Camera v9.2.1 now available

[Kristian Lam]

Hi,

Camera v9.2.1 is now available from our website. This release is for the following products:

1. PYXIS Monitor
2. PYXIS 6K

PYXIS Monitor

- Adds automatic brightness adjustments for thermal management.

In extreme temperature conditions, the screen will lower the maximum brightness allowed slightly to prevent overheating. We're talking about ambient temperatures at 35ºC (95 ºF) and above where this will kick in.

PYXIS 6K

- Fixes issue where Bluetooth control is lost when switching from playback to record.

This release also reverts the firmware for the Pocket Cameras and URSA Broadcast G2 back to production versions instead of the beta versions.

Users who still want to use the Blackmagic Camera 8.7 Public Beta that is still available from our support page.

Still no update for the bmcc6kff, what a bummer:
- no 6048 x 3408 (6K 16:9) up to 46 fps
- no way to turn of real time proxies, or at least configure quality of proxies

Will there ever be one?

Still no update for the bmcc6kff, what a bummer:
- no 6048 x 3408 (6K 16:9) up to 46 fps
- no way to turn of real time proxies, or at least configure quality of proxies

The features from the 8.5 and 8.6 Public Betas still haven't been released in a stable update yet so it's not surprise that additional crops and stuff like that haven't been added either. I feel dumb for even making the crop-selection UI feature request thread now because we're now approaching 1 year since that public beta released and we can't get those features stabilized and 1 additional crop so asking for a revamp to the crop UI is a pipedream.

It would be nice to get some sort of information about this stuff instead of complete silence.

The Resolve project manger has explicitly stated several times that they consider such guidance to be sharing future development plans and they have a policy against this.

I don’t know if that policy is just for Resolve or company wide.

Policy or not, fact seems to be that the bmcc6k ff has no priority for bm at all. A (almost) one year old beta with bugs and no changes during this time, does not fell to be cared about at all.
Or do I miss something?

The only fact I see is that they haven’t released a production version of the beta firmware. It might be because they don’t care about the camera or its users. But more likely I think is that the new cameras are a hot and heavy priority so they’re going to get those finished before anything else.

I too am hoping for those updates for my 6KFF. I believe they’ll happen. I think they just don’t have enough resources to do both at the same time.

Yes it’s longer than I’d like. But I’m still glad to have the camera at a bargain basement price. They sold a lot of them and it seems really unwise to strand all those new users. So I think them not caring is an unlikely interpretation.

No stable update for 6k FF? As a new BM user, I used to believe BM offered the same level of customer satisfaction as Apple. However, it now seems that BM has chosen a different path.

I agree, Joe. The cinema camera enterprise and related products grows more competitive and BMD will want to make another splash at NAB2025. I would imagine all hands are on deck preparing for that show in April.

We could be two months away from Grant Petty sending us all an email that begins the reveal of how BMD will wow us this year. We know it could be the release of the Cine 17K and Cine Immersive cameras, but it might be more than that. It might be more of the ecosystem and might be new formal relationships with other businesses.

When will Blackmagic pull the 6KFF out of the beta firmware. I'm with kontrakatze on this. I feel left behind. I cannot use my Angelbird CFexpress cards with the beta firmware (bug has been mentioned in the thread of a prior update) and the anamorphic desqueeze selection is still missing. A pattern is showing; they release a new shiny flagship camera (which the 6KFF was upon its release) and then promptly forget about the product as soon as it made them some money and the next "big thing" is released a couple of months later.

So after this update, My Pyxis EF can't connect to the IOS Cam app on my phone and ipad and used as a monitor. It was previously working but now i can't seem to find the camera when searching with bluetooth.
I did try turning off bluetooth first and adding the pin and vice versa but to no avail. any help would be great as I'm very new to using the camera, Thanks.

The evf-smoothing option is gone, too. Using the evf with the beta is quite annoying.

The Resolve project manger has explicitly stated several times that they consider such guidance to be sharing future development plans and they have a policy against this.

That's bad policy. I get not speaking on price drops, future hardware, or features but this is a beta that already started a year ago.

[Kristian Lam]

So after this update, My Pyxis EF can't connect to the IOS Cam app on my phone and ipad and used as a monitor. It was previously working but now i can't seem to find the camera when searching with bluetooth.
I did try turning off bluetooth first and adding the pin and vice versa but to no avail. any help would be great as I'm very new to using the camera, Thanks.

The Remote feature from the Blackmagic Cam app uses Wifi + Ethernet on the PYXIS to connection and not bluetooth. You need to ensure that your camera is on the same network as your iOS device.

[Kristian Lam]

The evf-smoothing option is gone, too. Using the evf with the beta is quite annoying.

Please use the production version of the software. The 9.2.1 software will bring your camera back to the production release.

So I have just installed Camera Setup Version 9.2.1 and connected each of my three Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k. Each time it said there was an update available. After completing these updates I see that it took me off Version 8.6 beta and now I'm at Software version 8.1 on all cameras. I assume this is the latest production grade software.

Sadly my previous problems with use of 2TB Samsung T7 Shield SSDs is still present. Sometimes they work, but mostly they don't, and certainly not reliably enough to use on a professional shoot.

I'm a bit miffed that these SSDs are still being listed on the document titled "Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K Recommended CFast Cards, SD Cards and USB‑C Drives" as suitable for "4K DCI Blackmagic RAW 3:1 up to 60 fps". I should point out that I actually record using 4K DCI Blackmagic RAW Constant Bitrate 8:1 at 25fps which should be a much lower data rate. My three Samsung 1TB T5 had been working just fine with 8.6 beta so what's the issue with the T7 Shield?

I am however still very happy with my BMPCC4Ks and the longer support than normal industry practices. It is greatly appreciated.

I wish I knew why you’re having problems with the T7 Shield; I use that the 2TB drive with firmware 8.1 without issue typically recording for hours with BRAW 8.1 in Q1. Perhaps you could try Q1 or Q3 and see if that works. I never went to 8.6 though which shouldn’t matter given you’re now on 8.1. I do reformat the drive HFS+ in camera before each recording session.

I wish I knew why you’re having problems with the T7 Shield; I use that the 2TB drive with firmware 8.1 without issue typically recording for hours with BRAW 8.1 in Q1. Perhaps you could try Q1 or Q3 and see if that works. I never went to 8.6 though which shouldn’t matter given you’re now on 8.1. I do reformat the drive HFS+ in camera before each recording session.

Well my T7 Shields are all at Samsung's latest Version which is FXI72P2Q_3603_02000101 as shown by Samsung Magician.

The SSDs are exFAT which was done by the cameras. (I get a little annoyed about all the Apple related junk files that still get written to disk. I wonder if that is controllable?)

Blackmagic Disk Speed Test shows roughly similar values for T5 and T7 Shield. Could it be higher variance on latency? Test readings on T5 give tighter results using Speed Test.

I'd say with 8.1 recording on T7 Shield is marginal. I am thinking of going back to Software version 7.9. I wish there was an easy way to work out which version of Blackmagic Camera Setup install which version of firmware on the BMPCC4K. It would be great if Camera Setup actually let you pick the version you want.

I've been doing some more digging on this and it seems to me that the T7 Shield ought to be way better than the T5 given the NAND technology inside. There is clearly a bottleneck on the camera side as the BM USB port implementation only uses 5Gb/s, so a lot of the performance of the T7 Shield's USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface is lost. But how come the T5 works so flawlessly? Maybe there's a cache size issue at play here. I love to hear what BM's engineers have to say about this!

... It would be great if Camera Setup actually let you pick the version you want.

Yes, interesting suggestion. In the meantime, you can scroll through all the options in the left-hand column on the Support page for cameras.

I also keep all firmware versions in my Downloads folder on the Mac so it’s easy to go back in time.

I was on firmware release 7.9.2 prior to 8.1.

... It would be great if Camera Setup actually let you pick the version you want.

Yes, interesting suggestion. In the meantime, you can scroll through all the options in the left-hand column on the Support page for cameras.

I also keep all firmware versions in my Downloads folder on the Mac so it’s easy to go back in time.

I was on firmware release 7.9.2 prior to 8.1.

The support page doesn't give the whole story. Even if you look in the release notes you may not find the version number for your specific model of camera. At least that's my recollection. Am I wrong?

My understanding is that the Release Notes identify the cameras to which the firmware is applicable. If you haven’t kept all the firmware releases in the Downloads folder, then you would have to scroll that column and look at the respective Release notes. Or use the versions I mentioned. 8.1 or 7.9.2 or 7.9.1 or 7.9. If 8.1 works well, you’re done; if not 7.9.2 is also good. 7.9.1 and 7.9 had some issues for some people.

Well, by experience, the latest release would update my BMPCC 6K with the 8.6 version which is still in beta. I then had to downgrade to 8.1.

Therefore, to me, the release note just states which new features are added to the previous release and which cameras they are for. But the latest release always contains all the firmwares for all the cameras.

well...

I had a chance to talk to some BMDc techs recently...and a few of them told me they feel left "lately" out because the Admins above them at BMD don't even want to hear their own suggestions for making the equipment and tech. better...

I hope that’s not a long term or widespread thing. Losing more than a few engineers who really know the products is pretty dangerous.

We're still waiting for an update for the BMCC6KFF...

Hi,

This release also reverts the firmware for the Pocket Cameras and URSA Broadcast G2 back to production versions instead of the beta versions.

Users who still want to use the Blackmagic Camera 8.7 Public Beta that is still available from our support page.

This is hilarious, please do an update for BMCC6K LF!

hello I have an ursa G2 and I don't understand why on the camera set-up app windows, I see my cam but no nutton to suggest to up-date.... and no mention my camera is up-dated. My version software is 8.5.1

But they are new versions of course no ?

thanks for your help

hello I have an ursa G2 and I don't understand why on the camera set-up app windows, I see my cam but no nutton to suggest to up-date.... and no mention my camera is up-dated. My version software is 8.5.1

But they are new versions of course no ?

thanks for your help

No such update for us 4.6K G2 owners. It's been radio silence for us for years, no Gen 5 colour still despite literally hundreds of owner-operators begging BM for it for almost half a decade at this point. Really disappointing that they would let one of the best sensors they've ever put in a camera wither and die because they can't be bothered to update it, or they just want to push us all to the Broadcast G2 or the 12k...

We're still waiting for an update for the BMCC6KFF...

...or should we save on coffee to get PYXIS 6K?