For those who don’t know the tool: Blackmagic Camera turns an iPhone into a manual camera app that can feed directly into Resolve workflows, now with wrist control via Apple Watch on iOS. Or the other professional controllers you might have.

A wrist remote for phone rigs

Phone cameras already live in all the inconvenient places. High on a stand. Gaffer-taped to a car. Wedged into a tiny corner for a cheat shot. The update to Blackmagic Camera targets that exact pain point with a companion app for Apple Watch that can control and monitor the iPhone camera remotely.

The Watch companion focuses on practical set tasks. It can start and stop recording, show framing, and display audio levels. It also exposes key controls from the wrist, including exposure, focus, and LUT selection. The whole point is simple: keep all hands off the phone when a touch would wobble the shot, it is too far away, or the camera’s protection against the environment (Animals, Art Directors, the Public) is already in place. The Watch companion installs through the Watch app on the iPhone, and it pairs up as a remote control surface for the camera app. If you want to see it in action, have a look at this video from 9 to 5 Mac:

New hooks for studio style control

This update also adds support for ATEM camera control when you use Blackmagic Camera with ATEM workflows. That matters for anyone building iPhone based multicam setups that need consistent shading and control.

The same update adds support for Blackmagic Focus and Zoom demands when used with Blackmagic Camera ProDock. That pairs the app with physical lens style controls, aimed at a more traditional camera operating feel on a phone rig. Those demands already exist as hardware controls for compatible lenses in Blackmagic’s camera ecosystem. Here, they extend into the phone rig world when you connect through the ProDock.

HDMI portrait output and other workflow fixes

The App Store release notes for the current version list several production-facing additions and fixes beyond the Watch comanion.

The update adds support for full-screen portrait mode HDMI output. That targets vertical capture pipelines where you still want proper monitoring on external displays, without awkward letterboxing or UI clutter.

Pricing and availability

Blackmagic Camera on the App Store is free. Hardware mentioned in the update, including Blackmagic Camera ProDock, carries its own pricing and availability outside the app listing. But you know that, don’t you?

The boring advice that saves shoots

New features feel exciting right up until they meet real world constraints like wireless congestion, rigging compromises, heat, storage, and a director who wants the fifth take to roll instantly. Treat the companion like any other control surface: test it, rehearse it, and build a fallback plan before you rely on it in production.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagiccamera

The post Apple Watch control for the Blackmagic Camera? first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Twinmotion is a real-time viz app powered by Unreal Engine, built for quick scene assembly, lighting, and outputs without living in node graphs.

Photo matching, now less of a dark art

Twinmotion 2026.1 adds a photo matching workflow built around a new Match Perspective tool. You load a background image as a backplate, identify vanishing points (Lines or Grid), and the camera adjusts position and focal length to match the image. The goal is simple: get a 3D model to sit reasonably convincingly inside a 2D photo without hand-tuning camera parameters for an afternoon.

The tool also includes shadow projection from 3D objects onto the calculated ground plane. That helps sell integration when the backplate already has strong directional cues. If you do client-facing previz or quick location studies, this is one of those features that saves time. It also nudges Twinmotion closer to the familiar backplate plus camera-match workflow many artists already use elsewhere, just with fewer steps and less guesswork.

Autosoft edge: a band-aid, in the best way

CG edges can read too sharp, especially when you are chasing photo-like results in a simplified lookdev context. Twinmotion 2026.1 introduces Autosoft edge, a rendering effect you can apply to selected objects to soften hard edges to a specified radius.

Autosoft Edge works in Standard, Lumen, and Path Tracer modes. That means you can keep one scene and one intent while switching render modes, without losing the edge treatment that helps prevent the razor-cut silhouette look. This is not a replacement for proper bevels when the model needs to withstand close-ups or be exchanged with other tools. It is a pragmatic option for when the scene is already in motion, the imported geometry is what it is, and you want a controllable, consistent soften in teh renderer.

Lighting channels: finally, selective light sanity

Twinmotion 2026.1 adds support for lighting channels. Lights only affect objects assigned to the same channel. In practice, this gives you the abiility to isolate what a physical light influences, which is a staple control in many pipelines.

A concrete example: you can keep your background lighting from touching a hero object in a product or fashion setup. That is useful when you want a clean key and fill on the subject, while the environment stays moody or stylised without contaminating the hero’s exposure and specular response.

Lighting channels do not magically solve bad lighting decisions, but they do let you build a scene that behaves more like a studio rig. You can steer light contribution with intent instead of compensating with endless tweaks to intensity and position.

Camera and lens effects: focus breathing for people who enjoy pain

Twinmotion 2026.1 adds Auto focus for depth of field. With Auto focus enabled, the focal point can automatically adjust to the centre of the screen, effectively following the camera’s look-at point. You can set how long it takes to adjust focus.

There is also a hunting behaviour option. The setting lets you choose whether hunting happens occasionally, frequently, or not at all. That is a very specific kind of realism knob, and it is nice to see it treated as a creative control rather than a bug you have to hide.

Depth of field bokeh gets two new characteristics: Anamorphic oval and Petzval. These affect the blur quality in out-of-focus areas, including elongated and swirling bokeh looks. The two can be used individually or combined. Holga-Hipsters, eat your heart out :P

A Barrel distortion slider rounds out the lens pack, curving straight lines near the edges of frame like real lenses, especially wide-angle ones. All of this points at a consistent theme: Twinmotion is leaning harder into camera language, not just lighting and assets. Which is excellent, if your deliverable is stills and clips that need to read as photographs rather than renders.

Particle VFX: more control, less waiting

Twinmotion 2026.1 revamps the particle-based effects in the Twinmotion library. The update optimised performance and visual quality, and it adds new examples.

More importantly for day-to-day work, the particle effects now have exposed parameters, so you can customise them. The examples called out include fire, fog, smoke, and water.

If your scenes lean on atmospherics to sell scale or mood, parameterised VFX is much more useful than locked presets. It turns the library from a look-up table into something you can art-direct.

European trees, and the stuff you only notice when it breaks

Twinmotion 2026.1 adds a European tree pack: 10 new species of photorealistic European trees, each with three variations, added to the Twinmotion library. If you build outdoor scenes for European contexts, that is straight-up practical content, not just another generic “coloured blob” set. And we are not making any political jokes here; we are talking about trees.

The release also changes how asset libraries live on disk. Twinmotion now manages the location of all asset libraries, including user libraries and user-generated content, in a persistent folder structure. This replaces the previous per-version folder structure.

The point is to stop making you copy, move, or redownload content each release. The persistent structure is intended to enable content to be shared across future versions and simplify file paths.

This is the kind of improvement that rarely makes a reel, but it absolutely shows up in the daily friction budget. Fewer duplicate paths also tends to mean fewer broken links, fewer “where did that go” moments, and less time spent doing file system archaeology. N oinformation yet hopw that integrates with existing asset management systems, like das element or others.

Availability and pricing

Twinmotion 2026.1 is available to download. Existing users can download it via the Epic Games Launcher, and subscribers can also download via the Developer Portal.

Pricing depends on who you are and what you need. Twinmotion is free to use for individuals and small businesses under $1 million USD in revenue in the past 12 months, educational institutions, and students. For individuals and businesses over $1 million USD in gross annual revenue, and/or requiring access to Twinmotion Cloud, Twinmotion seats cost $445 per seat per year.

There is also an Unreal Subscription option listed at $1,850 per seat per year, which includes upgrades for Unreal Engine, Twinmotion, and RealityScan for one year, plus access to Twinmotion Cloud. The All-in-one-thingy sub :)

https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/twinmotion/twinmotion-2026-1-release-notes

The post Epic Games ships Twinmotion 2026.1 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Blackmagic Design develops cameras, broadcast gear, and postproduction software including DaVinci Resolve, Fusion, and Fairlight. The Blackmagic Camera Setup utility keeps their cameras’ firmware up to date, adds new features, and includes the Blackmagic RAW toolset used in Resolve and other DCC workflows.

PYXIS learns to cool itself

Version 10.0 of Blackmagic Camera Setup, released just now, introduces a dynamic fan control system for the Blackmagic PYXIS 12K. The camera now adjusts its cooling behaviour automatically while recording.

Pre-record and expanded audio arrive

Both the PYXIS 6K, PYXIS 12K, and the URSA Broadcast G2 gain a pre-record mode, allowing the capture of a few seconds before the record button is pressed, a practical addition for live and documentary work. All three models also now support four-channel audio recording, mono headphone monitoring, and a 0% opacity option for frame guides, giving operators the ability to clear overlays entirely when composing shots.

API, proxies and lens support updates

The update adds new Camera Control REST API commands, aimed at remote operation and integration with external systems. Blackmagic also adds an option to inhibit proxy recording, which could be useful for locked-down or multi-camera workflows. For the URSA Broadcast G2, 10.0 also improves Blackmagic Cloud integration and B4 lens compatibility. Blackmagic has not detailed the nature of these improvements, and they are not independently verified at press time.

RAW utilities and system requirements

The installer continues to bundle Blackmagic RAW Player, RAW Speed Test, RAW SDK, and RAW plugins for host applications. The update supports macOS 14 (Sonoma) and macOS 15 (Sequoia) on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, as well as Windows 10 and Windows 11 64-bit systems. Blackmagic lists 8 GB RAM as the minimum for macOS.

Updfated PYXIS Manual

At the same time, BMD updated and released a new manual for the PYXISI Camera – geht the full PDF here for free or have a look if you think about getting one of them. https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/BlackmagicPYXISManual.pdf?

Practical reminder

As always, users should verify firmware stability and feature compatibility before deploying updates in active production environments. Never update during production, which we heartily recommend, because yesterday a Windows-Update made this news you are reading a hectic morning duty instead of a relaxed last evening thing. Also: Check yourt backups, while you are at it.

The post Blackmagic Camera 10.0 brings fan brains and pre-record tricks first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: SynthEyes by Boris FX is a dedicated 3D camera tracking and matchmoving software used across film, VFX, and advertising production. It interfaces smoothly with Nuke, After Effects, Fusion and other DCC applications, delivering fast, precise solves for integration of CG into live action. Part of the Boris FX Suite, SynthEyes sits alongside tools such as Mocha Pro, Continuum, Sapphire, and Silhouette, forming a tightly integrated pipeline of visual effects and finishing plugins.

Free matchmove mastery – for a limited time

Boris FX has announced SynthEyes Essentials, a new training series designed to teach both the conceptual foundations and practical workflows of matchmoving in SynthEyes. The package, usually priced at USD 95, is available as a free premium download until 31 December 2025.

The offer includes over three hours of professional instruction, spread across eighteen videos, with accompanying project files and sample footage. The series is taught by Boris FX product specialist Christoph Zapletal, a long-time VFX artist and trainer – and Digital Production’s own Compositing, Flame and Star trek Author.

Topics include matchmove theory, camera solving, AI-assisted workflows, roto masking, lens distortion management, mesh generation, and object tracking. Boris FX positions the series as a comprehensive, concept-driven training rather than a feature-by-feature tutorial. If you want to learn what you are doing, and not just which button to press, this is the course for you.

What do you get?

Across eighteen lessons and twelve blocks, SynthEyes Essentials builds a structured learning path from theory to application. It starts with conceptual understanding, progresses through tracking, solving, calibration, and ends with practical export and integration workflows. Each block is designed to be modular, allowing artists to focus on specific parts of the matchmove process or follow the series sequentially for a full onboarding to SynthEyes.

Foundations and Core Concepts

The course opens with an Introduction and a clear explanation of the Underlying Concepts of matchmoving. These first lessons establish the theoretical foundation of what camera solving actually does, namely mapping 2D image data into a consistent 3D coordinate space. Christoph outlines how SynthEyes interprets motion, focal length, and parallax, giving artists a solid base before they begin working hands-on. This section sets the tone for the entire training: conceptual understanding first, tools second.

Tracking Workflows

Once the principles are clear, the series moves into practical tracking. Lessons on Automated Tracking and Supervised Tracking demonstrate SynthEyes’ two primary approaches to extracting tracking data. Automated tracking covers point generation and solving for shots that can be processed algorithmically. The supervised section focuses on when and how to step in manually: tuning track points, correcting drift, and controlling motion paths when the automated system struggles. Together, these chapters establish a complete understanding of tracking strategies for real production footage.

Solving and Refinement

The next stage is “The Solver Room”, where all the accumulated tracking data is converted into a working 3D solve. The solver section demonstrates how SynthEyes interprets the camera’s path and reconstructs the scene’s geometry. The training then introduces Roto Masking, showing how to isolate moving foreground elements or exclude unwanted regions from the tracking process. This not only improves accuracy but also keeps solves stable in complex or occluded shots.

Lens and Calibration

Zapletal then focuses on optical parameters in three consecutive chapters: Lens Distortion, Lens Calculation, and Lens Calibration. These lessons explain how real-world lenses introduce distortion, how SynthEyes models and compensates for it, and how to calculate or calibrate lenses from footage or reference data. This block is particularly useful for artists working with varying cameras or mixed-format source material, where lens data is inconsistent or missing.

Coordinate Systems and Scene Setup

The two lessons titled Coordinate Systems Part 1 and Part 2 explain how SynthEyes handles scene orientation, scale, and alignment. Understanding coordinate spaces is crucial when exporting solves to downstream 3D applications such as Nuke or Maya. These chapters ensure that solved data lines up correctly with CG scenes and compositing environments, avoiding scale and rotation mismatches in later stages of production.

Mesh Generation

The Mesh Generation Part 1 and 2 chapters explore SynthEyes’ built-in mesh tools. Artists learn how to create proxy geometry that helps verify solves, anchor objects in space, and visualise tracking quality. These lessons demonstrate both automated and manual mesh workflows, preparing users for typical use cases like ground plane setup or background modelling for compositing reference.

Object Tracking

Next, Object Tracking Part 1 and Part 2 move beyond camera solves to show how SynthEyes handles independent object motion. This section is key for shots with multiple moving elements—cars, props, or handheld devices. It explains how to isolate and track objects independently while maintaining a consistent world space between multiple solves.

Export and Integration

The final three chapters deal with transferring the finished solve to other applications. Zapletal demonstrates exporting cameras, point clouds, meshes, and nulls to standard 3D and compositing packages. Topics include export format choices, scaling conventions, and verification of data integrity. The course closes with best practices for integrating SynthEyes results into downstream VFX or editing pipelines.

Availability and next steps

Artists can download SynthEyes Essentials for free via the Boris FX webshop until the end of December 2025. From 1 January 2026, it will be priced at USD 95 for the premium download, though the videos will remain freely viewable on the Boris FX website. As with any training-based workflow adoption, users are advised to validate techniques and settings against their own production data before deploying in critical pipeline stages, but, after we have seen a few of the videos, this one will be useful for pretty much everybody.

The post SynthEyes Essentials Training is here and Free for the Holidays first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Mocha Pro 2026 is out, and Boris FX’s Emmy and Academy Award-winning planar tracker returns with an update that focuses on refinement rather than reinvention. The 2026 release adds new AI-driven roto and matte tools, smarter 3D-solve cleanup, and a rebuilt Curve Editor, all tuned to make shot-fixing and cleanup faster and more predictable for working compositors.

The update also aligns with VFX Reference Platform 2025, adding support for Qt 6.5.4 with PySide 6, Python 3.11, OpenEXR 3.4.5, Alembic 1.8.8, and FBX 2020.3.7. This ensures fewer pipeline compatibility issues in studio environments.

Matte Refine ML: AI for tricky edges

The new Matte Refine ML system expands Mocha Pro’s machine-learning masking family, which already includes Object Brush ML, Matte Assist ML, and Face ML. It analyses existing masks and automatically refines soft or semi-transparent edges which is useful for hair, fur, motion blur, and defocus.

Two refinement modes are available: one optimised for soft motion or blur, the other for sharper edges. Additional post-processing sliders (Black Clip, White Clip, Edge Grow, Shrink/Grow, and Blur) let artists fine-tune how transparency and detail are blended along the edge.

For multi-layer composites, the new Group Layer Mattes option merges multiple layers into a single matte clip, improving render and playback performance. Combined with Matte Assist ML, this creates an efficient path from object masking to refined alpha without intermediate renders.

Refine Solve: faster, cleaner 3D tracking

The Refine Solve tool targets 3D camera solves that have drifted or accumulated bad data. Using the Clean Up Features dialog, users can delete unstable or short-lived tracking points, then recalibrate the existing solve without starting over.

Because Refine Solve builds on the original solve data, it preserves previous adjustments such as ground-plane alignment or scene scaling. For extended tracking and finishing, the refined data can be exported directly into SynthEyes for further cleanup. The result: faster iterations and fewer re-solves for 3D match-move tasks in complex shots.

Blips and 3D

Technically, Mocha’s camera solver identifies trackable “blips” in the image and converts them into 2D trackers, which are then triangulated into static 3D feature points. The software measures the average deviation between the 2D trackers and 3D points as HPix (horizontal pixel error). A low HPix value signals a stable camera solve, while spikes in the error curve expose moments where the 3D reconstruction drifts. These spikes often correspond to unstable track data caused by motion blur, occlusion, or minor parallax inconsistencies.

The Clean Up Features system provides targeted filters to address these issues. It can automatically disable feature points during high-error frames, discard very short or inconsistent trackers, and remove features that contribute excessive deviation. Once unwanted data is removed, Refine recalibrates the existing camera without re-solving from scratch, updating only the relevant calculations while maintaining previously established orientation and coordinate systems. This allows technical directors to preserve scene alignment and object placement while improving solve precision.

Refinement should be applied only when the base camera movement is physically plausible. If the initial camera path is incorrect or erratic, a full re-solve remains necessary. However, for typical production shots where the solve is broadly correct but slightly unstable, this incremental workflow offers a reliable way to tighten accuracy, lower HPix variance, and maintain alignment integrity across multiple refinement passes.

Curve Editor rebuilt for modern pipelines

After a long hiatus, Mocha Pro’s Curve Editor makes a full return. The interface has been rewritten from the ground up, with tighter integration between the Dope Sheet and Graphs panel. Artists can now visualise tracking, roto, and camera-solve data as curves, then smooth, zoom, or isolate problem areas directly. A new offset-curve overlay in the Adjust Track module displays how refinements affect the original track in real time. Filtering options allow users to display only keyframed parameters or selected spline points, helping to pinpoint problematic data without clutter.

Smaller but useful refinements

Beyond the headline features, Boris FX lists numerous “quality-of-life” updates under the hood. Playback of refined mattes no longer requires separate rendering, and composite mattes can now be applied directly in other Mocha render modules, such as Insert or Remove.

Mocha Pro 2026: Pricing and availability

Mocha Pro 2026 is available as a standalone application and as plugins for Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, Foundry Nuke, Blackmagic Fusion, Autodesk Flame, and VEGAS Pro. Subscription pricing starts at €42 per month or €290 per year. Perpetual licences (from €675), upgrades, and support plans are also offered. Customers with active Mocha Pro or Boris FX Suite subscriptions receive the 2026 update at no additional cost.

Reality check

While the AI-driven refinements and rebuilt Curve Editor mark significant usability improvements, studios should validate performance and matte accuracy in controlled conditions before integrating Mocha Pro 2026 into production pipelines.

The post Mocha Pro 2026: Refined, re-solved, re-edged first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

The VFX toolkit SLAPSHOT, developed by Hotspring, has added a new module: an AI-powered camera tracking tool designed for 2D compositing workflows. According to Hotspring, it can generate production-ready camera solves and point clouds in minutes, a process that traditionally consumes many hours using manual or semi-automated tracking methods.

From zero data to full solve

The new Camera Tracking module targets artists who primarily work in 2D compositing but occasionally require 3D camera data to integrate digital elements into live-action plates. Hotspring says the tool can produce accurate camera tracks without needing any prior camera metadata such as lens information or focal length. Users can, however, supply camera data if they have it, and the software will incorporate that information into the final solve.

Output formats include .abc and .glb camera files, .exr STMaps for warping and undistortion tasks, undistorted .jpg plates, and a .mov playblast. This ensures compatibility with most standard 3D and compositing environments. Hotspring states that the tool was built to handle the bulk of real-world VFX work, background replacements, screen inserts, sky swaps, and clean-ups, where precision matters but speed is often the main constraint. The system is hosted entirely in SLAPSHOT’s cloud environment on AWS, supporting resolutions up to 8K and removing the need for heavy local compute resources.

Why this might matter

Camera tracking has long been one of the most time-consuming stages in VFX production. Solving for camera movement, lens distortion and point clouds often requires manual supervision and multiple iterations. Hotspring claims that SLAPSHOT can complete many of these tasks in under ten minutes, compressing what was once a day-long operation into a near-real-time process.

For smaller studios or freelance compositors who lack dedicated matchmove teams, this could represent a measurable reduction in turnaround time and cost. However, the company makes clear that the system is not designed to replace full-featured matchmove pipelines for heavy CG integration.

Not for every shot

Jon Mason, co-founder and CEO of Hotspring, emphasises that SLAPSHOT’s AI Camera Tracking is aimed at medium-difficulty shots, not full 3D sequences with extensive camera-lens complexity. According to Mason, the tool’s purpose is to close the gap between 2D tracks and complex CG matchmoves, where automation can safely accelerate work without sacrificing usable accuracy. Mason also noted that building the system required combining multiple open-source AI components to achieve consistent and dimensionally accurate results. There was, he said, “no off-the-shelf way to do something like this.”

Pricing

SLAPSHOT operates on a subscription model with four pricing tiers. The Free plan allows artists to test the tools at no cost, capped at 2K resolution and 1 GB of storage. The Lite plan, aimed at entry-level users, costs $9 per month and raises the limit to 3K resolution with 5 GB of storage.

The Starter plan, recommended for freelancers and solo compositors, is priced at $39 per month, allowing up to 4K output and 50 GB of storage. The Pro plan, intended for professional users and studios, costs $129 per month and supports 8K resolution, 250 GB of storage, and unlimited seats. Each plan includes a defined number of export frames, after which additional renders are billed at $0.02 per frame.

Part of a broader toolkit

Camera Tracking joins SLAPSHOT’s existing suite of AI-assisted post-production tools, which includes AI Rotoscoping for matte generation, Generative Retiming for extending footage by synthesising new frames, and Video Depth Maps for stable per-pixel depth estimation. Together, these cloud-based tools form a platform for accelerating everyday compositing and finishing work without high hardware costs. All of SLAPSHOT’s modules run on Hotspring’s independently audited AWS infrastructure, which is designed for commercial, film, and episodic-scale productions. And sometimes goes down, as we have seen last week. So far no information of a on-prem option.

Hotspring’s background

Hotspring is best known as a global VFX outsourcing platform used by studios worldwide. Its founders — Jon Mason, Varun Parange, and Ben Stallard, have backgrounds in delivering Oscar-, Emmy-, and VES-winning visual effects. Drawing on this experience, they built SLAPSHOT to automate repetitive VFX tasks while keeping final quality in artists’ hands. The company says that Camera Tracking continues its mission to “tackle the real-world problems artists face every day” by turning complex, technical workflows into faster, accessible processes.

What professionals should test

For compositing supervisors and VFX artists, SLAPSHOT’s new tool could be worth evaluating in production conditions. The key questions will concern accuracy under difficult circumstances, such as handheld or fast-motion footage, extreme lens distortion, or heavy motion blur, and how well exported data fits into existing workflows across Nuke, After Effects, Blender, and other software. Pipeline integration, output fidelity, and network performance in high-resolution workflows remain areas that users will need to test directly before adopting the system for ongoing projects.

Unverified details at press time

Some technical specifics remain unconfirmed from official sources, like full benchmark results across shot types, and the level of pipeline integration offered beyond the stated file formats. These details were not publicly available on SLAPSHOT’s or Hotspring’s websites at the time of publication. Therefor, as always, artists should run extensive tests before integrating any automated tracking system into mission-critical workflows.

The post SLAPSHOT promises AI Camera Tracking “in minutes” first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Datacolor, a global leader in color management solutions, has introduced the LightColor Meter, a multifunctional device for measuring light intensity and color temperature. It supports various light sources, including changing daylight, artificial light, LED, HMI, fluorescent tubes, and flash. Unlike traditional light meters, this device goes beyond simple exposure measurement.

Color temperature measurement—determining whether a light source is warm or cool—provides essential information for selecting the best lighting and exposure for a scene, ensuring consistent color rendering. The device also includes built-in gel filter libraries from Profoto, LEE, and Rosco to help users choose the right color correction filters.

Wireless Data Transmission and App Integration

Paired with the free Datacolor LightColor Meter App (iOS/Android), the Bluetooth-connected device continuously transmits real-time data to a smartphone. This allows for remote, on-the-fly adjustments without needing to move between the camera and the meter. Filmmakers, photographers, and hybrid shooters can easily fine-tune lighting and exposure. Additionally, multiple LightColor Meters can be linked to synchronize lighting measurements across larger sets or live events.

According to Heath Barber, Director of Consumer Product Management at Datacolor, the device acts as a “personal assistant on set—except it fits in your pocket.” Beginners benefit from automated exposure guidance, while professionals gain precise measurements of color temperature, dUV, and light intensity in one compact tool.

Why Precise White Balance Matters

White balance is crucial for achieving consistent color reproduction in digital production. Different light sources emit varying color temperatures, making images appear warmer or cooler depending on the conditions. Accurately measuring color temperature allows for precise white point adjustments, preventing unwanted color casts. This is especially vital in high-end post-production or multi-camera setups, where consistency is key. The LightColor Meter provides real-time, accurate data, minimizing color correction efforts and ensuring uniform results across shots.

Gel Filter Libraries: Preloaded Color Adjustments

The LightColor Meter comes with built-in gel filter libraries from Profoto, LEE, and Rosco, three industry leaders in lighting modification. These libraries include a wide range of correction and creative effect filters, allowing users to match artificial lighting to daylight or create stylistic color effects. The app provides a digital preview of these filters, helping users select the right combination before even setting up lights. This not only speeds up workflow but also reduces the need for extensive color grading in post-production.

Price and Availability

The LightColor Meter is available for €449 (incl. VAT) and can be purchased via the Datacolor website, Amazon, and authorized resellers. The LightColor Meter App is free to download for iOS and Android.

Production-Ready?

While the LightColor Meter offers a powerful and compact solution for precise light and color temperature measurements, professionals should test it in their workflow before integrating it into active productions. In production environments, stability, accuracy, and seamless integration are non-negotiable.

And, if you aren’t sure: Digital Production author and resident Color Scientist Prof. Uli Plank has almost received the package with the LCM (Or so the DHL tracking claims), and he’ll test it and give you a verdict!

The post Datacolor LightColor Meter: Precision in Light and Color first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

The ALEXA 35 Base Model keeps the essential hardware: the 4.6K Super 35 sensor and ARRI’s REVEAL color science, ensuring the same image quality as the full-featured ALEXA 35. However, some advanced features—like ARRIRAW recording, high-speed frame rates, and additional monitoring options—are now optional add-ons via flexible software licenses.

The integration of REVEAL Color Science ensures accurate color reproduction, capturing subtle nuances across various lighting conditions. This technology enhances skin tones and maintains color fidelity, crucial for high-end productions. With an exposure index ranging from 160 to 6400, the ALEXA 35 excels in diverse lighting environments. Its low-noise performance at higher ISOs makes it suitable for low-light scenarios without compromising image integrity. Equipped with four motorized internal ND filters (Clear, ND 0.6, ND 1.2, ND 1.8), the camera allows for swift exposure adjustments, facilitating seamless transitions in changing lighting conditions. The ALEXA 35 supports versatile frame rates, capturing up to 75 fps at full sensor resolution and 120 fps in cropped modes. This flexibility accommodates both standard and high-speed shooting requirements. (Depending on the license)

Compact and Lightweight Design

Weighing approximately 2.9 kg (6.4 lbs) and measuring 147 x 152.5 x 203 mm, the ALEXA 35’s compact form factor enhances maneuverability, catering to various shooting styles and setups. The camera records in ProRes and ARRIRAW formats onto Codex Compact Drives, ensuring efficient data management and post-production workflows.

A Modular Approach

ARRI offers four license upgrades:

• ARRIRAW License – Unlocks full ARRIRAW recording up to 4.6K resolution.
• Enhanced High-Speed License – Enables frame rates beyond the base model’s standard speeds.
• Live Production License – Adds multi-camera monitoring and remote control features.
• Broadcast License – Optimized for live TV and event production workflows.

Lower Cost, But Not Cheap

The ALEXA 35 Base Model starts at €50,000 (excluding VAT), making it a more accessible option for productions that don’t need all the bells and whistles upfront. Media costs also drop, as the base model supports lower-cost 1TB Codex Compact Drives alongside the standard 2TB versions.

ALEXA Quality, Production-Ready?

While the lower entry price is attractive, ARRI’s modular licensing approach means users must evaluate which features are essential for their workflow. As always, test the setup before committing to a production. More details on the ALEXA 35 Base Model at ARRI’s official site.

The post More ALEXA 35, Less Budget—But Still ARRI first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

If you’ve ever thought controlling Blender’s camera should feel more like flying a drone, then good news: A free Blender add-on – aptly named DroneCam – now makes it possible. Designed to streamline navigation and enhance creative control, this tool allows users to control the camera within Blender exactly as they would a drone. No licenses, no subscriptions—just Blender and your curiosity.

Damn bro, you still animate the camera manually for aerial shots in Blender? Don't you know you can pilot the camera like a FPV drone?
byu/globglob3D inblender

Smooth Camera Control, Drone-Style

The add-on is focused on simplifying camera movement. By emulating the functionality of a drone controller, it provides a familiar, intuitive way to manage camera navigation in Blender’s 3D workspace. Artists can maneuver smoothly across complex scenes, weaving through environments or framing dynamic angles with ease. Whether you’re a filmmaker crafting sweeping aerial shots or a game designer previewing environments from a player’s perspective, this tool gives you more precise control over your compositions.

Open-Source and Free to Download

The best part? It’s free. No hidden costs or premium versions—just open-source goodness. The add-on is available for download, letting Blender users integrate it into their workflow without hesitation. Currently it is available for Windows only, but the code is available on Github here – If you want to do something with it :) Its simplicity and accessibility make it a strong candidate for any production pipeline looking to experiment with new camera techniques. Of course, production artists should test its performance rigorously before deploying it in deadline-driven projects, as new tools sometimes come with unplanned quirks.

Potential Applications for VFX and Game Development

For VFX artists, this add-on could simplify complex camera movements often used in previsualization or real-time renders. Game designers, on the other hand, might appreciate the drone-style functionality for testing in-game camera paths or reviewing level layouts from unconventional perspectives. While Blender’s default tools already support camera control, this add-on seems tailored for artists who want a more immersive, hands-on approach to navigating 3D space.

Curious to try it yourself? Download the free add-on here.

Conclusion:
It’s not every day you see Blender’s functionality expanded with such simplicity. By making camera control as intuitive as piloting a drone, this add-on has the potential to improve workflows and unlock new creative possibilities. That said, remember to test thoroughly before committing to any production-grade tasks—your deadline (and sanity) will thank you.

The post Fly Blender Like a Drone – For Free! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Blackmagic Camera for Android 1.3 introduces significant upgrades for Artists working on multi-cam projects. This includes timecode support, which simplifies syncing footage in post-production, and anamorphic lens de-squeeze functionality. Foldable devices such as the Samsung Flip 5/6 and Xiaomi 13T are now supported, along with Google Pixel models capable of high-frame-rate recording (up to 240fps).

The Blackmagic Camera app, which brings digital film camera controls to your Android phone, is a free download from Google Play. The timecode sync feature allows Artists to sync footage from multiple cameras, enhancing workflows in events like concerts or interviews. Time-of-day timecode is stored in each file’s metadata, providing an accurate reference for multi-cam editing. The sync bin in DaVinci Resolve’s Cut page will automatically sync and arrange the footage, reducing manual effort.

Recording in Blackmagic Camera also captures proxy files, which can be uploaded to Blackmagic Cloud for real-time collaboration. This enables teams worldwide to begin editing almost instantly. With support for Blackmagic Cloud workflows, the app allows media to be transferred directly into DaVinci Resolve. This feature facilitates multi-source edits, where each camera angle is displayed in DaVinci’s multi-view layout for rapid, precise cuts.

Users can quickly adjust settings like frame rate, shutter angle, and ISO using Blackmagic Camera’s interface. The HUD (heads-up display) allows you to monitor histogram, focus peaking, and audio levels without leaving the frame. Aspect ratios such as 16:9 are available for both vertical and horizontal shooting, catering to different production needs.

Blackmagic Camera for Android is becoming a robust tool for digital filmmakers, offering options like anamorphic lens support, off-speed and time-lapse recording, and adjustable audio gain. Foldable smartphones are fully supported, making it a versatile choice for those using devices like Samsung’s Galaxy Flip series.

The update also enables Pixel users to record at higher frame rates (Yaaay!), including 120fps at 1080p, giving more flexibility in capturing slow-motion footage. These upgrades streamline production, but it’s essential to thoroughly test all new features before incorporating them into live projects. The enthusiasm of the developers for their own product may not always reflect practical outcomes, and feature claims should be validated.

For pricing, Blackmagic Camera is available for free on Google Play, with cloud storage and DaVinci Resolve integration requiring separate licenses. Blackmagic Cloud plans vary depending on storage needs, and DaVinci Resolve is available with multiple tiers, including a free version for individual users.

For more information on Blackmagic Camera, visit the Blackmagic Design website or read the product documentation.

And get the App here on Google Play

The post Blackmagic Camera Update: Timecode Sync and More for Android Users first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

The Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K with a massive 65mm image sensor and 17K resolution is now available for pre-order, priced at $29,995. Deliveries are set for later this year.

The Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K marks a step beyond the already impressive URSA 12K models. This camera is aimed squarely at high-end productions requiring extreme detail for large format screens or immersive environments – with a 65mm image sensor measuring 50,808×23,316mm and a resolution of 17,520×8,040 pixels (140MP per frame). Each pixel measures 2.8 microns, contributing to the camera’s reported 16 stops of dynamic range.

Physically, the URSA Cine 17K is nearly identical to its predecessor, the URSA Cine 12K, featuring the same magnesium alloy body with carbon fiber polycarbonate skin. The camera also supports interchangeable ARRI LPL and Hasselblad lens mounts, allowing flexibility in lens choices for different production needs.

Blackmagic’s emphasis on modularity is evident in the URSA Cine 17K. It comes equipped with an 8TB internal media module, providing four hours of 17K footage recording in RAW format. The camera also supports 10G Ethernet for uploads and direct access to files over a network, eliminating the need for transfers between devices. Dual CFexpress card slots offer additional flexibility for different types of media recording. The media can be transferred directly into DaVinci Resolve for real-time editing via high-speed Ethernet, reducing downtime between shoots.

Cloud and Streaming Integration

In an effort to modernize on-set workflows, the URSA Cine 17K introduces live streaming capabilities, allowing users to stream directly to clients or platforms via RTMP and SRT protocols. Whether connecting through Ethernet, high-speed Wi-Fi, or even mobile data, this camera can stream live from sets, making it ideal for remote monitoring.

For those working outdoors or in handheld configurations, the optional URSA Cine EVF offers a 1920×1080 OLED display with focus-assist tools, enhancing accuracy during filming. The camera’s extensive connectivity includes Lemo and Fischer connectors for lens motors and accessories, alongside 12G-SDI output, 10G Ethernet, and XLR audio inputs. The fold-out 5” HDR touchscreen provides essential monitoring options, while an additional touchscreen aids focus pullers or other crew members working on set.

Storage and Workflow Enhancements

Blackmagic’s new Cloud Store technology, built into the URSA Cine 17K, allows syncing of footage to Blackmagic Cloud. This feature simplifies on-set workflows. With high-speed networking and Blackmagic’s Media Dock, up to three cameras can be synchronized, providing faster access to recorded media and immediate availability for editing.

For proxy workflows, the camera creates H.264 files that upload quickly to Blackmagic Cloud, further enabling remote collaboration. This integration into the cloud and the ease of syncing media directly into DaVinci Resolve ensures a streamlined workflow from acquisition to post-production.

Pricing and Availability

The Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K is priced at $29,995, with an EVF package priced at $31,495. Both models are available for pre-order, with delivery scheduled for later this year. The camera will also be showcased at Blackmagic’s booth at the IBC 2024 in Amsterdam, providing attendees with a hands-on experience of this product.

Licensing and Compatibility

The URSA Cine 17K ships with DaVinci Resolve Studio, ensuring compatibility with the post-production suite right out of the box. Licensing for additional Blackmagic Cloud services is separate, though media recorded in Blackmagic RAW format seamlessly integrates into DaVinci Resolve without further conversion.

While Blackmagic is clearly excited about the potential of this camera, users should evaluate its features within the context of their own projects. Each new feature, from sensor size to post-production integration, should be thoroughly tested in the specific workflows you’re using.

Conclusion

The URSA Cine 17K is positioned as a premium tool for filmmakers and VFX professionals working on cutting-edge projects that demand the highest possible resolution. At nearly $30,000, it is a investment, but its feature set justifies the price for productions that require unparalleled image quality. Just make sure your data storage solution can handle the output—this camera will fill up your drives faster than you can say “post-production.”

Want to learn more? Check out the full specs and documentation on the Blackmagic Design website and the official product documentation.

The post 17K Camera from Blackmagic Design on Preorder first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Working in 2024 has changed significantly for many in the last 5 years. Today, almost 25 per cent (40 per cent of the self-employed – see is.gd/homeoffice_statis and is.gd/hybrid_office) work fully or partially from home. The pandemic in 2020 has therefore doubled the number of people working from home and significantly changed the way we will work in the future: With a headset and webcam in the kitchen. It is therefore essential to be clearly understood and seen in the digital world.

When I bought a powerful Dell XPS 15 in 2023, I noticed one thing: Although the integrated webcam was invisibly built into the monitor, it was also completely useless, either professionally or privately. A surprise for a relatively new and high-quality model and since Dell actually manufactures its own webcams. I bought a Logitech FullHD webcam as a replacement. A significant improvement in comparison, but still not up to scratch. As I look after customers and take part in events and workshops that are also recorded for posterity, the FullHD quality is no longer good enough for me after a while. This led me into the world of 4K webcams and this is where Obsbot Tiny 2 with the gimbal came into play.

How does the Obsbot Tiny 2 work?

The Obsbot Tiny 2 webcam works just like any other webcam on the market: simply plug it in and off you go. First, we connect the station to the webcam itself using a magnet, then we attach the station to our laptop, place it on the table, screw it to a lens using a ¼-inch thread (upside down if you prefer) or attach it to any metal surface. Finally, we connect the webcam to the laptop using the USB-C cable and we’re ready to go.

The moment you take part in an online conference, the Obsbot switches on automatically, which is indicated by a green light and a forward rotation. In idle mode, the light switches off again and the camera turns its lens down towards the station, which we can also do manually – thus switching off the webcam. The great thing about this is that there is no misunderstanding when the webcam is active, so no unwanted video recordings can be made.

Gesture control and gimbal

When the webcam is switched on, we can show it our open palm, which activates automatic tracking; we can switch tracking off again with the same movement. From now on, the Obsbot webcam will automatically follow our face and frame it in the centre, even if we move around the room, as it can rotate through the gimbal. In addition, we can use either gesture or voice control (“Zoom in Closer”) to zoom in and out. The Obsbot app also offers a wide range of setting options for adjusting the zoom, image, HDR on/off and sound.

If you want a few beauty filters, a blurred background or to play with a few colour modes, you need to activate the “Virtual Cam”. This means that you have to install the software and activate this “camera” – so it’s no longer plug and play. However, if you’re working in a fixed location and want to remove the Christmas pounds, you can just slap it on!

Accessories

When purchasing the Obsbot Tiny 2, we receive the webcam with a magnetic station to attach it to the table or monitor. A USB-C to USB-C cable is included to power the device. The valuable camera and accessories can be safely stowed away in the robust carrying case – ideal for travelling. We can download the Obsbot software free of charge from the website, which provides us with additional functions and settings, but is not necessary for operating the webcam. We can also order a remote control separately, which we can use to control the webcam remotely, which can be particularly useful for presentations. Please note that the remote control is supplied without batteries.

Remote control

The remote control is a little more old-fashioned and is probably best suited for standing presentations and for controlling certain aspects. One advantage is that – for example, presentations in a “teaching room” – you can save a few fixed angles and zoom factors – for example: teacher at the lectern at position 1, the blackboard at position 2, and the entire room at position 3. The advantage of a fixed setup is of course that you can label the remote control, and then hopefully even the wobbly chair will still be able to cope with it – for example, if you simply want to switch between teacher, graphics tablet and “painting station” for an animation workshop… Incidentally, all features can also be assigned to system-wide shortcuts within the software, or can be addressed by Autohotkey and the like – keyword Streamdeck! Incidentally, the Tiny 2 can also be addressed via OSC – and can therefore be controlled with the usual event tools. That’s nice with the Tiny 2 – but a future test of the NDI version will be really exciting.

Not so great

The first thing that strikes you when you see the Obsbot is its robot-like design with the gimbal, the second is the price: currently €360 on Amazon is not exactly a bargain. The Obsbot allows gesture control, with which you can zoom in and out with a few simple gestures while talking, which is often more awkward than it sounds. Not only did it happen to me a few times that I had suddenly zoomed in and out of my face during a conversation – which resulted in a moment of confusion – I also couldn’t get away from it with the gestures, not without calling up the app. Gesture control also quickly comes into conflict with popular video conferencing programmes such as Google Meet and Zoom, where holding your hand flat is synonymous with raising your hand. “Do you have a question, Alexander?” is a quick response when you try to switch off the gesture control.

The webcam is equipped with an omnidirectional microphone that enables all-round recording. What sounds good on paper is rather annoying in practice, as background noise is also amplified in most cases. The sound is bass-heavy, but also reverberant and with lots of highs and pops, which is probably due to the denoiser. If you want to hear how it sounds, you can listen to a comparison MP3 here: is.gd/obsbot_audio It is noticeable, but not annoying, that the Obsbot webcam gets noticeably warm after each session. During my test, the camera only failed once, but could be restarted immediately. It is unclear whether this was due to overheating or a programme error. The cable is fine and has a good length, but is a little stiff and doesn’t bend very well. All in all, all the negative points are minor compared to the product itself. However, when you have a 360 euro product, you also have to take care of the details that come with the price.

Conclusion

Having been able to test the Obsbot Tiny 2 extensively over several months, both professionally and privately, my conclusion is: 4K webcams are a good thing and the Obsbot Tiny 2 cuts a very fine figure. An alternative, especially for professionals, would be a 4K webcam without AI tracking, which is of course easy on the budget but lacks some functions. The 4K quality is also noticeable in Full HD calls and recordings and not only makes us look better, but also more professional.

The AI tracking and zoom functions are great for presentations, but also for private conversations where the camera follows us around the room. This can change the way we interact during calls as we are no longer just sitting in front of the device but mobile and interacting with the environment during the call; this also comes at a price.

To summarise, I would recommend upgrading to 4K if budget allows and you want to look better on personal and business calls. Also, if you like the AI and tracking aspects, then Obsbot is definitely worth serious consideration. Alternatives like the Logitech RALLY CAMERA come in at an incredible – is there gold in it? – 1399 euros (Amazon: 976 euros). If you want to buy an Obsbot webcam, I would prefer the Obsbot Tiny 4K to the Tiny 2, as the technical differences are relatively small, but the price difference of 90 euros is relatively large.

The post Obsbot: 4K, CI, Gimbal, .. first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Alexander Richter.

The release of the Blackmagic Camera App for Android brings professional digital film features and controls to Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel smartphones. This innovation provides Android users with tools that were previously only used in high-calibre film productions.

The Blackmagic Camera app allows artists to adjust key camera settings such as frame rate, shutter angle, white balance and ISO with a single tap. The ability to record directly to the Blackmagic Cloud greatly simplifies collaboration on projects with DaVinci Resolve. The app supports video recording in industry-standard formats up to 8K, offering a high degree of flexibility for a wide range of production requirements.

Integration into the VFX pipeline

One of the outstanding features of the Blackmagic Camera App is its full integration with the Blackmagic Cloud and DaVinci Resolve. This integration enables seamless collaboration between different artists worldwide. Through the cloud features, artists can instantly upload and share their shots with other team members, speeding up the workflow. This is particularly useful for VFX projects where quick adjustments and feedback are required.

Technical features and controls

The app’s heads-up display (HUD) shows all important shooting parameters such as histogram, focus peaking, levels and image guides. The interactive controls allow users to adjust settings directly by tapping without having to navigate through complex menus. The app also offers advanced monitoring tools such as Zebra Settings and Focus Assist, which are specially tailored to the needs of VFX artists.

Media management and collaboration

Media management within the Blackmagic Camera app offers multiple options for organising and syncing footage. Users can save clips directly to their phone or upload them to the Blackmagic Cloud where they are automatically synchronised with projects. This functionality is particularly beneficial when multiple cameras are used in different locations and the media needs to be synchronised in real time. This greatly simplifies collaboration in post-production.

Communication and project management

Another useful feature of the Blackmagic Camera App is the integrated chat workspace. This allows team members to exchange information about recordings and give feedback quickly. Everyone involved in a project can see and reply to messages, which makes communication and coordination much easier.

Future prospects and recommendations

The Blackmagic Camera App for Android is a significant step forward for mobile video production, providing VFX artists with powerful tools right on their smartphone. However, as with all new technologies, any innovation should be independently reviewed before being used in ongoing projects. Every artist should try the app to see if it helps with their specific day-to-day tasks.

The post Blackmagic Camera App now also available for Android first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

But now the “Scary Fast” event for the release of Apple’s M3 computers was filmed entirely on the iPhone, as the credits alone reveal. On YouTube you can find the “Behind the
Scenes…”, where it also becomes clear that the filming and technical effort was actually the same as always(is.gd/iphone_bts). But the dollies, cranes and the drone were actually just sitting on a new iPhone 15 Pro Max. In addition, the predominant visual theme was “black”, matching one of the new laptop colours.

The EU is to blame

This doesn’t mean that this iPhone is a low-light wonder (it isn’t), but that you can set the light to high contrast and then grade it to black. The decisive factor is that recording in ProRes with Log is now available. Apple would certainly have liked to hold on to an in-house connection for longer. But the EU has demanded that all smartphones that come onto the market here in 2024 must have USB-C. Apple has taken the plunge and has already installed the corresponding socket in the new series this year.

Data transfer

In the early productions with iPhones, the employees must have had incredible patience. Recordings had to be transferred via WiFi or the interface with the euphemistic name “Lightning” (or its 30-pin predecessor), which is very slow by today’s standards. Two short test clips of around 750 MB took over ten minutes via “AirDrop”, via USB-C the process was
the process was barely measurable in seconds.

Initially, there were still rumours floating around the web that, apart from charging the battery via USB-C, Apple might restrict the use of external devices to its own offerings or only allow its own cables at pharmacy, sorry, Apple prices.
None of this has materialised: A standard SSD connected via a normal data cable (not just a charging cable, of course) works without any restrictions. With the iPad, we still had to complain that FCP-X cannot work directly from connected storage devices (DP 23:05). On the iPhone, on the other hand, Apple does not force internal recording, as already available apps show. The Apple event was obviously recorded with the help of the free Camera App from Blackmagic (BM for short), Apple even thanks us in the credits.

Storage media

It is clear that Apple also wants to satisfy its shareholders: the new options are limited to the two top models. With the “Pro”, you also have to pay an extra 130 euros for 256 GB of internal memory to get full functionality with the memory-intensive ProRes even without an SSD. This is the basic configuration for the Pro Max. The internal memory is really fast, with 1.6 gigabytes per second (GB/s) when writing and reading. Measured with Diskio by Sergii Khliustin, a free app with witty comments – is.gd/diskio.

Externally, only regular USB-C is supported, no Thunderbolt. However, with a good SSD, this is completely sufficient to record ProRes 422 HQ in UHD with up to 60 fps directly, for which you only need around 200-225 MB/s. Initially, the app even listed ProRes 4444, but that was probably too much for the system. Even on an Arri Alexa, this codec is not always selected, and 422 HQ is completely sufficient as a source for the iPhone. In UHD at 60 fps, it needs just under 800 GB of space for one hour.

A Samsung T5 SSD, for example, as external storage shows around 373 MB/s throughput when writing, depending on the app being measured. Even a T7, which is not recommended for BM cameras, ran for two hours on the iPhone at 25 fps. The free OWC Drive Speed app can actually directly measure the suitability for various codecs, resolutions and the achievable frame rate. However, it already warns of picture dropouts,
without us being able to detect these in practice for the respective media, so this app is probably not yet fully developed.

Even a T5 is still relatively large for an iPhone, although thanks to MagSafe it can be easily attached to the back with a magnetic ring. Some people wonder whether a smaller flash drive with USB-C would also work. Samsung has relatively fast models for this, currently with a maximum of 256 GB. According to the company (we didn’t have one to test), these should be able to read 400 MB/s, but only write 110. This information is always given with the small addition “up to” and only refers to the 256 GB model. This should still be sufficient for ProRes 422 HQ with 25 fps, but ProRes 422 LT could also go up to 60 fps. Unfortunately, such sticks are often not compatible with the mobile phone case.

We have also not tested the idea of connecting a really fast SDXC card with a small USB-C adapter. But a Sony “Tough” or comparable cards with 300 MB/s should work with a really fast adapter. A card reader can of course also be useful for backups on the iPhone when working with conventional cameras. If you want to edit the material on the PC, you should pay attention to the formatting of the media: The iPhone does not recognise NTFS, but exFAT works up to 2 TB.

Be careful, there is a risk of data loss! The “classic” HFS or the new APFS, which the iPhone naturally supports, are better. One of these formats would therefore also be advisable for transferring to the PC. Under Windows there are programmes such as “HFS for Windows” or “APFS for Windows” from Paragon for using these formats. Of course, the iPhone also uses these two formats.

Power and heat

A fully charged Pro Max still showed 66 per cent charge remaining after one hour at 60 fps, and 42 per cent after two hours of recording in ProRes 422 HQ at 25 fps in UHD, with the T5 SSD also being supplied with power. The SSD absorbed the greater proportion at 25 fps, at 60 fps it is the other way round. The iPhone 15 Pro still had 58 per cent after one hour at 60 fps, the camera app needed the larger share, the SSD about 2/3 of it. This was the app from Blackmagic. This value is not the same for all apps, as we will see in their tests. These are amazing runtimes, but the iPhone does get very warm, despite iOS 17.1.1, which has essentially eliminated the initial heat problems. You should definitely remove any silicone case, we got overload messages at 60 fps on the Pro Max after a few minutes at an ambient temperature of 27 degrees. Another tip from BM was to switch off the overlays when recording, i.e. to “wipe them away”. This allowed the Pro Max to run smoothly even in slightly warmer conditions.

The iPhone 15 Pro may seem more attractive for video with its 3x lens and slightly lower price. However, its battery is smaller; in stand-alone mode with SSD, 20 per cent charge was still left after two hours. Unfortunately, the smaller housing also cools less well, and despite the above cooling measures, 60 fps was over after a few minutes. At 25 or 30 fps, the Pro also lasted without overheating and the app consumed less power in relation to the SSD. Very fast SSDs, such as a Samsung 980 Pro in an NVMe enclosure, require too much power and only run on both iPhones with an external power supply via USB-C hub. You don’t necessarily have to take a hub with you to externally power the iPhone itself, as there are already power banks for MagSafe.

Frame rate and synchronisation

With a runtime limited only by power and storage medium, another question arises: What about maintaining the frame rate and thus the picture-sound synchronisation over a longer period of time? In Apple’s film, no statement was longer than 20 seconds without a cut, which any smartphone can actually manage without becoming asynchronous. But unfortunately, practically all of today’s smartphones do not provide a fixed frame rate, but a variable one (VFR = Variable Frame Rate). Although DaVinci Resolve (DR for short) simply reports a highly precise 60,000 under “Shot Frame Rate”, the iPhone is unfortunately no different. Before recording, we switched to aeroplane mode and closed all other apps to rule out any interference.

However, a further measurement showed that this was not necessary. In the free MediaInfo, the information is slightly more correct, showing a frame rate between 59.940 and 60.181 fps – that’s a deviation of far less than one per cent! A longer recording with a film gate showed that the variable frame rate in DR is relatively unproblematic. The sound ran continuously one frame early for over 30 minutes (at 60 fps!), only at one point did we have the impression that it tended towards two frames. Since in DR the picture occasionally moved one frame ahead of the TC flap, which we kept continuously in the picture, the editing software probably does react to VFR. This is usually manageable, but the iPhone is probably not quite suitable for uninterrupted concert recordings lasting several hours.

Cameras and lenses

A few years ago, the statement “My smartphone has three cameras and a LiDAR scanner” would probably have been met with incredulous smiles. But there are actually three lenses here, each with its own sensor, just like before. In fact, most of it is even identical to the iPhone 14, only the signal processing has been further developed. The ultra wide-angle lens with 13 mm, the regular 24 mm and the 77 mm in the iPhone Pro are identical to their predecessors.

Only the 120 mm in the Pro Max is really new and a very clever design with a multiple prism that basically folds a relatively long focal length into the flat body. To us, such a design seems potentially more durable than a miniaturised zoom lens like the competition (usually referred to as a periscope lens), as there are no moving parts other than the sensor. It is therefore not an optical zoom at all, as is sometimes incorrectly written. Please note that in the following we use the term KB full frame for the photographic full frame of 24×36 mm, because experienced film cameramen tend to mean the S-35 full frame. However, its diagonal is not always the same, but depends on the respective widescreen format. The information provided by Apple and in the apps refers to the equivalent focal length of KB full frame. The main lens 1× has a real 6.86 mm with f 1.78 and the ultra wide-angle 0.5 has a real 2.22 mm at f 2.2, the 3× has 9 mm with f 2.8 and the 5× has a real 15.66 mm, also at f 2.8.

The iPhones also offer a zoom across the lenses, but this is based on continuous digital scaling. Unfortunately, this shows a disturbing jump when switching to telephoto due to the parallax of the separate cameras. In addition, even with sophisticated algorithms, the sharpness drops slightly when the resolution of the sensor falls below 48 megapixels (mpx), which is particularly noticeable on the way to 5x. This is a disadvantage that longer focal lengths also have with conventional cameras: The 77 mm only focuses up to 60 cm at close range, the 120 mm only up to 1.3 m.

You have to be careful here: The iPhone should be set to “Keep setting” for macro control. Otherwise, only the small flower indicates that the macro range is switched to the ultra-wide angle camera, although the original lens is still selected. However, this only has 12 mpx, unlike the standard camera. This automatic function can be deactivated. With the default setting, the photos from the 24 mm lens are downscaled to 24 mpx and recorded in HEIC, the full 48 mpx are only available in RAW (DNG format). The main camera also delivers the best quality for video thanks to downsampling. And for the selfies: The front camera has 2.69 mm at f 1.9, so it looks like a 15 mm, but only has just under 8 megapixels (actually photo cells = Sensel).

Photography

The DP is not explicitly aimed at photographers, but in view of the different resolutions of the sensors, a few comments seem appropriate. In our test of the Sony A7SIII (DP 21:05), we already proved that megapixels aren’t everything. Just as the Sony “only” offers 12 mpx, images from the iPhone would also be perfectly suitable for an A4 page. For large posters, however, we would generally recommend professional cameras, even if Apple sees it differently in its own advertising.

It should be noted that the sensor has an aspect ratio of 4:3, which is even closer to the square than the usual 35mm with 3:2. The HEIC photos are very compact at around 2.8 MB, whereas DNG requires over 67 MB for the same subject. A section in 2,400×2,400 pixels from the iPhone at 120 mm (equivalence) with the same section from the Sony A7 IV with approximately the same focal length differs primarily, of course, in the real bokeh, which is not simulated here on the iPhone either. The slightly different colours can of course be adjusted, as both are raw images with plenty of colour depth.
The resolution of the test chart in 48 mpx from the 24 mm of the iPhone is excellent and shows no moiré, but slight colour noise even at ISO 320.

The counterpart in standard setting as HEIC with 24 mpx shows less noise, but colour moiré and clear edge sharpening. The modern HEIC compression is very high quality in itself, but unfortunately Apple applies all the “image enhancements” to these photos that the fast A17 processor is capable of, such as smoothing and sharpening contours or local colour tone mapping. Edge sharpening in particular looks just as distracting as it does on amateur-class drones. Of course, Apple also knows that the sharpening of details in faces is usually undesirable. Accordingly, skin tones tend to be smoothed out, which often gives them the infamous “plastic look”.

The design of these functions is certainly based on comprehensive market analyses, as the vast majority of users will simply take photos with their mobile phones and presumably find all this attractive. Professionals who don’t want to be deprived of the opportunity to tweak their pictures themselves will therefore have to work with RAW Max (as it is called in the menu) and plan the necessary space for it, either conveniently and expensively in the iPhone or more cheaply on an external storage device. However, raising your eyebrows at “computational photography” in general is not entirely appropriate. After all, most professional cameras have been correcting various lens errors in the background for years, primarily vignetting and distortion. This means that lenses can be optimised in other respects without being sinfully expensive.

The iPhone goes beyond this and achieves amazing things in two areas: bokeh and low-light. The ability to use the (actually relatively coarse) information from the LiDAR to subsequently influence and target the depth of field was already available on a number of predecessor models. But Apple has significantly improved the algorithms and, at least in photography, the results can now only be recognised as fake with intensive pixel peeping, even with hair and other difficult edge zones.

The results in RAW (DNG) are impressively good, while artefacts can be seen in HEIC. However, we also photographed the test panel at 320 ISO for the wide angle and 500 for the telephoto. Vignetting or chromatic aberrations are hardly recognisable and the distortion correction for 24 mm is also better than with the uncorrected professional lens. Even moiré is hardly noticeable at 48 mpx from 24 mm and the resolution is even slightly higher, as the A7IV only has 33. At 77 mm or 120 mm, the A7IV has a recognisable advantage over the 12 mpx of the iPhones, although it was at a slight disadvantage in terms of speed each time. A 13 mm was not available to us for the full frame, so no comparison was made.

The Sony’s HIF images look cleaner because, apart from subtle noise filtering in extremely low light, everything else can be deactivated. In low light, the iPhone does all by itself what, in principle, any camera on a tripod can do: A series of photos that are then combined to reduce noise. Red has been offering something similar for 10 years (see DP 13:03). With the iPhone, this also works with good stabilisation from reasonably steady hands, but you can get even more out of it with a tripod. Some even recommend this for astrophotography; there is even a free app for this, AstroShader, which can also save raw images.

Now, we have too much light pollution near a city for a great starry sky, but you can focus on the lights of the city itself instead. It’s impressive what such a tiny chip can do with the help of a computer. The tree in the foreground was barely distinguishable from the night sky with the naked eye. Apple is clearly making a virtue of the A17’s computing power out of the necessity of the tiny sensor and calculating far better images than you would expect from a mobile phone. However, these calculations take time and cannot be used for video. So how do the 15s perform when filming? We use the Sony A7 IV (see DP 22:05) as a reference here, even if some people seriously compare the images with those from an Arri Alexa in grading(is.gd/quazi_iphone_arri).

Film: Resolution

When filming from the high-resolution 24 mm sensor in UHD, the iPhone not only scales down the 48 million photocells (aka Sensel), but also crops slightly from the 4032 horizontal pixels available per photo to 3840. So if Apple had only added a few more Sensel, the iPhone could even deliver the 4096 pixels of the DCI cinema format. There would be more than enough vertical pixels anyway. Other formats are possible with third-party apps; we will go into this in more detail in the respective apps. The same applies to the Ultra-WW and the telephoto lenses, which logically have less oversampling, but are also slightly cropped.

The downsampling of the 48 mpx at least offers the possibility of noise reduction by integrating the neighbouring pixels or a digital 2× zoom without loss of resolution. However, when zooming through to 5× telephoto, not only does the parallax error mentioned above occur, but the resolution also collapses beyond 2×. Up to 3× on the iPhone 15 Pro, these effects are correspondingly less noticeable. A 28 mm and a 35 mm are still simulated quite well by both iPhones. This is comparable to Sony’s digital zoom in the camera, which works with similarly good algorithms, but cannot deliver the full resolution beyond around 1.7.

The resolution of the iPhones is also reduced at the higher levels of stabilisation. “Standard” only uses optical stabilisation by mechanically tracking the sensor, while “Cinematic” and “Extreme” additionally track a reduced area of the sensor surface. Unfortunately, “Extreme” in particular also shows overshoots – or is this intended to simulate the inertia of a Steadicam? Be that as it may, a small gimbal can do this better. Another disadvantage of the two higher stabilisations are massive deviations in the frame rate in the first second; the iPhone is obviously “stressed” here (thanks to Kurt Friis Hansen for these measurements).

The other sensors with 12 mpx naturally also offer less resolution reserve when filming, but are completely sufficient for UHD. For comparison: On S-35, the 5× lens of the Pro Max would correspond to about 75 mm, the 3× to about 48 mm. Because a suitable prime lens was not available for the Sony, we used a very high-quality zoom lens. However, this actually put the A7IV at a slight disadvantage in terms of speed. In all shots, the film images of the iPhones on the test chart show slight moiré and some loss of resolution due to scaling; the Sony obviously has better downsampling. The differences are small at 24, 77 and 120 mm and the moiré can practically only be seen on the test chart. Other cameras only deliver better results with very good downsampling of images in 6K or more.
It is obvious that a lot of calculations are also carried out on the images in log, as the charts show no vignetting and hardly any distortion, just like in photography. This is not to be expected with such lenses without software correction. The very high-quality Zeiss C/Y zoom on the Sony shows more optical errors due to the lack of software correction. It should be understandable that a lens with a real focal length of just under 16 mm (the 5×) without software tricks does not offer such a differentiated depth of field as a real 120 mm for KB full frame (see above). All lenses definitely show some breathing during focus shifts – if Apple doesn’t simulate this as well ;-)

Film: Compression

Here, too, the comparison with the Sony A7IV, which only records 10 bit with 4:2:2 as H.265 for maximum quality, ProRes is not available without an external recorder. Our endurance test was a water surface in the rain, which can really torture any GOP codec (such as H.264/265). The iPhone only recorded a good 7 MB/s at 60 fps in UHD, while the same motif was recorded in ProRes 422 HQ at 213 MB/s. The Sony A7 IV records this codec at 50 fps with 25 MB/s. Nevertheless, the typical artefacts, such as block formation, can hardly be seen in the correctly exposed motif on the iPhone. However, this does not only speak in favour of the quality of the encoder alone, as the finest details are already reduced before compression.

This becomes clear with a shot of the same subject that is underexposed by just one f-stop and corrected in DR. Despite 10 bit and 4:2:2, the signal in H.265 already shows signs of banding and is overall much less “full” and more coarsely structured than the version in ProRes. The same applies to noise, which is also filtered more heavily before compression and then “muddied” by the codec. The noise remains much finer and more “organic” in ProRes. It is therefore less disturbing in itself and is also more suitable for careful filtering in post-production. Consequence: If you don’t have enough storage space on location, H.265 is perfectly usable in Log, but should be exposed as correctly as possible. ProRes is considerably more tolerant, while Cinema P3 can record better H.265 at higher data rates (see p. 128).

Film: Motion display

We can be brief here and take the liberty of quoting the values from CineD (is.gd/cined_test) because our reference fan was not available. For UHD, our colleagues measured 5.3 milliseconds for the sensor at 24 mm, and even 5 ms at 77 mm and 120 mm. Our subjective impression from our own tests agrees with this. These are excellent values, also in comparison to conventional film cameras. The jelly images of older iPhones are definitely a thing of the past and action is the order of the day.
However, the Bentley film mentioned at the beginning was still noticeable with the jerking of fast movements at only 24 fps. A look at the individual images shows that they lack any motion blur. Even these tiny sensors are too light-sensitive today to comply with the filmic rule for sufficient motion blur in daylight. After all, mobile phones primarily use the time for exposure control, because the aperture is fixed. Without an ND filter, the only option is to regulate the ISO value, which the iPhones also make intensive use of. But this has consequences for the usable contrast range.

Film: Dynamic range and colours

The HDR shots from an iPhone with the corresponding screen are very impressive at first glance, but on closer inspection the sharpening becomes unpleasant. Added to this is the local tone mapping, which is particularly noticeable with intensely coloured light sources and soft colour gradients in the moving image. Only recording in Apple Log avoids these annoyances, which is why we limited ourselves to it for dynamic measurement. Apple Log is excellently tuned, it does better justice to the iPhone than an A7 IV with its S-Log3, because even for 10 bit it is still very flat. Incidentally, in the current version 18.6.4, DR understands the Apple Log with the colours in Rec 2020 with automatic colour management.

The amazing night vision in photos ends for the iPhone when filming, as there is no time for the exposure tricks from photography. We also used the Sony A7 IV for comparison. It is not quite as sensitive to light as the A7S and also works with noise reduction in low light. Compared to the iPhone, however, it shows the richness of detail that a full-frame sensor can achieve when collecting light.

However, we came across an interesting phenomenon that suggests multiple exposures in the highlights. When shooting at 50 fps in Log with a longer exposure time of up to 1/80 second, the highlights are consistently limited to around 70 per cent. If you now go to at least 1/96, the values expand into the space above. Hardly any further information can be found about this function, only CinemaP3 refers to it as EDR (Enhanced Dynamic Range).

In the documentation for developers, the term is primarily used for playback on HDR displays. Red has been offering something similar for recording under the name “HDRx” for some time, but probably does not hold a patent on this (as with the compression of RAW in the camera). Obviously, two (perhaps even more) readouts of the sensor are combined here as soon as the time until the next single image is sufficient. 7.5 milliseconds is obviously not enough, but 10 ms is fine. This is less noticeable at 25 fps, as the usual exposure time of 1/50 with 20 ms is easily sufficient. Here the effect already starts at 1/40, at 1/30 the remaining time is still too short – which mathematically corresponds to the behaviour at 50 fps with just under 7 ms. The resulting distribution across the log curve can be easily controlled using ND and ISO.

At the other end of the scale, it is noticeable that there is practically no recognisable noise. You can simply cover the lens with manual exposure and the line drops to zero. So there is obviously a lot of filtering going on in the camera, because such a small sensor cannot be so low-noise despite all the technical progress. This becomes quite clear when shooting at high ISO values with short exposure times, as the lower mid-tones are already very noisy. Medium ISO with longer exposure times using ND looks much better.

So there is no “correct”, native ISO value that always fits. The iPhone makes too many adjustments for this, even with Log. It all depends on where the important details are: If you want to bring out the highlights, e.g. add structure to a cloudy sky, a higher ISO value is appropriate. EDR reduces the contrast in the highlights, but the details are there. If the shadow areas are the most important thing, on the other hand, you should go for a low ISO in order to provide the sensor with enough light, then the highlights will be compressed, but largely without clipping.

In our exposure series with EDR, 2 f-stops overexposure and 3 f-stops underexposure were still easily correctable, the colours become weaker, but do not derail. Incidentally, they are excellent: especially in the critical area between red and yellow and thus with the skin tones, the iPhone shows a precision landing. Noise is visible in dark areas, but is fine-grained in ProRes and can be controlled in post. We worked with DR’s colour management and only corrected brightness and contrast. We measured an extremely high-contrast motif with a cloudy sky and molleton in the shadowy foreground with 9.5 f-stops – this would still be usable in post (the blue tone on the blacks is scattered sky blue).

After all these observations, I must also note that Gerald Undone and Patrick Tommaso’s categorisation of ISO 1,100-1,400 as the native value should be treated with caution. The two did not explain whether they used ND filters or varied the exposure time(is.gd/undone_iphone). But DXOmark also assumes 1,250 to 1,480. I tend to favour ISO 200-800 for noise reduction and use EDR with sufficiently long exposure times. Of course, ND filters are the order of the day in bright light, otherwise the typical staccato films from action cams will result.

Film: Equipment

Basically, the only indispensable accessory for good pictures is an ND filter. But a variable ND consists of two polarising filters and has the corresponding side effects, from the infamous “X” to altered colours (warmer ones in our case). Conventional ND filters are better. We were unable to observe any noticeable IR contamination with an inexpensive set, even at 10 f-stops; Apple probably has this well under control. Filters can be attached with a simple clamp mount, but this should not cover too much of the interface on the side of the screen. In addition, such a mount does not fit well with the usual transparent silicone covers, as stray light can then enter from behind. Such covers are also not conducive to cooling in warm environments.

If it’s not too warm, a thin, black cover would be useful. If you want it more perfect, you’ll be back on the road to “Frankenrig” at some point, because the accessories industry has immediately adapted to this. But there are alternatives that can still be put in your pocket as a protective frame without all the accessories. The company Beastgrip has been involved in the development since the Bentley advert and also produced the universal cage that was used for Apple’s event. Their “Beastcage” will soon be released in specific versions for the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max and offers a very sophisticated system, including filters, macro lens and anamorphic lenses. Another provider is Freewell with the “Sherpa” – the name of course says it all, especially for the iPhone. It works with clever magnetic holders for filters or lenses.

Freewell not only offers filters, but also anamorphic lens attachments. These are available in both 1.33 and 1.55 and at Freewell optionally with streaks in classic blue as well as in “gold”, i.e. warm yellow. However, the streaks are very pronounced, including the typical side effects such as edge blurring and distortion. However, the 1.55s in particular offer much more horizontal image area, even if they are not easy to align. There is no gain in resolution associated with the anamorphic lenses in ProRes Log. When recording film, the full area of the 4:3 sensor can only be used with H.265 in 8-bit HDR or Rec 709 and then shows all the typical “blurring” effects.

Be careful if you want to use existing filters with a larger diameter via the step-up ring: the 24 mm main camera can then vignette. In addition, the stabilisation of the iPhone does not work with anamorphic lenses and sometimes the iPhone “sees” the adapter as an object and goes into macro mode. So is this more for wannabe Spielbergs? The only filters you really need are NDs and possibly a circular polarising filter, as neither of these can be replaced in post. There are excellent software solutions for everything else, such as “Scatter”.

Advantages and disadvantages

So where do we stand with such a powerful camera phone? Well, first of all, an “always with you” camera is definitely better than no camera at all. In low light, a good hybrid camera like the Sony A7 IV is still clearly superior and you have an almost infinite choice of lenses, but all of this is still much more expensive, even compared to Apple’s prices. If you know your camera really well, you can
blindly with the viewfinder and at the same time see the subject in isolation without distraction. Nowadays, the monitor can usually be swivelled and rotated, but the iPhone’s monitor is still visible even in sunlight.
But you don’t always have all those nice lenses with you. Dust on the sensor when changing lenses is also not an issue with mobile phones. The iPhone is even waterproof, where larger cameras can only withstand splashing water. And you hardly stand out with it, whereas a “real” camera with a longer lens might be eyed suspiciously or even rejected at the entrance. The iPhone 15 can achieve cinema quality in the documentary sector and would certainly have been a dream come true for authors such as Michael Winterbottom with “In This World” or Wim Wenders with “Buena Vista Social Club” – these films were released to the cinema in large parts by DV.

Commentary

Apple has managed an amazing balancing act with the iPhone 15 Pro: 99 per cent or more of users get nice pictures without any great expertise and professionals get a camera that, with the right app, can do far more than a conventional smartphone. The pig called “game changer” is driven through the digital village almost every day – mostly ephemeroptera (mayflies). But the Pro models of the iPhone 15 could actually signal a paradigm shift, similar to the Canon 5D Mark II 15 years ago. Just as that marked the beginning of hybrid photo/film cameras, the iPhone is now a working tool for professionals. And unlike a standard camera, you can even use it to make phone calls..

The post Film with a Phone? first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Uli Plank.

The Ursa Cine Immersive System is based on a new platform design and is equipped with a fixed stereoscopic 3D lens system and two 8K image sensors. It offers a resolution of 8160×7200 pixels per eye and 16 stops of dynamic range. The camera can record 90fps 3D video in a single file. The precise positioning data from the lens system is carried through the entire post-production process in Blackmagic RAW format. However, the actual performance and applicability of these specifications must first be confirmed in practice.

DaVinci Resolve updates

In addition to the camera, an updated version of DaVinci Resolve will be released. This supports the editing of Apple Immersive Video. A new Immersive Video Viewer allows editors to pan and tilt clips on 2D monitors or on the Apple Vision Pro. However, it remains to be seen how user-friendly and effective these new functions will be in professional practice.

Availability

The Ursa Cine Immersive camera and the updated version of DaVinci Resolve will be available later this year.

Key features of the Ursa Cine Immersive Camera:

• Dual stereoscopic 3D lens system.
• 8K 3D video recording, i.e. 8160×7200 resolution per eye.
• 16 f-stop dynamic range.
• Lightweight housing with standard connections.
• Generation 5 Colour Science.
• 90fps recording to a Blackmagic RAW file.
• 8TB Blackmagic Media Module.
• High speed WLAN, 10G Ethernet or mobile data.
• Optional Ursa Cine EVF.
• DaVinci Resolve Studio included.

Key features of DaVinci Resolve with Vision Pro

• Support for Apple Vision Pro monitoring.
• Editing of Blackmagic RAW immersive video.
• Immersive Video Viewer.
• Automatic detection of Apple Immersive Video.
• Ability to bypass transitions rendered by Apple Vision Pro.
• Export native files for Apple Vision Pro.

Outlook

The introduction of the Ursa Cine Immersive Camera System and the updated version of DaVinci Resolve promises new possibilities for filmmakers and VFX artists. However, it remains to be seen how well this new and as yet untested technology will work in practice and whether it will live up to expectations.

The post Blackmagic Design: Apple Immersive Video first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Such devices have existed as gyrocompasses for navigation since the beginning of the century and even Einstein was involved in their further development (although the earliest approaches date back to 1743).

Enough history, our current devices for determining rotations and accelerations are tiny marvels of nanotechnology without actual gyroscopes. Instead, they are IMUs (Inertial Measurement Units), which are based on silicon surface micromechanics and can now be mass-produced at very low cost. This is why they can be found in almost every mobile phone, the remote controls of games consoles, TVs, and also in drones, gimbals and numerous cameras (sadly, also in cruise missiles or intercontinental ones). We’ll stick with the term ‘gyro’ here, as this is the term most camera manufacturers use.

The hardware

Image stabilisation in the camera or lens is already dependent on IMU chips. For some time now, many cameras have also been able to indicate in two axes whether they are being held horizontally – just like the artificial horizon in an aeroplane. However, it is only recently that some manufacturers have been recording the information from the IMU together with the video, e.g. Sony in the current high-end devices and, since firmware version 7.9, Blackmagic in the Pocket models. This means that this data is generally available for use in post-production, whereas previously, an action cam, a mobile phone or a separate measurement sensor had to be mounted on a camera frame.

Why the effort?

What are the advantages? The stabilisation in the camera is often designed for sharp hand-held photos with longer exposure times. Moving shots are much more difficult to stabilise because the control software cannot always distinguish between desired and undesired movements. It is also unable to work in advance to optimise image stabilisation over the duration of the exposure.

Conventional post-production stabilisation software, on the other hand, works on the basis of pure image analysis. It is therefore also not always able to distinguish between desired and undesired movement and can easily be confused by moving objects in the foreground. This also applies to short-term disturbances such as flares in backlighting and, last but not least, rolling shutter (RS) effects, which cannot always be distinguished from movements in the image. With sources prone to RS, such as hybrid cameras or smartphones, this leads to the infamous ‘jelly’ effects, which are even more noticeable after stabilisation. The problem is explained well here in a video from Stanford University.

Sony Catalyst

Even the free version of this software called Catalyst Browse can use the gyro sensor data from cameras such as the A7S III (DP 21:05) or the A7 IV (DP 22:05) (according to Sony also the A1, A7C, A7R IV and
A9 II). At first glance, it only seemed to work with Sony lenses, but with third-party lenses it depends on the manufacturer and possibly the adapter used. The beautiful Sigma lenses from the “Art” series work with E-mount or the MC-11 adapter, according to users on the net it should also work with branded adapters and Canon lenses (not tested by us).

Unfortunately, no data is recorded with manual lenses, such as vintage glass from Zeiss, at 100 or 120 fps in any case. The gyro sensor data was also recorded if the internal stabiliser was already running during recording. If the stabiliser is set to “Standard”, i.e. it only works with mechanical tracking of the sensor, it has quite an effect, especially with small shaking movements in static hand-held shots.

With the new “Active” setting in the A7 IV, which also works with slight cropping via firmware, slow, controlled movements were also calmed down well. Overall, however, we would recommend switching off the internal stabilisation if you want to work with the software. The internal functions are not so good at dealing with intentional camera movements and are of little help against the rolling shutter – walks with the camera look much better in Catalyst.

Of course, Catalyst Browse cannot compete with DaVinci Resolve (DR for short), but it offers quite good options for initial colour correction including waveform display. Alternatively, you can also leave log recordings in their original form, as stabilisation with gyro sensor data – unlike image-based stabilisation – is not dependent on good contrasts. Fortunately, even the free version supports high-quality output formats such as H.264 in 10 bit and 4:2:2 with a high data rate (up to XAVC Intra).

Quality fanatics with enough storage space could also output in DPX, but this is basically nonsense, as the cameras only output GOP codecs with gyro sensor data. The analysis is very fast, the rendering rather slow. On the Mac, it is somewhat disappointing that ProRes is offered up to 422 HQ, but only in HD or with a maximum of 2K. Quite incomprehensible, as the other formats allow up to 4K. The stabilisation reduces the resolution in any case, depending on the crop adjustment, but not by half. Nevertheless, the free version already offers external monitoring via Blackmagic interfaces, ensuring precise image control during colour correction. It also shows all the metadata of the clips, and you will find much more than DR is prepared to read at Sony. However, batch rendering is only possible here with identical settings for the sources.

The full version of Catalyst Prepare offers ProRes HQ in 4K, but still no ProRes 4444. There is also the export of DNxHD and audio in WAV or MP3 (yuk). The functions for organising your media are considerably more extensive and copies can be created with checksums. It even offers a rough cut via storyboard and export as EDL. With a monthly subscription for €13.95, this version doesn’t cost the world if you just need it for a project. A detailed overview of the Catalyst versions can be found here.

Blackmagic

With firmware 7.9.1 (the x.x.1 update contains important bug fixes), the Pocket models from Blackmagic finally offer the recording of gyro sensor data – the hardware was already available from the start. Unlike Sony, the data is recorded regardless of the type of lens. However, for lenses with their own stabilisation, this must be switched off, otherwise the function will be suppressed. In the “Setup” menu of the Pocket 4K there is also a switch for “Lens Stabilisation”, which must also be deactivated. With electronically coupled lenses, the transfer of the focal length works automatically; with manual lenses, you have to enter this in the “Slate” when shooting. Unfortunately, subsequent entry in the DR metadata list does not work – an annoying trap, as manual lenses seemed unsuitable during our first attempts.

Fortunately, this is not true, because if we had already entered the correct focal length for the shot, the results for manual lenses were just as good as for electronically coupled lenses. Sony could certainly do the same, but they want to sell their own lenses. Blackmagic, on the other hand, has its own cameras and (at least so far) does not use gyro sensor data from cameras like Sony or GoPro. Although the gyro sensor data is continuously recorded, DR has so far only used the focal length of the first frame. A zoom during the recording therefore still leads to unsatisfactory results.

The analysis in DR 18.0.1 when set to “Camera Gyro” takes the same time as with “Perspective”, but the results are much better. This is especially true for RS, where side effects are particularly noticeable in the image-based methods after stabilisation. This ‘jelly’ effect is largely eliminated with Sony and Blackmagic using a gyro sensor – after all, the manufacturers know their own sensors and their readout speed. All that remains is a slight flickering of high-contrast, horizontal structures with vertical vibrations, which is visually almost reminiscent of poor de-interlacing. It is difficult to tell whether this is due to briefly increased motion blur caused by fast, hard impacts or to residual compression or stretching caused by RS. Adobe’s After Effects offers a function called “Camera Shake Deblur”, but this hardly brought about any improvement in our test clips.

You should definitely practise the strenuous, dancing gait with the camera, where you don’t straighten your knees and don’t put your heels down. The results will be much better if you work with shorter aperture angles than 180 degrees. Unfortunately, this can disrupt the cinematic illusion of fast movements, so you may have to add artificial motion blur in post after stabilisation. This is especially true for spatial resolutions above HD if the temporal resolution is only 24 to 30 fps. In contrast to the image analysis, only the “Strength” factor is offered for the gyro sensor, without “Cropping Ratio” or “Smooth”, so that you have somewhat less control over the stabilisation, similar to Catalyst Browse. Cropping is stronger at the highest value for Strength than with optical analysis, but so is image stabilisation.

The new Pocket 6K

At this point, we would like to take a brief look at the new Pocket 6K model. In terms of price and functionality, it lies between the first generation (see DP 01/20) and the 6K Pro (see DP 01/22). It has the sensor in common with the latter and is identical in almost all other respects. It only lacks the internal ND filters and the brighter screen. So if you don’t fully trust the internal mechanics and prefer to use your own filters and like to work with a viewfinder in bright light, this model is a good choice. Including the OLED viewfinder, it costs no more than the 6K Pro without it. Both 6K models are ideally suited for image stabilisation, as there is still enough resolution for 4K or UHD even after the necessary cropping.

The new firmware

There have been a few more changes with firmware 7.9. In particular, the edge enhancement for the focus area, which was previously criticised by many users as inadequate, can now be set very flexibly, including the choice of colour and continuous control of the contour display. The autofocus has become considerably faster and more accurate with the appropriate lenses, even if Blackmagic cannot compete with Sony or Canon in this area. It is not without reason that the cameras have “Cinema” in their name and are aimed more at scenic work, where human focus assistance is usually used. Nevertheless, there is already an app for this: “Focus Puller” by Robert Meakin enables remote control via Bluetooth and even continuous AF on iPhones with LIDAR (albeit without object recognition).

Recording to SSD via USB-C is said to have become more reliable with 7.9.1 and you can now change the recording medium directly in the GUI. Control via ATEM mixer supports the use of the Pockets as a studio camera. However, in addition to all the improvements, there is also one point of criticism: the previously grey recording button has now been coloured red and only has a red ring when recording is in progress. This is not as obvious as the previous display, even if the running timecode is displayed in red. At this point, many people would like to see the previous appearance again.

Gyroflow

A free alternative is this donationware for all three platforms, which was recently further developed to version 1.2.0. It supports the widest range of cameras and also allows the use of additional sources for the stabilisation of cameras without gyro sensor data. These sources include iPhones with the GFRecorder or Androids with Sensor Logger, as well as GoPro from Hero 5 and other action cameras and even separate IMUs. Of course, such sources must be synchronised with the desired video. The software offers full support for this, in addition to a generally well-functioning auto sync, there are differentiated intervention options.

Not only can you load recordings from the above-mentioned Sony cameras directly, but with the new version you can also load recordings from cameras from Blackmagic or Red. However, ProRes from the pocket cameras does not contain any gyro sensor data. It should therefore be BRAW, in which case the programme uses the motion data it contains. The SDK from Blackmagic must be installed beforehand, but Gyroflow automatically points this out with the first BRAW clip and installs it on request. If at least the camera and lens are still available when metadata on the focal length is missing, Gyroflow can even solve this problem.

For perfect results, you still need a lens profile. This can be created directly in Gyroflow using the test chart and analysis programme. The software then asks whether you would like to share it with the community
Community – which is of course only fair, as is a donation to this excellent project. You can already find ready-made profiles for many combinations on the net using the search command. You will also need the exact value for the rolling shutter. The readout times for numerous cameras can be found at CineD, for example; if necessary, you can also visually adjust the value on a particularly conspicuous individual image.

The adaptive zoom can be controlled by other parameters, so that Gyroflow offers the most comprehensive adjustments for optimum results. Of course, this takes time, but the programme can deliver results comparable to those of commercial applications even with the standard values.

Gyroflow also leaves nothing to be desired when it comes to output; the stabilised material can be exported in very high-quality formats, but can also be compressed directly with x264 or x265 in good quality. Alternatively, you can output the stabilisation information generated in the program. With an OpenFX plug-in, this information is available directly in DR and other NLEs; all you have to do is enter the full path of the *.gyroflow file.

This means that all sources that the relevant video programme can process can be used without conversion. As BM has the above-mentioned SDK for BRAW with support for gyro sensor data, there is nothing to prevent third-party manufacturers from integrating further options. Conversely, it would be great if BM could use the data from Sony cameras, as the stabilisation in DR is at least as good as in Catalyst.

Comment

All three options deliver better results with unsteady shots than stabilisation by analysing the image content via software, especially with regard to rolling shutter artefacts. This puts Blackmagic’s pocket cameras largely on a par with the hybrid cameras from Sony or Canon in this area, albeit only after processing in post. The performance of Gyroflow is particularly impressive and does not have to hide behind the commercial solutions.

It would be desirable for DaVinci Resolve to be able to use a subsequently entered focal length, or even the recorded focal length per individual image for electronically coupled lenses. This would make it possible to realise the famous ‘Vertigo’ effect with counter-rotating zoom from the hand. Further utilisation of the gyro sensor data is conceivable in conjunction with the photogrammetric determination of 3D camera paths for VFX – there is still a lot of potential for development.

The post “Gyroscopes” for image stabilisation in post-production first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Uli Plank.

In nuce: Sony has announced its FR7. Sony’s FR7 is a motorised, remote-controlled, pan, tilt and zoom camera equipped with a full-frame CMOS sensor and Sony E-mount. According to the manufacturer, the FR7 is the world’s first PTZ full-format camera with interchangeable lenses. PTZ stands for pan-tilt-zoom, meaning that it is possible to pan and tilt such a camera via remote control. PTZ cameras are usually used as security or surveillance cameras. Sony’s FR7 will be available for purchase from November this year.

Some of the technical specifications of Sony’s FR7

• 10.3 MP BSI sensor: dynamic range of more than 15 f-stops or ISO values of up to 409,600
• 4K videos: with up to 120 frames per second or 1080p with up to 240 frames per second
• Various image presets – including: S-Cinetone and Cine El with S-Log 3 Gamma, Wide S-Gamut3 and S-Gamut3 colour spaces
• Pan and tilt capability: At a speed of 0.02 degrees per second – for extremely slow movements
• Preset camera positions: users can save up to 100 of these
• Timecode synchronisation between multiple devices: is supported
• Real-time eye AF and real-time subject tracking for autofocus
• ND filter: this is already built in and can be controlled electronically. The manufacturer advertises that the built-in ND filter eliminates the need to change lenses by hand
• Two slots for two different formats: as with the FX3 and A7S III from Sony, users can either insert two UHS-II SD cards or two CFexpress type A cards. In other words, the FR7 allows you to take a maximum of two cards of one type. In other words: two of one type or a single one of each type

Click further for more information on the manufacturer’s website. 

The post Sony presents PTZ full-format camera first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: According to a recent press release from Atomos, both Ninja V and Ninja V will support the Panasonic Lumix GH6 in the future. Both devices will record with Apple’s ProRes RAW. In addition, the slightly more powerful Ninja V will support the DCI-4K standard, recording at up to 120 frames per second via HDMI.

What are Ninja V & Ninja V (and what can they do)? According to the press release, the Ninja V and Ninja V HDR displays faithfully reproduce the film images captured by the Lumix GH6. It also states that the 5-inch touchscreen offers access to numerous software tools, including waveforms, false colours, check focus, framing guides, LUTs and image magnification.

What can the Ninja V/V and Lumix GH6 do together? The press release goes on to say that processing ProRes RAW files at DCI 4Kp120 requires the Ninja V’s skills. At the same time, however, Ninja V and Ninja V offer an extensive range of alternative formats and frame rates. It is also emphasised that thanks to their robust design and compact construction, both devices are suitable for uncomplicated transport to any filming location. The Lumix Gh6 and the Ninja V/V can be mounted on a gimbal as a handheld setup – even in the tightest of spaces, as the product description describes.

ProRes Raw – what are the advantages? Atomos continues to speak very favourably about ProRes Raw in the press release and is also delighted to be able to offer its users ProRes Raw and the less compressed ProRes RAW HQ. Atomos also points out that ProRes Raw is supported by Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro and Avid Media Composer, as well as a range of other popular film software such as Assimilate Scratch, Colorfront, Filmlight Baselight and Grass Valley Edius.

What products does Atomos offer? Headquartered in Australia, Atomos offers you easy-to-use, state-of-the-art 4K and HD Apple ProRes monitors and recorders. Atomos has also developed its own operating system for video recording, which is entirely dedicated to the touchscreen user interface. Furthermore, according to the press release, Atomos was the first company to introduce Apple’s ProRes RAW format for recording with cinema cameras.

Click further: You can find out all the details about the Ninja V and Ninja V devices at atomos.com.

The post HDR displays from Atomos synergise with Panasonic’s Lumix GH6! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

Release Alert!

Blackmagic is releasing a great trilogy of hardware parts: HyperDeck Studio, Studio Cameras 4K and Web Presenter 4K. Perhaps the best hardware trilogy since Blackmagic has been around? But read for yourself..

HyperDeck Studio

Blackmagic is expanding its HyperDeck Studio product family with four new models: HyperDeck Studio HD Mini, HyperDeck Studio HD Plus, HyperDeck Studio HD Pro and HyperDeck Studio 4K Pro.

The new HyperDeck Studio recording devices allow high-quality transfers with H.264, Apple ProRes and DNx video files to SD cards or SSD media, as well as PCM or ACC audio. All models also support SD cards and UHS-II cards. The Pro models even offer special SSD support. The 4K models now also offer support for H.265 files. Incidentally, separate timecode and reference generators have been installed for ISO recording so that multiple units can be synchronised. All HyperDeck Studio models are equipped with dual media slots. Practical: If the loading slot of one card is full, recording automatically switches to the second card.

There are four different models of HyperDeck Studio:

• HD Mini: records and plays back: H.264, ProRes or DNxHD files on SD cards, UHS – II cards or external USB discs in SD and HD formats with up to 1080p6.
• HD Plus: has better transport controls, a front panel headphone and speaker, 6G – SDI with fill and key out, SDI monitoring and records H.264 at up to 1080p60, or ProRes and DNxHD at up to 2160p30.
• HD Pro: is, with a few exceptions, identical to the HD Plus models. This is because the HD Pro also has 2 SSD slots and a machined metal search disc with coupling. The 4K Pro models record in H.264, H.265, ProRes or DNx in SD, HD and Ultra HD with up to 2160p6.

The cross-model feature range of the HyperDeck Studio series:

• Built-in colour LCD with deck status;
• Dual media card slots for non-stop recording;
• Records standard H.264/5, ProRes and DNx files;
• Choice of 3G-SDI, 6G-SDI or 12G-SDI models;
• Webcam-style USB, with support for video software;
• Advanced HDR support for recorded files;
• Multi-channel system for digital audio;
• Built-in timecode and sync generators for ISO recording;
• Support for popular editing and VFX software;

Does this list of features make your jaw drop? Then getting the HyperDeck Studio range from Blackmagic distributors worldwide from US$495 may help set your jaw.

Studio Cameras 4K

Another announcement from Blackmagic: the new studio cameras for live productions.

The cameras impress with features such as carbon fibre-reinforced polycarbonate and an integrated 7-inch viewfinder. According to Blackmagic, this type of processing makes the cameras very light, which is why they are easy to transport. According to Blackmagic, the Studio Cameras have the same features as large studio cameras, but also boast a compact, transportable design. According to Blackmagic, the Studio Cameras are also able to create a high-quality cinematic look even under unfavourable lighting conditions – thanks to Dynamic Range and Color Science and an ISO of up to 25,600.

Some of the core features of the Studio Cameras 4K are

• Specially tailored to the conditions of live productions;
• Housing made from carbon fibre reinforced polycarbonate;
• An ISO of up to 25,600 ISO;
• Native 4K sensor with a dynamic range of 13 stops;
• Compatibility with many popular MFT lenses;
• Seven-inch viewfinder;
• 12G – SDI, HDMI, 10G Ethernet connections;
• 10G Ethernet allows SMPTE fibre-style workflow;
• USB-C port allows direct recording to external discs;
• High-quality Blackmagic RAW recording;
• Built-in stereo microphones with wide spacing;
• Professional mini XLR inputs with 48-volt phantom power;
• Tripod mount for quick setup;
• Power supply via 12V or Ethernet connection;
• Blackmagic Studio Converter allows all connections to be made via Ethernet.

Convinced? The studio cameras are now available from sales partners worldwide from 1,295 US dollars.

Web Presenter 4K

Three things are the best things? When it comes to the latest Blackmagic announcements, they are, because joining HyperDeck Studio and Studio Cameras 4K are: Blackmagic’s Web Prenster! The devices have an upgrade for their Ultra HD Resolution H.264 encoders for live streaming in native Ultra HD. The new web presenters come in a compact design and are equipped with a 12G-SDI input with down-converter, allowing users to choose whether they want to stream in 1080p HD or 2160p Ultra HD. The new models also simulate a USB webcam once plugged into a computer. The USB webcam features support resolutions of 1080p HD or 2160p Ultra HD. The basics: This Web Presenter is, according to Blackmagic, an all-in-one streaming solution equipped with the necessary hardware to enable streaming via Ethernet to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and co. The Web Presenter also aims to (and can?) impress with its technical monitoring output. This includes video, audio meters, trend graphs and technical data on SDI.

The hottest features of Blackmagic’s Web Presenter include

• All-in-one streaming solution for YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and more;
• Supports streaming via Ethernet and paired phones via USB;
• Built-in hardware H.264 encoder;
• Connects to 5G or 4G phones for remote mobile streaming;
• USB looks like a webcam, has support for video software;
• Monitoring output includes Meters, Trend Graphs and SDI technical data;
• Includes Web Presenter Utility software for Mac and Windows;
• 12G-SDI input with down-conversion for any HD or Ultra HD source;
• Power supply via both AC and DC connections.

The trombones of these feature fanfares flatter your ears? Then listen up: the Blackmagic Web Presenter 4K is now available from sales partners worldwide from 695 US dollars.

More info: In the video below, Blackmagic takes you through its current hardware trilogy. The video starts at minute 26:56. From minute 01:07:07 the Studio Camera 4K Pro is discussed, from minute 01:38:15 the Studio Camera 4k Plus.

Live Production and Broadcast Update!

The post Blackmagic | Triple Release first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

Blackmagic Camera Setup 7.3

Blackmagic releases its Camera 7.3 update, which adds new features to the BMPCC 6K Pro, 6K and 4K devices.

The new features include Generation 5 Color Science for the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K and 4K, a display aid for false colours, LCD screen calibration and displays for colour channel clipping. According to Autodesk, autofocus and object control have also been improved.

Further information

For the full range of features in Blackmagic Camera Setup 7.3, visit the Blackmagic homepage. You will also find the download button there.

New Blackmagic Camera 7.3 Update! Adds built in LCD calibration, RGB histogram and color channel clipping indicators to Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, 6K and 6K Pro models, as well as generation 5 color science for Pocket Cinema Camera 4K and 6K! Download from https://t.co/A9XUOrqSSd pic.twitter.com/5tgjGNOLpW

— Blackmagic Design (@Blackmagic_News) April 26, 2021

The post Blackmagic | Update first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.