News roundup: ARRI, CETA Software, Glyph, Nikon, Nvidia, RØDE, SANDMARC, Zhiyun, and more

A weekend roundup of news stories from the past few days includes success for the Nikon Z5 II; new kit from Glyph, RØDE, SANDMARC, and Zhiyun; and an impressive bit of live TV involving an Italian train...

Nikon was Japan's best-selling mirrorless camera brand last month for the first time according to  BCN+R data, thanks in large to sales of the Nikon Z5 II. The company's 33.4% share of the market in April beat Sony (32.1%) down into second place for the first time in ages. Canon was third (24%), Panasonic a distant fourth (7.7%), with Sigma brining up the rear with 2.7% of sales.

Insights is a new reporting tool from CETA Software that consolidates essential financial, operational, and production insights into what the company says is a single, streamlined interface. Unlike generic dashboards, Insights integrates directly with CETA’s existing quoting, scheduling, time tracking, and billing modules. This means its data is drawn from live project metrics, ensuring reports reflect real-time activity rather than static figures.

The new Star Filter from SANDMARC promises to  transform any light source into a radiant star for iPhone shooters. It's been designed to produce a wide spectrum of light diffraction effects, with an adjustable range of 4 to 8 points of star flare by simply twisting the filter. The Star Filter is compatible with SANDMARC Lenses & Cases: Anamorphic, Wide, and Telephoto Lenses. Price is $89.

ARRI has signed an agreement to sell its Claypaky subsidiary as it focuses on its core brand. New owner EK Inc is a prominent player in the entertainment lighting industry, and says it is committed to building on Claypaky’s innovation and brand heritage.

Zhiyun says that its new CX50 series of lights is more than 50% smaller than competing video lights with the same bright 50 watt power. The compact design houses a 4500mAh battery, offering (here come some more comparisons) 32% more power than other 50W video lights. The CX50 series provides up to 60 minutes of continuous use at 100% brightness. They're available now and pricing starts at $149 for the CX50 and $179 for the CX50RGB. A 20% discount is available up to June 13.

Glyph says the new additions to its Blackbox Plus U.2 Enterprise Class NVMe SSDs makes them the largest portable SSDs on the market. Already featuring the latest 10Gb USB 3.2, Gen2 Type-C port, ensuring compatibility with USB 3.1, 3.0, and Thunderbolt 3, and speeds up to 1050 MB/s, the drives are now available in 15 and 30 TB configurations. Pricing is $2399 and $4999 respectively.

As reported on The Verge, a huge row has broken out over reviews of Nvidia's new RTX 5060 graphics card. The opening sentence gets the flavour of it: "This week, [Nvidia] reportedly attempted to delay, derail, and manipulate reviews of its $299 GeForce RTX 5060 graphics card, which would normally be its bestselling GPU of the generation," and it actually gets more alarming from there. Worth a read.

RØDE has announced a major firmware update for its award-winning Wireless Micro. Direct Connect is a new feature that allows users to connect Wireless Micro transmitters directly to iOS devices without the need for a physical receiver. Basically it works through the RØDE Capture app and enables Wireless Micro transmitters to pair directly with iPhones via Bluetooth. Clever.

Finally, below is a still pic of one of the most impressive bit of television we've seen in several years. Forgive the quality, but it shows a live shot taken from an Italian train of the Giro d'Italia cycling race trophy sitting in the window of one of its carriages, with the actual Giro peloton racing along besides it.

The sheer amount of planning and logistics that go into getting an entire train and a 140 or so cyclists on a bike race into the same piece of geography makes our head hurt. Turns out it's not the first time they've done this sort of thing either. Glad they remembered the camera batteries...