Many will remember the excitement surrounding Canon’s release, in March 2010, of a firmware update for the 5D Mark II which added 24p to the camera’s already ground-breaking video mode (the 5D Mark II was the first “full-frame” DSLR with 1080p video recording). This mid-lifecycle enhancement is perhaps most responsible for igniting the DSLR video revolution.

Last week, Convergent Design unleashed its largest firmware yet into the wilds of the production world. Firmware v2016.06 is packed with new features -- twenty-three new ones to be exact -- on top of twenty-two different fixes and improvements. The best part of all? This is a completely free update!

Sony's CBKZ-55FX upgrade license enables the PMW-F5 to record and playback 4K, effectively doubling the camera's resolution. It also adds 4K quad-SDI and HDMI output, as well as simultaneous recording of XAVC at 4K and MPEG 50Mbps 422 in HD.

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.

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.

Expanding on the 17-120mm Cine-Servo lens introduced at NAB, Canon has just announced the new CN20x50 IAS, which features a whopping focal length range of 50mm-1000mm at T5.0 to T8.9.

Arri has recently started the second Open Beta phase for Software Update Packet 10.0, and they've announced some exciting features for this release.

Sony has just announced that they will be adding two new codecs to the F5 and F55 cameras: Apple ProRes and Avid DNxHD.