Thu Aug 05, 2021 2:05 pm
Hi Blackmagic Design,
after working on a combined ATEM Mini Pro ISO and ATEM Mini Extreme ISO plus 4 * BMCC4Ks setup in a studio that I build for a customer, I have some things I want to share that I would find important and useful additions in the future:
1. The ATEM mixer camera control shows no values for electronic zoom lenses zoom state. If it is anyhow possible, it would be really cool to have numbers here available as well as being able to forcefully move to a specific zoom value. Right now its a bit of try and error.
Is there an option to control if you are zooming faster and slower, other than how far you drag the zoom wheel in the camera control window?
2. The same as above, but for focus. I have a focus control, but no numbers. If it would be possible to show numbers, please allow us to see numbers and enter numbers.
3. There is no numerical representation of the Aperture value of the BMCC4K cameras inside ATEM camera control. That is very inconvenient. As these are cameras of your own, you can surely show values there and not just that cross-hatch to control it. If I know one camera is set to a specific number, I do want to make sure to set the other ones to the same to match results. That should not be that hard...
4. When switching on/reactivating the ATEM 8.6.2 / BMCC4K 7.4 software, the saved ATEM startup state does NOT include the color temperature settings of the BMCC4K cameras. We must restore the settings manually from the saved state to get the aperture values propagated to the BMCC4K cameras. That is definetly a bug!
5. While central recording via ATEM usually works fine and all cameras seem to record local UHD BRAW files that are in sync with the ATEM ISO recordings of each input and program out, but the BRAW files mostly miss a couple of rames at the beginning of the recording. So when you replace the .mp4 ISO recording files with the BRAW files, your media start states often "missing media". It is not a show stopper, as one usually has enough lead time, but I wanted to share the observation.
6. Why do you not sync the internal clocks of each connected BMCC4K etc. camera with the ATEM time (which itself usually comes from the computer host time, which usually comes from a time source from the internet/nuclear watch)? This should be easy for you to implement and make live much easier if all cameras surely run on the same clock/time. With central started recording from the ATEM itself, a sync timecode seem to be spread out to all cameras for their local recordings to stay in sync with the ATEM ISO recordings. However, the camera clocks can be completely out of sync, which makes no sense and is not desireable nor useful. Please change that.
7. There is no indication on the ATEM software if the connected BMD cameras are recording locally. That is a very important request, as we need to rely on the UHD BRAW footage and see the ISO recording only as a backup for worsed cases. We always revert back to the UHD footage, but sometimes found that one or more cameras missed recording locally. If anyhow possible, please add that to a future version of ATEM software, as this would give us so much more confidence in the recording process. I assume that local settings in the camera might be different with regards to how media is handled or to which media recording should run. So once you swap out media, it sometimes won't automatically start recording to a newly attached media. I understand this, but I can't always see/expect it. Some cameras are mounted in positions where I simply can't see their LCD panels at all, such as under the ceiling etc.
8. A big one: Why not allow to remote control the entire menu of a BMD camera remotely and - if perfect - upload settings from ATEM software control to it? It would be just cool to have at some point a such extensive control over BMD own devices from inside ATEM control.
9. I'd be happy if I could remotely set a bunch of presets for zoom & focus for BMCC4K cameras/lenses, which I want to recall on the press of a button. Imagine an interview situation where you have two people in view and you want to focus on one or the other. We also have poeple walking around the set and we know at which positions they will stop. So we might change focus/zoom as required by presets, which would be way easier and more accurate than trying to autofocus and readjust zoom all the time.
10. Super source recording. Of course I second this wish, often presented in the forum, to record everything the ATEM does and being able to re-do and adjust it in Resolve and/or Fusion etc. You are marketing the ISO line with being able to record everything and later re-edit in Resolve. But in fact that is only partially true and more often than desired even simple transitions may not be recognized safely as I encountered. However, Super Source, a really magic feature inside the ATEMs is practically ignored and almost useless in the context.
Cheers
Axel
after working on a combined ATEM Mini Pro ISO and ATEM Mini Extreme ISO plus 4 * BMCC4Ks setup in a studio that I build for a customer, I have some things I want to share that I would find important and useful additions in the future:
1. The ATEM mixer camera control shows no values for electronic zoom lenses zoom state. If it is anyhow possible, it would be really cool to have numbers here available as well as being able to forcefully move to a specific zoom value. Right now its a bit of try and error.
Is there an option to control if you are zooming faster and slower, other than how far you drag the zoom wheel in the camera control window?
2. The same as above, but for focus. I have a focus control, but no numbers. If it would be possible to show numbers, please allow us to see numbers and enter numbers.
3. There is no numerical representation of the Aperture value of the BMCC4K cameras inside ATEM camera control. That is very inconvenient. As these are cameras of your own, you can surely show values there and not just that cross-hatch to control it. If I know one camera is set to a specific number, I do want to make sure to set the other ones to the same to match results. That should not be that hard...
4. When switching on/reactivating the ATEM 8.6.2 / BMCC4K 7.4 software, the saved ATEM startup state does NOT include the color temperature settings of the BMCC4K cameras. We must restore the settings manually from the saved state to get the aperture values propagated to the BMCC4K cameras. That is definetly a bug!
5. While central recording via ATEM usually works fine and all cameras seem to record local UHD BRAW files that are in sync with the ATEM ISO recordings of each input and program out, but the BRAW files mostly miss a couple of rames at the beginning of the recording. So when you replace the .mp4 ISO recording files with the BRAW files, your media start states often "missing media". It is not a show stopper, as one usually has enough lead time, but I wanted to share the observation.
6. Why do you not sync the internal clocks of each connected BMCC4K etc. camera with the ATEM time (which itself usually comes from the computer host time, which usually comes from a time source from the internet/nuclear watch)? This should be easy for you to implement and make live much easier if all cameras surely run on the same clock/time. With central started recording from the ATEM itself, a sync timecode seem to be spread out to all cameras for their local recordings to stay in sync with the ATEM ISO recordings. However, the camera clocks can be completely out of sync, which makes no sense and is not desireable nor useful. Please change that.
7. There is no indication on the ATEM software if the connected BMD cameras are recording locally. That is a very important request, as we need to rely on the UHD BRAW footage and see the ISO recording only as a backup for worsed cases. We always revert back to the UHD footage, but sometimes found that one or more cameras missed recording locally. If anyhow possible, please add that to a future version of ATEM software, as this would give us so much more confidence in the recording process. I assume that local settings in the camera might be different with regards to how media is handled or to which media recording should run. So once you swap out media, it sometimes won't automatically start recording to a newly attached media. I understand this, but I can't always see/expect it. Some cameras are mounted in positions where I simply can't see their LCD panels at all, such as under the ceiling etc.
8. A big one: Why not allow to remote control the entire menu of a BMD camera remotely and - if perfect - upload settings from ATEM software control to it? It would be just cool to have at some point a such extensive control over BMD own devices from inside ATEM control.
9. I'd be happy if I could remotely set a bunch of presets for zoom & focus for BMCC4K cameras/lenses, which I want to recall on the press of a button. Imagine an interview situation where you have two people in view and you want to focus on one or the other. We also have poeple walking around the set and we know at which positions they will stop. So we might change focus/zoom as required by presets, which would be way easier and more accurate than trying to autofocus and readjust zoom all the time.
10. Super source recording. Of course I second this wish, often presented in the forum, to record everything the ATEM does and being able to re-do and adjust it in Resolve and/or Fusion etc. You are marketing the ISO line with being able to record everything and later re-edit in Resolve. But in fact that is only partially true and more often than desired even simple transitions may not be recognized safely as I encountered. However, Super Source, a really magic feature inside the ATEMs is practically ignored and almost useless in the context.
Cheers
Axel
Axel Mertes
Film, Video and IT professional
Freelancer/Consultant
Film, Video and IT professional
Freelancer/Consultant
