Blackmagic Camera for iOS now has a companion Watch app

Blackmagic Camera is one of the most powerful third-party smartphone camera apps available, and now it’s even more useful for solo creators. Blackmagic Design has just announced that the latest iOS 3.3 now supports Apple Watch, allowing you to control the app and monitor video remotely from your wrist. It also includes ATEM camera control so you can use your iPhone as a live studio camera.

With the new Apple Watch Camera companion app, you can remotely control and monitor your iPhone from anywhere within Wi-Fi range. It lets you start and stop recording, control zoom, and adjust settings like frame rate, shutter speed (angle), white balance, and ISO with a single tap. You can also see a view of your video to control framing, although the watch screen is probably a little too small to accurately check focus.

The Watch app will benefit solo creators who want to mount their iPhone on a tripod to record stand-up or vlogging activities. To set it up, you install the Watch app through your iPhone and it will automatically connect and sync with your device.

The other key feature is iPhone control from Blackmagic’s ATEM Mini switcher used by streamers and broadcasters. To use it, you need the $420 Blackmagic Camera ProDock which gives your iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone 17 Pro Max HDMI output, timecode, USB-C, and other ports. Blackmagic Camera now lets you connect a single HDMI cable from the ProDock to an ATEM Mini switcher, then adjust settings, trigger recording, focus and zoom. It also offers a DaVinci primary color corrector so you can match and create digital film looks during live production.

Finally, Camera now supports Blackmagic’s “Focus and Zoom Demand” controls (one button and one handle) designed for broadcast cameras. When these controls and an iPhone 17 Pro/Pro Max are connected via USB-C to a ProDock as shown above, you can zoom and focus video from the Camera app without letting go of the tripod handles. With ATEM functionality, it lets you use an iPhone as a full broadcast camera, which sounds a little weird but pretty cool.

In addition to these features, Blackmagic Design has also added ProRes RAW stabilization as well as general bug fixes and improvements. Blackmagic Camera for iOS 3.3 is now available as a free download from the Apple App Store.