Blackmagic Camera ProDock – one of the best iPhone accessories – 9to5Mac

I recently got hold of it Blackmagic Camera ProDock and used it to build a production-ready iPhone camera. With a single USB-C cable, I was able to connect an external SSD, wireless microphone, HDMI monitor, and an Ethernet adapter to the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

It all comes together courtesy of the Blackmagic Camera ProDock, a $295 iPhone accessory announced alongside the iPhone 17 Pro last September. That, along with some spare parts I had lying around, allowed me to turn the last generation flagship iPhone 16 Pro Max into a powerful camera rig for ProRes shooting and live streaming.

Blackmagic ProDock Camera Specifications

• Connecting the USB-C connection
• External lock and timecode inputs (iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max)
• 2 x USB-C 3.2 expansion ports
• 1 x USB-C 2.0 port
• 12V DC input lock
• HDMI output
• Includes 3.5mm stereo audio input and output
• 1/4-20 pin locking mounting points on top and bottom
• Supports iPhone 15 Pro/Max, 16 Pro/Max or 17 Pro/Max

Video: The latest iPhone accessory

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When the Blackmagic Camera Pro Dock was announced alongside the iPhone 17 Pro, the marketing focus was on Genlock and Timecode enabled sync capabilities. And while that makes sense for the type of user this product is aimed at, many so-called “regular” users could benefit from the dock as well.

While most normal users couldn’t care less about multi-iPhone sync, CFR, and timecode sync when editing footage, it stands to reason that a larger contingent of users would benefit from the tripod mount, along with the SSD connection, microphone, and external monitor. And that’s what I decided to focus on during my hands-on time with the Blackmagic Camera ProDock.

Advantages of an iPhone camera device

Instead of managing power for each device on the device, a single V-mount battery powers everything, including the ProDock, iPhone and HDMI monitor. The device allows me to easily connect my iPhone with a single USB-C cable.

The ProDock includes a super handy countdown light on the front of the dock to show when recording has started in the Blackmagic Camera app, and an HDMI monitor offers much more flexibility when framing shots, especially selfies.

The Blackmagic Camera app can also display all status indicators on the external display, so you can see important information such as microphone levels, recording time, storage space, lens, resolution and battery life. You can also control and monitor the camera remotely from an iPad using a second instance of the Blackmagic Camera app.

Thanks attached 2TB Corsair EX400U SSD Mounted on my rig, I can shoot high-quality ProRes footage for much longer than I could with my iPhone’s 256GB of internal storage. When shooting in 4K HEVC, I get 82 hours of footage, allowing me to shoot for almost 3.5 days straight. And because I’m saving the footage directly to an external drive, I can connect it to my Mac and start editing without having to download the footage from the iPhone.

Thanks to the audio input on the Blackmagic Camera ProDock, I can connect mine Rode Wireless Pro receiver and achieve significantly better audio quality than the iPhone’s internal microphone. And connecting an Ethernet adapter to one of the bank’s USB-C ports allows me to download footage to the cloud faster and enjoy lower latency when streaming live to YouTube directly from the Blackmagic Camera app.

9to5Mac’s Take

The iPhone is already a great camera in its own right, but there are key areas that make recording video with an iPhone a much worse experience than a standalone camera. The Blackmagic ProDock and Blackmagic Camera app go a long way toward leveling the playing field, adding convenient features—external monitor support, high-quality audio, and wireless monitoring—that stand-alone camera users tend to take for granted.

If you’re serious about iPhone video, you’re likely familiar with some of the inherent drawbacks of shooting with a smartphone. Building a rig like this goes a long way towards providing a much more capable and enjoyable video-taking experience. And, of course, you can customize the build to your needs, adding as many or as few extras as you need.

What are your thoughts?