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NAB Show 2026 Moves Toward Broadcast, but Cinema Products Still Excite
NAB 2026 “NAB has always been the broadcast show,” Paul Hawxhurst, senior technical specialist at Canon USA, told me at the show this year. “For a little while there, it was cinema, cinema, cinema. Right now, it’s going back to broadcast, broadcast, broadcast.”
On the floor in Las Vegas, that shift is hard to miss. As I made the rounds on the final day of the show, I asked vendors how business had been, and nearly all described a quieter year. Some companies reduced their footprint or skipped booths altogether, opting instead for smaller presences as a sponsor within NAB’s Cine Central program. Couched within the Central Hall of the vast convention center, cinema feels less like the center of gravity and more like one corner of a show increasingly prioritizing stronger growth sectors like live production, sports, content creation, and even live worship.
The weeks surrounding the show reinforced that trajectory. Days before NAB, German broadcast technology company Riedel Communications announced its acquisition of ARRI. A week after, Quixote Studios announced that it would shutter operations in Atlanta and New Mexico while scaling back in Los Angeles and New York, laying off roughly 70 employees. The message is one of consolidation and realignment toward more stable, broadcast-adjacent markets.
That emphasis was reflected in NAB’s own programming. During the annual press conference, mentions of traditional filmmaking were scarce. One mention was to Mark Fischbach, better known as YouTuber Markiplier, who recently self-financed his feature debut Iron Lung—a telling example of how the definition of “filmmaker” is expanding.
It can be easy to miss this larger industry shift on the show floor, as cinematographers, directors, camera operators, and film students move from booth to booth, chatting with product designers and packing into seminars and hands-on workshops. Over the course of the four-day conference, the Central Hall buzzed with the energy of a film community eager to connect and keep working.
Portland-based cinematographer Sean Conley loved ARRI’s color science, but as a freelance DP couldn’t afford to purchase his own Alexa camera. After discovering Kinefinity at NAB back in 2018, he was taken by how closely the camera’s color science matched ARRI at a more affordable price point. In subsequent years, Conley has come to own a number of the Chinese company’s cameras. Kinefinity’s Vista was unveiled at the show, taking home a Best of Show award. This 6K full-frame model prioritizes a “small and light” body, Conley explains, functioning “basically as a personal cinema camera that you can walk around with and not draw as much attention to yourselves.” Its large four-inch OLED touchscreen goes up to 800 nits, meaning that you may not need to add an external monitor as you build out a rig for use.
Founded in 2013, Z CAM got a visibility bump last year when DP Fraser Taggart used a host of Z CAMs fixed to biplanes for the showstopping flight sequence in Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. The 6K full-frame camera used in that film was updated last year with the release of the E2-F6 Mark II. The Mark II adds SDI and Genlock, which allows frame-by-frame image synchronicity on multi-cam shoots. Media capture shifts from CFast media cards to industry standard CFexpress Type B. Like Kinefinity, Z CAM offers a cheaper alternative to pricier camera models with a color science that can match footage shot on more expensive A-Cams. To Panasonic’s Neil Matsumoto, conversations around color science have died down as more and more cameras can shoot log footage at ultra-high resolutions, allowing for maximum flexibility with color correction in post-production. “That was always the thing: colorimetry. And we all said, ‘Oh, Canon has the best colorimetry,’ or Nikon or Sony,” Matsumoto tells me at the Panasonic booth. “We’re all shooting log now. We’re all super good.”
Fujifilm’s large format GFX ETERNA 55 cinema camera was released late last year, and as with any new product, adoption takes time. The proposition of shooting on a brand new camera adds an extra element of unpredictability in an industry that strives to minimize risk as much as possible across prep and production. But the Eterna’s undeniable appeal, including its large-format sensor (which is 1.7 times larger than a standard full-frame sensor), reasonable price point, and IMAX-approval, mean adoption by cinematographers is more a question of “when” as opposed to “if.”
Similarly, cinematographer Blake McClure took a leap of faith when he shot HBO series Rooster on the then-unreleased Blackmagic URSA Cine 17K 65 last year. “Can I stretch it? Can I destroy it, and will it hold up?” were his main concerns, but after seeking feedback from fellow cinematographers, including Greig Fraser (The Batman), who had been testing the camera pre-release, he was given enthusiastic greenlights from all he spoke with. McClure wasn’t so interested in the resolution capabilities of the camera so much as how the large format sensor size allowed him to shoot on a “longer focal length lens, but still have a wider field of view,” he explained. “That changes where you put the camera, which changes how you tell the story. That’s all I cared about.”
Blackmagic were also promoting their annual update to their coloring and editing software in DaVinci Resolve 21. This iteration continues to add a host of helpful AI tools aimed at making an editor or colorist’s job easier. One such tool can comb footage for all appearances of the slate, making syncing sound and footage a cinch. “15-20 years ago, you probably had an assistant editor going through and doing all of your slates, organizing your media,” explains Sarah Jones, senior technical solution specialist at Blackmagic Design. “But these days, it’s almost a privilege to have that assistant. If we can take care of those tedious tasks and you get to the actual creativity of the job, people really appreciate that,” she continued.
At Cine Gear Expo 2024, I profiled Bit Part, a new company which produces camera control hardware free from the radio interference which previously plagued film sets. This year they unveiled the Bitbox Max, which was developed “from the ground up, fully in-house with better filtering and electronics,” co-founder Ian Edwards explains. With four times the range of previous Bit Box products, its application is particularly useful in extreme filming situations, like when a camera is present on the other side of a mountain, far away from video village, per an example from Edwards.
One benefit of trade shows like NAB is that facetime between vendors and consumers often leads to revelations about unique applications for products. For example, Bitbox was designed with digital imaging technicians in mind, but they “found that ACs love the device,” Edwards explained. To that end, Bit Part debuted the Bitbox Mini-C “designed for 1st ACs who want a small, two camera package and are already using a Bitbox,” he adds. With support for “any camera that has USB-C” including Sony, RED, Canon, or Blackmagic, the Bitbox Mini-C works as a base station that powers an iPad or iPhone, allowing the device to operate with just one cord.
In the sound space, Rode moves from 2.4 GHz digital sound into UHF (ultra-high frequency) 32-bit float onboard recording technology with the RØDELink II professional UHF wireless microphone system. This upgrade was made possible after Rode acquired high-end audio company Lectrosonics last May. At $1,499 for a two-channel device, it’s less than half the price of its competitive equivalent, maintaining Rode’s ethos of affordability for independent filmmakers.
Canon unveiled the CINE-SERVO 40-1200mm T5.0-10.8 lens, replacing the Canon CINE-SERVO 50-1000mm, which for over a decade found a broad range of applications from nature documentaries to church live streams. “One of the major feedback points about making it wider and telephoto came from them,” said Hawxhurst on Canon’s work with churches on product development. “It’s amazing how much wider 40mm is than 50mm. There is actually a lot more field of view,” he notes.
Elsewhere, ARRI completes the rollout of their Ensō Prime line, with the release of 10.5mm, 14mm, and 250mm lenses. Three different strengths of diopters, available as part of a vintage kit, attach to the back of the lens, allowing the user to “detune the lenses, for lack of a better term, really quickly,” explained Stephan Ukas-Bradley, ARRI vice president of product strategy and marketing. “You can make them look like a Canon K35 for instance, with the strongest positive filter,” he added.
What’s next for ARRI optics, now that the Ensō kit is complete? Ukas-Bradley acknowledged the growing lens market in Asia with its hyper-competitive prices. “We obviously see that, particularly with all the other glass coming out of Asia, price is a concern, so we might look into lower-cost glass. And with that you always have to compromise, so that’s something we’re going to be looking very carefully into.”
Regarding the Ensō lenses specifically, Ukas-Bradley adds that they’ll “probably look into a couple more creative options to detune them, with the same system we use with our diopters. We work closely with some of the filter manufacturers, see how we can create other different looks with that.”
To Ukas-Bradley’s point, China-based SIRUI started out making tripods 25 years ago and have since moved into producing ultra-fast anamorphic glass at affordable prices. At this year’s show, they introduced three new 1.5x full-frame anamorphic lenses in their IronStar Series at 75mm, 100mm and 135mm focal lengths. SIRUI won an award at NAB for another set of non-anamorphic lenses with their ultra-fast Vision Prime Full Frame Cine Lens, whose 15mm T1.6, 75mm T1.4 and 150mm T4 lenses in the kit will be available this month at $600 each.
Japan lens company Tamron unveiled the TAMRON-LINK, a small device which plugs into the base of their lenses, allowing for remote lens control via the Tamron lens utility iOS app. At $50, the bluetooth-powered LINK is cost effective like their lenses.
Nikon acquired RED Digital Cinema in 2024, and their first collaboration in the Nikon ZR cinema camera was a clear success. On the eve of this year’s NAB, Nikon teased the launch of their first-ever cinema lenses. Nikon’s Nikkor lenses are engineered for photography and videography, but work well in cinematic applications.
One present problem facing the industry is the skyrocketing cost of flash storage. Ichiro Ogawa, Nextorage senior manager for the imaging department, explained that “the cause is quite simple. It’s the AI server demand. Not enough is being shared for the consumer market.” As for a timeline on when a consumer might see lower prices again, Ogawa was realistic but hopeful. “Mid-2027 is the best case scenario,” he estimated.
Nextorage introduced their state-of-the-art dual compatible NX-B2PRO+ media cards with read options at either 416 or 1600 VPG (video performance guarantee). Most cameras are still recording at VPG 400, meaning the cards guarantee minimum write speeds at 400mb/second. But as shooting in higher resolutions becomes the norm, these new cards are “future-proof,” Ogawa says of their ability to write at three times the 400 standard. Currently for sale in Japan, where Nextorage is based, the cards will be available to the US market in the near future.
Similarly, Sandisk announced their Extreme PRO CFexpress, 4.0 Type B media cards, which brand manager, Nathan Brown, says “are geared towards enabling people who are shooting cinema quality work.” With 3700mb/s read speed and 3500mb/s write speeds, they are twice as fast as Sandisk’s Gen 3 cards. At VPG 1600 certified, like Nextorage’s cards, this will “help enable 12K as a key shooting format,” Brown adds. The technology may not quite be there yet, but points to that “future-proofing” that Nextorage suggested.
Lexar was at the show with their new 700 Portable SSD drive, which as part of their ARMOR series is engineered “for the creators that are rough on their gear and need extra ruggedness and durability,” says Joey Lopez, director of marketing. Lopez explains that “the community has been asking for higher capacity storage, because they don’t want to carry too many drives for projects on location.” As a result, this drive comes in a massive 8tb option. Also on display at Lexar was their Workflow Go Docking Station, whose six bays can be customized for whatever a production requires, whether that’s multiple CFexpress ports, SSD drives, or SD card slots. Card media dumps can occur simultaneously through one cord attached to a DIT workstation.
Over at Aputure, the lighting company offered attendees a sneak peak at their new STORM CS32 light which follows the company’s “high output, full spectrum, small size” mantra. “The CS32 is the brightest full-color, point-source fixture we have in our ecosystem, as well as on the market,” Brandon Le, product development team lead, explained. The light expands Aputure’s Blair CG lighting technology, which stands for blue, lime, amber, indigo, red, cyan and green. Within those seven, the whole gamut of the color spectrum is represented. Taking just the indigo emitters into account, the light “is able to produce a natural fluorescence that you get from natural daylight,” Le explained, whereas updated red emitters allow “a bit more saturated red, which allows us to bring out these really vibrant skin tones, because it is more similar to the near infrared light that you would get in tungsten.” This new technology in the STORM CS32 is “built for perfect color.” A true sneak peak, the light should be available later this year, but no release date is available just yet.
NANLITE/NANLUX debuted the Evoke 5C, fulfilling a market need for a powerful LED light that can fit in the palm of one’s hand, and can therefore be hidden anywhere on set—even fully submerged underwater with its stellar IP67 rating. Released a few days before the show, the light will begin shipping soon, and comes in three different kit options; $2,995 will get you the full kit with a host of accessories.
Astera’s QuikBeam implements greater broadcast capabilities, including POE (power over ethernet) and swappable QuikBrick batteries, alongside the reliability, service, and support that gaffers have come to expect from the brand. The light’s engine is “an RGBMA (mint and amber) source that perfectly mixes to create the colors you’re looking for,” explains Inner Circle Distribution’s Ricardo Rodriguez. With its 96-97 TLCI (Television Lighting Consistency Index) rating, the QuikBeam offers some of the most precise color rendering available on the market.
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- Litepanels Astra IP Half
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- Litepanels Astra IP 1×1
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- Litepanels Astra IP 1×2
The Astra IP range from Litepanels updates their original Astra range, which has been around for some time, adding three size options. Rugged, simplistic design prioritizes reliability and quick setups, so crews can “get out the case, put it on a stand, snap a battery onto the back, and get going,” says Michael Herbert, head of product at Litepanels. Near-waterproof at IP65 rated, Herbert explains that the new Astra line “were tested in Connecticut winters and Dubai deserts—all the extremes of operation.”
