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NAB 2026 is a wrap, and the winners of this year’s CineD Best-of-Show Awards have been decided. Across eleven categories, we are recognizing eleven products and technologies that stood out in Las Vegas this year, spanning cameras, lenses, lighting, audio, camera support, batteries, monitors and recorders, storage, and AI innovation.
As in recent years, manufacturers submitted their products ahead of the show so our editorial team had time to properly evaluate each entry rather than making snap decisions on the show floor. The submission process also levels the playing field between the biggest booths and the smaller exhibitors we might otherwise have missed. Winners were selected on the basis of genuine innovation, practical impact, and relevance to the working filmmakers and cinematographers who read CineD. Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to every nominee who made this year’s selection particularly difficult. Here are the winners, category by category.
Our AI Innovation award goes to Adobe’s new Color Mode in Premiere Pro, currently in public beta for all Premiere subscribers. Unlike previous color iterations in Premiere that bolted grading tools onto an editing-first interface, Color Mode was rebuilt from scratch with editors specifically in mind, organizing grades around how editors actually think about a sequence.
What convinced us was the design philosophy rather than the feature list. Editors working end-to-end have long faced a binary choice between handing off to a dedicated colorist or fighting an interface that interrupts the edit. Adobe developed the feature through an extensive private beta with working editors, and it shows. Color Mode is the kind of structural rethink we want to see more of from major NLE vendors, and it is why Adobe takes the category this year.
The Audio Equipment award goes to the Hollyland Solidcom H1 intercom system, a centralized wireless intercom built around a base station that synchronizes up to eight RF antennas and as many as 80 beltpacks at once. Each beltpack offers four keys with up to four overlaid channels each, enabling 16 talk/listen routes on a single pack.
The H1 marks Hollyland’s most ambitious push yet into higher-end comms, targeting large productions, OB trucks, theaters, and live events with features like charger-based auto-pairing, a web-based configuration interface, and interconnection with existing Solidcom systems via 4-wire for staged upgrades. It is a meaningful step up in scale from Hollyland’s filmmaking-oriented Solidcom C1 Pro and SE Pro, and a clear signal that the company is serious about competing in territory previously dominated by Riedel and Clear-Com.
Our Battery Innovation award goes to the Core SWX PowerVault, a modular, multi-format charging and power distribution system developed in collaboration with filmmaker Armando Ferreira. This product replaces the usual stack of single-purpose chargers with a single configurable case. Five bays accept swappable SNAP adapters for V-mount, G-mount, Sony BP-U, Canon LP-E6, and even AA and 9V formats, and the system scales up to 40 SNAP packs in parallel. Introductory pricing is $749.
What earned PowerVault this award is the Power Sharing Mode, which lets batteries in the top three bays feed the lower two, redistributing energy internally and maintaining USB-C output without external AC input. Combined with a 140W PD Pro port, a 65W PD Pro port, and IP65 construction, it genuinely functions as a self-contained off-grid power system for a working crew rather than just another charger. Core SWX won a Best-of-Show Award for NAB 2024 with the PD Pro connector, and the PowerVault extends that same ecosystem-thinking approach further. For more details, see our coverage and on the manufacturer’s product page.
This year we are giving two Camera awards, recognizing two very different ways of rethinking what a cinema camera can be. Our first Camera award goes to the Kinefinity Vista, a palm-sized full-frame 6K cinema camera with open-gate recording, a built-in 240GB SSD, a 4-inch OLED touchscreen, and a Tilta-developed rigging ecosystem. Kinefinity expects the Vista to retail below $3,000, with full specifications and final pricing landing around Cine Gear in June.
The Vista is Kinefinity’s first new cinema camera since the MAVO mark2 and MAVO mark2 LF in 2023, and the strategy is clearly different this time: a smaller body, integrated monitor, and a price point that opens up considerably below the company’s existing lineup. The prototype menu on display listed recording modes including 6K open gate (6016Γ3984), 6K 17:9, 6K 2.4:1, 5.7K 3:2, 6K UHD, 5K 4:3, and 5K DCI. The KineMount with its short flange distance supports adapters to PL, LPL, active EF, and active E-mount, giving the camera unusual optical flexibility for something this small. This is the kind of rethink the sub-$3,000 cinema camera market needed, and we are very curious to test the final production camera later this year.
Our second Camera award goes to the GoPro MISSION 1 PRO ILS, which marks a genuine first for GoPro: an interchangeable lens camera with a Micro Four Thirds mount. Built around the same GP3 image processor and 50MP 1-inch sensor as the rest of the MISSION 1 series, it offers 8K60, 4K240, and 1080p960 recording modes alongside open-gate capture, with a 2.59-inch OLED rear screen and a 1.4-inch front LCD. The body is weatherproof (the waterproof rating of the other MISSION 1 models does not carry over here, since the lens mount is exposed), and the camera will be available in Q3 2026.
The MISSION 1 PRO ILS earns this award because it finally answers a question action camera users have been asking for roughly a decade: how do you get something other than a super wide angle out of a body this small? Every GoPro, every competing action camera, has shipped with a fixed ultra-wide lens, great for first-person POV and limiting for almost anything else. The MISSION 1 PRO ILS solves that and then goes further, opening the body up to the Micro Four Thirds lens catalog while keeping the form factor small enough to still behave like an action camera. We do not see this as a mirrorless competitor, and with no electronic pins on the mount, only manual lenses will work. What it is, in our view, is a genuinely new category sitting between action cameras and mirrorless bodies: compact enough to go where a mirrorless body cannot, flexible enough to frame shots a conventional action camera never could.
Our Camera Control and Accessories award goes to Radiant Images for the Meridian 4D Volume Stage, a fully mobile 4D capture system developed with T-Mobile for untethered, real-time volumetric imaging of people and environments. The system packs into 18 airline-checked Pelican cases, deploys the day it arrives on location, and runs on a fully wireless real-time processing pipeline with its own built-in lighting and battery infrastructure.
The headline capabilities are what pushed this into award territory: pixel-level camera alignment, instant real-time Bullet Time and Gaussian Splat generation, and a camera-agnostic rig that works with motion picture cameras and the iPhone 17 Pro. Output reaches 4K at up to 60fps in ProRes 422 HQ or ProRes RAW HQ, with open-gate support and wide-gamut HDR color via Apple Log 2. We will have a full video interview and article on the Meridian 4D published on CineD soon, so stay tuned for the deep-dive.
The Camera Support category goes to XLCS Designs for the Killdozer, a new weather-sealed cage system that extends the company’s machined-aluminum approach into environments where most cages simply cannot go. XLCS has built a reputation for precision single-piece CNC cages for cameras like the Blackmagic PYXIS 6K and the Nikon ZR, and the Killdozer takes that philosophy into rough-weather production.
The Killdozer keeps the mounting density and build quality that have made XLCS cages a favorite among box-camera shooters, while adding the kind of environmental sealing that has historically required bulky third-party housings. For run-and-gun documentary crews, wildlife shooters, and anyone working in rain, dust, or spray, this is a notable addition to the camera support landscape, and it is why XLCS Designs takes the category for 2026. You can read more about the company’s prior cage designs on the XLCS Designs brand page.
This year we are giving two Lens awards, recognizing very different kinds of innovation at opposite ends of the cinema lens market. Our first Lens award goes to the FUJINON GF 32-90mm T3.5 PZ OIS WR, a medium-format cinema zoom purpose-built for the FUJIFILM GFX ETERNA 55 cinema camera. With a constant T3.5 aperture across the zoom range, 25 elements in 19 groups (including three aspherical and three ED elements), integrated power zoom with a lens-mounted rocker, optical image stabilization, and a 111mm front filter thread, it represents FUJIFILM’s first cinema zoom purpose-designed for its large-format system.
Our second Lens award goes to the DZOFILM Arcana Anamorphic, a hybrid 1.5x squeeze trio that impressed us on the show floor. The Arcana line targets filmmakers who want anamorphic character without the weight, cost, or finicky handling of traditional cine anamorphics, and DZOFILM’s recent track record on value-conscious cine optics (they previously won a CineD award for the Vespid anamorphics at NAB 2025) makes this a worthy follow-up. Both lenses approach very different problems, and both solve them in ways we think will matter to working cinematographers.
The Lighting Equipment award goes to the NANLUX Evoke 5C, a 160g (5.64oz) IP67-rated full-color point source carrying the same Nebula C8 eight-color light engine found in the much larger Evoke 150C and 600C. With a 1,000K to 20,000K CCT range, CRI/TLCI scores of 98/98, and a dedicated magnetic accessory ecosystem, the Evoke 5C brings pro-grade color performance into a fixture small enough to slot into practicals, macro rigs, or concealed set dressing.
What pushed this over the line is the range of use cases a single 160g (5.64oz) head can play on set. The magnetic accessory system converts the fixture between a flashlight (with the battery grip), an E27 screw-in practical, a miniature tight-beam key (with the Fresnel), and a tabletop projection source, with CRMX support for integration into pro lighting packages. NANLUX has also introduced an HSIW mode at the show. Pricing starts at $219 for the standalone unit, which puts genuinely professional color performance at a price point that was unthinkable for a fixture of this size a few years ago.
The Monitors and Recorders category goes to the Atomos Sumo PRO-19, a 19-inch 4K HDR monitor-recorder-switcher that builds on the Sumo legacy with camera control, integrated Wi-Fi and Ethernet, camera-to-cloud connectivity, NDI HX3, AirGlu timecode sync, and CFexpress recording. The PRO-19 is positioned as a central hub for on-set collaboration rather than a simple video village display.
The Sumo PRO-19 records ProRes, ProRes RAW, Avid DNx, and H.265 from SDI or HDMI inputs at up to 8Kp30, and can record four isolated camera feeds alongside a program output for multi-camera productions. Touchscreen control over ISO, shutter, aperture, white balance, and touch-to-focus on supported Canon, FUJIFILM, Nikon, Panasonic, and Sony cameras turns the monitor into a legitimate control surface for the DIT cart. Combined with Atomos’ recent acquisition of Flanders Scientific, the Sumo PRO-19 is part of a broader ecosystem push that is genuinely starting to reshape what an on-set monitoring workflow can look like. More details are available on the Atomos website.
Our Streaming, Remote, and Cloud award goes to the iodyne Pro Mini, a portable smart drive that delivers sustained 3+ GB/s read and write performance with hardware-accelerated RAID-6 protection, XTS-AES-256 encryption, and universal USB 4/Thunderbolt connectivity. iodyne uses Frore Systems’ AirJet solid-state cooling, which keeps the drive silent and resistant to particulates down to 0.3ΞΌm.
What sets the Pro Mini apart from the crowded portable SSD market is its feature set for professional workflows: a customizable digital label, Find My integration across Apple and Google networks, Passkey authentication, NFC-based metadata, and iodyne Cloud fleet management for provisioning groups of drives across projects. We previewed the Pro Mini at IBC 2025 alongside iodyne’s Pro Data firmware 1.6, and the shipping product delivers on its promise as a pocket-sized studio for on-set, field, and mobile post workflows.
Congratulations again to all our winners. Which of these NAB 2026 announcements is the most exciting to you, and which product will you actually end up using on set? Don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below!
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Nino Leitner, AAC is Co-CEO of CineD and MZed. He co-owns CineD (alongside Johnnie Behiri), through his company Nino Film GmbH. Nino is a cinematographer and producer, well-traveled around the world for his productions and filmmaking workshops. He specializes in shooting documentaries and commercials, and at times a narrative piece. Nino is a studied Master of Arts. He lives with his wife and two sons in Vienna, Austria.