white balance on the iPhone to see any difference in color balance. The native iPhone camera app automatically adjusts white balance+tint to the scene it's exposing.

EDIT: According to Robert's post below, it's possible to lock white balance in the native camera app by holding down your finger.