BMPCC4K Camera Control over USB?

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davidellzey

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BMPCC4K Camera Control over USB?

PostFri Oct 02, 2020 6:58 am

I am getting mixed messages on this but first a little background. I use our BMPCC4K for internal productions generated by our company. I wanted to be more flexible than a tripod setup but stay in budget so when the Zhiyun Crane 3S was released I started researching and then waited until after some firmware updates to purchase. The rig seems to work great, my rig isn't the massive beast that a lot of people seem to have. The only thing I still do not have working is camera control.

According to Zhiyun, the camera is compatible providing the following controls; video save & playback (I took that as record & stop), shutter speed, aperture and ISO adjustments. Plus follow focus, check out the list here: https://oss.zhiyun-tech.com/zyplay/inst ... -%20EN.pdf

Then you have this YouTuber explaining how to convert your SSD to a CFast adapter so you can use the USB for camera control


Then from Blackmagic Design on October 24, 2019 - they released the 6.6 update which had as one of the improvements, "New features for Pocket Cinema Camera 4K" - "Added USB PTP control support."

Now I can't get the gimbal to recognize the camera, or so it seems and as I start my troubleshooting journey I start reading posts by people who say that camera control is not supported. Can anyone give me a definitive yes or no?
Last edited by davidellzey on Sat Oct 03, 2020 6:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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carlomacchiavello

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Re: BMPCC4K Camera Control over USB?

PostFri Oct 02, 2020 2:52 pm

I think is wrong.
Also Blackmagic Design use hdmi control for stem mini pro to manage iso, color and other setup to manage pockets 4K and 6k.
In sdk of cameras are avaible these controls only for Bluetooth but not for usb.
PTB stay for Picture Transfer Protocol, USB PTP is a common alternative to the USB mass-storage device class (USB MSC), not for camera control.

If I’m wrong I’m happy to be in error, but I never see software that can manage tethering for pockets

edit :
may be i'm wrong, i found this on bmd web site
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=101335
may be something is possibile but i don't know if you can do more than this. Them talk about trasnfer and start and stop video, not about changing parameters
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davidellzey

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Re: BMPCC4K Camera Control over USB?

PostWed Oct 07, 2020 8:01 am

--- ISSUE RESOLVED ---
All I had to do was select CSS from the camera menu instead of bmpcc and now I have start & stop record, iso adj, aperture adj, and shutter adj all from the pistol grip.

Pretty sweet setup.
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carlomacchiavello

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Re: BMPCC4K Camera Control over USB?

PostWed Oct 07, 2020 2:19 pm

davidellzey wrote:--- ISSUE RESOLVED ---
All I had to do was select CSS from the camera menu instead of bmpcc and now I have start & stop record, iso adj, aperture adj, and shutter adj all from the pistol grip.

Pretty sweet setup.


Great !!!! i had only Crane2, but nice to know for future that you can manage iso/shutter from pistol grip :-D
thanks for news.
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Douglas Bischoff

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Re: BMPCC4K Camera Control over USB?

PostFri Mar 26, 2021 4:25 pm

davidellzey wrote:--- ISSUE RESOLVED ---
All I had to do was select CSS from the camera menu instead of bmpcc and now I have start & stop record, iso adj, aperture adj, and shutter adj all from the pistol grip.

Pretty sweet setup.


Hrm... I'm having the same trouble with a Crane 3S. For one brief, shining moment I had control of my P4k then for no reason I can fathom it stopped and hasn't picked up since.

Anyone know of any other devices that do USB camera control that I might use to test and make sure it isn't something on my P4k?

Failing that, anyone had any luck using the Crane 3S to control a P4k?
Douglas Bischoff
Ceridwen Productions
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Leo Mozoloa

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Re: BMPCC4K Camera Control over USB?

PostSun Sep 25, 2022 8:15 pm

Same problem, CSS or BMPCC, no camera control works, camera firmware 7.9.2 and zhiyun crane 3S 1.87

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