Sony has announced a new firmware update to the FS7 that will be available free of charge on March 15. This update includes great new features and improvements, including support for 4K XAVC-I recording, the ability to encode and write ProRes files to a single internal XQD card, and 4-channel audio recording capability.

Arri just announced the latest addition to the ALEXA family, the all new ALEXA Mini. Coming in at a svelte 7.3" x 4.9" x 5.5" (LxWxH) and weighing only 5 pounds, the Mini compliments the series with the same S35 ALEV III CMOS sensor found in the ALEXA and AMIRA. Utilizing a carbon body with titanium lens mount attached directly to the titanium sensor mount, the Mini shares the same PL, EF and B4 bayonet lens mounts, as well as the same MVF-1 viewfinder as the AMIRA.

Dust and debris on your sensor can be a real problem when shooting with a closed down iris, particularly in bright environments, like a snowy exterior scene, or when shooting tabletop elements. Dust often shows up as soft dark spots in the image. In the video, I show you one simple way to clear your image of dust, debris and smudges.

The Sony FS7 camera is shipping in quantity now, and we've had a lot of requests for some of our custom scene files. We've put together five files in our usual flavors, along with new matching files for the Sony F5.

Data archiving is not something most of us want to think about, but it's a reality that all filmmakers have to face today. The demand for lower compression and higher resolution material is increasing, meaning that we all eat through hard drives much faster. On the bright side, archiving is getting easier and more affordable all the time. The LTO tape format has become the standard for data archiving in our business, and the new LTFS (Linear Tape File System) makes it easy to use. One downside of an LTO deck setup is that it is usually tied to a full computer workstation. That's where mLogic's mTape comes in.

Panasonic has just released new firmware for the VariCam 35 and HS cameras. This update includes some of the most anticipated features for these new cameras, and it's completely free.

Back in October Canon announced the C100 Mark II, the successor to the original C100. While keeping the same Super 35 sensor as the C100, the new model offers a number of welcome upgrades to image quality and functionality. We're now starting to see the first few shipments of the Mark II, so in the video above, I spend some time exploring these updates.

Sony is known for their reliable and proven Optical Disc technology. Many of us have countless numbers of their XDCAM discs on our shelves serving as an archive, just like we used to do with tape stock. Sony has recognized the need to archive material in a larger format with the same reliability (up to 50 years based on testing), so they built an Optical Disc Cartridge, which combines 12 discs into one container, sort of like a car CD changer. Cartridges come in sizes up to 1.5 TB, in either write-one or re-writable formats.

The Sony PXW-FS7 is causing a lot of buzz, and with good reason, since it can acquire multiple resolutions and codecs. The XDCA-FS7 is an extension unit that attaches to the back of the FS7, providing inputs and outputs, as well as the ability to export Raw for external recording.