Blackmagic Design announces Blackmagic Camera, which adds digital film camera controls to the Apple iPhone. Based on the same operating system as Blackmagic Design's award-winning digital film cameras, these professional features are designed to give iPhone content creators the same tools used in feature films, television and documentaries. Support for Blackmagic Cloud allows creators to collaborate and share media with multiple editors and colorists around the world instantly. Blackmagic Camera is now available from the Apple App Store, free of charge.
Blackmagic Camera will be demonstrated on the Blackmagic Design IBC 2023 Stand 7.C49.
“Blackmagic Camera unlocks the power of the iPhone by adding digital film camera controls and operating systems. Now customers can create the same cinematic ‘look’ as Hollywood feature films,” the announcement states. “Customers get the same intuitive and user-friendly interface as Blackmagic Design’s award-winning cameras. So, it’s just like using a professional digital film camera. This means customers can adjust settings such as frame rate, shutter angle, white balance and ISO all in a single tap. Or record directly to Blackmagic Cloud in industry standard 10-bit Apple ProRes files up to 4K. Recording to Blackmagic Cloud Storage lets customers collaborate on DaVinci Resolve projects with editors anywhere in the world, all at the same time.”
Blackmagic Camera has all the controls to setup and start shooting. Everything is interactive, so customers can tap an item and change settings without searching through menus. The heads-up display, or HUD, shows status and record parameters, histogram, focus peaking, levels, frame guides and more. Show or hide the HUD by swiping up or down. Auto focus by tapping the screen in the area customers want to focus. Customers can shoot in 16:9 or vertical aspect ratios, plus customers can shoot 16:9 while holding the phone vertically if they want to shoot unobtrusively. There are also tabs for media management including uploading to Blackmagic Cloud, chat and access to advanced menus.
The heads-up display, or HUD, has camera controls such as lens selection, frame rate, shutter angle, timecode, ISO, white balance, tint, histogram and audio levels. Customers can adjust settings such as exposure by touching the ISO indicator, or change the audio levels by touching the audio meters. Everything is interactive, so if users tap any item they can change its settings without having to search through menus. Customers can clear the heads up display to reveal the full screen image by swiping up or down with their finger.
The settings tab allows quick access to advanced settings such as monitoring, audio, camera setup, recording and more. The record tab allows control over video resolution and recording format including industry standard Apple ProRes or space efficient H.264 and H.265. Plus, it gives access to anamorphic de-squeeze and lens correction settings. Professional audio options include VU or PPM audio meters and AAC, IEEE Float and PCM formats and allows users to add external microphones. Blackmagic Camera also includes professional monitoring tools such as zebra settings for checking exposure, focus assist, frame guides and more. Or add 3D LUTs to recreate film looks.
Blackmagic Camera features a built-in chat workspace so Blackmagic Cloud project members can talk about shots and quickly share creative ideas, without leaving the app. By logging in to Blackmagic Cloud, users can select the project they’re working on and start typing a message; quickly message editors, assistants, colorists or VFX artists to talk about shot selection or to receive an update on the project. Everyone on that project can see their message and reply instantly. This is designed to allow users to keep in touch with other project members without leaving the app and missing a critical shot.
The Blackmagic Camera media tab has all the controls needed to browse or scrub clips for quick review, search and sort and view the upload status of their media. Customers can also link to their photos and select clips to upload to the Blackmagic Cloud. Users can access their media from Blackmagic Camera’s all clips folder by choosing the Media button to see the thumbnails for each clip customers have stored. Customers can save their media to the files folder on the phone, send it to Blackmagic Cloud Storage via Blackmagic Cloud or manually choose which clips to upload to a project library. Customers can also sync media from Blackmagic Camera directly into a DaVinci Resolve project to edit and color grade.
Media management on Blackmagic Camera has three options depending on location and mobile data coverage. Customers can record to their phone and transfer clips to a computer. This allows customers to free up valuable storage space on their phone and share their files later to other users globally. Or customers can log into Blackmagic Cloud and select a DaVinci Resolve project before recording. After each individual recording the media will automatically upload and sync to all members of that project. Blackmagic Camera also has a manual option where customers can record their footage to their phone and then select which clips they want to upload via Blackmagic Cloud when they have a network connection.
By creating a Blackmagic ID, customers to have access to Blackmagic Cloud free of charge. Users tap on Blackmagic Cloud in the media tab to go to the Blackmagic Cloud website to register. Once customers have created their Blackmagic ID they can log in and set up their project library. This is where projects to upload to Cloud Storage are created. With a project library set up, select for Blackmagic Camera to sync directly to Cloud Storage from the app. They can invite others to share the project and collaborate with editors and colorists globally, working on the same project.
When shooting with Blackmagic Camera, the video customers capture can be instantly uploaded as a proxy file, followed by the camera originals, and saved to Blackmagic Cloud Storage. These will then automatically sync to all members of the project anywhere in the world. Media can be constantly added to the project by multiple cameras in different locations which is automatically synced to other project members via Blackmagic Cloud.
"Blackmagic Camera is a truly revolutionary workflow for creating feature film quality content using an iPhone ," says Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. "Blackmagic Camera adds professional camera features like frame rate, shutter angle, time of day timecode, ISO and white balance to the iPhone so our customers have similar controls as our professional cameras. Plus, the Blackmagic Cloud workflow lets customers record to Blackmagic Cloud Storage and automatically sync with DaVinci Resolve. Now they can get their footage to the newsroom or post production studio in minutes! I think it will be really exciting to find out how Blackmagic Camera will change traditional news and post production workflows.”
Blackmagic Camera Features
- Shoot in 16:9 or vertical aspect ratios.
- Stealth mode for shooting 16:9 while holding phone vertically.
- Capture in Apple ProRes, HEVC and H.264 with auto proxy generation.
- Frame rate, shutter speed, exposure, white balance, tint and color space camera controls.
- Focus assist, zebra, frame guides, histogram, 3D LUT monitoring.
- Time of day or run time, timecode recording.
- PCM, IEEE Float or AAC audio recording, 44.1 or 48 kHz sample rate.
- VU or PPM audio meters.
- Thumbnail view of all recorded clips in media tab.
- Preview clips with scrubber, duration, timecode and file name display.
- Fully integrated with Blackmagic Cloud and DaVinci Resolve.
- Record to iPhone, select recorded clips to share via Blackmagic Cloud or sync automatically.
Blackmagic Camera is available now as a free download from the Apple App Store.
