Blackmagic’s Video Assist Gets Much Needed Update

Blackmagic adds focus peaking among the new features in their Video Assist

Focus assist added! Like I said in my initial review of Blackmagic’s new Video Assist, a 5″ monitor/recorder, a firmware update was needed. The Video Assist was originally lacking in focus assist and exposure assist to shooters when using the Video Assist as their main monitoring solution. That can be a problem and lead to a frustrating shooting experience. Thankfully, Blackmagic Design is listening.  

Today Blackmagic released Video Assist Firmware 1.1 which adds some of the necessary features for a rich experience with the Recorder/Monitor.

• Focus Peaking indication
• Zebra indication for setting iris
• Central Zoom to aid focus
• Timecode over HDMI
• Improved battery information
• Performance and stability updates 

Focus Peaking and Central Zoom to aid focus were the two features the original Video Assist software was most lacking. To make the Video Assist a complete Monitor/Recorder Blackmagic should add False Color to the list of improvements to come down the line. 

Then there is another question.  The Video Assist downscales 4K to 1080 making for a great way to record proxies when shooting 4K. Will the recorder add 4K recording down the line? Time will tell.