The MMX spacecraft is expected to launch in Japan’s fiscal 2024 and reach Mars by fiscal 2025. It’ll be longer still before the return capsule arrives.

It could be worth the wait. MMX should not only provide highly detailed photography of Mars from above the surface, but land on Phobos and collect surface material. Scientists may learn more about Mars’ past and present. It could also be a treasure trove for NHK — the media giant would have 8K footage that other TV providers could never hope to record themselves.

Many of us are still working from home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but we still need to work closely with colleagues on some projects. Changes to how you create and handle proxy media in Final Cut Pro will help some folks on that front. Apple says those improvements will “provide editors with portability and performance when working with large resolution formats, or when collaborating remotely.”

There are other workflow and performance improvements across the board. Final Cut Pro can transcode 8K RED RAW video to ProRes 422 up to three times faster on MacBook Pro and up to twice as fast on Mac Pro, Apple says. If you’re working with 360-degree video, you’ll be able to “quickly stabilize stereoscopic 3D video” and review footage separately for each eye in the 360-degree viewer.

Along with the Final Cut Pro improvements, Apple has updated its motion graphics tool Motion and encoding app Compressor. You can read more about all of the upgrades, which are free for existing users, on the Apple Newsroom.

You’re probably wondering why anyone would want to shot a film in 12K. The idea here is not to so much to do that but to allow filmmakers to capture the smoothest possible footage at resolutions people are consuming their content in currently. Oversampling footage gives filmmakers more flexibility when it comes time for post-production, and the Ursa Mini Pro 12K can capture 8K and 4K footage without cropping. 

Besides its impressive sensor, the camera includes features like an interchangeable lens mount and dual UHS-II SD slots. Another nifty feature is that the camera encodes footage using Blackmagic own RAW codec, which the company claims will enable you to edit any 12K footage using a laptop.  

With a $9,995 price tag, the Ursa Mini Pro 12K is out of the range of most of us mere mortals. But compared to cinema cameras from the likes of Red and Canon, some of which can cost tens of thousands of dollars, it’s a reasonable price for what is a very capable camera.

With smaller pixels, it probably won’t fare as well in low-light as the EOS R6, also unveiled today. The ISO range runs from 100-51,200 and is expandable to ISO 102,400.

As for autofocus, the new Dual Pixel CMOS AF II has 100 percent coverage with 1,053 AF areas. It combines a high-speed sensor readout with the much faster DIGIC X image processing chip, allowing for more accuracy and faster continuous shooting speeds. The EOS R5 supports face, eye and head detection and now works with animals, too. Canon has promised better eye detection than the EOS R if your subject is farther away or has smaller eyes. It can also hit AF in relatively low light down to EV-6.

Canon

Like the EOS R, the EOS R5 has a fully-articulating display that should make it a super-powered vlogging camera, if you really want to see your face in 8K. It also comes with a very high-resolution 5.76 million dot OLED viewfinder than works at up to 120 fps for tracking fast-moving subjects. Canon has also seen fit to include dual SD card slots, both of the high-speed UHS-II variety. Meanwhile, the body is dust- and water-resistant and weighs 738 grams including a battery and SD memory card.

The EOS R5 is Canon’s first full-frame mirrorless camera with five-axis in-body stabilization. That keeps the camera steady even with Canon’s non-stabilized RF lenses like the RF 50mm f/1.2 and RF 28-70mm f/2.0 models. If you do have a stabilized RF lens, however, Canon has promised that you’ll get up to 8 stops of image stabilization with the lens and in-body systems working together. If accurate (we’ll need to test that, for sure), it beats any other camera out there by a full stop.

Canon

On top of shooting RAW or JPEG photos, you can now shoot “HEIF” 10-bit photos that are much smaller than RAW files, but have a lot more detail than JPEGs. Canon has also introduced a “face lighting correction” function that boosts the exposure on your subject’s face if they’re lit from behind or in other tricky lighting situations.

While the headline video feature is 8K RAW at up to 30 fps, you can shoot 4K 60 fps video in 10-bit with Canon Log, using All-I but not RAW modes. Weirdly, 1080p is limited to 60 fps, so I guess Canon figures that you’re not going to bother if you can do 120 fps in 4K. As Canon said earlier, all the 4K and 8K video modes will use the full-width of the sensor and support Dual Pixel autofocus, so there’s none of the awful cropping that came with the EOS R.

When Canon first teased the EOS R5, folks were concerned it could cost north of five grand, but luckily that’s not the case. It’s priced at a pretty reasonable $3,899 (body only), or $4,999 with the RF 24-105 F4 L IS USM lens. It’s expected to arrive by the end of July.

The three higher-end models now include a pre-amplifier mode that disconnects the internal amps and gives a clear signal path for your audio — useful for people who have speakers powered by external amplifiers, and a feature that was previously limited to only the flagship model. A new feature builds in a Bluetooth transmitter so it can pipe any audio directly to headphones or a hearing aid, whether you have the speakers on or not.

A main difference between the four models is the amount of output power and channels supported, however the flagship AVR-X6700H is the only one that will get DTS:X Pro support with up to 13 channels of decoding for your 7.2.6 or 9.2.4 speaker configurations once it receives a software update later this year. The rest will have to make do with Dolby Atmos, Dolby Atmos Height Virtualization Technology, DTS:X, DTS Virtual:X, IMAX Enhanced and Auro-3D support.

Two higher-end models started shipping this week with the 11.2-channel AVR-X6700H ($2,499) and 9.2-channel AVR-4700H ($1,699) available now via Amazon and other retailers. The 9.2-channel AVR- X3700H ($1,199) will begin shipping July 15th, while the 7.2-channel AVR-X2700H ($849) is scheduled to go on sale August 15th.

Buy Denon AVR-X6700H at Amazon – $2,499

Buy Denon AVR-X4700H at Amazon – $1,699

Denon

One step down, there’s the NanoCell 85 series. The base 49-inch model is available today for $649. Later this month and in May, the 65-inch and 55-inch models will make their way to stores. They’ll set you back $1,199 and $849, respectively. LG hasn’t announced a price yet for the flagship 75-inch model, though you’ll be able to pick it up in September. Both the 90 and 85 series TVs include support for AMD’s variable refresh rate FreeSync technology and come with an auto low-latency mode built-in. On paper, at least, that should make them decent for gaming.   

If all you want is a relatively affordable TV from a brand name, then the NanoCell 81 series may do the trick. It consists of 65-inch and 55-inch models that will cost $899 and $599. The 65-inch model will be available this month, with the 55-inch variant coming out in May. Going for the more affordable TVs, you miss out on LG’s third-generation a7 processor, which the company includes in both its NanoCell 90 and NanoCell 85 TVs. That said, you still get support for Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG, as well as Dolby Atmos.

However, the highlight of LG’s new LCD lineup consists of two 8K sets: a 75-inch ($4,999) model that will be available in May and a 65-inch ($3,499) set that comes out in June. The NanoCell 99 series TVs share the same third-generation a9 AI processor as LG’s OLED TVs. Black levels won’t be the equal of the company’s OLED lineup, but the two models are significantly cheaper and you won’t have to worry about burn-in as much.  

As with most annual TV refreshes, if you recently bought a TV, there’s little reason to regret your decision. There aren’t a lot of significant improvements to be found in LG’s 2020 LCD lineup. That said, if you’re in the market for a new TV, all of the company’s latest LCD models look like decent options, though it’s probably best to wait for a price drop.

You’ll unsurprisingly have to pay more for the larger sets, but you might not have to be as patient. If you absolutely want a set this month, the 55-inch CX set will be available for $1,799. Its 65-inch ($2,799) and 77-inch ($4,999) counterparts arrive in April and May respectively. If you’d prefer the slightly more frugal BX series, a 55-inch set will debut in May for $1,599, while the 65-inch edition appears around the same time for $2,299.

The spare-no-expense types are covered as well. The new GX “Gallery” sets, which offer extra-thin designs without a breakout box, launch in April at prices ranging from $2,499 or a 55-inch set to an eye-watering $5,999 for the 77-inch screen. The thinner but breakout-dependent WX “Wallpaper” series, meanwhile, will be available in a lone 65-inch model this June for $4,999. And if you’re drowning in cash, the 8K ZX series ships in May at $19,999 for a 77-inch TV and $29,999 for the 88-inch flagship.

As before, many of the upgrades come down to subtler improvements. Gamers will be happy for G-Sync support to reduce screen tearing when using a GeForce GPU in a PC, while movie fans may like Dolby Vision IQ’s more adaptable HDR and Filmmaker Mode’s smoothing-free output. You can likewise expect the obligatory processor upgrade and corresponding improvements to image processing. Many of these features won’t make you regret buying last year’s TV, but you might appreciate them if you were holding out.

Canon confirmed that the EOS R5 would shoot 8K video at 30 fps using the full (not cropped) sensor, beating any other mirrorless camera in terms of resolution and depth of field. It added a bit more detail too, saying that “in all 8K modes the EOS R5 will support Canon’s renowned Dual Pixel CMOS AF (autofocus) system.”

The EOS R5 will also be “a beast for subject detection and tracking performance for animals and people,” Canon said in the press release. The system will recognize dogs, cats and birds, tracking the animals’ eyes, but also the face and body when the eyes aren’t visible.

Other specs remain as promised before, including 12 fps and 20 fps burst speeds with the mechanical and electronic shutter, respectively, in-body stabilization that works in concert with stabilized lenses, automatic image transfers from the device to Canon’s new image cloud platform and dual card slots. We’re still missing key information like the sensor resolution, price and release date, but that will no doubt come in due time.