Blackmagic Camera App - General discussion and Releases

Connecting iPhone 12 to iPhone 16 Pro as a Monitor – Any Fix?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been troubleshooting for over a week now, trying to use my iPhone 12 as a monitor to control my iPhone 16 Pro. Both devices are updated to the latest software, and the app I’m using is also fully updated. I’ve enabled everything—Bluetooth, necessary permissions, and all that jazz—but I still can’t get them to connect.

Sometimes, the monitor pop-up doesn’t even appear to pair the devices. When I did manage to get both monitors open, it still said there was no device available to connect to.

Does anyone have any tips or solutions? I really need to be able to control my iPhone 16 Pro remotely while it’s mounted so I can see what I’m capturing.

Thanks in advance!

The Blackmagic Camera app v2.2 now mistakenly? displays the original low contrast LUT look on the display, only when you hit the record button (and returns to normal "Display LUT" after recordings stops) when you have the following settings enabled:

Apple Log - HDR enabled
Display LUT - enabled
LUT selection enabled (with custom LUT)
Record LUT to clip - enabled

This was never the case before and now means you cannot monitor exposure while recording a clip.
To be clear the "Display LUT" option works correctly when the BMC app is NOT recording, and only goes into "low contract" while recording!

[Peter Chamberlain]

The Blackmagic Camera app v2.2 now mistakenly? displays the original low contrast LUT look on the display, only when you hit the record button (and returns to normal "Display LUT" after recordings stops) when you have the following settings enabled:

Apple Log - HDR enabled
Display LUT - enabled
LUT selection enabled (with custom LUT)
Record LUT to clip - enabled

This was never the case before and now means you cannot monitor exposure while recording a clip.
To be clear the "Display LUT" option works correctly when the BMC app is NOT recording, and only goes into "low contract" while recording!

Are you using remote monitoring and control?
Which specific phone model?

It’s an iPhone 16 Pro Max and I’m not using the remote control option.
This was not how the app worked previously.
I need the LUT to be displayed so I can see what it will look like with the “burned-in” and not for it to show the Log low contrast display when recording.

[Rohit Singhal]

It’s an iPhone 16 Pro Max and I’m not using the remote control option.
This was not how the app worked previously.
I need the LUT to be displayed so I can see what it will look like with the “burned-in” and not for it to show the Log low contrast display when recording.

Hi Rob. Can you check if you are in 'standard' stabilization mode or others?
If you are on others, can you switch and see if it helps?

It’s an iPhone 16 Pro Max and I’m not using the remote control option.
This was not how the app worked previously.
I need the LUT to be displayed so I can see what it will look like with the “burned-in” and not for it to show the Log low contrast display when recording.

Hi Rob. Can you check if you are in 'standard' stabilization mode or others?
If you are on others, can you switch and see if it helps?

Thank you that solved the issue!
Standard stabilisation displays the LUT when recording!
I assume there is a reason this does not work in Cinematic Stabilisation?

I suppose ‘Cinematic’ is taking a lot of computing power, judging by those much higher VFR fluctuations in that mode.

Is this the right place for a bug report?

I noticed in working with version 2.3 today that saved presets do not affect Zebra monitoring settings. In googling I found a more than year old post from John Griffin mentioning this issue:

Been experimenting with 55 vs 1250 ISO by setting them as presets but irritatingly the zebras don't get saved in the preset file so you have to change them on the fly each time you adjust your ISO

Strangely, setting text for the Zebras are included in the .bmcpreset files but in my testing only "zebraEftOptionOn" has an effect when the preset is loaded.

}
},
"zebraEftMidGreyOption" : 0,
"zebraEftOptionOn" : true,
"zebraValue" : 95,
"zoomFactor" : 1
}

Also, in some of my presets the "zebraValue" is saved as a long integer, but still has not effect:
"zebraValue" : 94.62712771326002,

I'd be curious to know if anybody can reproduce this issue. Thanks!