DaVinci Resolve 18.6 is OUT!

In less than a month since the 18.5 release, Resolve 18.6 it out (pdf for the list of new features)

Many quality of life improvements are welcomed, but I’m mostly/pleasantly surprised by how fast BlackMagic Design incorporated Apple ProRes Log into this release.

It’s not a new software release without AI these days. These 7 AI, excuse me Neural Engine features, will save time and enhance your colors/looks.

It’s great to see that Fusion is getting attentions with new features and improvements in this release because I always felt like Fusion is an afterthought, a checkbox, in the toolsets of DaVinci Resolve. I’m trying to do more in Fusion that I could’ve done with After Effect, for example.

It’s a lot to chew on for .1 release, but that’s the nature of this cutting-edge technology/business. Soldier on!

AI in Avid MediaCentral

Avid is swiftly developing and incorporating latest AI capabilities in its software, and one of its demo videos has captured my attention.

Although it’s not for Media Composer yet, I can see these porting over soon.

AI Color Matching (using AtomX Cast from ATOMOS)

With all the hype around AI for post production, AI for color correction is evolving slower than expected because, as we all know, Shot Match to This Clip in DaVinci Resolve rarely works, if ever for example. For all the latest AI capabilities added to recent DaVinci Resolve, this function is hardly improved upon, or mentioned at all. (I try it time to time though, just for kicks.)

So I was pleasantly surprised when AtomX Cast from ATOMOS unveiled its color matching by AI capability. Although I’m just taking theirs words from the demo videos below, this feature is desperately needed/required for DaVinci Resolve.

I wonder if working with raw camera signals make AI understand colors more better than video data wrapped in various media codecs?

Have you found this app working as their videos claim? Please share your thoughts if you have used it.

My Reactions to iPhone 15 Pro (Max)

Annual September Apple Keynote aka new iPhone announcement happened earlier today and it held my interests despite being somewhat predictable and spoiled by the Apple rumor mill.

Every new iPhone release has become predictably iterative affair, but this year merits a blog post since Apple made serious updates to the camera technologies underpinning iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.

Here’s the list of defining features that set apart from the previous iPhones.

  1. USB-C 3 / 10 Gbits per second (iPhone 15 only supports USB-C 2)

  2. Support for ACES

  3. New 5x lens using tetraprism (iPhone Pro Max only)

  4. Spatial Videos (only viewable on Vision Pro for now)

  5. Support for 4K60(fps) ProRes recording to external drives

  6. Customizable Action Button

  7. Ray tracing with A17 Pro chip (Saving A17 non-Pro chip for near year, iPhone 16 perhaps?)

  8. New Portrait photo mode. (RIP Lytro)

Every year, iPhone is getting closer and closer to replacing not only DSLRs, but pro video cameras as well. With support for pro video technology and workflows, iPhone is a serious consideration for a C cam, if not a B cam. (No smartphone camera will ever replace A Cam from Arri or Sony, obviously)

This solid updates merit purchase for me as an iPhone 13 Pro Max user.

Apple also introduced new iCloud+ tiers: $30 for 6 TB & $60 for 12 TB per month. This means that Apple intends to get another hundreds of dollars of service revenue per year from iPhone Pro (and iPad & Mac) users.

If Apple can keep up this pace of innovations that can satisfy the pro users, they will make more money than ever before.

(Disclaimer: I own Apple stocks as of today)