Blackmagic Design has just released firmware update 2.1 earlier today. The renegade Aussie company continues its commitment to improve the functionality of their 1st generation cameras as well as their latest cameras like the 4K URSA and Studio Cameras. The latest firmware update 2.1 mainly impacts the BMCC and Pocket Cinema cameras by adding the long-awaited lossless compress Raw recording on the oldest camera in the lineup – the 2.5K BMCC and some other cool bits.
Now the original Blackmagic camera joins the BMPC 4K and the Pocket Cinema Camera with mathematically lossless Compress Raw, which was added to the other aforementioned cameras in earlier firmware update releases. With the new compressed Raw a single CinemaDNG frame will be about 3MB in size, as opposed to the original uncompress CinemaDNG raw frame of around 5MB, resulting in substantial disk space savings.
Additional features in the latest firmware include frame guides, Japanese and Chinese language support, and peaking is remembered after shutdown and power back on. See more details of improvements below:
New Features in Firmware 2.1
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera
- New Blackmagic Camera Setup software
- Adds support for more frame guide options
- Adds Japanese and Chinese language menu support
- Holding down MENU will bypass Dashboard and go straight into settings
- Peaking state is remembered after power cycle
Blackmagic Cinema Camera
- New Blackmagic Camera Setup software
- Adds lossless compressed RAW support
- Adds support for more frame guide options
- Holding down MENU will bypass the Dashboard
- Peaking state is remembered after power cycle
Blackmagic URSA
- New Blackmagic Camera Setup software
- Improved media formatting performance
Blackmagic Production Camera 4K
- No changes
Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K
- No changes
Blackmagic Studio Camera
- No changes
Minimum system requirements for Mac OS X
- Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite
- Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks or later
- A suitable USB 2.0 port
- Thunderbolt port for UltraScope and Media Express when using Blackmagic Cinema Camera or Blackmagic Production Camera 4K
Minimum system requirements for Windows
- Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit
- Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit
- A suitable USB 2.0 port
- A suitable Thunderbolt port when using Blackmagic Cinema Camera or Blackmagic Production Camera 4K
Installing Blackmagic Camera Setup
Before installing the software, we recommend that you run “Uninstall Camera Utility” first.
After loading the software on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera EF or MFT, you may notice a slight flickering on the built-in LCD screen. This is normal and expected behaviour. The flickering will go away after a few minutes of operation.
The Blackmagic Camera Installer package installs:
- Blackmagic Camera Setup
- Blackmagic Media Express
- Blackmagic UltraScope
- Blackmagic Disk Speed Test
- Blackmagic Multibridge Utility
The firmware comes with a new installer for the first time and can be downloaded from Blackmagic Design here.
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