Month: April 2026

NAB 2026 just wrapped in Las Vegas, and honestly? The big companies kind of let us down. Sony, Nikon, Canon showed up, but there weren’t a lot of jaw-dropping new cameras from the major players. That’s kind of become the norm at NAB. But here’s the thing: while the big booths were quiet, the smaller and mid-size companies were going absolutely wild. And that’s where all the good stuff was hiding.

I spent multiple days on the floor checking out everything I could, and I’ve got a list of gear that I genuinely think is going to matter for filmmakers, especially wedding and commercial filmmakers. Let’s get into it.

Kinefinity Vista: The Compact Cinema Camera That Could Win NAB

This one stopped me in my tracks at the Kinefinity booth. They’re showing a camera called the Vista, and the pitch is simple: ultra-compact cinema camera, 6K recording, a 4-inch screen, and a form factor roughly comparable to something like a Nikon Zf. That combination should not exist at this price point.

Kinefinity says it’s coming out in June, meaning we’re talking really soon. They’re also targeting a price below $3,000, which is wild for a full-frame 6K cinema camera. I need to get my hands on a review unit for this thing as soon as it ships, because right now it might just be my pick for the coolest camera at the show.

Nisi: Cinema Lenses Are Getting Interesting

Nisi had a couple of things worth talking about. First, a T1 50mm prime lens, roughly equivalent to an F1.2 aperture, designed for full-frame cinema cameras. The fact that we’re getting cinema-spec glass at VOCA-style options and increasing quality levels is genuinely exciting for those of us who want that cinematic rendering without going full Hollywood rental house.

They also had some fun booth energy, including a claw machine full of camera gear. Yes, you could reach in and grab stuff. I’m not saying I did. I’m also not saying I didn’t.

Deity PR-4: The XLR Recorder I’ve Been Waiting For

Okay, this one is huge for audio nerds. Deity announced the PR-4, which is their answer to the Tascam FR-AV2: a proper XLR input audio recorder with 32-bit float recording and access to Deity’s timecode ecosystem. If you’ve been living in the Deity wireless world, this is the missing piece that ties everything together.

32-bit float means you basically cannot clip, which for wedding filmmakers recording unpredictable ceremony audio is a massive deal. You set your levels and then forget about them. I’ve been waiting for Deity to bring this kind of device into their lineup, and it looks like they nailed it. They also announced the PR-2 Mark II, a tougher, waterproof version of the PR-2 with upgraded preamps borrowed from the PR-4 and improved overall build quality. That one ships summer 2026. (I said “summer.” Deity operates on their own timeline. But I’m optimistic.)

They also had a mini digital camera as a freebie they were giving out at the booth: a tiny little thing that actually works and has a screen on the back. Basically a fun little surprise from an audio company.

If you want to level up your overall audio game on wedding days, check out my post on how I record audio for wedding films.

Rode Link 2: Wireless Audio Just Got More Pro

Rode dropped the RodeLink 2 wireless transmitter right on the show floor, and it caught me off guard in the best way. This is a pro-tier wireless audio system with 32-bit float internal recording and interchangeable batteries. The fact that you now have internal backup recording in a wireless transmitter with 32-bit float is a game changer for anyone relying on wireless audio on a wedding day. Expected to ship later this year.

Nanlite Evoke 5C: Tiny Lights, Massive Modifier Options

Nanlite is at NAB with something that I keep thinking about: the Evoke 5C. It’s a light that’s roughly two inches by one inch. Absurdly small. But what makes it interesting is that there are apparently around 800 modifier options for this thing: softeners, Fresnels, gobos, and more.They even sell a kit with a charging case that holds eight of them.

For wedding filmmakers, the brightness might be a limiting factor in some scenarios, but if you’re doing any kind of commercial work where you need a lot of compact, moddable lights that pack down to nothing, this is something worth watching. I’m hoping to test the brightness in real wedding conditions soon.

SmallRig RF20C: A Light Saber for Your Camera Bag

I already own the SmallRig RF-10C, which I really like as a compact spotlight with modifier support. Well, they’ve now released the RF-20C, brighter, with even more modifier options. One of those modifiers turns it into something that honestly looks like a light saber, and they’ll also custom-print any gobo you want for it. Custom gobos for a $67 light. That’s absurd in the best possible way.

Core PowerVault: The Modular Power System Every Wedding Filmmaker Needs

This one came from a collaboration between a gear company and another YouTuber, and I got a full demo on the floor. The Core PowerVault is a modular, all-in-one power system with a magnetic attachment system. You can snap in a Sony battery plate (or Canon, or others), and it will charge your camera battery directly from the vault’s built-in power banks.

But here’s where it gets really useful for wedding filmmakers: even when it’s unplugged from the wall, it can still charge other devices using its internal power-share system, including AA batteries. Forgot to charge your drone? Forgot to charge the sound recorder? As long as you’ve got the PowerVault, you’ve got a backup. There’s even an app that shows you the charging status of every connected device. This thing was built for exactly the kind of chaotic, middle-of-nowhere wedding day situations we all find ourselves in.

Speaking of being prepared on a wedding day, if you’re still building out your shot list, grab my free wedding shot list PDF. It’s the same list I’ve refined over 15+ years of filming weddings.

GoPro Mission 1: GoPro Got Serious About Cinema

I’ll be honest: I didn’t expect to be excited about GoPro at NAB. But here we are. GoPro is showing the Mission 1, a new cinema-focused camera powered by their GP3 processor with a 50MP 1-inch sensor. The big story is the interchangeable Micro Four Thirds lens mount, and yes, they had a Fujifilm anamorphic lens attached to a GoPro body on the show floor and it actually looked good.

I held one briefly (I had to beg a little), and the thing has a really nice feel. It’s still compact like a GoPro but with a much more substantial, cinema-ready presence when you throw a real lens on it. Pre-orders open May 21. I’m genuinely interested in what this thing can do for run-and-gun filmmakers.

Canon’s Mythical Zoom Lens: The 40-1200mm

When I was getting into filmmaking, my friends and I used to joke about the impossible lens: an 8mm fisheye that was also an F1.2 that also zoomed to 2000mm and weighed three pounds. A lens that couldn’t exist. Well, Canon just announced something that feels like it came close.

The Canon 40-1200mm lens. A 30x zoom range. It does cover Super 35 and full frame, and it has a built-in teleconverter. The aperture is variable at F5 to F10.8, so you need good light, but the focal range alone is genuinely mind-blowing. It costs $80,000, so you’ll probably be renting it. But if you’re ever stuck in the back of a ceremony venue and need to reach all the way to the altar. This is the lens for you. What a wild piece of glass.

The Vibe at NAB 2026

What I love about NAB is that it’s not just about the gear. It’s about the people. I got to catch up with my friend Jordan Cowan (@OnIcePerspectives on Instagram) who filmed the Olympics on ice and was presenting at the Imagine booth about AI color grading. Wild to see my wedding videos on their screens being used as examples. The community that shows up to this thing every year is genuinely one of the best parts.

There’s a lot of gear coming down the pipeline in 2026, and I’ll be reviewing as much of it as I can. If you want to make sure you’re editing all that new footage the right way, grab my free guide: Edit Videos Like a Pro. It covers my biggest editing rules that apply no matter what you’re shooting or what software you’re using.

If you want your Instagram Reels to look as sharp and professional as possible, your export settings in DaVinci Resolve matter a lot! In this guide, I’m going to walk you through exactly how to set everything up correctly so you’re not leaving any quality on the table.

And before we get into it, I’ve created free export presets and a graphic overlay template that shows you where to position your text and other elements so nothing gets cut off by Instagram’s buttons and UI. You can download both completely free here!

Set Up Your Timeline First

Before you ever hit export, you need to make sure your timeline is set to the correct resolution. When creating your timeline, set it to 1080 x 1920 resolution (vertical).

For frame rate, you’ll want to choose 23.976 fps, 29.97 fps, or 59.94 fps, depending on the frame rate you filmed at. In the past, Instagram used to convert 24fps videos to 30fps, which could cause footage to stutter and not play back as smoothly. But as of mid-2025, Instagram supports 24fps natively, so you can choose whichever option works best for you.

Navigating the Deliver Page

Once your video is fully edited and ready to go, head down to the Deliver page at the bottom of DaVinci Resolve.

Name your file, then choose the folder location where your exported video will be saved. Make sure you know where it’s going!

If you’ve already downloaded my free export presets, you can select the correct preset from the menu at the top and all of these settings will be dialed in for you automatically. If not, keep reading.

Format and Codec Settings

Make sure you select Single Clip, then for format, choose MP4. Resolve might default to QuickTime, and while both are identical in quality, MP4 gives you maximum compatibility and is the format Instagram expects.

For codec, select H.265 (HEVC). Most phones record in H.265 these days, and it’s the format Instagram is optimized for, so this is the best choice.

Settings for Mac Users

On a Mac, you’ll see a checkbox that says “Use hardware acceleration if available.” Check that box. This tells Resolve to use your GPU for exporting, which means your video will export significantly faster.

Leave your Resolution and Frame Rate both set to Timeline Resolution and Timeline Frame Rate, since you already set those correctly when you created your timeline.

For the Quality setting (this is where you set your bitrate), here’s what I recommend:

• For a 24fps or 30fps export, set your bitrate to 30,000 kilobits per second
• For a 60fps export, set it to 50,000 kilobits per second

This targets a bitrate that’s slightly higher than what a phone records at in 4K, giving you that sweet spot of high quality without a bloated file size.

For Encoding Profile, choose Main10. This ensures your export uses higher quality 10-bit color.

Finally, scroll down to Advanced Settings and check both the Force Sizing to Highest Quality box and the Force Debayer to Highest Quality box. These tell Resolve to use the best scaling algorithms when downscaling 4K footage to fit your 1080p vertical timeline. Your footage will look noticeably sharper.

Settings for PC Users

You’ve already set Format to MP4 and Codec to H.265. Depending on your graphics card, you’ll see different options in the Encoder dropdown.

You can leave this set to Auto most of the time. But if you see an Nvidia option, select that because your GPU will likely render your video the fastest.

Leave Resolution and Frame Rate set to Timeline Resolution and Timeline Frame Rate.

For Quality, if you have an Nvidia or AMD graphics card, you should see a Restrict to quality setting. Set it to 30,000 kilobits per second for 24 or 30fps, or 50,000 kilobits per second for 60fps.

If available, for encoding profile select Main10.

Don’t see that Restrict to setting? No worries. If you only have a Native Encoder option, your settings will look a little different. You’ll see a Rate Control option instead. Set that to Variable Bitrate, and a Bitrate field will appear. Set it to 30,000 for 24/30fps or 50,000 for 60fps.

Just like on Mac, go into Advanced Settings and check both the Force Sizing to Highest Quality and Force Debayer to Highest Quality boxes.

Exporting Your Video

Whether you’re on Mac or PC, once everything is set, click Add to Render Queue, then hit Render on the right side. That’s it!

Getting the Best Quality on Instagram

Here’s where a lot of people miss out on quality. You might think you can just copy the exported video to your phone and upload it directly to Instagram. That will work, but it won’t give you the best possible quality.

Instagram rewards you with higher video quality if you use their Edits app to send the video to Instagram.

Download the Edits app, import your video, and don’t worry about making any edits since it’s already done. Just go to Export in the top right. For export quality, select 4K at 30fps even though your video is 1080p. This pushes the app to use a higher bitrate, which helps preserve quality when it’s uploaded.

This is also why the bitrates I recommended earlier are important. You’re re-encoding the video inside the Edits app, so you want the source file to be as high quality as possible going in.

After the Edits app finishes rendering, click the “Send to Instagram” button on that same page. This is critical. Do not save the video and open Instagram separately. You have to send it directly from this screen to unlock the higher quality processing.

Once Instagram opens, go into Advanced and enable “Upload at highest quality.” Then post your video. Instagram will give it extra processing because it came through the Edits app, and the result will be noticeably better than a standard upload.

Get the Free Presets and Safe Zone Template

If you haven’t downloaded the free export presets and safe zone overlay template yet, grab them at the link in the video description. The overlay is especially helpful because it shows you exactly where to place your text and graphics so nothing gets hidden behind Instagram’s UI buttons.

If you’re also editing Reels in Premiere Pro, I’ve put together a separate guide for that too: How to Export High-Quality Instagram Reels in Premiere Pro (2026 Guide).

And if you want to take your video editing to the next level overall, check out my Edit Videos Like a Pro guide for a complete breakdown of my editing process!

Adobe just made the biggest update to Premiere Pro ever, and it fundamentally changes how you color grade video. I’ve been in the beta for over a year, and Adobe even flew me out to their headquarters to be part of the launch video for this update. So I’ve had a lot of time with it, and I’m excited to break it all down for you.

You can try it out right now in the latest Premiere Pro Beta. Here’s everything you need to know.

What Is Color Mode?

When you open Premiere Pro, it’ll look familiar at first. You’ve got your editing tools, your Import and Export modes up top (added back in 2022), but now there’s a new option sitting right next to Edit mode: Color Mode.

If you’ve been wanting more from color in Adobe Premiere, this is going to blow your mind. It’s a radical rethinking of how you color grade video, and it’s a really good one.

The first thing you’ll notice when you open Color Mode is that it looks completely different from what you’re used to in Premiere. The monitor window is huge, which makes sense since you’ll want to see all the details of your footage while grading. Your video clips from your sequence live on the right side, and you can scrub through everything using the playhead at the bottom.

One thing I love: you can switch between a single clip view and a grid view, and resize it however you want. So if you’re editing a wedding video and need to see the getting-ready footage alongside the ceremony clips at the same time, you can do that easily. It’s a huge help for keeping your colors consistent across a project.

And unlike DaVinci Resolve, where you’re kind of locked into a horizontal line of clips, all of these panels in Premiere are moveable. You can rearrange everything however you like, which I really appreciate.

The New Color Grading Controls

So how do you actually color grade? Down at the bottom, you’ve got a set of tools that look like abstract color wheels. But when you click on them, you get a lot more control than you might expect.

Click and hold on Contrast, and a detailed scope pops up right there. Adobe calls this a HUD (Heads Up Display), and it gives you a ton of data right where you need it. No more digging through a separate panel. You can also resize or move any HUD if you want.

Drag upward to increase contrast, downward to decrease it. Drag left or right to shift the pivot of the contrast point, which helps you dial in your highlights and shadows further. It’s basically a Lumetri slider, but with an extra axis of control.

The same logic applies to Exposure: drag up or down to adjust exposure, left or right to adjust the black level. You’ve got temperature, balance, and saturation controls too, all with color scopes built right in.

By default, you’re adjusting the entire clip, but you can also target just shadows, just highlights, or define a custom zone. You can even shift specific hues in your video by selecting a color at the bottom and dragging your mouse around. And if you want sharper footage, the detail tools let you boost texture or sharpness just by dragging.

It feels intuitive. If you’ve used color wheels before, you’ll pick this up fast.

But what if you miss the old Lumetri sliders? Don’t worry, they still exist. Just go back to Edit Mode, choose the Color workspace, and all your Lumetri controls are right there like before. That said, Adobe has told me that Lumetri is basically old news now. It’s not using their latest color technology. If you want the best of what Premiere has to offer for color grading, Color Mode is where you need to be.

Styles and Style Modules

Here’s where things start getting really interesting.

So far we’ve only been doing basic color corrections on a single clip. But if you click the plus button next to Adjustment and choose to add a Clip Style, you’ll get a whole new menu full of style presets. Think of these like super advanced Instagram filters, but with way more control underneath.

You’ve got cinematic presets, cool and warm options, lighting presets, black and white, boosted saturation, and a ton more.

Now, you might be thinking “okay Matt, this is just LUTs.” And that’s a fair assumption, but hold on, because these presets are actually made up of individual building blocks called Style Modules.

Click the Style Modules tab and you’ll see them all: Color and Contrast, Color Shift, Contrast Kit, Detail, Film Color, Flare, and more. Each one does something different, and you can mix and match them.

For example, the Contrast Kit gives you similar contrast controls but adds the ability to target just the highlights, which is super useful for recovering overexposed areas. The Film Color module lets you choose from popular film stock negatives and prints, then dial in the overall look, the midtones, shadows, and highlights separately. Add a Flare module on top for a subtle cinematic fade.

The key difference from a LUT: everything is non-destructive and fully tweakable. You’re not making blanket adjustments to a clip. Every module can be modified, minimized, or removed. And if you land on something you love, you can save it as your own style preset.

If you still want to use LUTs though, you absolutely can. Click the plus button next to Clip Adjustment, choose Add LUT, pick from your installed LUTs, and adjust the intensity. It all works right alongside the other modules.

For more on using LUTs in Premiere Pro, check out my post on how to use LUTs to color grade LOG footage in Premiere Pro.

Object Masking in Color Mode

Remember the Object Mask feature Adobe added to Premiere a while back? The one that lets you select any object in your frame and track it? That works in Color Mode too.

Add a new adjustment module, select the Object Mask tool, click on the object you want to change the color of, right-click to track the mask, and then use any of the color tools on just that object. It makes color grading specific elements in your video dramatically easier, and it only takes a few clicks.

Grading at the Clip, Selection, and Sequence Level

This is where Color Mode really starts saving you serious time.

Everything we’ve talked about so far has been at the clip level. But look over to the right of “Clip” and you’ll see two more options: Sequence and Sequence Style.

Select Sequence, go to your style presets, and start clicking through them. As you do, you’ll notice something wild: all of the clips in your sequence are being color graded simultaneously.

So instead of going back to the edit page, creating an adjustment layer, dragging it across your timeline, and then opening the color panel, you can color grade your entire sequence in just a few clicks. That’s huge.

Of course, not all your clips were filmed at the same time with the same light, so here’s the third option that makes this even more powerful. Go to your clips panel, click on the first clip you want, hold Shift and click to select a range (or hold Command/Control to select specific clips), and a new menu option will appear at the bottom left called Selection.

Click the plus button, add a style to just those selected clips, make your tweaks, and those adjustments apply only to the clips you picked. It’s easy to use, but also packed with depth. Genuinely impressive.

Why This Matters for Premiere Pro Users

Looking back at Adobe’s updates over the last few years, including Import Mode and Export Mode back in 2022 (which a lot of editors complained about), it’s actually starting to make a lot of sense now. They were building toward this.

And I’ll be honest: I haven’t always used words like “intuitive” or “exciting” to describe editing in Premiere Pro. But Color Mode feels both of those things. Adobe managed to walk a fine line here, making color grading approachable enough for editors who are new to it while also adding the kind of advanced features that pros expect.

There are also no nodes here. Adobe could have just looked at what DaVinci Resolve was doing and copied that workflow, but they didn’t, because a lot of video editors are intimidated by nodes and don’t want to learn them. If you’ve been editing in Premiere and wanted more advanced color grading without having to learn Resolve, you no longer have to leave.

And this is just the beginning. I can already see Adobe adding new modules and updates to Color Mode over time, which makes it even more exciting.

If you want to keep leveling up your video editing beyond color grading, check out my Edit Videos Like a Pro guide. It covers the biggest rules I follow as a video editor, and it applies whether you’re using Premiere Pro, Final Cut, or DaVinci Resolve. You can download it completely free.

And if you want to go deeper on color grading in Premiere Pro, check out my post on how to easily color correct and grade footage in Premiere Pro for more fundamentals.

Blackmagic just announced DaVinci Resolve 21, and honestly, it’s a WILD update! They originally said this was going to be more of a bug fix year, focused on smoother performance and fewer big feature drops. But then they just kept adding things, and before they knew it, they had a massive update on their hands. So let’s break down everything that’s new and what you’re actually going to care about as a video editor.

AI Tools

Of course, we have to start with AI. That’s what everyone wants to know about. What new AI stuff is going to make us better editors?

AI IntelliSearch is the first big one. Adobe has had something similar in Premiere Pro for a while, and it’s great to see it land in Resolve. Basically, you can have Resolve analyze all of your footage and it will detect things like people’s faces, objects, colors, and a wide variety of other details. Everything gets cataloged so you can search for it. So if you type “dog,” it’ll pull up every clip with a dog in it. Not super useful if you’ve only got 10 clips, but if you’re working on a wedding video with 500+ clips? That’s where this becomes genuinely powerful.

Next, and this is where it gets a little crazy: Blackmagic introduced an AI speech generator. You type text into a box, and it generates an audio file of that text being spoken. You can use pre-made voices they offer, or you can create a custom voice using an existing audio file. As long as you have at least 10 seconds of someone speaking, you can clone their voice. In the previous version of Resolve, voice cloning required 5 to 10 minutes of audio, and you still had to record yourself speaking in the same cadence and then layer it. Now? You just type what you want and it spits out the voice. Wild stuff. Just… don’t trust everything you hear on the internet.

AI CineFocus is another new one, and it’s very similar to Apple’s Cinematic Mode. If you’ve filmed something on your phone or with a camera that doesn’t have a shallow depth of field, you can now add depth of field in post. You just click around, tell it what to keep in focus, and blur the rest. You can control the bokeh shape and intensity too. It’s not going to undo a shallow depth of field you already shot, but if your footage is flat, this could be a real alternative to spending money on a fast lens.

Remember Benjamin Button? Aged in reverse, old then young. Yeah, they basically added that to Resolve. There is now an AI face age transformer tool where you record someone, tell Resolve their current age, and offset it older or younger. It tracks their face and actually adds or removes wrinkles to make them look different. This is the kind of thing Marvel was paying a fortune for a few years ago, and now you can do it at home. Weird, yes, but also genuinely useful if you have clients who want to look a little younger on camera.

On a similar note, there’s a new AI Face Reshaper tool that lets you adjust people’s facial features, make them wider, tighter, and so on. Blackmagic mentioned comedy as a use case, but I actually think it’s really interesting for animating still photos. Instead of just the Ken Burns pan and zoom effect, you could have the subject subtly moving too. That’s a cool tool for documentary work.

And we’re not done with faces yet. There’s also an AI blemish removal tool. As someone who has to be on camera, I can absolutely see myself using this. Woke up with bad acne? Black eye from bumping your head? There’s now an AI tool in Resolve that looks like it’s going to handle that pretty well. Great for clients who are sensitive about that stuff too.

Keeping on the AI train, there’s a new feature where Resolve can detect a slate or clapperboard in your footage. If you’re running a bigger production with multiple takes and different setups, Resolve will automatically read the slate data, generate markers, and add all of that to each clip’s metadata. You don’t have to do that by hand anymore. This is a massive time-saver for bigger productions.

There’s also a new Ultra Sharpen tool that Blackmagic says can rescue footage that might otherwise be unusable. I’m a little skeptical until I’ve tested it myself, but if it can salvage blurry shots, that could be really exciting. And along those same lines, there’s a new AI Motion Deblur feature. If you have clips with heavy motion blur from a low shutter speed, this tool analyzes the footage and clears up a lot of that blur to make things sharper and easier to see. I’ve had so many shots over the years where I’m like “why is that so shaky?” This could genuinely fix some of those.

Photo Editing (Yes, Really)

Okay, this one I genuinely didn’t see coming, but the moment you hear it, it makes total sense. DaVinci Resolve 21 now has a full photo editing page. Like, Lightroom-style photo editing. Sliders, RAW support, cropping, reframing, a lightbox mode, albums, and even tethering so you can shoot directly into Resolve.

And here’s the part that makes it different from Lightroom: you also get all of Resolve’s color grading tools on top. You can color your photos with nodes if you want to. There’s even multi-user support so multiple people can edit photos at the same time.

So right now, DaVinci Resolve is going after Premiere Pro with the Edit and Cut pages, After Effects with Fusion, and now Lightroom with the Photos page. All in one app, all free (or a one-time Studio purchase). The competition this creates with Adobe is great to see.

Edit and Cut Page Updates

There are some solid quality-of-life updates on the editing side too. HTML graphics and Lottie animation support is now built in, so you can import those animations and they’ll play natively in Resolve without any extra steps.

There’s now a spell checker in the edit text tool, which honestly was long overdue. I’ve caught misspellings in my own videos before that I really wish I’d caught sooner. That’s now a non-issue. And there’s also emoji support now in the text tool. Finally. No more importing a PNG just to get an emoji into a title.

Color Page Updates

The Color page got some good updates too. The big one is the Multi-Master Trim Manager. If you need to deliver multiple versions of a project (say, one in standard dynamic range and one in HDR), you used to have to manage multiple timelines. Now you can have one timeline with multiple color versions, keeping everything consistent and saving a ton of time.

There’s also a Magic Mask Render in Place feature now, which lets you cache a magic mask so working with them is way smoother. And here’s an interesting one: you can now view your nodes as layers if you prefer that workflow. Resolve knows that nodes are intimidating for some people, so they added a layer view option. I’m curious to try it.

Fusion Updates

Blackmagic recently acquired a company called Crocodove, and their library of presets and tools for Fusion is now included. If you’ve been wanting more motion graphics presets to work with, this is a fantastic addition.

There’s also a new Audio Driven Fusion Animation feature that lets you sync your Fusion animations directly to an audio file, quickly and easily. If you’ve ever had to manually keyframe animations to music, you know how much of a pain that can be. This looks like it fixes that in a big way.

Fairlight Updates

On the Fairlight side, you can now organize audio tracks into folders, which is great for keeping complex timelines clean. There’s also a six-band clip EQ and EQ level match, plus in-chain effects. It’s more incremental on the Fairlight page, but there’s a good reason for that.

Blackmagic also announced a completely separate free app called Fairlight Live. As the name suggests, this is built for live video production. Whether you’re running 20 inputs or hundreds of inputs, Fairlight Live gives you all the mixing controls you’d expect from the Fairlight page in a standalone app. It’s also going to be compatible with Blackmagic’s ATEM Mini Switchers through a software update. Really useful for anyone doing live production work.

Background Rendering

This one doesn’t get the flashy AI headline, but it’s one I’m genuinely most excited about: background rendering is finally here. If your computer is struggling with playback, you can leave Resolve alone for a bit and it’ll start rendering your footage in the background to make it smoother. You can also generate proxies in the background now, instead of having Resolve lock you out while it processes. Same goes for AI transcripts. All of this now happens in the background while you keep working. Huge.

And It’s Still Free

Just like last year, Blackmagic CEO Grant Petty said this is a free update. Yes, even with all of this. He acknowledged they probably should be charging for it, and they may in the future, but enough people have been picking up DaVinci Resolve Studio to make it work. So if you already own Resolve Studio, this is a free update. And if you’re on the free version, it’s still free.

I’m very interested to dig into exactly what’s in the free version versus Studio once I get hands-on with it. The beta is available to download right now if you want to jump in.

If you want to get better at video editing regardless of what software you’re using, check out my Edit Videos Like a Pro guide. It covers my biggest rules as a video editor for making better videos, and it’s completely free. I wrote it, AI did not.

And if you want to see more DaVinci Resolve tutorials and breakdowns, make sure you’re subscribed over on the YouTube channel. I’ve got a lot more Resolve content coming!

If you’re planning to buy an Apple M5 MacBook for video editing, the good news is you don’t need to guess which one to choose!

After testing and comparing performance across different models, here are three clear recommendations at three price points:

• Budget-friendly
• Best bang for your buck
• No-compromise powerhouse

I’ll also cover smart upgrades and what’s actually worth your money.

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Ultra Budget Options (Bonus Picks)

Before jumping into M5 models, let’s quickly cover two lower-cost alternatives that still handle video editing surprisingly well.

1. MacBook Neo (~$500 with student pricing)

If your budget is tight, this is the cheapest entry point into video editing on macOS.

• Handles light 4K editing
• Slower exports, but usable
• Great for beginners or occasional editors

It’s not fast, but for the price, it’s hard to beat.

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2. MacBook Air M4 (~$760 refurbished)

This is where things get interesting.

For just a couple hundred more:

• Massive performance jump
• Handles most codecs and resolutions easily
• Excellent for travel editing

If you can stretch your budget, this is a much better long-term option than the Neo.

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Budget M5 Pick: Best Entry Into Pro Editing

👉 MacBook Pro 14-inch M5 ($1,700)

If you want a true M5 machine for editing, this is the easiest recommendation.

What you get:

• 10-core CPU
• 16GB RAM
• 1TB SSD (finally standard 👏)

This will handle:

• 4K editing smoothly
• Moderate color grading
• Most creator workflows

Optional Upgrades (Worth Considering)

• Nano-texture display ($150)
  Great if you edit in bright environments
• 96W charger ($20)
  Faster charging. Easy yes.

What NOT to Upgrade

Avoid upgrading:

• RAM
• Internal storage

Why? Because once you start adding $200–$400 upgrades, you’re getting dangerously close to a much more powerful machine…

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Best Bang for Your Buck

👉 MacBook Pro 14-inch M5 Pro ($2,100)

This is the sweet spot for most video editors.

Specs:

• 15-core CPU
• 16-core GPU
• 24GB RAM
• 1TB SSD

Why This One Wins

• ~25% faster than previous gen
• Better hardware encoders/decoders
• Optimized for editing software

Video editing apps love cores and media engines, and this delivers both.

Upgrade Advice

• Stick with the base CPU
• 24GB RAM is enough for most 4K workflows
• 48GB upgrade is optional for future-proofing

Again, the closer you stay to $2,100, the better the value.

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The Beast Option (For 6K/8K Editors)

👉 MacBook Pro 14-inch M5 Max ($3,600)

If you’re editing:

• 6K or 8K footage
• RAW formats
• Large, complex timelines

This is your machine.

Specs:

• 18-core CPU
• 32-core GPU
• 36GB RAM
• 2TB SSD

Why It’s So Powerful

The real upgrade isn’t just CPU…

👉 It’s dual video encoders and decoders

• M5 Pro = 1 encoder/decoder
• M5 Max = 2 encoders/decoders

This dramatically speeds up:

• Playback
• Rendering
• Export times

Not quite double performance, but close enough to matter.

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Should You Upgrade the M5 Max?

Here’s where it gets tricky.

RAM Upgrades

• Base: 36GB (fine for most projects)
• 64GB: Requires CPU upgrade → ~$4,100 total

When to Upgrade RAM

Upgrade if you:

• Edit long-form content (20–60 min timelines)
• Work with heavy RAW workflows
• Push large projects regularly

Otherwise, base config is enough.

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Final Recommendations

Here’s the simple breakdown:

• Tight budget:
  → MacBook Neo or M4 Air
• Most people:
  → M5 Pro MacBook Pro ($2,100)
• High-end workflows:
  → M5 Max MacBook Pro ($3,600+)

If you want the best balance of performance and price, the M5 Pro model is the clear winner.

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Final Thoughts

Apple’s M5 lineup is incredibly capable for video editing, but the key is buying the right tier without overspending on upgrades that don’t matter.

Focus on:

• CPU tier (Pro vs Max)
• Media engines
• RAM only if needed

Skip unnecessary upgrades, and you’ll get the best value for your money.

Want more? Check out my other Macbook buyers guides!