Set your Blackmagic Camera from a photo.
PocketPrimer is a calm, plain-English helper for your Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. Point your iPhone at the scene, tap your subject, and it dials in exposure, white balance, and ND, then sends those settings to your camera over Bluetooth. No menu diving.
Join the beta on TestFlightFree public beta · iPhone, iOS 17+ · via TestFlight
Three taps to a dialed-in shot.
PocketPrimer reads the light with your iPhone's camera, picks the right settings for your scene, and pushes them to your camera. You just look at your subject.
Tell it what you're shooting
Interview, documentary, product, music video — pick the closest match in plain English.
And what your light is doing
Studio, window light, golden hour, dim room — it works with whatever you've got.
Get the plan, send it over
Exposure, aperture, shutter, white balance — dialed in and pushed to your camera in one tap.
Plain English. Quietly excellent.
It talks like a friend who's good at this. "Set f/2.8," not "you might consider f/2.8."
Reads the light
Uses your iPhone's camera to measure exposure, color temperature, dynamic range, and depth at the point you tap.
Picks your settings
Chooses the right look for your scene and intent — shallow depth, deep focus, low-light interior, daylight exterior, and more.
Pushes over Bluetooth
Sends exposure, white balance, frame rate, and codec straight to your BMPCC in one tap.
Knows your ND
Tells you when to add an ND filter — and dials in the camera's internal ND on cameras that have it.
Catches mistakes
Warns you when something's off: a lens you don't have, a frame rate that doesn't match the shot, a gear mismatch.
Works your way
Manual or electronic lenses both supported. For manual glass, it shows clear, guided steps with visual confirmation.
Meter without touching the screen
Trigger a meter reading with the iPhone Camera Control button or a volume button. Useful when the phone is on a rig or when you need both hands free.
Built-in glossary
Every filming term the app uses, explained in plain English. Browse it any time from the help overlay or settings, no internet required.
Help when you want it
Tap the help overlay to see animated gesture demos for any control. If you prefer reduced motion, PocketPrimer respects your iOS accessibility setting automatically.
No more banding from artificial lights.
Fluorescent and LED lights pulse at your region's electrical frequency. That pulse is invisible to your eye, but it shows up as banding or flicker in video if your shutter angle lands in the wrong place.
Detects the problem for you
PocketPrimer reads your scene and warns you when the current lighting is the kind that causes flicker. You don't have to remember to check.
Picks a flicker-free shutter angle
It calculates the shutter angles that are safe at your frame rate and electrical frequency, then picks the one that best suits your exposure. The result goes straight to your Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera.
Set your region once
Tell PocketPrimer whether your mains power runs at 50 Hz or 60 Hz, and it uses that for every calculation from then on. Change it in settings any time you travel.
Made for the one-person crew.
Indie filmmakers, solo doc shooters, and narrative crews who'd rather spend their time looking at their subject than pinching through menus. PocketPrimer is the assistant DIT in your pocket. Helpful, never in the way.
Your scene stays yours.
PocketPrimer collects nothing. No accounts, no analytics, no tracking, no ads. Your iPhone never sends data to a server — there's no server. The camera read happens on your device, and the photo is discarded after we read brightness from it.
Read the full privacy policy →Joining the beta.
Public testing is open on TestFlight. Here's what you'll need, and how to get going.
An iPhone, iOS 17 or later
PocketPrimer is an iPhone app. It runs on iOS 17 and up.
The free TestFlight app
Apple's app for trying betas. You install it first, then open the PocketPrimer link inside it.
A Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera
With Bluetooth switched on. PocketPrimer pairs to your camera to read the scene and send settings across.
1. Get TestFlight
Install it free from the App Store on your iPhone.
2. Open the beta link
Tap "Join the beta" on your iPhone. TestFlight opens and adds PocketPrimer.
3. Install and pair
Open PocketPrimer, switch on your camera's Bluetooth, and pair. You're ready to roll.
It's an early beta, so expect a few rough edges. Found a bug or have a thought? Send feedback right inside TestFlight, or email Lucas@ixcreations.com.
Ready to roll?
Grab the beta and shoot with it on a real job. That's where the useful feedback comes from.
Join the beta on TestFlightFree public beta · iPhone · iOS 17+