By site editor Dan Chung:
Hot on the heels of their dramatic price reduction for the Pocket Cinema camera, Blackmagic Design are back making news again today. This time they have introduced three new Apple ProRes flavours via firmware update 1.8.2 for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and Blackmagic Production Camera 4K. The formats are ProRes 422, ProRes 422 LT and ProRes 422 Proxy which allow for smaller file sizes while maintaining 10-bit 4:2:2 output.
These will be an extremely welcome addition for anyone trying to use the Blackmagic range for real world shooting. One major concern with the cameras before the update was that shooting in the higher bitrate ProRes 422HQ limited record times. Shooting for long periods has required large SD cards or SSD drives and the higher quality output is probably unnecessary for many types of production – especially if no effects work or heavy grading is being done on the footage. ProRes 422 is certainly a far more practical format for the kind of work that I do.
The Camera update 1.8.2 is available now from the Blackmagic Design website.
This from Blackmagic Design:
Fremont, CA – July 17, 2014 – Blackmagic Design today announced announced the immediate availability of Camera 1.8.2 software which adds three new Apple ProRes™ file formats for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and Blackmagic Production Camera 4K. Camera 1.8.2 update is available now free of charge from the Blackmagic Design website.
Blackmagic Design camera customers have always been able to record in both CinemaDNG RAW or compressed ProRes 422 HQ formats, however now this new software update adds three additional Apple ProRes™ file formats, ProRes 422, ProRes 422 LT and ProRes 422 Proxy. This means customers using Blackmagic Design cameras will be able to get significantly smaller video file sizes allowing much longer recording durations on the same media card, all while preserving full frame 10-bit 4:2:2 quality.
Because this update is available to our camera customers free of charge, they simply need to download it, and install the update from their Mac or Windows machine using a simple USB cable connection to the camera. Once the update is complete, customers will see these new formats available in the camera menus.
Because this update reduces the data rate of recording, it means customers can now choose lower cost SSD or SD cards while still recording high quality video in SD, HD and Ultra HD resolutions. Using ProRes 422 Proxy it is possible to record 230 minutes of 1080HD video on a single 64GB SD drive. Selecting the type of ProRes format for recording can be set via the on screen menus and all ProRes types can be played back instantly.
The Apple ProRes 422 formats are designed specifically for multi-stream non linear editing, minimal generation loss and fast export, making them very popular video file formats for post production and broadcast. All ProRes files recorded with Blackmagic Cinema Cameras and Blackmagic Production Camera 4K can be opened directly in DaVinci Resolve 11 and Apple Final Cut Pro X™ for immediate color correction, editing and finishing.
“We are extremely excited to release this next update for our camera customers ,” said Grant Petty, CEO of Blackmagic Design. “With the addition of the 3 new ProRes formats, cinematographers can now record for longer on low cost SSD’s and SD cards without sacrificing image quality, as they are still recording in full 10 bit 4:2:2 quality. Because our cameras feature a software centric design, we are very excited to be able to update our cameras with more and more features over time and make the cameras better and better! And there is more to come!”
