All the arguments are understandable, but the Spak was actually developed for indie filmmakers and not for high-end productions… So a menu option for activation would be the best compromise…
Years ago, I was traveling in the rainforest and accidentally pressed the record button and forgot to stop it. The memory was then full; luckily I could delete it, otherwise I would have had to go home, which is also expensive…
Thanks for compiling this here :-)
Technically, if we wanted to do that, couldn’t we just plug the ssd into a phone and delete the file? Being an underwater shooter of course, this wouldn’t be an option.
I would like to know if doing this causes issues with long term read and write technical issues due to fragmentation as the devs are worried about. It would be no different to deleting in camera and continuing to write.
Also wouldn’t regular formatting help anyway? Deleting would only be an on location requirement for some.
Hi everyone! I just updated the firmware on my camera and enabled SDI, but I’m not getting an image. Tried different cables and different ports on the monitor. Anyone else having this issue?
Sorry to ask the obvious, but did you set it to 4K and, if so, are you using a 4K compatible monitor and cables?
I will note that I just tried mine (set to 3840x2160 60p) and didn’t get an image on my monitor at first. I switched to 30p and got an image and then I could switch back to 60 and it maintained the image, though with occasional white lines and corrupted image blocks, something I didn’t encounter at 30. I’ll have to do more testing to see if I still get image glitches with different cables or monitor.
Current setup: SmallHD Ultra 7 with 12G SDI cable (Neutrik brand on the straight connector, not sure on the right angle).
I completely agree. The Spark was marketed toward indie filmmakers, small crews, and solo creators, not only large-scale productions with 50 people on set.
For filmmakers like us, the ability to delete individual clips is essential, especially considering the enormous data rates. We often work in remote or difficult-to-access locations where there is no laptop nearby and no dedicated data-management crew.
I once had a Freefly Ember mounted on a cable cam. I had built a custom remote trigger, and when I switched the remote off to save battery, it somehow triggered the camera. I only noticed around five minutes later, by which point the storage was full.
We were just about to film a stunt that could only be performed once. We then had to rush back into the house, connect the Ember to a computer, delete the clip, mount the camera back onto the cable cam, and raise the entire cable cam system again using the lifts.
It created a lot of completely unnecessary stress right before a one-time stunt. A simple delete function would have prevented the entire situation.
Even if deleting any individual clip is technically difficult or risky, being able to delete at least the most recently recorded clip would already be a huge improvement over having no delete option at all.
I understand the concern if deleting clips could negatively affect the drive or increase the risk of corruption. In that case, reliability should obviously come first. But I would still like to understand why deleting clips works with almost every other camera and storage medium, while it apparently cannot be safely implemented on the Spark.
Whelp it ended up being my Ultra 5, swapped it with a 502 and it worked fine.
I’ve seen a lot of discussion around whether in-camera file deletion should be supported. And I think the best approach would be to provide a solution that accommodates different workflows while ensuring data safety.
However, we still need to conduct thorough testing to fully evaluate the potential impact of this feature before deciding on the final implementation. We hope to address everyone’s needs in a future update.
Thank you again for all your feedback!
Great to hear, you’re already dicussing project framerate, markers & different SDI frame rates.
One more thing regarding SDI: It would be great to have a On-Screen-Display on the video outputs - so you can switch between Clean Video Feed and OSD Video Feed. This is done by nearly all cameras (ARRI, Sony, Canon, Freefly etc.) - just have a look. The OSD should contain all main informations / settings (Resolution of the sensor, FPS, Shutter, Whitebalance, Tint, LUT, Battery Voltage/DC Input Voltage, Remaining Space on the Card, maybe Iris/Focus if the lens supplies the information and maybe warnings or error messages - like temperature warnings) and of course a Record indicator (Standby, PreRec, Rec) - so everybody on set can see the informations on their monitors. The actual video can be resized a little so make space for the OSD (should be in front of a black background - not the actual image) .Maybe a Histogram/False Color/Waveform (of the full sensors dynamic range in RAW - not the LUT - like on RED cameras) would also be great on the OSD to get exposure right.
And maybe a little timeline with markers etc. when I´m in playback mode.
There are many cases where the actual screen on the camera cannot easily be accessed to see all the informations. And if working with a bigger team, all departments can see the most important informations about the settings on their monitors.
Posted that already in the thread about the tophandle, but it might be more a topic for software.
Hey Murray,
Good to meet you. Great work on the camera so far thank you guys
Thanks so much for the update, will be installing it soon.
Couple requests:
I think you guys would benefit a lot from the option of a slightly flatter or slightly lifted image coming out of the video feed of the camera - it would make it easier to expose the image to protect the highlights. The image seems to be unnecessarily crushed and looks pretty different from what the camera sees in the Pixboom Cine software. A more accurate representation of what the camera sees coming out of the video feed would be super handy.
To be able to switch on overlays on the monitoring would be super handy to be able to at least see record state of the camera.
Hey everyone,
Some more observations I made:
Spark
Pixboom Cine
General
As I said, please don’t take this the wrong way. I really like the interaction here and I follow it almost daily.
Best regards from Germany,
Chris 
Updated today and camera stuck in pre-record.
Wont let me disable it.
There is a 3rd mode too “Buffering”… not sure what that means or how its different to pre-record.
The menu options shown are:
buffering
pre-record
standard-record
No matter what is selected - it’s in pre-record (press REC once to activate pre-record, 2nd press to start recording, 3rd press to cut)
Not sure if anyone else has reported it, I couldn’t find any complaint of it here in this thread.
Just a couple points;
You can see how full your SSD is - its shown on your settings page. Labeled SPACE (pictured below)
Your frame rate differs between 16:9 and 9:16 because the VERTICAL pixel read out determines your maximum frame rate. Not just total pixel count. you can shoot full sensor width (4608) at 1920 high and the max frame rate will be the same as 1920x1920.
Hey man!
When I read your explanation and saw the picture, I was like “Wait. I know that already. wtf was my point when I wrote it?!”. So welllll. 
Just ignore that point of my list
Thank you for explaining the readouts thing. Makes sense now to me!
First, thank you to everyone who has cataloged these ideas—there are a lot of great contributions here.
While much of the feedback comes from traditional studio and set cinematography, my background is in high-speed research, science, and ballistics imaging, as well as autonomous wildlife camera trapping. With those applications in mind, I’d like to offer a few feature requests that would expand the camera’s utility in specialized fields:
I recognize these requests lean toward specialized applications rather than traditional narrative cinematography. However, supporting these capabilities could open significant sales opportunities within scientific, defense, and high-speed research sectors currently dominated by platforms like Phantom.
Hi @MurrayYin! I had a few Pixboom Cine Software / feature suggestions if they are not already being considered
False colour and/or RGB waveform monitor and histogram in Pixboom Cine so we can increase exposure etc. in the settings and see when we are going to clip highlights in our exports.
Save image settings as custom presets, so, for example, I always export as 25fps or if I always apply a little CC, lightness or saturation, I could save this as a preset I can quickly then apply to any other clips.
Batch rename / add title prefix to exported clips
Assignable keyboard shortcuts for all functions, but also one to remove existing IN and OUT points (for when taking several exports from the same .pxbc clip, and you would like to clear the old IN and OUT points to make new ones).
There appears to be a bug in the current version of Pixboom Cine on Mac, where under the clip’s metadata, it often shows ISO as “0”. Could this be fixed please?
Dark mode! I would love to be able to switch the whole interface to a dark look, similar to DaVinci Resolve or Final Cut Pro.
Also, are there any plans for an iOS app to view and export clips from the Spark’s SSD on iPhones / iPads and control live camera settings remotely?
Also, would you consider making an .fxplug plug-in for Final Cut Pro to be able to import, adjust and edit .PXBC clips natively?
Many thanks for a fantastic product! Looking forward to the new software and firmware revisions!
Deleting clips in camera is non-existent in cinema cameras.
It wasn’t supposed to be a cinema camera, after all…
The ability to flip/rotate the image output would be great.
I also agree with the need for 23.98 and 24fps output.
Log output is very necessary.
Framelines/OSD for the output is needed, as well.
Flagging in/out to assist with playback and trimming clips later would be great.
I’d like to see this function myself as well.
