The BMPCC4K is a popular camera, no doubt about it. And a popular camera builds a market for third-party accessories. Just like many other manufacturers before them, Zacuto has just released their version of a dedicated cage for the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. The Zacuto cage features a comfortable strap which keeps your hand snug to the camera. The trick is the “no-cage” design, you shouldn’t even notice that there’s a cage at all while holding the camera. Multiple 1/4 20″ threaded mounting holes can be found all over the cage for mounting additional accessories. The top plate incorporates a Z-Rail (read: NATO rail) which can be used for balancing a top handle for example. As a nice touch, the rail is embedded (but can be moved back and forth) in the cage so the top plate is completely flat. On the other side of this BMPCC4K cage there is another NATO rail that stabilizes the cage itself and allows a second handle to be fitted. The cage also comes with strain relief clamps and right angle adapters for both the USB and HDMI connectors. Please note: The images in this article show a 3D-printed prototype of the actual cage. The real cage will be made out of anodized aluminum. Zacuto BMPCC4K Cage For mounting this BMPCC4K cage to a tripod or rig the bottom of the cage offers two ¼” 20 threads and one 3/8″ 16 thread. This opens the door for either a third party tripod plate to be mounted but you also can use the built-in Arca Swiss plate to mount the cage to any Arca Swiss compatible quick release mounting base. The cage comes with a left wooden handgrip but you can mount any grip you like via the NATO rail on the left hand side of the cage – or no grip at all. An optional accessory for the BMPCC4K cage is the dedicated SSD holder which mounts to the top plate via two allen screws and holds a Samsung T5 SSD securely in place. Additionally the SSD holder offers a coldshoe for mounting more accessories. Another (future) optional accessory will be a rod support for attaching 15mm rods to the cage and build a fully-fledged rig from there. Other Options Zacuto is a bit late to the party here. Other companies already have their BMPCC4K cage offerings ready. Click on one of the following links for our corresponding article: 8Sinn (link) LockCircle HiPock (link) Tilta modular cage (link) Shape / Wooden Camera / SmallRig (link) Vocas C-Cage (link) As stated above, the popular BMPCC4K creates quite a market for dedicated camera cages and accessories. Which one is the best? I don’t know but I can tell from personal experience that Zacuto gear is well-build, rugged cleverly thought out. I like the “no-cage” approach but in order to really pick the best cage you have to try them all, which is not always an easy thing to do, obviously. Link: Zacuto Do you have any experiences with one of the above (or any other) cages for the BMPCC4K? Share your experiences in the comments below!

The Atomos Shinobi is a new 5″ HDMI on-camera monitor with a 1000nits 1920×1080 HDR screen, known from the Ninja V. It is lightweight, runs on one Sony NP-F750 type battery and offers lots of features to help monitor the image and even sound levels. It is shipping now for $399 USD (and €399) plus tax. The new Atomos Shinobi HDMI Monitor. Source: Atomos In the industry, Atomos is mostly known for their HDMI and SDI on-camera video recorders, which happen to have great, bright HDR screens. The company is now launching their newest addition to their portfolio – a high brightness 1000nits 5″ 1920×1080 HDMI monitor, named Atomos Shinobi. The specs sound familiar? That’s right – it consists of the same HDR monitor as the popular on-camera recorder Atomos Ninja V. Atomos Shinobi – Ninja V’s More Affordable Cousin With its 200g (7 oz), the Shinobi is a lightweight device. For reference, the Ninja V weighs 320g (11.3 oz), not including the weight of the battery. The body of the monitor is made out of polycarbonate and should be durable. It has ¼” – 20 mounting points on the top and bottom, to allow flexible mounting. There is a headphone jack on the side, which allows users to monitor audio from most cameras – even if they don’t have a built-in audio headphone jack (So sound travels via HDMI). Clear on-screen audio level meters help monitoring audio, too. As mentioned above, the Atomos Shinobi shares the same HDR 1920×1080 display and color processing found in the Atomos Ninja V recorder. The 1000nit brightness screen makes it easy to monitor the image clearly, even in daylight.  It has a pixel density of 427 PPI (pixels per inch) and is factory calibrated for color accuracy. The screen can display 10+ stops of dynamic range, when being used with Log or HLG HDR outputs. Atomos’ color science gives a complete range of in-built gamma presets to match popular cameras when shooting Log or HLG. There is one HDMI-in port and a headphone jack on the left side. Source: Atomos The Shinobi can run for up to six hours on a single Sony NP-F750 type battery, which lots of filmmakers probably already have in their kit. A clear on-screen battery gauge shows the status of the battery, indicating when it is running low. The battery plate is positioned in the centre for better balance when mounted to mirrorless cameras. There is one HDMI-in port, which can accept signals up to DCI 4K (4096×2160) at 30fps, or HD video up to 60fps. Shinobi Backside with battery plate. Source: Atomos Atomos Shinobi uses the AtomOS 10 system with the same touch-screen interface as all the other Atomos products. It allows users to quickly magnify the image or engage peaking to check focus, pull up false color, a histogram, zebras or waveform to gauge exposure, or add guides or markers to aid composition. With one swipe, all of the menus go away for a totally clear view of the image and its framing. The Atomos Shinobi looks identical on the top and bottom side. Source: Atomos For Log image monitoring, it is possible to easily load compatible LUTs directly into Shinobi’s built-in memory via SD card. The internal memory can take up to eight LUT files. In addition, countless LUTs can be kept on the SD card and loaded when needed. The same SD card slot can also be used to install any future firmware updates. Atomos’ new multi-tool called Analysis sounds (and looks) quite interesting to me. It simultaneously shows the image, plus waveform, histogram, vectorscope and audio-level meters. In addition, there are multiple options inside each of these tools. This gives the operator a complete picture of what is going on within the image, at any time. The Analysis Tool. Sourse: Atomos A major benefit of Shinobi is that it can be properly color-calibrated, using the free Atomos software and the X-rite i1Display Pro probe. All monitors’ colors drift over time and routine calibration ensures that the colors remain as accurate as they originally left the factory. Also, there is a flip-screen function which mirrors the image – a valuable feature for vloggers. The Atomos Shinobi is available for purchase now. The price is set at $399 USD (€399 in Europe) plus local taxes. I can see this bright monitor appeal to lots of mirrorless filmmakers, who don’t like external recording, and maybe even to beginning focus pullers, as the brightness is quite impressive. What do you think about Atomos’ latest offering? Do you use a monitor for your work or is the camera’s viewfinder more than enough? Would you choose the Atomos Shinobi over the Ninja V? Let us know in the comments underneath the article.

A seemingly small announcement by Atomos and Nikon during this years CES show could generate enough impact to affect future roadmaps of other mirrorless camera manufacturers: The Nikon Z 6 and Z 7 will be able to output a RAW video stream to the Atomos Ninja V which will record that stream as high-quality ProRes RAW. That’s the news and the development is still in progress so it’s just that: an announcement. Time to move on then? Not so fast: This collaboration marks the point in time when RAW recording (internal or external) in a mirrorless camera has become a de facto standard! Filmmakers always strive for maximum quality. SD, HD, 4K.. 8K? 8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit.. 16-bit? Sure, bigger is better. Why should one compromise on quality if the other make and model has it? Do you always need RAW? Of course not but isn’t it nice to have it handy if you need it? Yes, sir! Atomos Ninja V & Nikon Z: ProRes RAW The Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 4K (BMPCC4K) does record RAW internally or externally already (cDNG now, Blackmagic RAW later). Even the original BMPCC did cDNG but both cameras sport comparably small sensors. The Nikon Z 6 and Z 7 feature full frame sensors. In order to accurately judge critical focus, an external monitor seems appropriate. If you happen to choose the Atomos Ninja V monitor/recorder you end up with this: A full-frame camera which records ProRes RAW, in a nearly pocket-sized package. For Nikon this business move should have been relatively straightforward: They don’t have a cinema line of cameras they have to protect. They are free to boost the still fresh Z line of mirrorless cameras as far as possible. Things are different with Canon, Panasonic or Blackmagic. But since this Nikon/Atomos collaboration is happening, the other manufacturers will have to make a move. Let’s see what the upcoming Panasonic S1(R) has up its sleeve. The EVA1 does sport RAW recording for quite some time now so Panasonic knows how to do it. Canon has Cinema RAW light in their C200 cameras, so plenty of know-how there. Will they do it? That’s the big question here. How Does it Work? The Nikon Z 7 or Z 6 camera outputs a stream of RAW data to the Ninja V using a 4K HDMI cable. Since RAW data just contains the unprocessed sensor read out, it’s all about transfer speeds and not so much about processing horsepower. Incoming data is repacked into the ProRes RAW format by the Ninja V. From there the resulting video stream is recorded to the removable SSD drive just as any other video stream. The heavy lifting of debayering and processing is outsourced to the editing computer, which usually has a lot of processing power both in terms of CPU and GPU. Furthermore, ProRes RAW helps to keep file sizes reasonable – uncompressed RAW results in lots of SSDs in no time. What’s up, 2019? A mirrorless camera with a full-frame sensor, recording RAW? Back in the days, Magic Lantern laid the foundation with their Canon 5D mk.II hack, enabling RAW recording. It wasn’t perfect but it worked (still does). Now, in 2019, RAW recording becomes mainstream. Other manufacturers will have a hard time explaining why any of their upcoming cameras won’t have RAW capabilities and as always this competitive pressure is to the benefit of us, the indie filmmaking community. Sure, we don’t need every feature all the time but for me personally, RAW is more important than –let’s say– 8K. Quality over quantity (of pixels). RAW for the masses is a welcomed improvement, at least to me. I’m very curious how all this will impact the higher-end market of (proper) cinema cameras. Features like an interchangeable lens mount, internal ND filters, modular design or a variety of powering options are still a thing for bigger and more expensive cameras and sometimes there are very good reasons not to use a tiny mirrorless camera. However, the gap becomes smaller and that’s probably a good thing! Protecting their higher end models and still deliver satisfying (smaller) mirrorless cameras is a huge challenge for most manufacturers, let’s hope they get it right. Prices will drop, higher end features will trickle down the line, the possibilities will grow. We still have to wait for that perfect camera because there is no such thing as the perfect camera but we’re heading in the right direction, I’m sure. links: Atomos | Nikon What do you think? How does RAW in every mirrorless camera sound to you? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

SWIT have announced a few new products back at IBC 2018 in Amsterdam including a fresh 5.5″ monitor. the SWIT CM-55 C called device features almost everything you need for decent onboard monitoring for a mirrorless camera, including support for custom LUTs. And it’s priced very competitive, indeed. What are you looking for when it comes to a versatile onboard monitoring solution? For me, three things stand out: Image quality, features, weight. You don’t want to mount a giant 3 lbs monitor to your shiny new 1.2 lbs Fujifilm X-T3, do you? SWIT CM-55 C Monitor This monitor features a 1920 x 1080 FullHD 5.5″ IPS LCD display. The actual image quality looks very nice indeed and the display is rated at a brightness of 450nits, it features a contrast ratio of 1000:1 and a H/V viewing angle of 178°. I actually did receive a unit just today and I’ll update this post (or even better: put together a proper review) once I have played with it for a little while. The reason why I bought this SWIT CM-55 C right away? It has the right size for me, it’s lightweight, it comes with a ton of features and it’s actually very affordable. In Germany, it’s about €199 + VAT. Hardware Features The whole unit weights only 0,35 lbs (160g) and it’s 6.1 x 3 x 0.8″ (156 × 78 × 20mm) in size which is perfect for any mirrorless camera. It looks quite similar to the well-known SmallHD 502 line of monitor, it even features a similar looking 5-way joystick. The SWIT CM-55 C is controlled entirely with that joystick, the only other control is the on/off switch on the back of the unit. A cool thing is the dual battery slot on the back. You can attach either Canon LP-E6 style batteries or Sony LP-F style batteries. Your choice entirely. Furthermore, you can use a phone charger or power bank (anything from 5 – 17V, min. 1.5A) and feed the monitor via micro USB As with many lower priced monitors, the SWIT CM-55 C only features a HDMI input, no SDI whatsoever. There’s no option to loop the HDMI signal through, either. It’s just one standard HDMI-A sized input and that’s that. It supports video resolutions up to 3840 x 2160p UHD @ 30 fps. 1080p is supported up to 60fps. The connector next to the HDMI input can be used to power your camera through the monitor itself. The standard barrel connector acts as an additional output to the attached battery, 7.4V that is. You can get the SWIT CM-55 C bundled with a dummy battery for your given camera or just get one yourself. The monitor comes with a handy L-shaped tilt arm for attaching it to your camera’s hot shoe and the arm provides another cold shoe for attaching accessories such as a microphone or video light. It’s not as good as the arm you get along with a SmallHD Focus monitor since it tends to get loose when you tilt the monitor, maybe I can DIY it a little bit so it performs better. Furthermore you get a sunshade which will come in handy when shooting in bright sunlight. While 450 nits is not bad, it’s not sufficient for shooting in bright conditions. Unfortunately, the sunshade is rather poorly build but it’s better than nothing. It is basically a piece of plastic with two rubber fasteners on the sides. If your camera doesn’t feature a headphone jack for monitoring audio, the SWIT CM-55 C does have one, so you can monitor 2 channels of audio provided through the HDMI signal. Software Features When it comes to software features for an onboard monitor these are the most important ones (at least for me): decent focus peaking false color tools waveform The good news is: The SWIT CM-55 C does it all. It supports R/G/B 3-color focus peaking, waveform/vector scope/histogram tools, false color, zebra with adjustable threshold, 2-channel audio metering (through HDMI) and LUTs (both pre-installed and custom)! Support for LUTs, especially custom ones is a rare feature to be found in lower end monitors. You can load up to 16 custom via SD card through the built-in SD card reader at the bottom of the unit. If you are familiar with LUTs and waveforms, you’ll want to know which signal the waveform is analyzing, I’m sure. And I can confirm that it’s actually measuring the incoming LOG signal rather than the overlying LUT. So you can look at the beautiful Rec.709 image through a LUT of your choice while still being able to check for correct exposure via the waveform. Neat! Just like the SmallHD 500 series, this SWIT CM-55 C monitor lets you create several scenes to flick through with the joystick. Every scene can be configured exactly to your liking. One page with false color and aspect guides enabled, one with only focus peaking turned on, one with a LUT and another one with only a crosshair in the middle? No problem. Eight scenes can be configured in total, each containing up to 8 individual tools. Build Quality The obvious comparison between the SWIT CM-55 C and the SmallHD 500 series of onboard monitors will only allow for one clear winner: The SmallHD is 5 times more expensive and you know why once you have one in your hands. It’s solidly build, it has HDMI inputs and outputs including cross-conversion to SDI (yes, there’s a SDI input, too). Plus, SmallHD did all the pioneering efforts regarding the innovative page layout UI. SmallHD 502 monitor The SWIT CM-55 C lacks a little bit on build quality, I hope the joystick will last for more than just a little while. The whole unit is made out of plastic which results in a nice lightweight monitor but it doesn’t feel as solid as the aforementioned SmallHD. At all! Is it worth it? Absolutely! It sells for a fraction of the price and in that regard it is really feature-packed. My personal aim is to use it on a gimbal and as an onboard monitor for my Fuji X-T3. Speaking of gimbals, what I really miss is a 1/4 20 mounting point on the top of the SWIT. Only two mounting points, one at the side and one at the bottom can be found on the unit. Good thing that you can rotate the screen via software! The SWIT CM-55 C might seem to be a little bit of a low-cost copy of the higher end SmallHD monitors and I hope that SWIT are adhering to current patents here. Other than that, this seems to be a legit monitor at a very affordable price and a great feature set. Links: SWIT homepage What do you think? Are you in the market for a new affordable onboard monitor? Or would you prefer the real deal (aka SmallHD 500 series)? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

If you’re already knee-deep into the Teradek ecosystem of wireless video devices, this is good news for you! Here at NAB 2018 we’ve caught up with Teradek’s Michael Galling and he runs us through all the features of the new Bolt XT and LT lines. The Bolt XT and Bolt LT are two completely new lines within the Bolt ecosystem of wireless video transmitters and receivers. However, the good news here is that both lines are compatible with all existing Bolt 3000, Bolt 1000 and Bolt 500 systems. Teradek Bolt XT & LT These two new lines of wireless transmitters and receivers actually have a lot in common, you could think of them as siblings. In this metaphor the Bolt LT would be the younger brother/sister whereas the Bolt XT would be the big girl/boy. Both share the exact same video transmitting performance but when it comes to features, the Bolt XT sports the full package while the Bolt LT focuses on just the essential functions. But because of that it’s more affordable, of course. The Bolt LT starts at around $1.500 which gets you both, the transmitter and the receiver. The transmitter offers video loop-through but tt’s HDMI only. For $500 more you’ll get the same version but with SDI ports for video input (plus loop-through) and output. The Bolt XT, however, gets you more features as well as more SDI/HDMI inputs outputs depending on the chosen model. It offers the same wirelsess transmission performance as the LT line, it’s really about flexibility in terms of video ports and more software features. The Bolt XT offers a 3D LUT engine, a manual frequency selection tool and a built-in 5Ghz spectrum analyzer. This will help a lot if you’re working on busy sets with a lot of interferences around or if you deploy multiple Teradek Bolts at the same time. Now it’ very easy to find the perfect frequency for each device so that nothing interferes with each other. The neat thing is that the unit outputs a visual feedback to a connected monitor. So you know exactly which channel is open and which is occupoied by another device. Furthermore, the Bolt XT line has dual video inputs (HDMI and SDI) on the transmitters plus SDI loop-through. On the receiving side the XT line offers dual SDI outputs plus HDMI out. The receivers have NATO rail mounting built-in and they now come with a 3/8″ mounting port for even more ruggedness. The transmitters got a 3/8″ ARRI pinlock mount. Both lines, the XT and the LT share one more cool feature: Pass-through power with integrated plates! Now you can mount the battery that fits your workflow best directly on to the back of the unit, no Lemo cables needed since the plates are wired directly to the Bolt LT or XT. Choose betwwen V-mount, Gold-mount, Sony-L or Canon LP-E6 battery plates. Neat! What’s Next? Michael sneak peaks a little into the future of wireless video solutions by Teradek and the obvious next step, besides of extended range, is 4K. Since this is 4 times the size of HD, wireless (and zero-delay) video transmission of 4K video is still a quite tricky thing to do. We’ll probably see this technology in a kind of bridge technology scenario first in which big 4K client monitors will be equipped with stationary 4K video receivers. Further down the line the technology will obviously evolve (and shrink in size) so we’ll see portable 4K transmitters and receivers. Pricing and Availabilty The Bolt LT series is priced as follows: Bolt 500 LT (HDMI) $1,490 / Bolt 500 LT (SDI) $1,990 / Bolt 1000 LT (SDI) $3,990. The Bolt XT line is more expensive, obviously, but also more feature-packed. Pricing is: Bolt 500 XT $2,490 / Bolt 1000 XT $4,990 / Bolt 3000 XT $9,990. Head over to Teradek.com for full specifications. Links: Teradek.com Do you use Teradek wireless video devices? What do you think of these new lines of Bolt transmitters and receivers? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Atomos have just revealed the newest addition to their lineup of monitors/recorders. The Atomos Ninja V, as in 5, is a 5-inch HDR monitor which is capable of recording almost everything you throw at it. But only via HDMI. The customers demanded for a more portable version of the bigger devices in Atomos’ lineup, such as the Shogun Inferno, but with the same set of features in terms of HDR and high frame rates. The company listened and here it is: The Atomos Ninja V. Atomos Ninja V This is a monitor/recorder which really deserves the marketing term “portable”. For most users, a 5-inch screen is a good compromise between a reasonably large screen, while the overall size and weight are kept as low as possible. The weight is 320g (11 oz). The Ninja V packs a lot of features for its small form factor. It’s a full HD 1920×1080 display, it supports recording up to 4K60p and with a standard NP570 battery (2600 mAh) it will run for up to one hour straight. The display is rated at 1000nits, which makes the unit usable even in bright sunlight. In terms of recording the Atomos Ninja V supports all the ProRes and DNxHR flavours you would expect it to support but there’s one more: ProRes RAW! The elephant in the room is this, though: There is no camera which outputs ProRes RAW over HDMI, yet. But once there is one, the Atomos Ninja V is ready for it. Also, the device is capable of HDR (PQ and HLG standards), just like the bigger Atomos devices. The capability of recording RAW is pretty impressive for such a small and lightweight device, all the other devices which can record such an amount of data are much bigger: The Shogun Inferno, the Ninja Inferno and the Sumo, of course. The engineers have managed to reduce the size of the SSD, called Master Caddy III, which made it possible to place the battery mount next to the SSD slot. This reduces overall bulk. The only downside is the lack of a SDI input on the Ninja V. But since it’s meant to be used with DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, it’s understandable why Atomos didn’t include those. Pricing and Availability The Atomos Ninja V is $695, which makes it a reasonable companion for DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. Shipping is scheduled for Q3 2018, which, according to Jeromy Young could be as soon as July. We’ll see if they can hold that deadline. Links: Atomos.com What do you think? Is this the kind of monitor/recorder you’ve been waiting for? let us know in the comments below!

Italian company LockCircle has released another batch of their famous LockPort accessories, this time for Sony a7R III, Sony a9 and Nikon D850 cameras. The ridiculously fragile micro-HDMI connectors on these cameras stay alive for much longer with the LockPort. With these handy LockPort attachments the fragile micro-HDMI ports are being transformed into 90° rear or front facing full-size HDMI  ports. In the case of the Nikon D850 an additional micro-USB to (rear facing) full-size USB port is available, too. The LockPort LockCircle started out with a very sturdy and well-disigned full-metal lens cap. But they didn’t stop there, obviously. Over time other handy accessories came our way. camera cages, custom-built cine lenses, matteboxes, filters, rods.. it’s all there. The LockPort was one of their earlier products and it became very popular due to its ability of protecting your precious camera from expensive service charges. Modern DSLR and mirrorless cameras tend to offer only a micro-HDMI port for video output. These connectors are anything but “professional grade”, this is my opinion at least. With a connected HDMI cable a lot of force is exerted to these tiny (and non-lockable) connectors. Bottom line: The micro-HDMI port tends to break very quickly. Sony a7R III, Sony a9 and Nikon D850 Three new models are now available: The LockPort A7M3 for Sony a7R III cameras, a Sony a9 model and another one for Nikon D850 cameras. Both Sony variants are so-called RF (rear/front) models. Two HDMI adapters are available, one is rear facing, the other is front facing but both will fit the LockPort cage. That way you can choose the perfect way of building your rig without too much cable clutter. The LockPort for Nikon D850 cameras has one more trick up its sleeve. In addition to the HDMI adapter, it also holds a micro-USB to USB adapter. You can choose which adapter you want (or both). The downsinde here is the fact that both adapters are rear-facing only. No RF to be found on this one. The battery compartment can be accessed with the LockPort baseplate attached. Since the baseplate is only 1.5mm and only the original camera screws are being used all your camera support and outboard accessories will still fit nicely. Pricing and Availability Delivery on all the aformentioned LockPorts attachments starts from February 15th. Head over to LockCircle.com for all the available configurations. LockPorts are available for a variety of camera brands, such as Canon, Nikon, Sony, Panasonic and Fujifilm. Prices for the Sony a7R III and a9 variants are $139 (€119) for a choice of front or rear HDMI adapter and $169 (€139) for a kit with both adapters. For the same amount of money you get a kit with both, the HDMI and the USB adapter, for your Nikon D850. For $139 (€119) you can choose between either the HDMI adapter or thr USB adapter. Links: LockCircle.com Has a lockport adapter ever saved your camera? Share your experience in the comments below!

The HDMI 2.1 specification has been finally released, bringing some tasty features such as 10K support and Dynamic HDR. The HDMI Forum – an association of the 92 leading manufacturers of consumer electronics – has released the final specification of the latest HDMI 2.1 standard. Graph representing the new bandwidth capabilities. (Source: HDMI Forum) At the core of this new version is an increased bandwidth of 48Gbps, more than a 100% increase over the 18Gbps of the previous HDMI 2.0. This larger data transfer capability means it will now be able to carry a video signal of resolutions of up to 10K. Source: HDMI Forum HDR 8K HDR will now also be possible with the new HDMI 2.1 standard. Additionally, it also brings with it the introduction of Dynamic HDR: the ability to display the video signal’s ideal values for brightness, contrast and detail “on a scene-by-scene or even a frame-by-frame basis”. Combining higher resolutions and refresh rates is now also possible, with HDMI 2.1 now supporting 8K60Hz, as well as 4K120Hz. Some of the immediate benefits that these kind of capabilities can bring to consumers is the new Game Mode VRR (a variable refresh rate that allows gamers to achieve more fluid gameplay with less lag) and Quick Media Switching (which reduces the blank screen time when changing between content). However, it will be interesting to see how this new standard affects the capabilities of cameras and recorders over the next couple of years in terms of higher frame rates at larger resolutions. In any case, the new Ultra High Speed HDMI cable introduced along with this new version will remain backwards compatible and will work with your existing equipment, while at the same time packing enough of a punch to stay current over the next few years, as consumer displays keep adding Ks to their maximum resolutions. Check out the graphic below for a comparison against previous versions of HDMI. For more information, head over to the official press release. Source: HDMI Forum Could HDMI 2.1 improve your workflow today? Or would it only benefit you down the road? Let us know in the comments below!