The stock camera app on most Android phones is now plenty powerful, offering almost all the features you’ll ever need. But for more advanced needs, you can use one of many powerful camera apps on the Play Store. Among them all, Blackmagic Camera stands out for its extensive pro features. And with the latest update, the app gets even better, gaining support for open gate video recording.

Most users might not care or even know about open gate for recording videos. But if you shoot videos for a living, you’ll immediately know why this is a big deal. By default, smartphones do not utilize a camera’s full resolution to shoot videos. Instead, they crop and shoot in standard aspect ratios like 16:9.

So, for example, while the Pixel 10 lineup might sport a 50MP primary camera, the Pixel Camera app only uses a part of the sensor to record cropped 4K 16:9 footage.

Open gate recording enables shooting videos using the full sensor area. This leads to the footage having more detail while also giving the flexibility to reframe or crop in post-production.

If you have not heard about open gate, that’s because this feature is typically only found in high-end professional cinema cameras. Blackmagic is now bringing the same feature to compatible Android phones with the latest update to its camera app.

Open gate videos provide more flexibility in post-production

After updating Blackmagic Camera to v3.1, head over to the app’s settings > Resolution. You will see a 4:3 Open Gate aspect ratio option. Select that followed by the resolution. Depending on your device, you may be limited to recording open gate aspect ratio videos in 3K, 2K, or lower resolution.

Since most Android smartphones use a 4:3 camera sensor, that’s the aspect ratio you will see when shooting in open gate mode.

In my testing, I was able to record open gate 4K videos on the Galaxy S25 UltraXiaomi 15 Ultra, OnePlus 12, and the OnePlus 13. I still need to test further to find out if open gate recording actually makes a visible difference in video quality.

Blackmagic Camera for Android 3.1 packs several other changes, including the ability to use Samsung Log LUTs on compatible devices.

The best part is that, despite these improvements, Blackmagic Camera remains free to use.