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Or is Mackey playing Depp playing Mackey...

That's my secret, Cap. I'm always angry 🙂 Since you never know on the internet, I'm mostly tongue in cheek with all that. I don't really care what anyone calls anything, I understand marketing always has a dubious relationship with the truth, and I always evaluate purchase decisions based on the capabilities rather than name. (And I said the same thing about the "box" moniker someone slapped on the C50 rumors, so I'm not here bashing Nikon.) But in seriousness, the broader a term grows, the less valuable it is. If everything is a cinema camera, nothing is a cinema camera.

If you're upset about hybrid-styled cameras with somewhat awkward ergonomics being called "cinema camera," you must have been frustrated since 2018 or so. https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicpocketcinemacamera I'd be inclined to say that "cinema camera" is just about as meaningless as calling an image "cinematic." It means plenty of different things to different people. "How can you call it a cinema camera when it doesn't even have SDI output?" "That ain't no cinema camera, it has no mounting points on top or the sides!" "Cinema cameras don't have autofocus" "Cinema cameras need to be dedicated to ultimate image quality and it's not a true cinema camera without 16-bit raw." The ZR is obviously not going to be the A camera on a lot of professional shoots. It has no TC, no SDI, bad HDMI, and bad memory card location. On the other hand, it might finally be fulfilling some of the promise of the Komodo - a small, light crash camera that you easily fit in small spaces - or that you can easily throw at an AC/second shooter to go get some b-roll or a second angle handheld or with a light tripod and have it be a good match SOOC for what you're shooting with your Komodo-X or V-Raptor. Lack of a physical shutter lock is a bummer for some crash cam use cases. Sorry it's not for you, regardless! I'd be willing to bet that the next iterations of the Z6/8/9/etc start working in Redcode NE too.

I think Gerald got the categorization right, and of all the things you can call the ZR, cinema camera is not one of them. No reason it can't be used for great movies. There's also no reason you can't pull still frames from a Komodo and sell them as photographs without it being a photo camera or even a hybrid. You don't need to be a photographer or a cinematographer to understand categories of tools. The thing about these comparisons between cheap and expensive cameras is that it kinda works with all cameras. The ZR isn't unique in being indistinguishable from an expensive camera when shot in a controlled environment and viewed in compressed 4K YouTube videos. It's been a few years since I had any concerns about pure image quality from really any camera. I for one have high hopes for Nikon/Red going forward, which is why I'm relatively disappointed that their first camera is not really ergonomically catered to what I'd like.

Looks like Chris got his dream fishing trip out of it so he has that going for him. Otherwise, I think the footage from the Eterna looks fine. I'd have graded it differently. Otherwise, it looks generally like a professionally-shot documentary - and given their crew size, that makes some sense. In this case, I'm using "professionally" in the sense of "competent and yet uninspired." As far as Eterna, there really weren't any shots in that documentary that could be said to look different from what would is usually captured on a full-frame camera or even S35. Some of the wide shots had at least a little bit of an epic feel, but it was nothing spectacular. I'm in the "there is no medium format look" camp, but if you're making a puff piece to sell people on a medium format camera, I feel like it might be better to prioritize the sort of epic wides that people associate with medium and large format. Regardless of any technical aspects, story is king. "Chris Niccols, professional camera reviewer, started fly fishing as a form of escapism from fatherhood" does not seem all that compelling to me. The trailer definitely didn't pull me in. It'll probably get some festival play and collect some laurels. They can celebrate that.

Your eyes do not deceive you. There are some very subtle differences in the skin tonalities, but the major difference between the two images I posted above is in the resolution: 6K vs. 8K. The Komodo 6K and Komodo X have also been tested against the ZR, but both those cameras suffer from IR pollution in the comparisons. In this regard, the Nikon has an advantage!

It’s the international break. The world turns to shit when there is no club football. There is only so much England vs Andorra that people can take. Everything will be OK again on Saturday.

Which is exactly how I’d use it with Tamron zoom’s, the: 20-40, 28-75 and 70-180 f2.8’s.

Mood? I'm just saying we have never seen a cinematic work done by the Undone, and yet he thinks he is the one who defines what cine camera should be.

Less adapters as well and no Sigma (full frame).

Why are you guys in such a bad mood this morning? Is everyone a Roger Deakins now? I'm not a professional, and a camera for less than 3K would be great for me. I film underwater every week, and sometimes I do small jobs too. Nevertheless, knowing that every time I film I bring home half a terabyte of stuff scares me, because I would also like to have the option to make some compromises. Right now I film with a GH5MII, and I only use the ALL-I codec when I'm doing something special. Having a camera that only shoots RAW is too limiting for me. So yes I leave my garage sometimes but Nikon should address that. 😄

Gerald is pissed that they call it cine camera, then complain why the only dependable codec of the camera is the one used in cine cameras. Tho I understand for a video shooter who never leave his garage room YouTube studio, the quality of h.265 is important and Nikon should address that.

People already asking for Z8 sensor in ZR body with air cooling! One thing this camera did, even before shipping, is raising expectations from Nikon. I mean with 8k60p capable stacked sensor, and IPP2 pipeline, you get almost $15k Raptor Xe image quality, with IBIS, and 1 second boot time.

I'm not trying to defend GU, in fact. If you've seen the whole video, he says that the files produced by the camera in Nraw, H.264, and H.265 suck, especially compared to the same files produced by the Z-series cameras. And that the only usable codec is RedCode. Now, is that true? Who knows. Neither you nor I have the camera in our hands right now, and I don't think it's reliable to just average all the shilltubers out there. Personally, and I don't need GU to tell me this, I find that putting the word "Cinema" on it is just a marketing gimmick. But it's certainly not the tool that prevents you from making films. Great films have been made with crappy gear for a century. Films have been made with the GH2 and 5DII.

Here is the trailer for said documentary. Not sure the title “No Guarantees” refers to the outcome of when you go fishing or the outcome of a using a £17000 medium format cinema camera to film it. I’m thinking it might be both. I’ve seen some fantastic footage from the Fujifilm 100mp GFX variants. This wasn’t it.

This was at the top of my YouTube feed today. Genuinely thought at first glance it was going to be Mackey’s review of the ZR. Maybe the world has got so twisted around that Depp is now cosplaying Mackey.

And that mount. Megadap will be rubbing their hands at the amount of E mount lenses that may well be finding a home on this camera. Not just from Sony defectors either but from new owners of the ZR who look at the plethora of appropriately sized E mount lenses on the new and used market and will consider the ZR as a de facto E mount camera.

A good video showing real world ice cream. Sorry, I meant real world usage.

All aboard the good ship Shill for a BTS about using it for an as yet unreleased documentary.

Here is a run through in the style of a product presentation at a local garden centre. Most notable for the less than convincing “it’s really almost the same size as the GFX100” comparison.

Admittedly only looking on my phone but I wouldn’t know which is which unless I was told. At the extreme, I am sure the RED camera has a marginally better image/latitude, but for 99% of the time for 99% of real world users needs (the latter of which is not RED’s market of course)… The 2 best things this camera has is the image quality using the RED raw 12 bit and that screen.

$2K vs. $15K Not 16 bit, but not bad! The only problem here is that R3D NE (12 bit) is likely destined for much greater things, like the 8K Z9 II with a new sensor and better DR. That camera should be arriving in early 2026.

I'm not sure I agree... I think some folks expected Nikon to take everything from RED and simply dump it in a Nikon body and to then charge 20% of the price of a RED. Was never going to happen. Who would then buy a RED camera going forward if they could basically get it all for a fraction of the price? Virtually no one and they would have cooked their golden goose. What they have done is made a RED-lite camera (arguably more Nikon than RED) that can either act as a B cam to a RED user, or something for the Nikon user to use alongside other Nikon cameras they may already have such as the; Zf, Z6iii, Z8 or Z9. and give them a taste of RED, if not the full-blown illusion of shooting something much more than it is (the 'Creator FX3 effect'). Or for the minimalist, low-budget filmmaker (or content creator) who fancies a bit, but not full on, RED colour science and 'RAW-lite'. I've watched a few reviews now and I'd definitely have gone for this (subject to overheating and battery life tests) for my needs as a hybrid shooter. In fact a pair along with a pair of Zf's (a pair of the new black & silver models) for a pretty compact, capable and fun to use set with a super-nice image output. It's not a full-blown cinema camera and I do agree, the choice of placement for the card slots is bloody awkward (as it is for my S9), but that rear LCD more than makes up for it for me. Now if they could just get the spec of the Zr into a Zf body...

Chinese netizens have a proverb saying: don't squeeze the whole toothpaste at once. A product that satisfy everyone might become a disaster for the company. Cause nobody will upgrade to Version 2.0. So they never define a line in their design goals to satisfy everyone. Every iteration keeps some pain points to reserve room for improvement in those specific areas in the next generations. Cripple Hammer is not a broad crippling with a rough hammer. Its a surgery precision cuts with at least three gen ahead in mind. Of course there is always a risk of bleeding. But the risk of not having a plan is greater. RED and Arri didn't have such a plan, and ended up searching for a buyer who has.

To be clear, the OG Komodo was $7k several years ago - but nowadays, it's $3k new (and used, generally around $2,600, but I bet you could find one for $2,300ish if you tried). And people often make it sound like thousands of dollars in accessories are needed, but you could just as easily add about $100 in third-party rig parts and a $200 monitor with SDI inputs and use it. That's close to my setup - though I also have a $400 RVLVR handle that I bought for a different camera originally and a $300ish V-mount plate in my setup. That and the monitor cost a bit more because I have a Pyro 5 on there so that it'll also have wireless transmission. I'd say $3,000 for the body and $3,300 for a minimum reasonable working setup and $4,000 for a full setup, assuming that you don't already have the monitor, etc. Most definitely, but I also say all the time that the $10,000 Ronin 4D 8K is a great camera, but I wouldn't want it as my only camera.