Blackmagicdesign Pocket Cinema Camera Installation And Operation Manual
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Blackmagicdesign Pocket Cinema Camera Installation And Operation Manual

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Installation and Operation Manual
Blackmagic
Design Compact
Cameras
November 2017

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Summary of Contents for Blackmagicdesign Pocket Cinema Camera

  • Page 1 Installation and Operation Manual Blackmagic Design Compact Cameras November 2017...
  • Page 2 Welcome Thank you for purchasing your Blackmagic Camera! Our Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera is a Super 16 digital film camera with 13 stops of dynamic range that is small enough to take anywhere. Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera takes the size and capability of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera even further.

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    Color Correcting your Clips Playback Using Scopes Playing Back Clips Secondary Color Correction Camera Connections Qualifying a Color Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Adding a Power Window Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera Tracking a Window Wiring Diagram for the Using Plugins Blackmagic Micro Cinema...

  • Page 4: Getting Started

    Getting Started Blackmagic Design compact cameras, such as Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera, are small portable digital cinema cameras that record high quality HD images on fast SD cards. Your compact camera is capable of recording clips using professional codecs designed for post production including ProRes and uncompressed CinemaDNG RAW.

  • Page 5: Turning Your Camera On

    Inserting a Battery and Powering Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Your Pocket Cinema Camera uses an EN-EL20 battery. One is included with the camera, but if you need additional batteries, they can be purchased from your Blackmagic Design reseller or from most video or photography equipment stores.

  • Page 6: Installing Media

    After inserting the SD card and powering your camera, the status strip will display a moving dot while the camera checks the SD card and then it will say ‘ready’. Inserting an SD card into the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Installing Media...

  • Page 7: About Sd Cards

    Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera With the SD card’s metal contacts facing away from the lens, point the SD card towards the SD card slot and gently insert the card until you feel it lock into place. Push on the SD card to release it.
  • Page 8 Brand SD Card Name/Type Storage Supported Formats ProRes Extreme Plus. 80 MB/sec SDXC UHS-I 64GB Extreme Plus. 80 MB/sec SDXC UHS-I 64GB Extreme Plus. 80 MB/sec SDHC UHS-I 32GB Extreme Plus. 80 MB/sec SDHC UHS-I 16GB Extreme Plus. 80 MB/sec SDHC UHS-I SanDisk Extreme.
  • Page 9 Select the ‘format disk’ or ‘format card’ icon using the navigation and ‘ok’ buttons on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. On Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera, press the ‘right’ arrow button to navigate through the settings and press the ‘play’ button to select ‘setup’>’card’.
  • Page 10 Set the format to ‘Mac OS extended ( journaled)’ or “exFAT”. Type a ‘name’ for the new volume and then click ‘erase’. Your SD card will quickly be formatted and made ready for use. Use ‘disk utility’ on Mac OS X to erase your SD card in the Mac OS extended ( journaled) or exFAT format Use the ‘format’...

  • Page 11: Checking Disk Speed

    Recording Recording Clips Press the ‘rec’ button on your camera to begin recording immediately. Press ‘rec’ again to stop recording. To record a clip, press the ‘rec’ button on the top of Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Recording 11 11...

  • Page 12: Trigger Record

    Press the ‘menu’ button twice to exit. Your camera is now ready to record in the video format you have selected. On Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, the current recording format is shown on the LCD status strip. Blackmagic Cameras Supported Video Formats...

  • Page 13: Playback

    This means that when you press record on your Micro Cinema Camera, your external recorder will also start recording, then will stop recording when you stop recording on the camera. Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera will also output timecode via HDMI, which means that the clips recorded on your external recorder will have the same timecode as the clips recorded in your camera.

  • Page 14: Camera Connections

    Use the 0.7mm 12 – 20V power input for connecting your power supply and to charge the battery. Use the USB port to connect your Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera to your computer and update the internal software. The USB port can be found inside the battery compartment.

  • Page 15: Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera

    Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera HDMI Out The HDMI output supports 10-bit 4:2:2 1080p HD video with 2 channels of embedded audio. This gives you the option to either send a clean video feed or insert overlays on the HDMI output from the camera menu. Expansion Port The expansion port is a standard DB-HD15 connector which includes connections such as +12v power, analog servo, BNC and RCA connectors.
  • Page 16 The USB port is located on the bottom of the Micro Cinema Camera Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera Expansion Port and Expansion Cable There are two ways to access the expansion port’s functions. You can use the expansion cable that comes with your Micro Cinema Camera, or solder your own custom connectors. Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera has a standard DB-HD15 serial connector and can be used with the included expansion cable for the following control options: Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera Expansion Cable...

  • Page 17: Wiring Diagram For The Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera Expansion Cable

    LANC Connect wired LANC remote controllers to the 2.5mm jack for controlling functions like recording start and stop, iris adjustment, and manual focus from a tripod arm when using compatible lenses. On some compatible lenses, you can also remotely control the zoom via LANC.

  • Page 18: Tally Light Indicators

    When using Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera’s expansion port, you may only want to access one or two functions. For example, you may want to use the composite video output feature while simultaneously controlling the zoom function. It’s easy to make a connector that will give you just these functions without the clutter of additional, unused connectors.

  • Page 19: Menu Settings

    Menu Settings Dashboard The dashboard feature is opened by pressing the ‘menu’ button. From the dashboard you can access the ‘settings’ menu and key features such as metadata, media formatting, activating meters, frame guides and focus peaking. Press ‘menu’ again to exit the dashboard. Press the ‘menu’...

  • Page 20: Setting Date And Time

    ‘time’ settings in the ‘setup’ menu. Setting Date and Time To set date and time on your Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, select the + or - buttons to change the year, month and day settings. Time is set to 24 hour format on Blackmagic Cameras. To set the time, select the + and - keys to make adjustments to the time.

  • Page 21: Auto Exposure

    ISO settings are helpful when you are shooting in a variety of light conditions. The optimum ISO setting for your Blackmagic compact camera is 800, with a maximum setting of 1600. Depending on your shooting conditions, you may choose a lower or higher ISO setting. For example, in low light conditions 1600 would be suitable, but may introduce some visible noise.

  • Page 22: Audio Settings

    Shutter + Iris Maintains the correct exposure levels by adjusting the shutter speed. If the maximum or minimum available shutter speed is reached and exposure still cannot be maintained, Micro Cinema Camera will begin adjusting the aperture to keep exposure constant. Manual Trigger Iris aperture and shutter speed are set manually and exposure may vary with changing light conditions.
  • Page 23 Microphone input adjusts the recording levels of the built in microphone. Move the audio slider left or right to increase or decrease levels. Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera and Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera have built in stereo microphones that record to audio channels 1 and 2 when no external audio source is connected.

  • Page 24: Recording Settings

    Press the left and right arrow buttons to switch between ProRes HQ, ProRes 422, ProRes LT, ProRes Proxy or RAW recording formats. The ‘recording’ settings screen on Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera Press the left and right arrow buttons to switch between ProRes HQ, ProRes 422, ProRes LT, ProRes Proxy, RAW or RAW 3:1 recording formats.

  • Page 25: Dynamic Range

    On Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera the ‘recording’ settings are located in the ‘camera’ settings Dynamic Range Blackmagic Cameras have two dynamic range settings: Film The film setting records video using a log curve and gives you 13 stops of dynamic range, which maximizes the information in your video signal to help you get the most out of color grading software, such as DaVinci Resolve.

  • Page 26: File Naming Convention

    Use the arrow icons to choose a time lapse interval or leave it set to ‘off’ if you do not want to use the time lapse feature. File Naming Convention Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera uses the following file naming convention when recording video. [Camera ID]_[Reel Number]_[yyyy-mm--dd]_[hhmm]_C[Clip number].mov Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera uses the following file naming convention.
  • Page 27 Brightness On Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, move the slider icon left or right to adjust brightness settings for the LCD. Scroll the menu to reveal more Display settings. Display settings on Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera lets you set the brightness of the LCD, turn LCD overlays on or off, adjust the display dynamic range and zebra settings.
  • Page 28 Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera The ‘HDMI overlay’ setting lets you display useful information on your monitor. On Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, use the arrow icons to select which overlays to display on your SDI or HDMI feed. All: displays both frame guides and recording information.
  • Page 29 LCD and HDMI output Frame Guides On Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, you can choose from several different frame guides to display on the LCD screen and HDMI output. On Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera, frame guides can be viewed on the HDMI output or the composite output.

  • Page 30: Remote Settings

    Frame guides provide helpful markers so you can accurately compose your shots for various television, online and cinema aspect ratios, for example the popular 2.39:1 flat widescreen ratio as shown above. Remote Settings Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera features a ‘remote’ settings menu, which is used to configure the PWM and S.Bus channels connected to the expansion port.
  • Page 31 S.Bus If you need more than 4 channels you can use the 18 channel S.Bus control input with Futaba radio control equipment or custom embedded controllers. The S.Bus protocol uses 1 connection on the expansion cable to control up to 18 channels, and each of these channels can be mapped to a specific camera function.

  • Page 32: On Screen Meters

    f1.8 f2.8 f5.6 44 - 61 62 - 79 80 - 97 98 - 115 116 - 133 134 - 151 152 - 169 170 - 197 198 - 212 The second type of control registers any change from the neutral value of 128 to a value above or below and then back to the neutral point.
  • Page 33 On screen meters and status strip on the Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera Histogram The histogram display shows the distribution of the luminance in your video. Pure black is on the far left side of the display and pure white is on the far right of the display. Keeping your video signal within these limits prevents your shadows and highlights from being clipped and preserves detail in the tonal ranges.

  • Page 34: Adjusting Settings

    -12dB Adjusting Settings Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera supports electronic lens control, which allows you to adjust lens controls from the camera such as aperture and auto focus. The focus peaking feature creates a green edge around the sharpest parts of the image so you can easily confirm your focus.

  • Page 35: Status Strip

    Focus Button When using a compatible auto focus lens with Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera or EF mount Blackmagic cameras, press the ‘focus’ button once to auto focus. A quick double press of the focus button activates focus peaking. When using a manual lens, press the focus button once for focus peaking.
  • Page 36 SD Activity Icons The status strip displays important information showing the state of the inserted media. Moving Dots When you see the moving dots, the camera is checking and preparing the media. No Card This means no media is detected or present in the camera. Ready Ready to record.

  • Page 37: Entering Metadata

    Entering Metadata What is the Slate? On Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, the slate feature allows you to easily log metadata directly into the camera. Metadata is stored in the recorded files and is easily accessed by editing software. To use the slate: Press ‘ok’...

  • Page 38: Using Davinci Resolve

    Using DaVinci Resolve Shooting with your Blackmagic Design camera is only part of the process of creating film and television content, and just as important is the process of media backup and management as well as editing, color correction and encoding final master files. Your Blackmagic compact camera includes a version of DaVinci Resolve, both for Mac OS X and Windows.

  • Page 39: Importing Your Clips

    Importing your Clips To start editing your clips, you’ll first need to import them into the media pool: Launch DaVinci Resolve. If this is the first time you’ve opened DaVinci Resolve, wait for the Project Manager to appear, and double click the ‘untitled project’ icon in the project manager window.
  • Page 40 The breadth of available post processing options when working with RAW files mean that you’ll develop your own workflow over time. Experimenting with the ‘clip RAW’ settings for each clip will show you just how powerful and flexible working with RAW can be. RAW clips give you maximum flexibility in post production.

  • Page 41: Editing Your Clips

    Project RAW Settings If you need to make a setting change that is common to all the clips, for example a global change to the white balance or ISO setting, you can set the clips to use the project RAW settings and make global changes from there. To set project RAW settings: Enter the project settings menu by clicking ‘file,’...

  • Page 42: Trimming Clips

    Your clip will be placed onto the timeline using the edit type you selected. You’ll find a description of each edit type and how to use them in the DaVinci Resolve manual. A faster way to add clips to your edit is by dragging them from the media pool and dropping them directly onto the timeline where you can adjust your in and out points, position your clips, try different plug in effects, titles, and more.

  • Page 43: Mapping Keyboard Shortcuts

    Snapping is a helpful feature to keep your clips held tightly against each other, but can be disabled for greater precision when fine tuning edits. Press the ’N’ key to quickly turn snapping on or off. Mapping Keyboard Shortcuts If you are familiar with keyboard shortcuts used in other editing software, you can setup DaVinci Resolve to use the same shortcuts.

  • Page 44: Adding Transitions

    Adding Transitions A transition is a visual effect used to bridge one clip to another in a pleasing way, for example dissolves, wipes, dips to color, and more. These can add a layer of excitement to your edit. Transitions don’t always have to be joining two clips, for example you can apply a dissolve transition to the end of one clip to create a quick and easy fade to black.

  • Page 45: Adding Titles

    Adding Titles You can place a title on any video track just as you would a clip. If you run out of tracks you can easily add new ones by right clicking next to an existing track name and selecting ‘add track’. To create a title: Scroll down towards the middle of the toolbox in the ‘effects library’...

  • Page 46: Using Scopes

    First, click on the ‘color’ tab to open the ‘color’ page. You’ll see the color wheels, curves palettes and general color correction tools as well as the preview and nodes window. Don’t feel overwhelmed by the vast array of features in front of you, they are all there to help you get the most amazing looking pictures.
  • Page 47 Another way to color grade is to use the built in scopes to help you balance shots. You can open a single video scope by clicking the ‘scope’ button, which is the second from the right on the palette toolbar. You can choose to display a waveform, parade, vectorscope and histogram. Using these scopes you can monitor your tonal balance, check the levels of your video to avoid crushing your blacks and clipping the highlights, plus monitor any color cast in your clips.

  • Page 48: Secondary Color Correction

    Secondary Color Correction If you want to adjust a specific part of your image then you need to use secondary corrections. The adjustments you have been doing up until now using the color wheels and lift, gamma and gain adjustments affect the whole image at the same time and so they are called primary color corrections.

  • Page 49: Adding A Power Window

    Adding a Power Window Power windows are an extremely effective secondary color correction tool that can be used to isolate specific regions of your clips. These regions don’t have to be static, but can be tracked to move with a camera pan, tilt or rotation, plus the movement of the region itself. Use power windows to mask out areas you don’t want to be affected by the HSL qualifier secondary adjustments For example, you can track a window on a person in order to make color and contrast changes...

  • Page 50: Tracking A Window

    Tracking a Window The camera, object or area in your shot may be moving, so to make sure your window stays on your selected object or area, you’ll need to use DaVinci Resolve’s powerful tracking feature. The tracker analyzes the pan, tilt, zoom and rotation of the camera or object in your clip so you can match your windows to that movement.

  • Page 51: Mixing Your Audio

    In the ‘edit’ page you can add plugin generators and transitions to clips by opening the ‘OpenFX’ panel in the ‘effects library’ and dragging your selected plugin onto the video track above your clip on the timeline. OFX plugins are a quick and easy way to create an imaginative and interesting look Mixing Your Audio Mixing Audio in the Edit Page Once you have edited and color corrected your project, you can begin to mix your audio.
  • Page 52 For projects requiring more advanced audio tools, the Fairlight page provides you with a full audio post production environment. The Fairlight Page The ‘Fairlight’ page in DaVinci Resolve is where you adjust your project audio. In single monitor mode, this page gives you an optimized look at the audio tracks of your project, with an expanded mixer and custom monitoring controls that make it easy to evaluate and adjust levels in order to create a smooth and harmonious mix.
  • Page 53 What is a Bus? A bus is essentially a destination channel to which you can route multiple audio tracks from the timeline, so that they are mixed together into a single signal that can be controlled via a single channel strip. Main Bus ‘Main busses’...
  • Page 54 Using the Equalizer to Enhance your Audio After adjusting the audio levels of your audio clips in your project, you may find that the audio needs further finessing. In some cases you may find that the dialogue, music and sound effects are competing for the same frequency on the audio spectrum, making your audio too busy and unclear.
  • Page 55 The middle sets of band controls let you make a wide variety of equalization adjustments, and can be switched between lo-shelf, bell, notch, and hi-shelf filtering options. Bell Bell filters boost or cut frequencies around a given center point of the bell curve, and as the name suggests the shape of the curve is like a bell.

  • Page 56: Mastering Your Edit

    To adjust the EQ for a band filter: Select the band filter type from the drop down menu for the band you want to adjust. Adjust the ‘frequency’ value to select the center frequency of the EQ adjustment. Adjust the ‘gain’ value to boost or attenuate the frequencies governed by that band. Use the ‘Q factor’...

  • Page 57: Camera Video Output

    Immediately above the timeline, you’ll see an options box with ‘entire timeline’ selected. This will export the entire timeline, however you can select a range of the timeline if you want to. Simply choose ‘in/out range’ and then use the ‘i’ and ‘o’ hot key shortcuts to choose the in and out points in your timeline.

  • Page 58: Post Production Workflow

    How to Update your Camera’s Internal Software After installing the latest Blackmagic Camera setup software on your computer, connect a USB cable between the computer and your camera. On Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, the Mini USB 2.0 port is located inside the battery terminal.

  • Page 59: Working With 3Rd Party Software

    H D M I Insert your SD card into any computer with an SD card slot to access your clips immediately Working with 3rd Party Software If you have your own favourite editing software you’d like to use, you can easily copy your clips to an internal/external drive or RAID and then import your clips into the software.

  • Page 60: Using Avid Media Composer

    Using Avid Media Composer To edit your DNxHD clips using Avid Media Composer 7, create a new project matching the clip’s video format and frame rate. For this example, clips are set using DNxHD 1080i59.94 camera settings. Launch Media Composer and the ‘select project’ window will appear. Click the ‘new project’...

  • Page 61: Using Autodesk Smoke

    Go to the Adobe Premiere Pro CC menu bar, select ‘file/import’ and choose the clips you want to edit. Your clips will appear in the ‘project’ window. Drag the first clip you wish to edit onto the ‘new item’ icon at the bottom right of the ‘project’...

  • Page 62: Attaching Accessories

    Attaching Accessories Wrist Strap Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera comes with a wrist strap for convenient carrying of the camera when on the move from location to location. To fasten, loop the string on the end of the strap through the ring on the camera, located to the bottom right of the LCD.

  • Page 63: Help

    After checking the version of Blackmagic Camera Utility software installed on your computer, please visit the Blackmagic Design support center at www.blackmagicdesign.com/support to check for the latest updates. While it is usually a good idea to run the latest updates, it is wise to avoid updating any software if you are in the middle of an important project.

  • Page 64: Warranty

    Warranty Limited Warranty Blackmagic Design warrants that this product will be free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of 12 months from the date of purchase. If a product proves to be defective during this warranty period, Blackmagic Design, at its option, either will repair the defective product without charge for parts and labor, or will provide a replacement in exchange for the defective product.

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