Samsung Note 9 FiLMiC Pro V6 Compatibility Guide
The Samsung Note 9 is capable of absolutely stunning footage when used with FiLMiC Pro v6 for Android, and we have worked hard to bring the best possible shooting experience to both handsets. However there are two main issues that can impact on the available features you have access to and overall performance on the Note 9.
1. Samsung’s implementation of the camera framework
Samsung’s implementation of the Android camera framework denies third party developers access to some feature that are available in the native Samsung camera app. This includes high-speed framerates such as 60fps, 120fps and 240fps.
On Exynos equipped devices we have found a workaround that allows us to deliver high speed framerates even though not officially supported however this is not applicable to snapdragon equipped devices (see below for more information).
Exynos Equipped Note 9 Available Framerates:
- 1080p: 24/25/30/120/240 fps
- 2K & 3K: 24/25/30 fps
- 4K: 24/25/30/60 fps
No Dual Lens Support
The current Samsung camera framework implementation also prevents third party developers from supporting the dual lenses found on the Note 9. At present only the wide lens is supported.
Limited Mode
In order to deliver stable 4k performance we need to use Samsung's 'limited' mode that prevents access to the cinematographer kit LOG/FLAT profiles as well as custom white balance controls & manual audio gain control at framerates greater than 25fps in 4k, and framerates greater than 30fps in 1080p/2K/3K.
2. The Snapdragon CPU
In addition to Samsung’s restrictive implementation of the camera framework, they chose to produce the Note 9 with two different CPUs: an Exynos version - and a Snapdragon version.
You can find out which CPU your devices uses with the app AIDA64.
Unfortunately not all chips are created equal and the Snapdragon version has the following limitations for video: No support for 60fps at any resolution
Whilst we can bypass the Samsung 60fps limitation on Exynos devices, this is impossible on Snapdragon devices.
No support for 120fps.
Whilst we can bypass the Samsung 120fps limitation on Exynos devices, this is impossible on Snapdragon devices.
Automatic White Balance UI doesn’t update.
The camera driver doesn’t provide information about the current white balance being applied, so we cannot reflect this status on the UI on snapdragon equipped devices.
HDR video unsupported
On Exynos versions of the Note 9 we can support access to high dynamic range video recordings in up to 2K resolution, however this is not currently supported on Snapdragon equipped handsets.