Blackmagic Camera for Android

Our prayers answered...almost: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/produc ... s/W-APP-02

I've installed it onto my Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and it works brilliantly in every category, save for one omission (so far): there's only REC.709, and BT2020 HLG10, without any LOG color space in the Settings menu under Record. LOG color space's dramatically better dynamic range, and better latitude to color grade for matching non-Android footage in post, is why I paid for Filmic Pro and its Cinematography Kit plug-in.

Blackmagic Design might have regarded LOG as a dilemma, but needlessly: it's true, their own Film LOG is less applicable to this limited selection of Android sensors (compared to Apple designing their LOG tailored to certain iPhones), but if we're all honest, it's a scalable standard anyway. The OG Pocket uses Blackmagic's Film LOG, and so does the URSA series, using the same versatile LUT. Blackmagic needs to devise a LOG color space the same way that Filmic Pro did for Android, accepting that it won't be perfect (but dramatically better than just calling it a day). Until then, this exciting new camera app is critically handicapped. But big congrats and gratitude for this launch version.

Settings --> Record on Blackmagic Camera for Android

Screenshot_20240624_025343_Blackmagic Camera.jpg (264.07 KiB) Viewed 183402 times

CineD mentioned it supports Blackmagic RAW which given that basically any Android phone nowadays can record proper RAW via Camera API2 should be easy to implement for Blackmagic.

Without that, Blackmagic Camera is just another useless front end and Motion Cam Pro is by far the better tool.

hmm showing not compatible with my Pixel 7a although it's listed in the announcement notes. Any thoughts?

Not compatible with my new Xiaomi 14 ultra... Such a pity!

Why don't you just do a color transform from Bt2020 to DWG?

Working on my 7a now, had to update to android 14.

Why don't you just do a color transform from Bt2020 to DWG?

That would only possibly address color gamut, but would fail to convey the benefits to dynamic range of simple LOG capture in wide practice even on Android smartphones.

Alas, no support for Braw.
On my S24U 8k H265 @24fps looks like a seething mass of jello and compression artifacts. 4k with stabilization in Resolve is usable but Motioncam Raw is a much better choice right now because of the raw recording at 4080x3056 60fps

Hi,
I hope Blackmagic app for Android will be available for many other phone models
I will wait and see ...
Have a good day

There are many apps that offer a sort of faux log; it's really just fitting HDR rec.2020 10bit down to Rec. 709. On the iPhone Apple Log is also Rec. 2020, as well. The great bonus on the app for iPhone is the inclusion of Luts; and the ability to display them. That was mainly to facilitate the Log workflow; but it can be useful for others too, since very few apps see the need for such a facility, that is common in digital film cameras. So hopefully BMD will include that in future releases of the Android version too. They have to be absolutely congratulated on this very smart move too, which is all about, as it always was, driving people towards Resolve and BMD products; very very smart and welcome, I say.

I'm an Android guy so it may influence my choice in future; but I ended up buying an iPhone specifically for this app, after witnessing how good the footage could be, on a shoot that made it impossible to take the big gear; in the most liberating way; even though I mainly shoot on an Ursa Broadcast G2.

As others have said the initial CineD article was a misprint - there will unlikely to be Braw on any smartphone soon; and it's a bit pointless there too.

Here's freely my basic Lut I developed for the iPhone Rec. 2020 Dolby Vision to Rec.709; maybe it's useful for Android too - I don't have one off those phones to try.

BMD_iPhone_2020_to_709_33.zip

(371.79 KiB) Downloaded 18471 times

Why don't you just do a color transform from Bt2020 to DWG?

That would only possibly address color gamut, but would fail to convey the benefits to dynamic range of simple LOG capture in wide practice even on Android smartphones.

It not really that different...

Blackmagic Camera Wide Gamut - Gen 5

DaVinci Wide Gamut

Rec.2020
Most of these colors fall outside the viewable color spectrum when compared to compared to Rec709 (which doesn't show everything visible):
Rec.709 / BT1886

The fact you have Rec2020, all you have to do is a simple Color Space Transform. It's easy as hell to convert 2020 or Apple Log to LogC 3 and put the Classic Arri look LUT on it.

A site with all the other color spaces on them:
https://antlerpost.com/colour-spaces/

The issue is the gamma curve, not the color space. Like raw, the wonders of log are oversold, even more so on a typical phone sensor, but other apps *are* offering log capture.

Transforming a display format to log in post is not going to provide the advantages of log capture. And sticking an Arri lut at the end won't make the footage look like it came out of an Alexa. If it were that simple, Arri would be out of business.

The issue is the gamma curve, not the color space. Like raw, the wonders of log are oversold, even more so on a typical phone sensor, but other apps *are* offering log capture.

Transforming a display format to log in post is not going to provide the advantages of log capture. And sticking an Arri lut at the end won't make the footage look like it came out of an Alexa. If it were that simple, Arri would be out of business.

Indeed, Shaheed is only addressing color gamut, and ignoring dynamic range (preserving shadow details, controlling highlights), the keystone reason to shoot in LOG even on a smartphone such as the S23/S24 Ultra's premium sensor tech. Also, the other Android video app developers are incorporating Rec.2020 along with (not instead of) LOG. Here's an example below, if you skip to the last chapter where they show on-the-fly encoding LOG color space into H.264, or RAW capture of the same, with a viewing LUT applied too. And there is a choice between their own proprietary LOG format, and Cineon LOG, which further shows how the lack of any universal LOG in the Android OS (compared to iOS) simply isn't dispositive.

I note that the official press release cites Grant Petty's carefully worded announcement: "We are excited to be able to give customers with Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel phones the same controls for shooting digital film as our professional cameras." In other words, the app adds a nice control interface (and Cloud proxy capability) but no change to image performance compared with the native Android camera app. This could easily change, but until then, MotionCam Pro V3 is the baseline quality standard instead.

Transforming a display format to log in post is not going to provide the advantages of log capture. And sticking an Arri lut at the end won't make the footage look like it came out of an Alexa. If it were that simple, Arri would be out of business.

This!

hmm showing not compatible with my Pixel 7a although it's listed in the announcement notes. Any thoughts?

Try sideloading it. I got it running on my Pixel Fold I use for my business. My issue is that on both my fold and my S24 Ultra it will not upload to Blackmagic Cloud unless I am connected to WiFi and I have that setting off.

Link please ?

Link please ?

I think it's a reasonable argument that posting links to .apk files for sideloading, is not appropriate here at the developer's own forum because they are opposed to installations of their app onto devices that are untested and can cause failures. PM at most...

Ok, I found it...but it doesn't offer anything special, at least for me and Xiaomi .
It doesn't offer prores or raw recording, only h264,h265.

With stock app I have log recording.
I wish I had prores or raw...

Anybody tested the sharpness of 8K video on S23Ultra compared to stock samsung camera app?
I've just installed the app on my S23U and noticed it has BT2020 HLG10 color space, so it should register 10bit per color channel, that is better than the Samsung 8k video that is limited to 8bit, but I have previsouly tested mcpro24fps also with 8K 10bit (need to disable GPU) and the video seems to be quite less detailed than even 4k video on Samsung camera app.

I need to test this new Blackmagic camera app during outside with good light (daytime) to compare it because I just installed it and quickly tried to see if it does record video in this format but noticed bit rate seems to be about half of stock samsung camera in 8k (40mbps compared to 80mbps) and samsung disabled the High Bitrate in one of the past phone updates because initially it had 200mbps for 8k...

I was hopping I could see an app that could take advantage of the pixel binning of the 200MP sensor in S23U (I think it's the same in S24U) because for 8K you only need 33MP so if you use 4 sensor pixels for every video pixel you still have plenty of pixels and end up with less noise and higher dynamic range...

(I suppose 4K does pixel binning with 16pixels) but there is no denying that 8k video from original samsung camera app is sharper than 4k video, so it would be realy nice to have the best of both worlds...
PS: I suppose S24U will have the same behaviour when using main camera sensor..

any chance to add gyro data recording to this app? both on android and ios

Hi,
I hope Blackmagic app for Android will be available for many other phone models
I will wait and see ...
Have a good day

I have tried apk (version 1.0.00049) found on internet. It works on Samsung A53 but not on Xiaomi 11.
But there is a lack of many settings

I need to test this new Blackmagic camera app during outside with good light (daytime) to compare it because I just installed it and quickly tried to see if it does record video in this format but noticed bit rate seems to be about half of stock samsung camera in 8k (40mbps compared to 80mbps) and samsung disabled the High Bitrate in one of the past phone updates because initially it had 200mbps for 8k...

OMG, that low for 8K? Must look awful, however great the sensor may be. A good hybrid is using at least 200 for UHD…

and the next release of evrExpanse will support it with full metadata extraction.

After the announcement, I searched on the play store for it (pixel 7pro). But I went to the play store on my tablet and while it showed as not compatible, it allowed me to remote load it onto my phone. I then got an update notice on my phone to update it.

Working fine on a Pixel 8 Pro here. Fantastic!

Has anyone figured out how to record to external storage? I can't find any menu in the app itself to specify the destination folder.

Working fine on a Pixel 8 Pro here. Fantastic!

Has anyone figured out how to record to external storage? I can't find any menu in the app itself to specify the destination folder.

As discussed above, the app only records to super-highly-compressed H.264 and H.265 codecs, so recording to external storage (motivated on the iPhone by bloaty QuickTime) isn't relevant on Android.

You are getting the exact same (or worse) image quality from this new app, compared to what you get from the stock camera apps, because of its current -- and I fear, permanent -- failure to incorporate LOG as well as higher bitrates. This app accomplishes two things: a control interface that matches the Blackmagic ecosystem, and their matching proxy cloud upload workflow which is less relevant given that the app only generates H.264 and H.265 files to begin with (proxy-adjacent).

Which cheap phone do yall recommend for this?

Which cheap phone do yall recommend for this?

I have a Pixel 7 Pro, it takes pretty good still photos. It's better than the Sony ZV1 for places that don't allow "pro" cameras (detachable lenses).

I have seen this phone refurbs on sale for a "better" price.

quite new to this app, any tips to how to load a preset and keep it there?
I can save it, selected it in the preset section (it's got a tick) but when I go back to camera it's back to auto settings.
happening on a samsun s23 and iphone pro 7.
thanks!

Last Apk version 1.5.0033 works quite well on Xiaomi 11 Lite but only Rec709 is available

Hi,
I hope Blackmagic app for Android will be available for many other phone models
I will wait and see ...
Have a good day

I have tried apk (version 1.0.00049) found on internet. It works on Samsung A53 but not on Xiaomi 11.
But there is a lack of many settings

on S23 std and pixel 7 pro, if you lock some settings, i.e. white balance, then go into the menu, when you return the WB is moving around again, even with the lock icon still showing. really annoying when testing for multicam use! should I log this issue somewhere?

How can i get this on my Andriod. phone i need to see how it works

Any recommendations for a cheap tablet that would work with this?

New version just dropped, but still nothing to improve image quality beyond what the native camera apps capture. So, no LOG mode despite the strange addition of 3D LUT import/export capability (why?) and no change to codec/bitrate options.

Is this option a placemarker for LOG? Why is Blackmagic delaying this 1st-priority feature?

Screenshot_20240722_042547_Blackmagic Camera.jpg (141.85 KiB) Viewed 179505 times

Working fine on a Pixel 8 Pro here. Fantastic!

Has anyone figured out how to record to external storage? I can't find any menu in the app itself to specify the destination folder.

In settings, you'll find "Save clips to" (default: Gallery). You can switch this to "Files" and then select the external drive, attached to your phone. It works with my Xiaomi 14 (which has a great camera) and a SanDisk Extreme Portable 1 TB dive.

New version just dropped, but still nothing to improve image quality beyond what the native camera apps capture. So, no LOG mode despite the strange addition of 3D LUT import/export capability (why?) and no change to codec/bitrate options.

Is this option a placemarker for LOG? Why is Blackmagic delaying this 1st-priority feature?

Screenshot_20240722_042547_Blackmagic Camera.jpg

What is even more confusing to me, since Camera API 2 supports RAW video capture, why we still don't see any BRAW?

Hello .. A friend of mine owns a Xiaomi " HyperOS " , Redmi NOTE 11 Pro 5 G .. Androîd version 13 ..

Does anyone know of a Compatible .apk Version ?

Hello Black Magic , you have noted .. Thanks for your Excellent Work ..

With my Regards from France .. / Mike ..

I have a Samsung s22 Ultra, have installed latest version from the Google Play Store.
No option for 60fps, only have 24, 25 and 30fps available.
Can anybody with s22 ultra confirm this or do I have some sort of issue.

Working fine on a Pixel 8 Pro here. Fantastic!

Has anyone figured out how to record to external storage? I can't find any menu in the app itself to specify the destination folder.

In settings, you'll find "Save clips to" (default: Gallery). You can switch this to "Files" and then select the external drive, attached to your phone. It works with my Xiaomi 14 (which has a great camera) and a SanDisk Extreme Portable 1 TB dive.

Thank you Markus, I am not sure how I missed it before, but it works now on my Pixel 8 Pro!

How can I get the list of cell phones that can or can't be used to Blackmagic Camera for Android?

I think my Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro is not compatible.

[Peter Chamberlain]

We list supported phone models on the tech specs page for the camera on the BMD website

We list supported phone models on the tech specs page for the camera on the BMD website

I've just noticed the 1.2 update for the Android version of this app adding support for the Pixel 9, 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL. Is there a reason for the omission of the 9 Pro Fold? That would be great if support for the Fold could be added.

We don't have a Fold as yet to use for dev and QA.

Peter, can you reveal whether LOG color is on the developer agenda? The fact that Apple officially created a profile used by your iOS app, but Android itself did not, has no impact besides mere convenience upon the ability of a software developer to incorporate this baseline necessity for serious video acquisition, which in its absence, moots all other features of your app resulting in no improved image quality compared to stock cameras. See, e.g., https://www.filmicpro.com/products/cinekit/ ("On Android devices supporting Gamma Curve Remapping, we take advantage of this tool to provide a custom LOG curve at the sensor level. This allows us to greatly expand the dynamic range of the sensor during the first stages of the camera pipeline...For those Android handsets that do not support Gamma Curve Remapping, we apply the same technique as iOS.") & https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/commen ... cording_is ("We've also gotten a new log specifically made for MotionCam outputs, Mcrawlog! If you fancy other curves, there's also Cineon Log, or even better, ordinary BT.709 or even BT.2020 HLG for a more point and shoot experience!").

What about this way to install Blackmagic Camera for any Android cell?

What about this way to install Blackmagic Camera for any Android cell?

Yup, you certainly can side load the app - I'm using it on an Android A53 and it works just fine (it's really decent, nice features)... Keep in mind there's no tech support for those running it on unsupported devices.

That said, you can still report bugs, just preface you're running on unsupported device, list model, and a disclaimer you're not seeking tech support... A bug may be systemic across all phones, so they'll appreciate the report anyway...

PS: Remember to give details of how to replicate the bug (regardless of device).

[Peter Chamberlain]

What about this way to install Blackmagic Camera for any Android cell?

Yup, you certainly can side load the app - I'm using it on an Android A53 and it works just fine (it's really decent, nice features)... Keep in mind there's no tech support for those running it on unsupported devices.

That said, you can still report bugs, just preface you're running on unsupported device, list model, and a disclaimer you're not seeking tech support... A bug may be systemic across all phones, so they'll appreciate the report anyway...

PS: Remember to give details of how to replicate the bug (regardless of device).

Thanks Terrence for your comment .. this is a good approach

What about this way to install Blackmagic Camera for any Android cell?

Yup, you certainly can side load the app - I'm using it on an Android A53 and it works just fine (it's really decent, nice features)... Keep in mind there's no tech support for those running it on unsupported devices.

That said, you can still report bugs, just preface you're running on unsupported device, list model, and a disclaimer you're not seeking tech support... A bug may be systemic across all phones, so they'll appreciate the report anyway...

PS: Remember to give details of how to replicate the bug (regardless of device).

Thanks! I will try it.

quick correction (sorry, feel silly). I'm on a A54.. The wife's phone is the A53... but yea, it works well on my phone.

Version 1.3 is out: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/release/20240913-01

However, the app continues to offer no improvement to image quality compared to any stock camera app for recording video. No LOG mode, and no improvement upon the low-bitrate codec, compared to numerous other Android video camera apps.

The developer responds to some inquiries about development plans, but not this one.

Version 1.3 is out: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/release/20240913-01

However, the app continues to offer no improvement to image quality compared to any stock camera app for recording video. No LOG mode, and no improvement upon the low-bitrate codec, compared to numerous other Android video camera apps.

The developer responds to some inquiries about development plans, but not this one.

Just use Motioncam Pro.
Uses the RAW stream provided by Camera API2 to create 10 bit log video (ACEScct, DWG, V-Log, S-Log3 etc.) with no sharpening, noise reduction nor any local tonemapping.