Sound Meters and Time Remaining arrive on Blackmagic Pocket and Cinema cameras

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera

 Some very important stuff that was missing from the orignal firmware of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera and the Pocket Cinema Camera has arrived in the latest version of the software

The big ones: Audio Level meters and Time Remaining.

Time Remaining was perhaps the most frustrating omission. Not knowing how much space was left in your storage device meant that you had to rely on guesswork, or be really good at calculating storage times based on bandwidth for a given codec.

Audio Level Meters will be an enormous help to anyone recording sound in sync with video on the camera, and Histogram will be a boon for gauging exposure and lighting.

Here are the details from Blackmagic's support page:

This software package allows you to update your Blackmagic Camera to the latest software release for new features, bug fixes and other enhancements.

Please ensure that your camera is plugged into mains power before running the software update.What's new in Blackmagic Camera Utility 1.9.3Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera

    Add histogram, time remaining and audio level indicators. Use Up and Down to reveal and hide the meters while Left and Right will adjust the aperture of your active MFT lens.    Fixed bug where in-camera playback may sometimes drop frames.

Blackmagic Cinema Camera

    Add histogram, time remaining and audio level indicators.

Blackmagic URSA

    No changes

Blackmagic Production Camera 4K

    No changes

Blackmagic Studio Camera

    No changes

Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K

    No changes

Minimum system requirements for Mac OS X

    Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks or later    Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion 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 Utility

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 Utility    Blackmagic Media Express    Blackmagic UltraScope    Blackmagic Disk Speed Test

Updated August 21, 2014.