Kino

@Andrew Reid Burano has shipped with X-OCN LT. If Sony charges you $25K for the lowest quality 16-Bit codec, it means that you will never see that on any Sony mirrorless. The smaller bodies wouldn't be able to deal with the heat management involved in 16-Bit readout, processing, and recording for video. This is also a slap in the face for those shooters who were hoping to see X-OCN in the FX series, since that is also less likely to happen for several years. It is Sony's answer to REDCODE, although it doesn't violate RED's patents as it is not technically RAW.

This camera has impressive image quality, even in the pixel-binned (or line-skipped) 4K and 4K/60p modes. The aliasing is also very slight. It's a great achievement for a 12K sensor. The only potential issue I can see is the IBIS compatibility with gimbals. The Mediastorm review mentions this as a problem, but most of the other footage I've seen looks just fine. I'm not sure if there are settings that reduce the high-frequency vibration they experienced:

I've been collecting these A1 frames for months on different platforms! I'll try my best . . . The night still frames from Japan are all from TeemusPhoto (above). He has shot many videos with the A1. You can look on his channel for more of where that came from. Many images were taken from Mina Rhodes's work with the A1 here in L.A.:

I've had my eye on the Sony A1 for a long time. I was hoping Sony would announce the A1 II, so that the prices on it could drop a little. At $6500, it is a bit steep. LongGOP 8K is also not ideal, but the video footage overall is very impressive for a mirrorless full-frame camera. The DR, roll-off, ISO performance, and texture are all amazing. These are video frame stills if you can believe it!

This is true. The footage looks good here because of the limited use case, but you can already see some issues with dynamic range in the shadow areas. Here is another example that more effectively demonstrates both the strengths (color depth) and the limitations (dynamic range) of the Z9's NRAW: The camera produces beautiful colors in NRAW and ProRes RAW, but the dynamic range is a problem: You can see how easily the highlights clip in the footage above. Here are other examples of highlight clipping, along with a tutorial on red and blue channel clipping:

Although the grade is always important, NRAW's rich tonality is once again evident in this beach footage, which has been interpreted in linear color space as opposed to N-Log gamma (where DR could be better preserved). Despite the varying workflow, the expansive tonal range is consistent with Nikon's own Venice clip as posted above.

Nikon should pay this guy! That video will sell cameras.

I managed to download a few brief 8K 50fps NRAW NEV samples from another forum and view them in the latest version of Resolve (18.1.4): https://forum.grassvalley.com/forum/editors/editing-with-edius/572094-n-raw-from-z9-sample-download They are now listed as 12 bit according to Nikon specs. There must have been a decoding problem that has been solved since Resolve 18.0. Perhaps NEV files are captured in 12 bit log and Resolve previously converted them to 14 bit linear. It is hard to know what the issue was as TicoRAW compression is new to the camera world (hence the RED lawsuit). The same TicoRAW conversion that the Z9 utilizes when compressing for photos in the "High Efficiency" RAW mode at 14 bit readout is also utilized to create the NRAW files. In photo mode, this is limited to 20fps at full sensor readout (8256 x 5504). Although the video mode uses a crop (8256 x 4644), which produces a 38mp image, it doesn't seem possible that you could get 14 bit RAW video at frame rates higher than 24/25. The Canon R3 could do 14 bit RAW at 30fps with its 6K video, but Canon would never do such a thing! That would obliterate its current cinema line. In any case, the rich color tonality we were seeing in the Z9 footage is still there and the files edit nicely on a 4K timeline. They are perhaps not as optimized as R3D files, but they should be easier for editing than Canon 8K RAW Light.

It seems that he added the NR on the Z9 N-RAW 8K in post using Resolve, but it does not include downsampling. With downsampling to 4K, you should be able to get another .5 stop. So, if you take out the NR but downsample to 4K, you should be back at around 12.5 usable stops. As for why Nikon did not advertise the 14 bit NEV files, I'm not entirely sure, but I plan to find out . . .

The Z9 test shows 12.5 usable from a possible 15.5 overall on an 8K timeline. That is not bad at all. NR can add only about half a stop. Compare that with the R5C in 8K RAW, which shows only 11 usable from a possible 13.4: If you scale 8K down to 4K, you can improve the Imatest result for both 8K cameras, so you have to keep that in mind when comparing with lower resolutions. For example, the 4K C70 with its DGO sensor attains 13 usable from a total 15.3 with NR applied in-camera: In terms of DR, Dxomark measured the Z9 RAW photo performance at 14.4 EV at its base 64 ISO and just over 12 EV at ISO 800, which is the native ISO for video: https://www.dxomark.com/nikon-z9-sensor-test/#:~:text=As for the individual scores,at the same ISO sensitivity. All that is very consistent with the Imatest DR above and very similar to other 8K cameras at the same ISO. What interests me more is the color depth comparison between photo and video, which is the only way to test whether the color information is retained in the 14 bit NEV files.

Unlike the Canon R5, which switches to a 12 bit readout when engaging the electronic shutter for photo and video, the Z9 electronic shutter is 14 bit, as that is all it has. Therefore, it is possible for the 14 bit readout to carry over to video, which Resolve apparently confirms at 24 fps in this example: Of course, it could still be a 12 bit source wrapped in a 14 bit file, or there could be an error in how Resolve interprets the files. However, looking at the N-RAW footage, I'm seeing a color depth and tonal range that I don't associate with 12 bit cameras. This is very close to 16 bit R3D files or 14 bit RAW photos:

Nikon really dropped the ball when they released this camera with N-Log, which is not capable of maximizing the sensor's DR. They need to release "N-Log 2" in firmware if they can, since all the non-RAW formats in the camera still suffer from N-Log's limitations. The tests linked above demonstrate the significant difference between N-RAW processed in N-Log gamma and N-RAW when using ARRI Log C in Resolve:

All this proves is that NRAW may not be optimized yet in N-LOG gamma on Resolve, as other users have reported much greater DR using different gamma profiles: It is a very new raw format and not user friendly just yet. Your article also fails to take into account the impressive color depth of NEV files, which Resolve lists as 14 bit RAW. Is Nikon secretly giving us 14 bit RAW? All I can say is that the NRAW files display rich color and tonality that I've rarely seen on other mirrorless cams shooting 12 bit RAW: It will not replace a $30K RED V-RAPTOR, but it does amazingly well up against RED Helium: If you follow this channel, you will notice that they switched from using the A1 to the Z9 when the latter received the RAW update.

I noticed the banding but assumed it was YouTube compression since I haven't seen it on C70 footage before. I believe uploading in 8K fixes some of these compression issues on YT. What I love about the C70, in contrast with the R5's more brittle image, is the highlight roll-off, color saturation (especially in low light), and overall cinematic quality, which are all evident in those clips. The image is nice and creamy: