Blackmagic Studio Camera User Manual Entering Metadata

Metadata is information saved inside your clip, such as take numbers, camera settings and other identifying details. This is extremely useful when sorting and processing footage in post production. For example, take, shot and scene numbers are essential organizational tools, while lens information can be used to automatically remove distortion or better match VFX assets to plates.

Your Blackmagic Studio Camera automatically saves some metadata to each clip, such as camera settings, timecode, date and time. You can use your camera’s slate to add many additional details.

Slate

Swipe left or right on your camera’s touchscreen from the main view to bring up the slate.

The slate is divided into ‘clips’, ‘project’ and ‘lens data’ tabs. The ‘clips’ tab contains information that may vary clip by clip, while ‘project’ is where you enter details common between clips, such as the project name, director, and camera and operator ID. The ‘lens data’ tab displays information about the lens fitted to your camera. If the lens automatically sends information back to your camera it will be displayed here. You can also enter lens data manually.

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TIP Metadata entered into the slate is viewable on your camera’s HDMI or SDI output when ‘display status text for’ is set to ‘director’ on the ‘monitor’ tab. See the ‘monitor settings’ section in this manual for more information.

‘Clip’ metadata

In standby mode, when your studio camera is ready to record, clip metadata will be saved to the next recorded clip. You can use the ‘good take last clip’ button to apply a ‘good take’ tag to the most recently recorded clip.

Slate for

This setting shows the clip which the metadata currently displayed in the ‘clip’ applies to.

In standby mode, this refers to the next clip that will be recorded.

Lens Type

If you are using a lens with in built electronics that communicate with your camera, you can see the lens model information here. To change or add any information regarding the lens you are using, press the ‘lens data’ option above.

For more information refer to the ‘lens data metadata’ section in this manual.

Reel

Displays the current reel.

Your Blackmagic Studio Camera automatically increments reel numbers, so there is usually no need to enter this manually. When you are moving to a new project and want to start from reel ‘1’ again go into the project tab of the slate and tap ‘reset project data’.

Scene

The ‘scene’ indicator shows the current scene number, and can also show the current shot number and type.

The number on this indicator always refers to the current scene. You can adjust it with the left and right arrows on either side of the scene number, or tap the scene number to enter the scene number editor.

Scene numbers range from 1 to 9999.

By adding a letter to the scene number in the scene number editor, you can also indicate the current shot. For example 23A indicates scene twenty three, shot one. If you have a shot letter added to your scene number, your camera suggests the next scene number and shot letter whenever you enter the scene number editor. For example, if your current scene number is 7B, the camera suggests ‘8’ and ‘7C’.

The scene number indicator can also show information about the current shot type in the top right corner. You can select these in the scene number editor at the right hand side of the shot keyboard.

The shot types available are:

When entering ‘scene’ metadata, the camera prompts you with scene number suggestions to the left of the touch keyboard, and shot types to the right

Take

The ‘take’ indicator shows the take number for the current shot. You can adjust it by tapping the left or right arrows on either side of the take number, or tapping the indicator to enter the take number editor.

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TIP When the shot number or scene letter advance the take number reverts to ‘1.’

You can add descriptions in the take number editor. These are on the right of the take number keyboard and correspond to the following scenarios:

Tap ‘A’ to automatically increment the take number for each clip while in standby mode. A small 'A' appears next to the take number on the slate when enabled.

When entering ‘take’ metadata, your Blackmagic Studio Camera will offer prompts for additional shot types to the right of the touch keyboard

Good Take Last Clip

Tap the ‘good take last clip’ button to apply a ‘good take’ tag to the last recorded clip. Adding a ‘good take’ tag makes it easy to identify good takes in post production.

Interior / Exterior

Tap ‘interior’ or ‘exterior’ to add a interior or exterior tag to the next clip.

Day / Night

Tap the ‘day’ or ‘night’ icons to add a day or night tag to the next clip.

‘Project’ metadata

‘Project’ metadata always refers to your project as a whole and is independent of clip numbers.

Enter project details using your camera’s ‘project’ slate tab

Project name

Displays your current project name. Tap the pencil icon to change the project name.

Camera

Displays a single letter camera index. Tap the pencil icon to change the camera index.

Director

Displays the director’s name for the current project. Tap the pencil icon to change the director name.

Camera Operator

Displays the camera operator. Tap the pencil icon to change the camera operator name.

Reset Project Data

To clear all the project information, tap the ‘reset data’ button.

‘Lens Data’ metadata

These settings display information about the current lens fitted to your camera. Many electronic lenses automatically supply information such as the lens model, aperture and focal length. If you are using a lens that does not provide this information, or you want to enter additional data, you can tap the pencil icon in this setting to enter the information manually. This will bring up the ‘lens data’ menu, which contains the following information:

The ‘lens data’ menu showing information automatically populated from an attached lens, and filter information that has been manually entered

Lens Type

Shows the lens model. If your lens type is not automatically shown here, you can tap this setting to enter the data manually. Your camera has an internal database stored for many commonly used lenses, so if you need to enter data manually, your camera will suggest names automatically as you type. This makes entering data much faster.

Use the touch keyboard to enter lens data if it is not provided automatically

Iris

Shows the iris aperture setting at the start of your clip. This information can be displayed in f- or T-stops depending on the lens used, if supplied automatically. Tap this setting to enter data manually.

Focal length

Shows the focal length setting of the lens at the start of the recorded clip. When automatically supplied, this is shown in millimeters. Tap this setting to enter the focal length manually.

Distance

Shows the focus distance settings of the lens for the recorded clip. Some lenses can provide this data automatically and it will be provided in millimeters. You can also enter this data manually.

Filter

Shows the current lens filters used. Tap this setting to enter data manually. You can make multiple entries separated by commas.

Filter information needs to be entered manually

You can clear lens data at any time by tapping the ‘reset lens data’ icon in the ‘lens data’ menu. All lens data will be cleared and repopulated with any lens data automatically provided by the currently fitted lens. If you have manually entered any information into these fields, you will need to reset the lens data the next time you mount a lens, otherwise the manually entered value will remain.