With performance and especially efficiency that should scare Intel, Windows PCs running Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon X Elite have strong appeal for content creators. The current problem is a lack of apps, but Blackmagic Design just announced that its popular (and free) DaVinci Resolve 19 (beta 3) video editing and effects software now supports Windows machines running the new chip. "DaVinci Resolve 19 beta 3 now supports Qualcomm's new all in one CPU, NPU and GPU processor for Windows, Snapdragon X Elite," Blackmagic Design wrote in a press release. "DaVinci Resolve has been fine tuned to optimize performance of the DaVinci Neural AI Engine, with NPU acceleration giving customers up to 4.7x faster performance of AI tools such as magic mask and 2x faster performance for smart reframe on computers using this new processor." All the DaVinci Resolve 19 tools found on Intel PCs and Macs are on the Qualcomm platform as well.

Blackmagic Design released its annual NAB 2024 update and announced over a dozen new products, including a new version of its popular DaVinci Resolve editing suite. Other key products include the Micro Color Panel for DaVinci Resolve on iPad, a 17K 65mm camera and the Pyxis 6K cube camera. DaVinci Resolve has become a popular option for editors who don't want to pay a monthly subscription for Adobe's Premiere Pro, and is arguably more powerful in some ways. The latest version 19 takes a page from its rival, though, with a bunch of new AI-powered features for effects, color, editing, audio and more. Starting with the Edit module, a new feature lets you edit clips using text instead of video.

Nikon has released firmware updates for it latest full-frame Z6 II and Z7 II that should improve eye-tracking autofocus and video performance for the Z6 II. The key feature that applies to both cameras is improved human eye-tracking performance when your subject's face size is small within the frame. That means that it'll pick up and track them more quickly if they're approaching the camera from afar, for example. One of the key new firmware features applies to the Z6 II only, however. You can now shoot 4K UHD video at up to 60 fps, rather than 30 fps as before.

This is some Kodachrome level color voodoo – color grading and shot matching powered by machine-learning. And it comes from a collaboration with some friends of ours from the artist and live visual side, so it's doubly worth mentioning. What if the current techniques called AI turned out to be really important to creative artists – just not for the reason the general public expected? That's sure what Colourlab Ai looks like. It harnesses the powers of massive data crunching of pixels, the thing "AI" in the current generation was designed to do, and then applies it to making your video look amazing.

With the latest release of DaVinci Resolve 15, Blackmagic Design has radically made over its editing suite to create one of the best video-editing systems at any price -- even against mainstream options like Premiere Pro CC and Apple's Final Cut Pro X. It now comes with Fusion, a powerful visual effects (VFX) app used in Hollywood films, along with an excellent color corrector and audio editor. Despite doing more than most editors will ever need, the full studio release costs just $300, and you can get a stripped-down version with most features for a grand total of zero dollars. I use Adobe's Premiere Pro CC as part of its Creative Cloud suite, which costs more than $50 a month, so Resolve 15 is certainly a cheaper option. After trying it out for a week, would I be willing to switch?