Blackmagic Design releases Blackmagic Camera app for Android

Android users get some love too as Blackmagic releases its popular free Blackmagic Camera app for Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel phones.

Blackmagic Camera for Android has just been released. Based on the same operating system as Blackmagic Design’s digital film cameras, it gives Android content creators the same tools that are used by Blackmagic camera operators in feature films, television and documentaries — and perhaps more pertinently the same tools that have been available on iOS since last year. 

Blackmagic Camera is available immediately on Google Play and is free of charge with no in-app purchases lying in wait for the unwary. It’s not going to work on every single Android device, Blackmagic’s release materials specifically referencing only Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones, but it does break the monopoly that iOS has seemingly had on high-powered camera tools of recent times. 

And, of course, it may well open the floodgates for some of the more Apple-centric video tools to start being ported over to the Android platform.

We liked the Blackmagic Camera app when we reviewed it last year, and it has evolved since (v1.4 dropped last month, adding support for Blackmagic Cloud organisations, off-speed video clips and more)). As far as we can tell it’s largely the same software on Android - if anybody comes across any differences, let us know in the comments below.

For the full lowdown, head to the review. For the meantime though, here are the Blackmagic Camera for Android headline features: 

• Works with Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones.
• Shoot in 16:9 or vertical aspect ratios.
• Stealth mode for shooting 16:9 while holding phone vertically.
• Capture in H.264 and H.265 with auto proxy generation.
• Frame rate, shutter speed, exposure, white balance, tint and color space camera controls.
• Focus assist, zebra, frame guides, histogram.
• Time of day or run time, timecode recording.
• VU or PPM audio meters.
• Thumbnail view of all recorded clips in media tab.
• Preview clips with scrubber, duration, timecode and file name display.
• Fully integrated with Blackmagic Cloud and DaVinci Resolve.
• Record to phone, select recorded clips to share via Blackmagic Cloud or sync automatically.

“The Blackmagic Camera app for iPhone has been incredibly popular since it was launched last year,” said Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. “We are excited to be able to give customers with Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel phones the same controls for shooting digital film as our professional cameras. Plus, the Blackmagic Cloud workflow lets customers record to Blackmagic Cloud Storage and automatically sync with DaVinci Resolve. It’s really exciting to be able to give even more customers the ability to get their footage to the newsroom or post production studios in literally seconds.”