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Or is Mackey playing Depp playing Mackey...

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. 😄

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.

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.

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.

I hadn’t truly appreciated just how much of a normalised activity this was until I saw these for sale in my local supermarket recently. I do fear for what people are eating who use this one if their bowel movements are such that they have to take their watch off to do it. Although maybe that is to stop the watch thinking they are having a vigorous workout when they are doing a more old fashioned bathroom activity.

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 here would have dreamed about this camera just two years ago. People were crying for 10 bit and log like 5 years ago, and some people filmed movies with the Gh2 or Canon 5D. I am not saying this camera doesn't have flaws. But saying this is a camera for content creation when you have multiple Raw formats, and one color science that was only available to cameras costing 7k, but more precisely 10 k when you add the accessories in the apsc red komodo, and about 15-20k in full frame. In fact you can film a movie with this. I am sad it did not happen 10-20 years ago, or I was not 10-20 years younger, thinking about this I prefer the later... Oh shit, looking how the world is going, I prefer the former. LOL

For context, I went to film school and have worked on many projects with 2-3 people per camera, ones where I managed multiple cameras on my own, 16mm film projects, and everything in between. On the other side, I've also shot live concerts for music videos, which, incidentally, the ZR would be a fantastic choice for. So while I don't have the experience of many of the active pros here, I understand camera use cases. I never said anything about single cards being a requirement. I said that if you use the camera on any kind of support (tripod, jib, car rig, shoulder rig, gimbal) it's going to be a massive pain to change the card, ergo the ZR is designed almost exclusively for handheld, unrigged use. Almost every shot on most (not all) cinema projects uses a support system. The Alexa and Raptor are quintessential cinema cameras. Actually, I consider dual cards to be most beneficial in documentary settings, where retakes are impossible and you don't have multiple cameras for coverage. @eatstoomuchjammentioned the Z Cam F6. Z Cam's original prototypes for the E2 put the CFast card on the bottom, but they changed it because of feedback saying it would be too cumbersome to access. I consider the F6 to be a cinema camera, as a category, because it is designed to be used in a variety of situations that are typical for cinematic capture, and Z Cam discovered that included being able to change the card. Obviously, it's a lower end camera, relatively speaking, and there are plenty of photo cameras with better video quality. Because it's impossible to tell on the internet, I'll reiterate that I'm quite happy to agree to disagree about terminology! And I am genuinely happy when people do things differently than I would.

I would beg Nikon yo do a liter version of the REDraw. Many will soon discover, that they can't shoot in it because it is too heavy, and literally not use the camera for what they bought it for. It is easy from some of the youtubers to film an hour of content to show in their 10 20 minute review. But it is not the same when you are filming for 1 2 hours on a five day project. I don't know REDraw size, but from some people who have used it, the datarate on the ZR is very high.

The ZR does accept timecode input via bluetooth and can output TC via HDMI.

By the by, we have to look inward to determine what constitutes a cinema camera. In my case, you could give me an Alexa and it wouldn’t be a cinema camera as I’d never be able to make anything for the cinema with it. Unless I modified it to turn it into a popcorn maker.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I really like the look of this camera but ultimately Canon just doesn’t have a native lens selection that appeals to me - they are mostly too expensive plus I don’t like the build of them. They need to open their lens mount for me to be persuaded back to them. Still think the FX3 is the better all round camera.

I know the phrase of the day is content creator, but I, personally, see this as the ultimate, low/no budget, DIY, short film camera. I don't think I have ever been so tempted to hit preorder. I understand its inconveniences and there are a couple things I need to research... battery life (the FP is atrocious), overheating, IBIS quality, etc... but I must say this is the most excited I have been for a camera since I bought my 5D3 and installed ML Raw onto it.

And with the Techart Pro MZ adapter you can have them autofocus as well.

This camera is using the same S1II sensor and Lumix was able to squeeze a lot from it. More than Nikon. So, what is Lumix missing to make a camera similar to the C50/Zr? Nothing.

As a filmmaker I've made the switch to specialize in Ai and I couldn't be more happy. Never worked this much. I think this is just another tool and we need to adapt. It won't replace everything but is able to make things easier sometimes. And the knowledge and skills I've had as a classic filmmaker are unvaluable to create compelling films. The basis is the same : what story I want to tell?