NEW PODCAST: Blackmagic Design Raises Prices, Cuts Resolve – Focus Check ep139 →🎙️ WATCH/LISTEN Now
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After more than a decade of complaining on this podcast about the lack of innovation in lighting, we finally had to put our own name on something. The OrBrella is a 60W bi-colour umbrella softlight we developed with SmallRig: eight LED ribs fire inward into a 47cm white dome for the softest possible source, then flip around on their USB-C connectors when you need more punch. It collapses into a camera bag, runs more than two hours on a 99Wh V-mount, and if you are heading to IBC 2026, make sure to stop by the booth and check it out!
A few days ahead of IBC 2026, we sit down for this week’s episode to work through DaVinci Resolve 21.1’s native MCP integration and the Python API moving to Studio, Blackmagic’s roughly 40% price cut on its full-frame 6K cameras, Nikon’s ZR firmware V2.00 and the NIKKOR Z CINEMA lens announcement, why we had to abandon our iPhone 17 Pro Lab Test, Nick Woodman’s post-merger letter to GoPro customers, Sony’s DP7 and DP5 camera control monitors and the DWX Gen 4 wireless system, FUJIFILM’s ETERNA 55 viewfinder and ProRemote app, DJI’s Osmo 360 II, the Hohem Eyepic, plus new glass from DZOFILM, tripods from Libec, lights from NANLITE, a Calman-calibrated monitor from Hollyland, intercoms from CAME-TV, CODEX CFexpress cards, CineDream’s ACES 2.0 plug-ins, generative video editing inside the Caira camera, and a closing look at halation.
This episode is sponsored by Hollyland – check out the Hollyland Pyro S on their website. (15:55 in the episode)
(02:04 in the episode)
We are a media outlet, but we are also working documentary filmmakers – and the OrBrella is the first product to come out of that. Johnnie’s starting point was that almost every light on the market today is a COB: hide the badge and they all look the same; all of them are hard sources, and you then have to fight with diffusion. The OrBrella turns that around. Eight LED ribs sit inside a 47cm white umbrella and bounce outwards, so the source and the diffusion are the same object, and the neck is short enough to place the light tight beside a sit-down interview. Pull a rib off its USB-C connector, flip it, and it fires forwards for more output. There is a shower cap for further diffusion, bi-colour with green/magenta correction for skin tones, NFC and app control, V-mount power (over two hours on a 99Wh battery), an NP-F adapter and USB-C mains operation.
Nino played bad cop on our own product – why does the world need another interview light? Because, for a one-man band, there is currently no way to get a genuinely soft source into a camera bag: small COBs exist, but the softbox is always a separate item that gets left behind or, as happened to Johnnie in Japan, collapses in your hand mid-interview. SmallRig came in as the manufacturing partner precisely because their scale keeps the price at a level a solo shooter can justify. Special thanks go to the team at SmallRig, and to DoPchoice’s CEO Stefan Karle, who mentored Johnnie through the development. The prototype you see in the episode still has black ribs and a silver interior variant that will not ship at launch – production units are white. Only three exist right now, but pre-orders have now opened. Johnnie will be at the SmallRig booth at IBC to show it in person; Nino and Jakub will be shooting interviews with one all week.
Read more (full interview): SmallRig x CineD OrBrella Light
(20:45 in the episode)
The launch video for this “point one” release was watched 120,000 times on YouTube within twelve hours, with comments disabled – a decent illustration of how big the installed base is. The headline addition is a native MCP integration, which lets you connect a Resolve project to an AI assistant like Claude and have it organise footage, build a rough assembly from the transcript, or handle the assistant-editor busywork. Unofficial GitHub versions of this have existed for a while; the difference now is that Blackmagic officially supports it. Nino’s take is that this matters most for long-form work – podcasts, cut-downs, anything repetitive.
The less popular change is that the Python scripting API is leaving the free version. Blackmagic’s stated reason in the release notes is that it was being used to hack Studio features into the free build, and that Studio sales pay for the engineering team. Given that Studio is still a $295 perpetual licence that has never charged for an upgrade, we struggle to be angry about it. Elsewhere: Fujifilm GFX and X series raw plus more Sony Alpha models on the Photo page, all colour panels (including the Micro Panel) now usable for stills, big multicam and trim editor improvements, DJI D-Log2 support, and cloud presentations with comment replies. Over a hundred changes in total.
Read more: DaVinci Resolve 21.1
(29:32 in the episode)
We held this article back a day because the numbers looked implausible – Blackmagic’s original figures turned out to exclude duties and taxes, which made the real B&H prices cheaper still. The Cinema Camera 6K now sits at $1,755 including taxes, and the PYXIS 6K starts at $2,245 in L-mount and EF, with PL a little higher. That is roughly a 40 percent cut on a full-frame camera that shoots 6K RAW internally and now has autofocus. Seventeen further products get reductions – the PYXIS 12K drops from $5,180 to $4,144 before tax – though those may be temporary.
Blackmagic attributes the cuts to manufacturing improvements. Johnnie reads them as a response to a very tough market: the FX5 is selling well, Lumix and Kinefinity are already there, and with nothing new announced before IBC, price is the lever that is left. Nino’s wider point is that the camera market is simply saturated and people are keeping what they have. What makes this genuinely notable is the direction of travel: Sony and FUJIFILM have both raised prices in recent months, with the memory shortage widely cited, and Blackmagic is going the other way.
Read more: Blackmagic price cuts
(36:11 in the episode)
The ZR turns one this week and is still on version 1.10, so a firmware announcement was overdue. V2.00 arrives free in October with Log3G10 plus REDWideGamutRGB in H.265 (previously R3D NE only), selectable high-ISO noise reduction for H.265 matching Z6III behaviour, and focus peaking while recording R3D NE. RED Control app support for the ZR is a real plus – Francesco calls it one of the best camera control apps around. What is not in this release is exactly what everyone was waiting for: open gate and anamorphic de-squeeze have been pushed to next year, with no date. Still no word on lighter 10-bit 4:2:2 options, a fix for the heavily processed H.265, true 24p or RED-style false colour.
Alongside it, Nikon announced the NIKKOR Z CINEMA line: nine focal lengths at launch, all T1.9, VistaVision coverage, Z mount, declickable iris, hybrid manual and autofocus. Johnnie is openly sceptical – Canon and Sony both built cine primes off a strong stills reputation and neither found high-end cinematographers. Nino’s counter is that pricing decides everything here, and none has been announced. VistaVision coverage points these at V-RAPTOR X Z-mount users rather than ZR owners – which is curious, given that camera has no autofocus.
Read more: Nikon ZR V2.00 and NIKKOR Z CINEMA
(44:25 in the episode)
We tested the iPhone 17 Pro in the lab at the end of 2025, and this article exists to explain, as transparently as we can, why the results never appeared. The setup was the Blackmagic Camera app with manual shutter, manual ISO and locked white balance, ProRes RAW, Apple Log 2, all three cameras (13mm, 24mm and 100mm equivalent), through our 300Hz strobe rolling shutter test and the Xyla 21 dynamic range test. Rolling shutter came out excellent on all three cameras – as a callback, the iPhone 15 Pro measured 5ms.
The dynamic range and latitude tests are the problem. Moving from 1/125 to 1/30 should have cost around 0.26 stops; it did not behave that way, which Gunther reads as a hint at frame stacking. Even in fully manual mode, Apple’s pipeline applies scene-dependent processing downstream of the sensor the moment you tap the screen, which makes the Xyla and latitude results unreliable and uncomparable to anything else in our database – so they are not going into it. Gunther’s line is worth quoting: the iPhone is less of a camera and more of an image generation pipeline that starts with a sensor. And yes, the FX5 lab test is in the making, now that we have a production camera.
Read more: iPhone 17 Pro Lab Test
(50:58 in the episode)
Two days after the Starman Optical merger announcement, Nick Woodman published a letter on GoPro’s blog that opens by acknowledging concern and calls making cameras the company’s core DNA. It is more explicit than the deal paperwork, but it contains no roadmap: no camera, no sensor, no launch window, no price. What it offers instead is a list of categories – more cameras, smarter accessories, more software and services – wrapped in proxy solicitation language and a forward-looking-statements disclaimer that makes the whole thing non-binding. The one written commitment is continued full support for existing consumer products, subscriptions and cloud services.
Read more: Nick Woodman’s letter
(53:57 in the episode)
Two camera control monitors – seven-inch and five-inch – on factory-calibrated 2000-nit Full HD panels, giving full control of the camera from the monitor. Both have HDMI in and out, six monitoring presets, up to sixteen user LUTs, dust and moisture resistance without an IP rating, and run on BP-U batteries or USB PD. The DP5 is the cheaper one simply because it drops SDI. Notably, both go wireless via the Hollyland Pyro Ultra, which is a rare third-party endorsement from Sony.
Two things are odd. The launch video shows people pulling focus by touch on the monitor, but the press release says nothing about focus control – and nothing about latency either, which is the first question we will put to Sony at IBC. And FX6 and BURANO support only arrives by firmware in the second half of 2027, with no VENICE compatibility mentioned at all. Pricing is $3,099 for the DP7 and $2,299 for the DP5, available January 2027. Our video interview about these products is one of the first things we shoot at the show.
Read more: Sony DP7 and DP5
(01:00:02 in the episode)
Offsetting the FX5’s viewfinder is one of the most requested fixes for that camera, and Tilta is now the latest to solve it, with a dedicated cable and a multi-directional bracket for the DVF-EL1. Mid49 got there first and, as far as we can see, is still the only solution that lets you keep the EVF and the audio handle in place at the same time – which is the combination we actually want. Bright Tangerine has one coming too. The connection is proprietary, and when Johnnie asked Sony management in Japan whether a licence is required, he got no answer; manufacturers are simply building their own electronics and going ahead. It is good that solutions exist, but this should have been flexible out of the box.
Read more: Tilta FX5 EVF extension
(01:02:17 in the episode)
The DWT-B40 bodypack now records 32-bit float internally, which is a useful insurance policy against dropouts in crowded RF environments. We use the handheld transmitters from this series at trade shows – they are more reliable and sound better than lavving everybody up – so we are glad to see the generation move forward. The DWR-R40Q is a 1U receiver with four true diversity channels, four antenna diversity modes and analog XLR still on board. No pricing yet, and the ship date looks like early 2027.
The interesting part is the direction: 32-bit float has now travelled from prosumer recorders all the way up into broadcast rack gear, bottom-up. Johnnie’s honest admission is that the NDA briefing was largely gibberish to two documentary filmmakers, which leads to his real point – camera manufacturers are still barely innovating on audio, and there is far more to be done there than in image processing right now.
Read more: Sony DWX Gen 4
(01:05:57 in the episode)
We have been following this viewfinder for over a year, and the prototype shown now looks genuinely usable. It is a 4:3 panel to match the ETERNA 55’s open gate, 2048 x 1536 at 1,000 nits – most leading EVFs on the market are still only Full HD – weighing 370g, targeted to ship by the end of this year with no price yet. Johnnie’s reservation is the proprietary connector: it fits this camera and nothing else, not even the GFX100, which feels like a missed opportunity after that much engineering. Worse, the ETERNA 55 has only one such port, so on set it is either the EVF or the monitor, never both. We were happy to feed back to FUJIFILM on details like the eyecup during development.
Read more: FUJIFILM VF-GFXC2
(01:08:42 in the episode)
Announced the same day and free: an iOS app giving full remote control and live view for the ETERNA 55, with three operating modes depending on how many cameras you are running and support for up to four. Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, each with its own strengths. Remote control is close to a professional standard now – as soon as the camera is on a crane or anywhere you are not, you need it – and it is good to see FUJIFILM building usability around the GFX line. Our hope is that both this and the viewfinder carry over to whatever comes next.
Read more: FUJIFILM ETERNA ProRemote
(01:10:37 in the episode)
Launched in the West at IFA in Berlin after a Chinese release. Native 8K60, up from 8K50, and – the more important change in practice – replaceable lenses, because the fastest way to ruin a 360 camera is to put it down on a table. DJI claims 2,000 steel wool rubs in the lab, and a replacement pair is around $30. In single-lens mode, you get 4K120 and 4K240 panoramic slow motion, close enough to the Osmo Pocket 4P that it is probably the same processor. AI SuperNight 2.0 handles low light, 105GB of internal storage means you may never fit an SD card, and it is IP68 rated to 10m bare and 50m with a case.
The 14.5-stop dynamic range claim needs salt: D-Log tops out around 13.5 stops, and there is no D-Log 2 here, and we cannot verify it because a lab test of a 180-degree lens is physically impossible with our setup. Insta360 still dominates this category, largely on software, and DJI’s app is where they need to catch up. In the EU, the standard combo is €589 against €479.99 for the original at launch – €110 more. No US launch, because of DJI’s ongoing FCC problems.
Read more: DJI Osmo 360 II
(01:17:20 in the episode)
This one is a real innovation: the form factor of a pocket gimbal, but the camera module detaches and works as a standalone tiny camera, roughly an Insta360 GO crossed with an Osmo Pocket. Our sources at IFA say it drew a crowd. There is a Kickstarter campaign running, a wireless microphone that connects to it, and two new iSteady smartphone gimbals alongside – Hohem were, incidentally, first to the removable monitor and the AI tracking module that DJI later adopted. What we do not have is anything concrete: no sensor size, no codec, no price, no word on log. This is Hohem’s first camera after a long line of gimbals, and everything shown is still a prototype. Nino’s one wish, based on the DJI Pocket line, is a bigger screen.
Read more: Hohem Eyepic
(01:21:39 in the episode)
Two constant-aperture parfocal zooms at T2.6, both under 1.8kg, in PL and EF mounts with Octopus adapters for E, L, Z, RF, and X. Note that unlike the Arles primes, the zooms do not cover VistaVision. There is also a Marlin 1.4x focal reducer that turns them into a 35-105mm and a 91-252mm with less than a stop of loss. Johnnie’s practical point is the overlap between the two: at 75mm and 65mm, you are not forced into a lens change the moment you want slightly more reach. We will be covering these in detail at IBC.
Read more: DZOFILM Arles zooms
(01:23:26 in the episode)
Genuine innovation in a category that rarely sees any. The patent-pending quick-deploy system means one hand on the carry handle and one on a ring in the mid-spreader opens and locks the legs in a single motion – formalising the movement everybody already makes. The Q30B is 2.9kg with a 75mm bowl, the Q50B 3kg with a 100mm bowl, both rated to 45kg, both tested for a full year including the Arizona desert. They are not compatible with ground spreaders, which follows from the design, and arrive in October at roughly $620 and $855 without a head.
That this comes from Libec is worth noting given the state of the tripod business – Miller has closed, Videndum is in trouble, Manfrotto is struggling – while Chinese manufacturers push up from below at prices that were unthinkable a few years ago. Libec is a family-owned company; we shot a factory tour there and can recommend the film.
Read more: Libec Q30B and Q50B | Libec factory tour
(01:27:01 in the episode)
COB lights keep getting bigger, and this is a good example: an all-in-one Bowens-mount fixture in bi-colour (FC-1200B) and RGB (FC-1200C) versions, around 10kg each, at 15,620 lux and 14,220 lux at three metres, respectively. CRI 95 and TLCI 94 put them at the top end, and at $1,290 and $1,490, shipping now, the pricing is aggressive. What still amazes us is the output density – you can shoot through a window and fake sunlight with one of these, from a COB.
Read more: NANLITE FC-1200B and FC-1200C
(01:28:38 in the episode)
The Pyro Ultra 4K60 receiver built into a seven-inch QD-LCD, Calman-calibrated at the factory to a Delta E under 1.5, with 99% Rec.709 and 95% DCI-P3 coverage at 1500 nits. Range is up to a kilometre unobstructed, latency 20ms in focus mode – not Teradek territory, but a big step from the 35ms-plus that cheaper systems have typically delivered – and one transmitter feeds unlimited receivers. All of that for $1,400. If that Delta E figure holds up in practice, this is close to reference monitor accuracy, and we would be very interested to see somebody test it properly. It is also a mark of confidence that Sony picked the Pyro Ultra line as the wireless option for the DP7 and DP5.
Read more: Hollyland Pyro 7 Ultra
(01:31:15 in the episode)
An updated wireless intercom headset – not to be confused with the original KUMINIK8 – now shipping with 30 hours of runtime and 518m of range, at $128 per headset, scaling to sixteen remotes with a hub and further with more hubs. We covered the first version at NAB 2026, and speaking to owner Frank Zan has become something of a tradition for us. Worth watching: the piece embedded in the article where he explains how to choose an intercom, which is genuinely useful if you are not in that world.
Wireless intercom used to mean Riedel and a rental budget; Hollyland and CAME-TV have made it something a small crew can just switch on and use, which changes how you work as soon as you are more than shouting distance from anybody. Nino’s one plea to manufacturers: the single-ear headsets that clamp against your skull give you a headache by the end of the day, and that is a design problem worth solving.
Read more: CAME-TV KUMINIK8 PRO
(01:35:52 in the episode)
CODEX, better known for expensive high-end recording media, is moving into CFexpress with Type A and Type B lines at once, all CFexpress 4.0 – Type A from 256GB to 1TB, Type B from 512GB to 2TB, each in an Elite and an XL tier. The key thing to understand is that Elite is not simply the faster tier: the XL 2TB Type B sustains 3000MB/s at VPG400, while the 1TB Elite sustains less but is VPG1600 with double the endurance. What the premium buys is lifespan and guarantee, which is exactly what a rental house is paying for. Another sign of high-end manufacturers moving into a broader field is that more cameras – BURANO among them – take these cards.
The item most people should look at is the reader: USB4, up to 5000MB/s, $276, Type B only. If that number holds up, it is one of the best readers on the market.
Read more: CODEX CFexpress
(01:39:23 in the episode)
Denver Riddle’s successor to Color Finale arrives as native plug-ins for all four major NLEs, built on an ACES 2.0 pipeline with camera input profile selection for Sony, Canon, Panasonic, Blackmagic, RED, and DJI log. You get controls for exposure, skin tone, density, contrast, film colour, halation, bloom, roll-off and grain, all adjustable directly on the image – no round trip to a companion app, which was the limitation of the previous architecture. Johnnie wants to try it on an upcoming review; we have been building our own LUTs for years, and this looks like a far easier route. ACES 2.0 adoption is clearly picking up.
Read more: CineDream plug-ins
(01:41:13 in the episode)
Camera Intelligence’s Caira – the Micro Four Thirds camera formerly known as Alice, which clips to an iPhone via MagSafe – is adding generative video editing through Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash and Runway Aleph 2.0. Four templates: relight, reframe, camera motion, and set extension, extending up to ten seconds beyond what you shot. Output is 720p or 1080p regardless of what you filmed; generation takes one to three minutes; there is no text-to-video; originals are untouched, results carry SynthID watermarks, and footage is not used for training.
Both of us are sceptical. Nino’s line is that putting generative video inside a camera is like sitting at a self-playing piano and calling yourself Mozart – and mechanically, what you are running is an iPhone app with API access to Gemini, on hardware built around an off-the-shelf sensor. Johnnie’s objection is simpler: he wants to feel in control while shooting, and anything AI-driven at capture time works against that. If it belongs anywhere, it belongs in the edit.
Read more: Caira generative video editing
(01:47:29 in the episode)
Our educational article of the week, and a popular one. The physics: light passes through the emulsion, reflects off the film base, and exposes the emulsion again from behind – that bounce-back is the halo. Kodak patented anti-halation in the 1930s, and for most of the twentieth century it was a flaw to be engineered out; CineStill’s rem-jet-removed stock brought it back, and now every grading tool has a halation slider, from FilmConvert Nitrate’s add-on to Dehancer, Resolve’s Film Look Creator and the CineDream plug-in above. The irony is that Kodak’s Verita 200D, announced in April, has a new anti-halation undercoat – manufacturers are still removing what everyone else is adding back.
The article walks through Euphoria, Nosferatu and The Batman, and lands on the question of where texture ends and nostalgia begins. Nino’s addition: an excessive amount of halation is becoming a tell that footage is AI-generated, which is its own kind of irony.
Read more: Chasing the Glow
Next week we are back with a wrap-up from IBC, and our show coverage rolls out on the channel over the next two weeks. Let us know what you think about the OrBrella – in the comments below, on YouTube, or by email to [email protected] – and don’t forget to subscribe to Focus Check on your favourite platform.
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Videographer with a deep audio background — including 7 years at a microphone manufacturer. Currently working in broadcast production and specialized in video podcast production. Co-founder of Yon.studio