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I dream of having a tool of this magnitude. Being serious, as someone who really does not want to rig out his cameras as after all, I am a hybrid shooter, the larger, clearer and brighter the rear LCD is, the better because I shoot exclusively with the things. It’s also why I prefer a tilt over a flip out. Fully articulated works better for me for the stills side, but tilt for video. Hopefully all cameras in the future will increasingly work on having these physical features which probably benefit more folks than massive pixel counts or bloated codecs. Less grading is financial boon to the small business as time saved is time that can be put to use elsewhere, or increase profitability. That is what draws me to the Red codec, but as things stand, that storage costs defeats any savings for me, but the grading time is a draw…

I understand that the grip of the Z6 III holds the battery. Judging by pictures, it also holds the memory cards - which includes a UHS-2 full-size SD card instead of a UHS-1 micro-SD card like the ZR has. Oh, and you can also change the cards while the camera is on a tripod or gimbal. I had no idea that mirrorless cameras couldn't be used without a gimbal. That's quite a limitation. Without being aware of it, I've been using mine mostly without a gimbal for a while now. You know the microphone is supposed to point toward the front of the camera and not the back, right? That should reduce the risk of poking out your eye with it when holding up the EVF. 😉 Anyway, the Z6 III has a screen that is still pretty decent-sized at 3.2". From your description, it sounds like your needs could be better met by using a Black Magic Cinema Camera 6K instead of a Nikon ZR. The BMCC has a bigger rear screen at 5". The EVF is optional so you won't need to use it if you don't want to. While L mount isn't quite as versatile as Z mount, it's still quite good. The BMCC6K also has 2 mini-XLR mic inputs which can be used along with the internal mics for 4-channel audio. If you want smaller files, you can increase the compression ratio for BM raw. Even at the maximum compression on the UC12K (12:1, I think?), it still looks very good. I usually use the Ursa at 8:1 except for VFX shots where I go up to 5:1. The main limitation against the ZR is that the BMCC is a bit bigger and heavier. But as a person who wants "the best back LCD I can have," the BMCC blows the ZR and its puny 4" screen out of the water. You'll also get a full-size HDMI port and not a garbage micro-HDMI port in case you want to connect to an even bigger 7" screen.

On iPhone I’d see the practical route as DNG/ProRAW or RAW burst → custom linear/Metal pipeline → H.265/HEVC, with a much flatter, less processed look than the stock camera. Not ProRes RAW. The limitation is that iOS does not expose continuous Bayer RAW video in the same way Android Camera2 can expose RAW streams, so an iPhone version would likely be AVFoundation + Metal: RAW/DNG stills or bursts, plus a controlled HEVC mode with custom tone, colour, highlight rolloff and IT8/LUT calibration. I don’t have an iPhone to test on right now, so I can’t promise it yet. But the idea is definitely interesting. First I want to finish and publish the Android version and see if people find it useful. If the feedback is positive, I’ll try to look into an iPhone version — probably DNG/ProRAW or RAW burst into a custom Metal colour pipeline and then H.265/HEVC, rather than ProRes RAW. For me the goal is to do as much as possible directly on the phone — capture, colour, calibration, encoding, maybe even basic editing/export, Davinci style. On the PC I’d rather have a voice-driven movie editor, where you can just say what you want to cut, move, translate, subtitle, shorten or colour-match, instead of digging through endless panels. I’m also working on PocketCAD for Android and a customised WearOS/Android smartwatch project, so it’s all part of the same direction: practical tools on small devices, with more voice control and less dependence on big desktop workflows.

Yes, a mere 3.2 inch. Yet another time when people might be wishing they had just 0.8 inches more. 😆

But but but but the Z6iii doesn't have a 4 inch rear LCD 😜

Part of what's crazy to me is that the ZR isn't that small. If you compare it with a Z6 III or an EOS R5, the actual bodies are almost the same with the main differences being that the "bigger" cameras have a handgrip and EVF protruding from the small body. Looking on camera decision and comparing the ZR to the Fuji X-M5, the ZR is gigantic. And I feel like the Z6 III was more expensive when the ZR was released, but as of right now, their prices are almost identical with used Z6 III costing less than used ZR. So if you don't need the sort-of Redcode RAW or internal 32-bit float, the ZR becomes a somewhat weird choice. This is why I am waiting for the used prices to go down a lot once people figure that out or when the next shiny camera drops. 😉