Blackmagic Forum

Hey guys,

Strangest thing... I powered up my BMPCC 4K last night attached to my SmallHD AC7 OLED. The screen on the Pocket remained black even though the power switch was set to "ON". I had a full AB battery attached for juice. I know the camera was on because I could see the image on the SmallHD monitor. The camera was producing an output image to the monitor, yet the Pocket screen was black so there was no way to control the camera. I felt a sense of panic. These things always seem to happen before a gig. Anyway, I powered off and on a couple of times and on the third try the screen appeared normally and the panic subsided. However, now I have a new concern that the black screen of death will return just before a shoot. I will continue to fire it up for the next couple of days to see if I can duplicate the problem, but I wanted to see if any of you had this experience.

Thanks

Norman

Norman, did you try to swipe up or down on the BMPCC4K screen? Don’t know if that would bring it back to life. I’d call BMD Support to discuss.


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No Rick. I didn't touch the screen. It was weird because the camera was working. I could see the image on the small monitor that was attached. The fact that no one else seems to have had the problem leads me to believe it was just some random boot error. I just started the camera again this minute and it is working fine. I will continue to restart it and test the functionality over the next couple of days to try to reproduce the error. The problem with sending it in for service is that if they can't reproduce the error they likely won't be able to fix it!

Slightly off topic, I love this camera. It has so much flexibility for the way I shoot. Everyone is blown away by the images I am getting from it. You get yours yet? You will be in heaven,,, Or hell for a couple of moments if your screen comes up black like mine did! LOL!

Cheers,

Norman

I have had this happen, as reported in another thread. Once last year and then just a couple of weeks ago. Last time only connecting external power would get it to start up properly. My latest suspicion is that it's temperature dependent.
Interesting that yours worked enough for an external display, I didn't try that.

Well John... Maybe it gets fixed in a firmware update. The screen did come back after a few tries, and I have a couple of back up cameras just in case, but it doesn't give you the warm and fuzzies when something like that happens. And of course, you don't want it to happen on set. Anyway, thanks. I will post my progress to the extent it will help someone else who may run into this. As I mentioned to Rick, this is such a great camera for lots of what I do shooting narrative films. Fantastic in fact. I just want to be able to rely on it to show me the screen when I turn it on!

Norman, I’m still waiting but I imagine it will be delivered before NAB 2019. I’m trying to resist going overboard on the rig, especially since money is very tight now (income tax season).


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I use a Smallrig. Not expensive. Very functional.


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Hi there - I've just had the same thing happen to me this morning! I've restarted the camera several times, but no screen!!!

External monitor works, so I can shoot, BUT, I can't access any menu items, so I'm basically screwed for today's shoot!!

Any help would be most incredibly appreciated!!

Hi Mark

It could be stuck in “state”. When powering off, did you try removing all power source, including the battery? Just to make sure it is indeed off.

Also try removing the lens or connected peripherals over USB and see if that helps.

I just had this happen as well. I was confounded, because I had a video output to the remote monitor, but no other functionality.

I narrowed it down to the presence of a drained battery in the batter compartment even though I was on AC power. After I removed the battery, I was able to start the camera as usual.

Unfortunately, I was not able to recreate this again by putting the battery back into the compartment, but there may have been some issue with detecting no voltage from the battery after the camera had been powered down for a longer period of time.

Hope that's helpful!

Hi there,
We have experienced similar issues. Even unplugging all peripherals and testing with multiple different fresh batteries, the screen remains black after multiple power off-on cycles. Swiping the screen has been tested every time, as well as accessing the menu from the button. Record can be enabled, and the leds (power and rec) light up accordingly, but the screen remains black all the time. We have missed a gig already because of this. Does anyone have a solution or similar experiences, or is this just a faulty unit?

I've just had the same happen to my Pocket 4K. Updated the firmware in the hope that would reset things, but no joy. In fact it's worse, because settings have gone back to defaults, so the HDMI out is log, and I can't change it.

Any new news on this issue?

Nick Shaw wrote:I've just had the same happen to my Pocket 4K. Updated the firmware in the hope that would reset things, but no joy. In fact it's worse, because settings have gone back to defaults, so the HDMI out is log, and I can't change it.

If you do a firmware update, camera will always be reset to default. Before updating you have to create a preset and export it to your media and import it after the update - if you want your settings back.

You can set the LUT preview for the HDMI out in the menu
-> MONITOR -> HDMI -> DISPLAY 3D LUT -> ON

and select the LUT you want in -> LUTS

it also happened at my place, only once. Right before a gig. A frightening moment. Switching off and on solved the problem, the screen was back.

reset the pocket 4k:

1) Power down the camera - disconnect all power sources etc

2) Reconnect DC power and then hold down the 'focus' button while powering up the camera. It should come up with a dark screen but you should hear the fan.

3) Reconnect USB and attempt to flash it again.

Robert Niessner wrote:If you do a firmware update, camera will always be reset to default. Before updating you have to create a preset and export it to your media and import it after the update - if you want your settings back.

You can set the LUT preview for the HDMI out in the menu
-> MONITOR -> HDMI -> DISPLAY 3D LUT -> ON

and select the LUT you want in -> LUTS

But I can't use the menu. I have no screen!

I am in touch with Blackmagic to check out if the screen needs replacing.

Nick Shaw wrote:

Robert Niessner wrote:If you do a firmware update, camera will always be reset to default. Before updating you have to create a preset and export it to your media and import it after the update - if you want your settings back.

You can set the LUT preview for the HDMI out in the menu
-> MONITOR -> HDMI -> DISPLAY 3D LUT -> ON

and select the LUT you want in -> LUTS

But I can't use the menu. I have no screen!

I am in touch with Blackmagic to check out if the screen needs replacing.

Ah, I see. I misunderstood your problem.