Blackmagic Camera Utility 1.9.7 Finally Adds In-Camera Formatting to the BMCC and Pocket Cinema Camera

Blackmagic Design just released the latest firmware update 1.9.7 for their camera line. The latest firmware adds the much awaited in-camera SSD and SD card formatting in HFS+ (Mac) and ExFAT (Mac/Windows) to the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 2.5K (EF, MFT, PL) and the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera.

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Camera utility 1.9.7 is the latest part of the massive firmware update Blackmagic Design has been rolling out for tha last few months, which started with firmware update 1.8 back in June, which added the 4K raw recording to the Production Camera and quite a few other improvements to the BMCC and the Pocket Camera.

Then camera utility 1.8.2 added Apple ProRes 422, Apple ProRes 422 LT and Apple ProRes 422 Proxy recording, and camera utility 1.9 gave us histogram, time remaining and audio level indicators for monitoring.

 

The ability to format SD cards or SSD’s in camera is a huge time saver on set. I wish this was available when I shot my debut feature film “Bandit” (which is still in post-production) last December, as I had only 4 SSD’s and even though they were plenty for a day’s worth of material, having the ability to format in camera would have saved us time, which we didn’t have a lot of on set.

It’s great to see Blackmagic delivering on feedback and responding to their customers suggestions and requests. We asked and they delivered, couldn’t ask for more really as now the original Blackmagic Cinema camera alongside the little Pocket Cinema camera are becoming more user-friendly and easier to live with on and off set.

Blackmagic’s continuous support for their so-called 1st generation cameras is proof that they are committed to supporting their older cameras and not just serving the new BMPC 4K, USRA and Studio cameras.

Link: Camera Utility 1.9.7 (Mac) / Camera Utility 1.9.7 (Windows)

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