Camera Gain
The camera gain setting allows you to turn on additional gain in the camera. On Blackmagic
Pocket Cinema Cameras, this setting relates to ISO. This is important when you are operating in
low light conditions and need extra gain, or ISO, in the front end of the camera to avoid your
images being under exposed. You can decrease or increase gain by clicking on the left or right
arrows on the dB gain setting.
You can turn on some gain when you need it, such as outdoor shoots when the light fades at
sunset and you need to increase your image brightness. It's worth noting that adding gain will
increase noise in your images.
Shutter Speed Control
The shutter speed control is located in the section between the color wheel and the iris/
pedestal control. Decrease or increase the shutter speed by hovering your mouse pointer over
the shutter speed indicator and then clicking on the left or right arrows. On Blackmagic Pocket
Cinema Cameras, this setting relates to shutter angle.
If you see flicker in lights you can decrease your shutter speed to eliminate it. Decreasing
shutter speed is a good way to brighten your images without using camera gain because you
are increasing the exposure time of the image sensor. Increasing shutter speed will reduce
motion blur so can be used when you want action shots to
be sharp and clean with minimal motion blur.
White Balance
The white balance setting next to the shutter speed control can be adjusted by clicking on the
left or right arrows on each side of the color temperature indicator. Different light sources emit
warm or cool colors, so you can compensate by adjusting the white balance. This ensures the
whites in your image stay white.
DaVinci Resolve Primary Color Corrector
If you have a color correction background, then you can change your camera control from a
switcher style CCU interface to a user interface that's more like a primary color corrector on a
post production color grading system.
Blackmagic cameras feature a DaVinci Resolve primary color corrector built in. If you have used
DaVinci Resolve, then creatively, grading in the Blackmagic camera will be identical so you can
use your color grading experience for live production. The color corrector panel can be
expanded out of any camera controller and provides expanded color correction control with
extra settings and a full primary color corrector interface.
Hovering your mouse pointer over the gain,
shutter speed and white balance indicators
reveal arrows you can click on to adjust their
respective settings.
Using Camera Control
82