The advanced operating system designed for film and television!
Blackmagic Studio Cameras feature the same advanced Blackmagic OS software as used on the URSA Broadcast G2. That means you get a user interface that's fast to use, built on top of an operating system designed specifically for the television industry. All important camera functions can be accessed with a single tap on the heads up display, and the touchscreen menus let you access advanced functions such as monitoring, audio, camera setup, recording, presets and 3D LUTs. Each camera feature runs on top of the operating system as a separate app so you get greater stability and multiple functions can run at the same time. Best of all, new features can be added in the future!
On Screen HUD Controls
The heads up display, or HUD, controls have the most important camera controls such as frame rate, iris, timecode, shutter angle, white balance, gain and audio levels. For example, you can adjust settings such as white balance by touching the WB indicator, or you can change the audio levels simply by touching the audio meters. It's that easy! Everything is interactive, so if you tap any item you can instantaneously change its settings without having to search through complex menus! You can even clear the viewfinder of all text placed over the image area by swiping up or down with your finger.
Realtime Feedback of Camera Settings
Viewfinder Controls
Blackmagic Studio Camera lets you enable different monitoring tools with a few simple taps! Tapping the monitor icon brings up an overlay for toggling between and adjusting settings. You can adjust zebra settings for checking exposure, focus assist tools, frame guides, grids and more!
Shutter Speed
The Blackmagic Studio Camera has the best shutter speed control of any camera! Shutter speed lets you set the amount of motion blur or to compensate for varying light conditions. You can set the speed manually, or the camera will suggest a range of shutter speeds to eliminate flicker from lights!
Iris
Adjusting the iris, which controls the amount of light passing through the lens, is simple! If you have an automatic lens, just tap on the indicator and it will display iris options for the best exposure. The iris can even be controlled remotely so you can focus on framing shots!
Timecode
The timecode display is used when you are recording to files, and you can tap it to select either record duration or time of day timecode. It will even turn red when recording so it's extremely easy to see the record status of the camera.
Gain
The Blackmagic Studio Cameras have wide dynamic range and extremely good low light sensitivity. Tapping the gain icon lets you quickly set the ISO of the camera for best performance. It’s a realtime interactive control so as you adjust the setting, you can see the immediate effect on your images!
White Balance and Tint
The white balance setting on the viewfinder lets you adapt to lighting conditions at new locations. There's a list of suggested color temperature presets such as sunlight, incandescent lamp, fluorescent light and more. You can also automatically set the white balance using a white card.
Touchscreen Camera Menus
The Blackmagic Studio Camera touchscreen menus have six tabs with an elegant and simple to understand interface. That means you get quick access and complete control over every setting and feature on the camera! Simply tap on the record, monitor, audio, setup, presets, or LUTs tab to access the settings for different areas of camera functionality. The unique design of the interface offers visual consistency between the Blackmagic Studio Camera and other Blackmagic cameras, which is important when you don't have time to learn a new camera! Now training time is eliminated as the Blackmagic Studio Camera works the same as other cameras you already know!
Set Record Quality
The record tab gives you a fast to use interface for selecting the Blackmagic RAW compression type and the level of compression used when recording the files. Simply tap the appropriate compression level that's best for the work you do. The record tab also lets you set the camera's dynamic range between video, extended video or film. The Blackmagic RAW file will always have the wide dynamic range from the sensor, however this setting lets you change the dynamic range of the video output. There are settings for the default disk to use when recording, which is great when you have more than one USB disk connected. Plus you can even embed the 3D LUT into the recorded Blackmagic RAW file metadata!
Powerful Viewfinder Overlays
The monitor tab gives you control over the display settings on the built in viewfinder. There are lots of on screen viewfinder tools to help you frame and focus shots, such as, zebra for exposure, focus assist, frame guides, 3D LUTs, false color, safe area guides and more! You can even set the SDI and HDMI output resolution here and choose 3D LUTs for different kinds of looks. There are also settings to allow you to modify the viewfinder display, and the default is to display audio meters, but you can change the viewfinder overlay to display codec and resolution instead.
Audio Inputs and Monitoring
Blackmagic Studio Camera has amazing audio with lots of options for setting and monitoring inputs. Levels can be adjusted quickly from the HUD simply by tapping the audio meters, however for full control, you can use the audio tab in the on screen menus. You can change the audio source from the camera's internal microphones, to the 3.5mm mic input, or the high performance balanced XLR audio inputs. The audio tab also has settings for headphone and speaker level, mic gain, low cut filter and more. You can enable the 48v phantom power on the XLR audio connections so you can use microphones that are not self powered. You can also set single channel input when using mono audio sources.
Central Control for Camera Settings
Instead of complex lists of menus that make it hard to setup the camera, the Blackmagic Studio Camera has a single on screen menu tab for advanced settings. This is where you can update settings such as date and time, language selection, timecode settings and even the local power frequency which is used for calculating suggested shutter angles. The setup tab is where the function buttons on the left side of the viewfinder are programmed and you can change them to anything you like! If you have the optional zoom demand attached, you can also program its buttons to do a wide range of camera functions.
Save, Load and Share User Presets
Different operators like to set up their cameras in very different ways! Or you might need to change settings when moving between different shows. The Blackmagic Studio Camera supports saving and loading presets and you can have up to 12 custom presets loaded at any one time. Presets can even be saved to the external USB disk, so you can transfer them between different cameras, so it's very fast to set up multiple cameras with the same settings. Or you can have your own custom presets and bring them on a USB "thumb drive" so they can be loaded into the camera you will be using on a job. You can even load presets from other camera types, such as a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera.
Customize Monitoring with 3D LUTs
On high end cameras, 3D LUTs can be used to change the color of the viewfinder so a director or cinematographer can see a specific "look" they want as they shoot. Blackmagic Studio Cameras can also use 3D LUTs so you can customize the colorimetry of the viewfinder for doing high end creative work. That means you could use Blackmagic Studio Cameras for regular production shoots to take advantage of the large viewfinder. Plus 3D LUTs are very useful when using "film" dynamic range which generally look a little flat. You can store up to 30 custom 3D LUTs in the camera and they are loaded from a USB drive. There is also a setting to embed the active 3D LUT into the record file metadata.
