Best & Worst Camera Brands for Battery Longevity | Steadicam Documentary Backed by Coppola | ARRI ALEXA 35 Live Xtreme – Focus Check ep124

July 9^th, 2026

by Felix TappeinerJuly 9^th, 2026

We settle a question every filmmaker has cursed at some point: which camera brands actually let your batteries last — and which strand you the moment you upgrade? Nino goes brand by brand, ranking the best and worst for battery longevity, from Canon’s decade-proof LP-E6 to the fragmentation that leaves Insta360 owners buying new cells with every generation.

Then: the man who invented the stabilized camera. Garrett Brown — the mind behind the Steadicam — is finally getting a documentary backed by Francis Ford Coppola, and it’s a reminder of just how much one person changed the way movies move. Plus ARRI’s new Alexa 35 Live Xtreme, a tiny $200 pocket camera that came out of nowhere, a new electronic variable ND, fresh lights from Godox, iPhone lenses from Tilta, and the free, filmmaker-built apps quietly reshaping post-production.

This episode is sponsored by Hollyland — check it out at 40:39.

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Your Camera Lasts Only as Long as You Can Buy Its Battery: Camera Battery Compatibility, Brand by Brand

(07:17 in the episode)

Sparked by a conversation with Philip Bloom about Insta360 discontinuing batteries for its five-year-old ONE R and ONE RS modular cameras, Nino set out to audit battery longevity across the entire camera industry, brand by brand. Insta360 comes out worst, changing battery standards with nearly every camera generation, while DJI has improved markedly, standardizing its Action Extreme battery across the Osmo Action 3 through 6 and Osmo 360, and keeping newer Mini and Air drone batteries backward compatible. Canon remains the benchmark: its LP-E6 platform, launched with the 5D Mark II, has evolved through the LP-E6N, LP-E6NH, and LP-E6P while keeping the same physical form factor to this day. Sony, Panasonic, Fujifilm, GoPro, and Blackmagic Design each get their own breakdown, covering everything from the NP-FZ100 and new NP-SA100 standards to Panasonic’s confusingly similar BLK22 and BLJ31 cells and GoPro’s Enduro naming mess across the HERO9 through HERO13 Black generations.

Image Credit: Garrett Brown with the Steadicam. Image courtesy of Garrett Brown

Steadicam Documentary “Thank You Mr. Brown” Enters Production, Backed by Francis Ford Coppola

(41:43 in the episode)

A new documentary from director Andrew Schwartz traces the life of Garrett Brown, the inventor of the Steadicam, from its first major use in 1976’s Rocky through The Shining and beyond. The pitch trailer shows just how experimental Brown’s earliest rigs looked, and now the project has a high-profile backer in Francis Ford Coppola. Nino and Felix also touch on Brown’s other invention, the SkyCam/FlyCam broadcast rig, and Steadicam’s ongoing legacy in a gimbal-dominated industry.

ARRI ALEXA 35 Live Xtreme Announced – Up to 8x HFR via SDI, 480fps, Baseband Slow Motion

(48:16 in the episode)

ARRI has merged its two ALEXA 35 spin-offs into one camera, combining the high-speed capability of the ALEXA 35 Xtreme with the live-broadcast SDI workflow of the ALEXA 35 Live. The result is built for sports and live production, offering up to 480fps baseband slow motion alongside the large-sensor dynamic range that typical broadcast cameras lack, though at a dynamic range cost compared to the ALEXA 35’s normal shooting modes.

AulGo Pocket Camera Hits Kickstarter – 4K Sony Sensor, 6-Axis EIS, 56g Body

(52:24 in the episode)

From little-known manufacturer TriLife comes a tiny magnetic pocket camera built around a 1/2.9-inch Sony IMX486 sensor, six-axis electronic stabilization, and a $200 price point. Nino stumbled across the Kickstarter campaign by accident and flags it as a pure news item — CineD has no relationship with TriLife and hasn’t tested the camera — but the form factor and versatility, including magnetic mounting for dashboard and vehicle shots, make it worth watching.

Sony Teases a New RX10 – First Bridge Camera Update in Nearly a Decade

(55:55 in the episode)

Sony is reviving its long-dormant RX10 superzoom line for the first time since the RX10 IV launched back in 2017. Few details are official yet, but expect a fixed 24–600mm equivalent zoom and S-Log3 recording to carry over, part of a broader industry trend back toward purpose-built, single-focal-range cameras as an alternative to smartphones.

KipperTie LCcineND Now Available – Remote Controllable 4×5.65” Electronic ND Filter

(58:30 in the episode)

Built on Swedish company LC Tech’s electronic variable ND technology, KipperTie’s new drop-in filter covers a 1.5 to 5-stop range in a standard 4×5.65-inch matte box tray, with app or follow-focus-motor remote control. It isn’t cheap at roughly $2,340, and it does require its own battery, but it’s a rare implementation of variable ND in a professional matte box format.

KNOWLED PL600 RF and PL1200 RF Announced – Nine-Band PaletteLab Engine, 92% Rec.2020, IP65 Weatherproofing

(01:02:30 in the episode)

Godox’s KNOWLED brand has announced two all-in-one COB point-source fixtures built around a new nine-band PaletteLab color engine, claiming a CRI of 98 and TLCI of 99. Both the 600W PL600 RF and 1,200W PL1200 RF are IP65 weatherproof with built-in power supplies, trading some weight for one less cable to rig, and are priced at around $2,000 and $3,500, respectively.

Tilta iPhone Lenses Bring Fisheye, Macro, Wide, and Telephoto Glass for T-Mount

(01:08:45 in the episode)

Tilta has added four add-on lenses — an 8mm fisheye, 16mm wide, 10x macro, and 40mm telephoto — to its Chronos smartphone accessory ecosystem, priced between $69 and $89. They require a Chronos case and use Tilta’s own T-mount locking interface rather than a universal standard, so compatibility outside the Chronos system isn’t guaranteed.

Vimeo and FiLMiC Pro Owner Bending Spoons Surges in $1.68 Billion Nasdaq IPO Debut

(01:12:31 in the episode)

Bending Spoons, the Italian holding company behind Vimeo, FiLMiC Pro, and WeTransfer, is now publicly traded after a Nasdaq debut that briefly pushed shares up more than 40%. As a public company, Bending Spoons will face more pressure from shareholders, which could mean faster feature updates but also more aggressive monetization of the products it owns.

Boris FX Acquires iZotope – RX, Ozone, Neutron, and Nectar Join the Post-Production Toolmaker

(01:15:02 in the episode)

Visual effects and compositing company Boris FX, known for Mocha, has acquired audio tools maker iZotope from Native Instruments. Existing iZotope licenses for RX, Ozone, Neutron, and Nectar are unaffected, and Boris FX says it plans to keep investing in new development across the audio lineup.

Beat App Introduced – Free Mac Tool for Story Development and Shoot Planning

(01:17:05 in the episode)

Beat is a free, vibe-coded Mac app for node-based story development, moodboarding, and shoot planning, letting filmmakers connect story beats, locations, and characters on a visual canvas, and even plan blocking directly over location scouting photos. It also connects to Claude via MCP for an AI assistant inside the project.

Clip Sweeper v2 Now Available – Free Mac App for Cleaning Video Project Drives

(01:21:28 in the episode)

Also free and vibe-coded, Clip Sweeper v2 scans hard drives specifically for unused footage inside Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve projects and can compress clips you want to archive rather than delete — useful as storage prices keep climbing.

Artemis Studio for Mac – Chemical Wedding’s Desktop Companion to Its Director’s Viewfinder App

(01:22:52 in the episode)

Chemical Wedding, maker of the Artemis Director’s Viewfinder app, has renamed its desktop companion (formerly Artemis Gallery) to Artemis Studio. It syncs with the iOS app via iCloud, letting teams build and export shot lists, storyboards, camera data, and sun position information between phone and desktop.

DaVinci Resolve 21.0.2 Released – Keyframe Fixes, Retime Curve Improvements, and Better Fusion Vertical Transitions

(01:24:39 in the episode)

Blackmagic Design’s latest point update brings keyframe and retime curve fixes, improved Fusion vertical transitions, and better NVIDIA decode performance for H.264 and H.265 footage, alongside a matching update for Fusion Studio.

You can watch and listen to the full video episode of Focus Check ep124 embedded above, and find all episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you get your podcasts.