I am about to show you how to de-age anyone and make them look 10 years younger in DaVinci Resolve in just one minute. If you have a client that you’re making a video for and they want you to airbrush them a bit and make them look younger, that used to require a ton of work. Now, you can do it with a single effect in DaVinci Resolve.

Before we dive in, if you want to master your editing workflow, make sure to check out my Edit Videos Like A Pro Guide. It’s a free resource that will help you level up your videos fast.

The New Face Age Transformer

First, open up DaVinci Resolve. You’ll want to be finished with the editing phase of your video before applying this because it requires a significant amount of computer processing power. Applying it to the exact clips you need at the end of your workflow will keep your playback from slowing down too much.

Head over to the Color Page and create a new node. Open the Effects panel in the top right and search for “face.” This will bring up the Face Age transformer. Drag that onto your node. To get started, click Detect Faces in Frame. This will place a tracking box around any faces in the shot. If you have multiple people, you can simply click the specific face you want to work on.

Once the face is selected, click the Double Arrow icon to track the face forward and backward. This ensures the effect stays locked on your subject as they move around the frame.

De-Aging Your Subject

Under the Age Shift settings, you’ll see an Age Offset slider. This is where the magic happens. By default, it might set the age to 30, but you can adjust the base age to match your subject. To make someone look younger, move the offset to a negative number like -10 or -20. Just like that, wrinkles are softened and the skin looks much younger. It’s honestly wild how well this works.

You can even go the other way and make someone look older if the story requires it. You can even keyframe this effect. If you want a shot like in Lord of the Rings where a character transforms in real-time, you can now do that with a few clicks.

While this tool is incredible for touch-ups, keep in mind that if you are doing heavy color grading or using LUTs, you’ll want to make sure your node structure is organized so your skin tones stay natural.

Limitations to Watch Out For

There are two main things to keep in mind. First, don’t go too extreme. If you try to make a 60-year-old look like a 20-year-old, the AI will over-soften the face and make them look a bit like a weird baby. It’s best to keep the adjustments subtle for the most realistic results.

Second, this effect only applies to the face, not the hair. If your subject has gray or thinning hair, the AI won’t change that. It only removes wrinkles and smooths skin textures.

Smoothing Out Your Playback

Because this is a heavy AI effect, your playback might stutter. To fix this, go to the Playback menu at the top, select Render Cache, and set it to Smart. Wait for the red bar on your timeline to turn blue, and you’ll be able to watch your results in real-time without any lag.

If you feel the effect is a little too “digital,” use the Global Blend slider. This acts as a master opacity for the effect, allowing you to dial it back until it looks perfectly natural.

For more tips on how to use the latest tools in Resolve, check out my other DaVinci Resolve tutorials on the blog!

Sony just announced the a7R6, and honestly? It tells us a lot. An 8K filmmaking powerhouse, 32-bit float audio, and the first new battery technology from Sony in eight years. But beyond being a great camera on its own, the a7R6 is basically Sony showing us a preview of where things are headed, and that has some very exciting implications for the FX3 Mark II and a7S4.

I want to go through what Sony has already revealed and make some educated guesses about what is coming next, because these future cameras are shaping up to be really exciting. We’re going to divide this into three categories: things I believe are guaranteed to be coming (well, as guaranteed as speculation can be), things I’m probably right about but can’t say for sure, and lastly, some wishful thinking that would make these cameras truly special.

Just to be clear upfront: this is all speculation. I don’t have any inside information. Let’s get into it.

Part 1: The Guaranteed Upgrades

The Articulating EVF from the FX2

Starting with the body of the FX3 Mark II, this is one I would be absolutely shocked if Sony didn’t include: the articulating EVF from the FX2. A lot of filmmakers weren’t thrilled with the FX2, mostly because it was a great camera body paired with a rather mediocre sensor that cropped in when recording 4K at 60fps. But one genuinely great thing about that camera was the EVF that could tilt up. It was a joy to use, and I would not be surprised at all if Sony carried that forward into future compact cinema cameras like the FX3 Mark II.

Sadly, I doubt we’ll see this EVF make it to the a7S4. Sony has shown that with their photography-focused cameras, they tend not to go that route. However, there is good news on the body front. Sony did add a front tally light to the a7R6 that lights up when you’re recording, and I would bet that also comes to the a7S4.

The Flip-Out Tilting Monitor

This one almost feels too obvious to even mention at this point. The flip-out and tilting monitor that was introduced on the a7R V has essentially become the new Sony standard. We’ve seen it on the a7V and now the a7R6. In my review of the a7V, I called it the best screen design Sony has ever put on a camera, and I have no doubt it’ll be on both the FX3 Mark II and the a7S4.

The New BIONZ XR2 Chip and NP-SA100 Battery

This one I would truly be shocked to not see. The new BIONZ XR2 processor and the NP-SA100 battery system that debuted with the a7R6 are almost certainly going to make their way into both cameras. The new batteries offer 17% longer battery life, but more importantly, they run at a higher voltage, 7.82 volts versus 7.2 on the older NP-FZ100 batteries.

Here’s my theory on why this actually matters: I believe that this more efficient processor paired with the higher voltage is what unlocks some of the more exciting capabilities we’re seeing on the a7R6, and will unlock those same capabilities on future cameras. Look at the accessories the a7R6 supports versus the a7V, which is only about six months older but uses the older battery tech. With the a7R6, Sony introduced the new XLRA4 handle with 32-bit float audio recording internally to the camera. My theory is the older batteries simply couldn’t power the camera and that XLR handle at the same time, so Sony bumped the battery tech to compensate.

And I would be absolutely shocked if the a7S4, a video-focused camera, didn’t support that XLR adapter. I’d be even more shocked if the FX3 Mark II didn’t have a locking, cinema-specific version of it with 32-bit float audio. I’ve talked before about the features I consider non-negotiable for these cameras, and 32-bit float audio is definitely on that list.

Part 2: Things That Are Probably Coming (But Who Knows)

Open Gate Recording

Let’s get the most obvious one out of the way: open gate. Every time I talk to Sony employees, whether that’s at Sony Kando events or any camera reveal, open gate comes up. Filmmakers want it for everything from shooting horizontal and vertical video in one take to using anamorphic lenses. Sony is very aware that we want it. And while the a7R6 doesn’t include it, what better camera to finally introduce open gate than a filmmaker-focused body like the a7S4 or FX3 Mark II? I’m still putting this in the speculation category, but I think filmmakers might riot if Sony doesn’t include it. It’s coming.

Internal RAW Video

The one feature that Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, and even Apple with the iPhone offer that Sony still does not: internal RAW video recording. The form it takes could vary quite a bit. Panasonic just licenses ProRes RAW from Apple. Canon makes their own flavor. Nikon basically supports everything. At a bare minimum, Sony could license ProRes RAW as an option. But they also have their own professional RAW format called XOCN that’s currently only available on very high-end cinema cameras like the Venice and Burano. Maybe they bring a version of that down to the FX3 Mark II and a7S4. Personally, I love Nikon’s approach of offering as many RAW flavors as possible. I’d love to see Sony do the same.

Higher Frame Rate Video

When the a7S III came out, filmmakers were genuinely shocked that it could shoot 4K at 120 frames per second. That was a jaw-dropping spec at the time. The sensor platform that powers the a7S III and FX3 is now several years old, so there is a lot of room to improve. I can’t help but feel that Sony could shock filmmakers again if the FX3 Mark II were capable of 4K at 240 frames per second. That would be wild. I still remember the Sony FS700 from over a decade ago, which could shoot 240fps for about 9 seconds before it had to buffer to the card. And now we could be talking about that kind of slow motion in a small, portable cinema camera with no buffer. So cool.

Better Low Light and More Base ISOs

The “S” in a7S has always stood for sensitivity. These cameras are still some of the best in the world for low-light shooting, but the competition from Panasonic and Nikon has caught up significantly. At a bare minimum, I’d expect Sony to maintain their current low-light performance, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they pushed further.

Here’s a fun thought: Canon now offers a camera with three base ISOs. What if Sony did that? Imagine a base ISO at 800, one at 12,800, and then a third at something truly ridiculous like 51,200. That would blow a lot of filmmaker’s minds, mine included. The dual native ISO system Sony uses is already really powerful, so taking it even further with a third base ISO would be a massive win.

Part 3: Wishful Thinking (The Fun Part)

A Fully Unlocked Quad Bayer Sensor

Okay, here’s where things get truly exciting. I know I just said these cameras will probably continue using low megapixel sensors, but what if they didn’t have to?

There’s sensor technology that’s been around for a while, very common in smartphones, called Quad Bayer. Basically, it allows a sensor to be very high megapixel while still combining four pixels together into groups to create larger pixels when needed. This is how the iPhone can offer a 48-megapixel sensor but shoot 12-megapixel photos by default, giving better low-light performance through pixel binning.

Here’s what might surprise you: the a7S III and FX3 sensor already uses a form of Quad Bayer technology. When people did teardowns of the a7S III sensor, they discovered it actually has a 48-megapixel sensor under the hood, but it’s locked to output only 12 megapixels by combining four pixels together for better low-light sensitivity. So what if Sony created a new sensor with fully unlocked Quad Bayer? You could have an a7S4 or FX3 Mark II with a 48-megapixel sensor capable of shooting 8K, that could also bin down to 12 megapixels for incredible low-light 4K performance. The technology already exists to do this. I’m dreaming, but it could be incredible.

Global Shutter

Alternatively, what if Sony brought global shutter technology to the a7S4 and FX3 Mark II? It’s currently only available in the Sony lineup on the a9 III. Most high-end Red cameras use a global shutter because it completely eliminates rolling shutter and flickering light issues. That could be genuinely game-changing for filmmakers, especially those shooting under mixed or artificial lighting.

Dynamic Range Boost

Here’s one I haven’t seen many people talking about: dynamic range boost. Panasonic has had a sensor technology by this name for years now, where enabling it causes the sensor to lower its refresh rate but significantly boost dynamic range, often by a full stop. I would love to see Sony implement something similar. Their sensors have been sitting in the 15 to 16 stop dynamic range range for a while now, and any technology that could push that further would be a real win.

A Bigger Screen

I already think the a7R6 screen is great, and I expect Sony will use it on both cameras. But if they wanted to go bigger, like the 4-inch screen on the Nikon ZR or the new Kinefinity Vista, I wouldn’t complain at all. The question is whether that screen could still support the flip-out and tilt functionality. Leave me a comment and let me know: would you be okay with a bigger screen if it meant it only flipped out but didn’t tilt?

Internal ND Filters

I know I’m going to get in trouble if I don’t mention this. Internal ND filters. People have been asking for this forever, and I’ve heard from reps at multiple camera companies that the laws of physics are basically working against them, since the filter mechanism would make the camera significantly larger. But I don’t care about the laws of physics. I want Sony to figure it out. It would be an absolute dream, and I know I’m not alone on this one. Someday, maybe.

What About Price?

Historically, the a7S III launched at $3,500 and now costs $4,000. The FX3 launched at $3,900 and now costs $4,300. Looking at where newer cameras like the a7R6 are landing (around $4,500 to $4,700), I could see the a7S4 coming in at a similar price point. The FX3 Mark II is a different story, since it comes with an XLR handle that Sony currently charges around $500 for separately. My guess is Sony tries to keep the FX3 Mark II under $5,000, something like $4,998. They love that kind of pricing. But I hope I’m wrong and it’s cheaper. Given where electronics prices have gone these days, though, I’m not holding my breath.

What Do You Think?

The a7R6 really does feel like Sony showing their hand a little. The new battery, the new chip, the 32-bit float audio pipeline, it all points toward some exciting future cameras. I’d love to hear what you think Sony will include with the FX3 Mark II and a7S4, and whether I missed anything you’re hoping for. Drop it in the comments!

And if you’re currently shooting on a Sony camera and want to get the most out of your autofocus settings, check out my post on the best autofocus settings for the FX3 and a7S III. Out of the box, Sony cameras don’t come with the best autofocus settings for video, and a few quick changes make a big difference. I also have a free Sony autofocus cheat sheet you can grab there.

If you want to go even further and really level up your editing game with all that great Sony footage you’re going to be shooting, grab my free Edit Videos Like a Pro guide. It’ll help you take your footage and turn it into something you’re really proud of.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Sony’s a7R VI is here, and all of the other camera brands have opinions about its “upgrades”.

Want more? Watch my earlier video in this series!

The Sony a7R VI is one of the best hybrid cameras you can buy right now, with stellar photo and video performance. But even more important to us filmmakers, it shows us exactly where Sony is heading for a future a7S IV and FX3 Mark II.

My name is Matt Johnson, and I’m reviewing the a7R VI from the perspective of a wedding, corporate, and commercial filmmaker. I’m going to tell you not only whether it’s a good camera for you to buy, but also what it signals about Sony’s future. Because I genuinely believe the pieces are falling into place for Sony to release a flagship video camera sooner rather than later.

Quick note on ethics: this video is not paid or sponsored by Sony. They did loan me this camera so I could make this review, but the first time they see it is the first time you see it. I will sadly be returning this magnificent camera to them soon.

The Body: Familiar But Improved

Looking at the body, it doesn’t look very different from the a7R V, and that isn’t surprising. A lot of photographers and filmmakers, myself included, loved what the R5 brought to the table. The fully articulating screen that flips out and tilts up and down made its debut on that camera, and it makes a return here.

In a perfect world, Sony would’ve figured out a way to put the tilting EVF from the FX2 on this camera, but I’m betting they’re keeping that for the cinema line. The EVF on the a7R VI has still seen a meaningful upgrade though, to a 10-bit panel with DCI-P3 color coverage that Sony says is 3x brighter than the a7R V.

There are a lot of smaller body improvements I’m a big fan of too. The lens mount now has a raised indicator that shows exactly where to insert the lens, which makes attaching lenses by feel without looking much easier. And here’s something really cool: all of the buttons on the rear are backlit, which makes filming and shooting in low light significantly easier. Don’t want the lights on? There’s a new backlight button on top of the camera that turns them off completely, and you can adjust the brightness in the menu.

There’s also a new tally light on the front of the camera that helps you check if the camera is recording. Of course, it can be disabled in settings if you prefer.

Pop open the port covers on the side and you’ll notice the a7R VI has followed the a7V in finally doing away with the multi-interface connector that used micro USB. You now have dual USB-C connectors, which is great to see, especially if you want to charge the camera while also having external controls plugged in.

The Biggest News: A Brand New Battery

Now here’s where things get interesting, and a little controversial. If you’re coming from the a7R V, you’re going to notice the grip feels slightly different. It’s a bit larger, and the reason isn’t just ergonomics. It’s because of what’s inside the grip.

The a7R VI is the first Sony camera since 2018, back with the a7 III, to come with a brand new battery. Over eight years since Sony upgraded their batteries. And yes, this will be controversial, because these new batteries are a bit larger and they are not backwards compatible. None of your older Sony Z-series batteries will work in the R6.

But Sony isn’t upgrading the battery just for the sake of it. These batteries are not only about 5% physically larger, they also have 17% more storage capacity at 2670 mAh. Even better, they now support fast charging, just like modern smartphones. There’s also a new battery health feature that tells you if a battery is still performing well, and you can check that both on the camera and on the new Sony charger.

Speaking of which, the included charger is a dual battery charger, and Sony is including two batteries in the box with every camera. It feels like they’re trying to soften the blow of the new battery ecosystem, and honestly, I appreciate that.

Now, I want you to think about the bigger picture here for a second. Sony has told me that this new battery supports more stable performance at high-load shooting conditions, and video recording is definitely a high-load task. My theory: Sony essentially maxed out their video recording capabilities with the older battery tech. They needed to upgrade the entire power system to enable the higher quality video recording we’ll eventually see on a future a7S IV or FX3 Mark II.

This battery upgrade is already unlocking higher resolution and frame rates on the a7R VI. And it’s probably also why the a7V didn’t offer 6K video recording. I think power was the limiting factor. I’ve written about what I think the a7S IV and FX3 II need to deliver in detail, and the battery upgrade makes a lot of those features feel much more achievable now.

32-Bit Float Audio Is Finally Here For Sony

Here’s another massive feature that may also be connected to the new battery: 32-bit float audio recording. Yes. It’s finally happening on a Sony camera, and the a7R VI is the first to get it.

Sony is taking a page from Panasonic here and has created a new XLR adapter called the XLRA4, which attaches to the camera’s hot shoe and enables 32-bit float recording. So unfortunately, unlike the Nikon ZR, which records 32-bit float audio directly into the 3.5mm microphone jack, you will need this adapter on Sony to get this functionality. I reviewed the Nikon ZR and its 32-bit float implementation recently, so check that out if you want a comparison.

But regardless, 32-bit float audio on a Sony camera is enormously welcome. If you’re recording audio and the gain is too loud and clips, you can bring the levels down in post and recover it completely. And if the sound is too quiet, you can bring it up without introducing noise. It’s a game changer for wedding and event filmmakers.

Sony has told me the XLRA4 adapter may not be available at the same time as the camera, but I’m very excited for it. And here’s something else to think about: remember what accessory came with the original FX3? An XLR handle. There’s no way Sony isn’t working on a new filmmaking-focused version of this adapter for an FX3 Mark II. I wrote a whole post on why the FX3 II is taking so long, and pieces like this keep convincing me it’s getting closer.

The New BIONZ XR2 Processor and AI Autofocus

Just like the a7V, the a7R VI is running on the new BIONZ XR2 processor, which is significantly faster and more efficient than its predecessor. It also fully integrates the AI autofocus chip that used to be a separate component into the main chip itself. Sony is calling this new autofocus technology AI-based Real-Time AF+, and the plus is the important part.

They’ve made subject recognition noticeably better. Even if people are really far away or their eyes are very small in the frame, the camera can detect them. It can better track a single face in a large group. It’s just better. Sony autofocus has been good for a long time, but coming from an a7S III and FX3, this is still a noticeable improvement. If you want to squeeze even more performance out of Sony’s autofocus system, I have a post on the autofocus settings you should change on your Sony camera right away.

The Sensor: 66.8 Megapixels, More Dynamic Range, and Dual Native ISO

Inside the a7R VI is a brand new, fully backside-illuminated stacked sensor with 66.8 megapixels of resolution. Sony is being very precise about that number instead of rounding up to 67, and I’m pretty sure I know why they’re avoiding that number.

IBIS has improved by half a stop, and while Sony isn’t quite at Panasonic’s stabilization level yet, using this camera handheld is very easy and comfortable. No complaints there.

Because this sensor is fully stacked and backside illuminated, Sony says they were able to squeeze out an extra stop of dynamic range, bringing the camera to 16 stops, up from 15 on the R5. In my real-world testing, the dynamic range in S-Log 3 is extremely good, and the colors and image quality are stellar.

Low light is also really interesting here, because this is the first Sony photo camera I’m aware of where they’ve officially confirmed it’s using a dual gain ISO sensor. Sony usually only tells us that on their video-focused cameras like the FX3. With the a7R VI, they confirmed base ISOs at 800 and 3200. It’s not going to be a low-light powerhouse like the FX3 with its second base ISO at 12,800, but in my testing it’s still quite good, and I’d feel comfortable pushing to ISO 32,000 if needed. If you want to get the most out of S-Log 3, I have a guide on how to easily film in Sony’s S-Log 3 picture profile.

Frame Rates and Resolution: This Is Where It Gets Crazy

Now for frame rates and resolutions, and this is where you start to see what the new battery and BIONZ XR2 can really do. The a7R VI is capable of recording in 8K up to 30 fps with a 1.2x crop, up from 24 fps on the a7R V. But more importantly, it can also record in 4K at up to 120 fps with no crop, as long as you disable the 4K angle of view priority mode, just like you had to do on the a7V.

4K at 120 fps without a crop is a feature I would expect from a dedicated video camera, not an ultra-high-resolution photo-first hybrid. That’s genuinely impressive.

“But Matt, what about overheating? This camera doesn’t have a fan!” You’re right. But Sony is bringing one of my favorite features from the a7S III to this camera: sigma graphite heat sink technology. This passive cooling system made it very difficult to overheat the a7S III even without a fan, and now it’s in the a7R VI as well.

Sony even shared specific overheating tests: in 77-degree Fahrenheit weather, the camera lasted two hours recording in 8K at 30 fps or in 4K at 120 fps. In 105-degree heat, comparable to a Texas summer, they said it would last 30 minutes in 8K at 30 fps or a full hour in 4K at 120 fps. In all of my time recording indoors and outdoors, I never experienced overheating on the a7R VI. That gives me a lot of hope that if and when we see an a7S IV, overheating won’t be a concern there either.

Should You Buy the Sony a7R VI?

If you are a hybrid photographer who wants a camera that absolutely crushes it on the photography side, thanks to a nearly 67-megapixel sensor, while also being capable of recording 8K video at 30 fps, 4K at up to 120 fps without overheating, 32-bit float audio, and the best autofocus Sony has ever put in a camera, the a7R VI gets my highest recommendation.

Pricing is coming in between $4,500 and $4,700, which is definitely not cheap, but given everything you’re getting, it feels fair. Just budget a bit extra for additional batteries and the new XLRA4 hot shoe adapter.

And if you want to make sure you’re always getting sharp, in-focus shots with your Sony camera, be sure to download my free Sony autofocus cheat sheet. There are several settings that Sony cameras ship with out of the box that you’re going to want to change right away, and this free resource walks you through all of them.

If you’re also looking to level up your editing skills to match your new footage, grab my free Edit Videos Like a Pro guide. It’s a great place to start.

I’m going to show you how to export 4K videos in Adobe Premiere Pro 2026 in the highest possible quality for YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, clients, and more. And to save you a ton of time, I’ve created a set of free 4K export presets you can download right now. They’ll give you all of these settings immediately, without having to dial everything in manually. They even come with instructions showing you how to import them into Premiere Pro. So go grab those for free before you do anything else.

Now, let’s get into it.

Opening the Export Settings

Open up Premiere Pro and make sure you have a project ready with your edited footage on the timeline. Once you’re ready to export, you can either press Ctrl+M on PC or Command+M on Mac, or you can click the Export tab at the top of the screen.

With the export settings open, make sure the blue Media File toggle is enabled. Then on the right side, give your file a name (something like my4kvideo.mp4 works fine) and click Location to choose exactly where your rendered file is going to be saved. Do not skip this step. If you don’t set a location, you’ll be hunting around your hard drive for your rendered video, and nobody has time for that.

Choosing the Right Preset (and Why It’s Not Enough)

Next, select the High Quality 2160p 4K preset. At this point you’re probably thinking, great, I’ll just hit Export and be done. Right?

Wrong.

Adobe’s default settings are not going to give you the best possible quality. So we need to dig into the video settings manually. Click the Video drop-down and let’s go through everything.

Video Settings

For Frame Size, make sure you have UHD 3840×2160 selected. Frame rate should be set to 23.976 (or whatever frame rate matches your footage). For Aspect, make sure Square Pixels is selected. Then click More.

Here’s something really important: make sure Render at Maximum Depth and Use Maximum Render Quality are both checked. These two options can genuinely improve the quality of your exported file, and since you’re going through all this trouble, you absolutely want them enabled.

Encoding Settings

Under Encoding Settings, set Performance to Hardware Encoding. If your computer doesn’t support it, you can fall back to software, but hardware encoding uses your GPU to render dramatically faster. If it’s available to you, use it.

For Profile, set it to Main. You might notice a Main 10 option in the dropdown, but unless you’re exporting in HDR (which is a completely different and much more complex workflow), 99.9% of people should just leave it on Main. The quality will still be excellent.

For Level, leave it at 5.2. For Tier, set it to High, which unlocks your bitrate so you can push the quality even further. Leave HDR Graphics White Nits at the default of 203.

Bitrate Settings: The Most Important Part

This is where it really matters. Your bitrate is the single biggest setting that affects the quality of your exported video.

For Bit Rate Encoding, select VBR 1-Pass. Here’s why this matters: if you select 2-Pass or CBR and you’re on a Mac, Premiere will default back to software encoding, which can take hours to render. Not ideal. VBR 1-Pass keeps hardware encoding active and still produces excellent quality.

For Target Bitrate, set it to 50 Mbps. Yes, this is going to result in a large file. Premiere will even show you an estimated file size in the settings panel. But that file size is completely worth it if you want the highest quality 4K video on YouTube.

Quick note for 60fps: if you’re exporting at 60fps instead of 24 or 30, bump your target bitrate up to 80 Mbps. The higher frame rate needs the extra data to maintain quality after YouTube processes it.

Pro Tip: Always Upload to YouTube in 4K, Even If You Didn’t Film in 4K

This is one of the most underrated tricks in video editing. Even if you filmed in 1080p, I’d strongly recommend using these 4K export settings and uploading to YouTube in 4K.

Here’s why: when you upscale your footage to 4K and upload it, YouTube assigns a significantly higher bitrate during playback. The result is a dramatically sharper, better-looking video than if you had uploaded in HD. This applies to pretty much every major platform too: YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo. Uploading in 4K will almost always give you better results.

If you want to go deeper on the editing side of things and not just the export side, check out my Edit Videos Like a Pro guide, which covers the whole workflow from start to finish.

Audio Settings

Click the Audio drop-down and verify the following settings:

Audio Format: AAC
Audio Codec: AAC
Sample Rate: 48,000 Hz
Channels: Stereo
Bit Rate: 320 kbps

These should already be set by default, but it’s worth double-checking every time.

Save Your Settings as a Preset

Now that you have all of these settings dialed in, the last thing you want is to have to do this all over again next time. You have two options.

First, you can download my free export presets, which have all of these settings pre-built and ready to go. Second, you can save your own custom preset right inside Premiere. To do that, click the Preset drop-down, hit the three dots to the right, select Save Preset, give it a name like H264 4K 24fps 50mbps, and hit OK. From then on, it’ll appear in your preset list any time you need it.

Once you’re set, hit Queue or Export, and you’re done.

If you found this helpful, I’ve got export guides for all the other major platforms too, so check out my guide on exporting Instagram Reels in Premiere Pro as well as older guides for 4K export settings and HD export settings if you want to compare how things have changed. All linked for you. Thanks for reading, and have a great day.

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!

Dell just released the dream monitor for video editors. It isn’t cheap, but it checks literally every single box you could ever have for editing and color grading, it can calibrate itself, and you can game on it too. This is the Dell U3226Q, and in this post I’m going to be reviewing it from the perspective of a video editor who also games some on the side.

Also, for the sake of ethics: this post is not paid or sponsored by Dell, but they did send me the monitor so I could make this review.

An Anti-Glare OLED Panel

Let’s start with the biggest reason to care about this monitor: it has an extremely color accurate OLED panel. Dell claims this is the world’s first OLED panel with an anti-glare, low reflection coating. That means it doesn’t have the glossy pop you’d get from an OLED with a glass screen, but as a professional who wants to minimize glare, if you work in a bright room this thing is going to block more light and be much easier to see. It also comes with a detachable monitor hood to cut back on even more light hitting the screen, which is great.

If you’ve never used an OLED before, just know that OLED is pretty much the peak of display technology right now. You get a virtually unlimited contrast ratio with bright highlights and perfectly dark shadows because the pixels themselves can turn completely off when showing black. There’s no halo or ghosting effect like you’d get on an IPS panel.

Everything in display technology has been moving toward OLED for years. Phones have used OLED displays for years. If you’re watching my YouTube video right now on your phone, you’re probably watching it on an OLED screen. OLED TVs are what most people want to buy, and I’ve personally had one for several years and love it.

So when I say this Dell monitor is designed to leverage all the strengths of an extremely high-quality OLED panel in ways that will truly benefit you as a video editor, including a bunch of features they aren’t even advertising, I mean it. This may be the last monitor you have to buy for a very long time.

Color Accuracy

Dell claims this monitor covers 100% of the sRGB color space and 99% of DCI-P3, both of which really matter for video editors. When I tested it with my Spyder color calibrator, I’m happy to tell you those claims were accurate. This screen delivers extremely accurate colors that look exactly how they should.

But here’s the thing: even with an extremely color accurate monitor that comes calibrated from the factory, I always recommend color calibrating any screen you plan to use for color grading. Monitor colors shift over time, it’s just a fact of screen technology. Colors can get warmer or cooler, the tint can shift more red or green. I’ve literally had it happen where I went too long between color calibrations, rendered a video, played it back on another computer, and thought “wait, these colors look a little funky.” Then I’d need to recalibrate to get things back to normal.

And color calibration can be a pain. You have to buy a color calibrator for a few hundred bucks, install the software, and then every few months remember to reconnect the calibrator and rerun the calibration. Most calibration software has a little nagging pop-up that appears to remind you, and I have lost count of the number of times I closed one of those pop-ups because I didn’t have time to deal with it.

And don’t even get me started on managing monitor ICC profiles and making sure each monitor is using the correct one, because you wake up one day and your operating system has chosen a different one for some reason and everything looks completely different until you track down the problem.

Let me know in the comments if you identify with that annoyance, because here’s where this monitor blows your mind.

The Built-In Color Calibrator

If you’ve been wondering why the bottom bezel on this monitor looks slightly thicker with a weird cut-out rectangle, strap in.

With this Dell OLED, you do not need to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on a separate color calibration tool and awkwardly dangle it over the front of your screen. This monitor has one built in, and it is so cool.

Whenever you want, you can press the joystick on the back of the monitor to open the menu, select calibrate, and the monitor will pop out a tiny motorized camera on a stick from the base. It analyzes the pixels on the screen and color calibrates itself at a hardware level.

What does hardware level mean? There are two types of color calibration: software and hardware. Software is where you buy a separate calibration tool, plug it into your computer’s USB port, install software, and whenever you calibrate, the results are saved as one of those annoying .icc files where you’re at the mercy of your operating system to actually use them correctly.

Hardware calibration is completely different. When you calibrate the monitor, the result is saved as a look-up table (LUT) to the monitor itself rather than to your computer. You don’t need any software on your computer for it to work. And if you switch between using a laptop and a desktop, you don’t need to have color calibration software installed on both machines. Just plug either one into the monitor and it’s going to display accurate colors, because those colors are saved to the monitor, not the individual computer.

Pretty cool, right? It absolutely blew my mind when that little camera stick popped out for the first time.

But we’re not done with the annoyance-fixing, because half the pain of color calibrating is the external calibrator and software, but the other half is just remembering to actually do it. Remember that annoying pop-up reminding you every few months?

Here’s what I think is truly magical about this monitor: you can set it to color calibrate itself on a schedule, completely automatically, with no input required from you at all. You can schedule it to calibrate every 200 hours, or quarterly, monthly, weekly, or even daily depending on how color-critical your work is.

You literally never have to think about color calibrating your screen again. Every time you sit down to color grade, you know the colors are accurate because the monitor has been keeping itself calibrated. Suddenly this monitor’s price starts to seem a lot more justified, doesn’t it?

Color Space Support

None of that would matter if the monitor didn’t support the color spaces you actually use when color grading, and that’s another area where this monitor feels purpose-built for video editors.

Open the menu and you’ll find presets for digital cinema like DCI-P3 with gamma 2.4 and 2.2, presets for YouTube like sRGB, photography with Adobe RGB, and broadcast video standards like Rec.709 and Rec.2020. There is so much control here, and it’s far more advanced than just picking “vivid” or “flat” on another monitor.

And then there’s HDR. It supports multiple flavors: HDR10 and HLG both with 1000 nits of brightness, Dolby Vision, and DisplayHDR True Black 500, a display standard designed for extremely accurate shadow detail while still getting quite bright at 500 nits. If you want to color grade in both standard and high dynamic range, this monitor handles basically all of it.

Hidden Filmmaker Features

Are we done with video features? No, because there are hidden settings in the menu that I haven’t seen anybody talking about or Dell advertising anywhere, but that are going to be extremely useful if you’re a filmmaker.

Here’s the context: if you want to buy an OLED reference monitor for on-set use, SmallHD will happily sell you one for an eye-watering $13,000 at the time I’m writing this. You get stellar visual quality and all the extra software features you’d expect from SmallHD, like scopes, overlays, and markers. It’s great, but you pay a lot for it.

Now with that $13,000 price in your head, this Dell OLED comes in at roughly one-fifth of that price and includes masking and marker overlays.

You can go into the monitor settings to add a 2.35:1 overlay, a 4:3 overlay if you’re outputting open gate, and more. You can also enable a mask that dims the parts of the frame that won’t be included in the video if you’re filming in an aspect ratio like 2.35:1.

I genuinely don’t know why these features are included on this monitor, but I’m not complaining. It definitely doesn’t have the fancy SmallHD OS, but it also doesn’t have the price. I’m not saying you have to buy it for that reason, but it’s really interesting that Dell included it.

Gaming Performance

Usually with a higher-end video editing monitor you have to make compromises, where color accuracy is great but the refresh rate is terrible. I’ve seen monitors with good colors that maxed out at 30hz or 60hz.

This Dell OLED combines an extremely color accurate and vibrant HDR screen with a 120hz refresh rate, 0.3ms response time, and VRR support. For most people who want to edit videos and game on the side, you’re going to be really happy with it.

To be clear, it’s not going to keep up with the more gaming-focused OLED monitors out there today with refresh rates at 240hz or higher, but those gaming monitors don’t offer the same level of color accuracy and built-in hardware color calibrators either.

Ports and Build Quality

A monitor is only as good as the ports it has, and you don’t have to worry here. You get 2 HDMI 2.1 ports, 1 DisplayPort 1.4 port, 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports, plus a full USB hub with USB-C and USB-A ports that pop out of a hidden cavity on the back. It also has a 2.5 gigabit ethernet port, really rounding out the hub experience. It comes with a DisplayPort cable, HDMI cable, and USB-C cable in the box.

The stand is sturdy with no wobble, and it can rotate, raise and lower, and tilt vertically. Controls are minimalistic: a power button and a joystick on the back that doubles as a button, plus three capacitive buttons on the bottom left of the bezel that you can assign to whatever you want for quick access.

The only thing missing is speakers, but honestly monitor speakers are bad 99% of the time anyway, so it’s not a big loss.

Burn-In: Should You Be Worried?

Let’s talk about the one concern you might have with an OLED monitor, and that’s burn-in. This is where a static image on screen becomes permanently visible, even when you’re doing something else. If you have grandparents who always have the news on, you may have seen this where the TV looks like it permanently has a news ticker at the bottom even when you change the channel.

With OLED screens, burn-in was more of a problem in the past due to the fragile nature of organic pixels. That said, in the last 5 to 10 years, burn-in reduction technology has gotten significantly better. TVs and monitors now have special refresh modes that run when the screen is off to help keep pixels from burning in.

This Dell monitor offers a pixel refresh feature that automatically runs whenever it goes into standby mode, and by default forces a pixel refresh every 24 hours. You can even set it to every 12 hours if you want to be extra careful.

My OLED TV has had zero burn-in issues after years of regular use. That said, a computer monitor is different from a TV because you’re more likely to leave it on all day displaying a static image like a dock at the bottom of the screen. This monitor has additional burn-in protections for that, including the ability to dim the screen or even dim only static areas like where the dock sits.

My recommendation if you’re worried about burn-in: hide your dock and menus until you mouse over them, set your desktop wallpaper to rotate through different images, and set your monitor to turn off when you’re not using it. Do those things and I would really not expect any issues, because the monitor will refresh its pixels whenever it’s off.

Should You Buy the Dell U3226Q?

Let’s talk price. This monitor comes in at $2,600 at the time of writing, which is on the higher end for a professional monitor before you get into ultra-niche reference monitors that cost $10,000, $20,000, or $30,000.

Here’s something I’ve found to be true in my technology-loving life: once you go OLED, you won’t go back. I feel the same way about this monitor as I did when I bought my first OLED TV. The contrast is too perfect, the colors are too good. Pointing a camera at it can’t do it justice, you really have to see it with your own eyes, and once you do and get used to editing on it, you won’t ever want to go back.

The good news is that OLED monitors keep dropping in price. You can get an extremely color accurate OLED for around $500 to $1,000 right now that will work great for color grading. But those budget OLEDs won’t have nearly the same features that make your life easier as a professional.

You’ll still need to color calibrate your monitor. You can buy a separate calibration tool and try to remember to do it every few months, or you can buy this Dell and have it calibrate itself automatically as often as you want, to the exact color space you’re editing in. It supports more color space presets than most monitors. Throw in the markers and overlays for different video aspect ratios, and this Dell OLED makes a really compelling argument for the price.

It’s going to save you time as an editor. And if your time is money, which I know most professionals feel strongly about, I think the Dell U3226Q is the monitor you should buy.

I’ll link to where I found the best price for this monitor down below, along with my monitor buyer guide to help you save time and money. And if you’re a video editor, check out my Edit Videos Like a Pro guide as well, which is completely free to download.