Nikon Zr is coming

[MrSMW]

8 hours ago, Jahleh said:

I’ve had Z6iii now almost a year, shot mostly 6k50p and 4k100p NRaw normal with it, and I’ve got about 4TB of footage. With NRaw high and ZR REDraw that would be 8TB🤪 With Panny’s h.265 it would be only around 600GB. Shooting Raw is not cheap

Not that I have tried it yet, but post-season, for the first time, I am going to as storage is cheap and why not at least try the full capability of the camera?, good point, the data rates on Lumix has always been good!

[eatstoomuchjam]

1 hour ago, ND64 said:

In Z6iii, normal quality NRAW for 6k24p is only 750mbs. Import the file in CineX Pro, and rename the .NEV extension to .R3D, then select log3g10. Thats your REDCODE LQ.

Has somebody confirmed that renaming the file works?

[Jahleh]

51 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

Not that I have tried it yet, but post-season, for the first time, I am going to as storage is cheap and why not at least try the full capability of the camera?, good point, the data rates on Lumix has always been good!

Yes, the IQ you get from Lumix 200Mpbs and 300Mbps H.265 files is quite good. Z6iii H.265 is 400Mbps, and IQ a bit better than what S5ii had. 
 

Tried also ProresRawHQ on GH7 and Z6iii and the data rates are even bigger than NRaw High. With 2TB CFExpress card Z6iii gives this estimate for 6k25p record times:

NRaw High  171min 1559Mbps

NRaw Norm 336min 794 Mbps

ProressRawHQ. 65min 4102 Mbps

4k25p ProressHQ 316min 844 Mbps

6k50p NRaw Norm 168min 1587 Mbps

 

4TB USB C SSD is quite cheap nowadays, but scrubbing in Resolve is not as smooth than with TB4 Nvmes. 

[Ilkka Nissila]

9 hours ago, KnightsFan said:

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.

If the Smallrig cage for the ZR is used, the bottom left side is Arca-Swiss compatible and the right side has a hole which allows the battery door to be opened and at least the CFExpress type B card should be easy to swap. This depends to some extent on what kind of construction the camera is mounted to, if there is space for opening the door, but it would be possible to do on some of my tripod/monopod heads. I have the Smallrig grip for the Zf and I haven't taken that off in ages. Card and battery access on the Zf is similar to the ZR. I think this situation is just an inevitable consequence of making the camera so small. You can plug in external power via USB-C to extend the shooting time. CFexpress cards are available at least up to 4 TB capacity so that would cover quite a lot without having to open the door frequently. I am sure Nikon will make larger ZR-series cameras that have fewer compromises in how the ports, cards, etc. are accessed.

 

[Thpriest]

Nikon/Red might be an interesting option. Has anyone tried the remote hand grip? How does that work? I used to love the ergonomics of the Canan C100 hand grip. For my line of work all of the latest cameras are pretty good as far as image is concerned. Now ergonomics, ease of use, reliability and price are key for me. I’d love a remote hand grip for Lumix.

[BTM_Pix]

56 minutes ago, Thpriest said:

Has anyone tried the remote hand grip? How does that work?

During my “Shall I get a Z8” research project - which has been going on so long it is featured in the Bayeux tapestry - I found the MC-N10 grip really appealing if a little pricy.

However, what is a setback is that it is a right handed grip (good for me) that connects by cable to cameras, including the ZR, with left sided USB ports.

I initially thought “well that’s awkward having to have that USB cable trailing across the camera but will use it over Bluetooth anyway”.

Except that was a flawed assumption as it doesn’t have Bluetooth.

Nikon makes a virtue of it being wired only in their product page.

___________

Reliable connection

This grip connects to your Nikon camera via USB-C, ensuring a stable connection no matter where you shoot. You won’t have to rely on a wireless signal if you’re shooting in a crowded location where radio interference is a problem.
_____________

And I completely get that of course. 

There are always cable routing solutions to make it less janky than Nikon’s own promotional materials of it show so I’m sure some mitigation can be had.

The £69 Smallrig ZR cage has locking clamps for USB C as well as HDMI ports so it’s only a couple of zip ties away from not being a massive issue.

At £400+ though, I’m sure they could’ve incorporated the small addition of a Bluetooth capability with a small internal rechargeable battery to provide the option and still made money.

With the ZR having fewer hardware buttons it’s a product that could have a lot of appeal if you can swallow the price and the lack of wireless.

 

[ND64]

5 hours ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

Has somebody confirmed that renaming the file works?

No translation, but you don't need to.

 

[eatstoomuchjam]

I'd like to see some deeper analysis on it.  Could be that R3D NE is just high-bitrate Nikon raw and it could be that Resolve limits log3g10 decoding to files matching the r3d extension without checking the underlying raw format.

Either way, that's pretty cool.

[ND64]

The fact that NRAW High bitrate is exactly same as R3D NE, could be a hint

[stephen]

1 hour ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

Could be that R3D NE is just high-bitrate Nikon raw and it could be that Resolve limits log3g10 decoding to files matching the r3d extension without checking the underlying raw format.

It looks like it is.  It also look like original RED RAW codec doesn't show any superiority over ProRes RAW codec
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtTRoOWaw-w

With ProRes RAW footage in Davinci Resolve you can choose between many Log profiles including Panasonic V-Log, Sony S-Log3, Canon C-Log2 and avoid using Nikon NLog.

In this case Nikon Z6 III for me is a better camera. It has the same sensor, but also great EVF, mechanical shutter, full HDMI port. Nikon Zr main selling point is R3D NE or RED RAW lite if we can call it. 

 

[ND64]

2 hours ago, ND64 said:

The fact that NRAW High bitrate is exactly same as R3D NE, could be a hint

The Reddit source

https://www.reddit.com/r/Nikon/s/v8tkSHdsZa

[Jahleh]

1 hour ago, ND64 said:

The Reddit source

https://www.reddit.com/r/Nikon/s/v8tkSHdsZa

This seems to work both in NRaw High and normal, when renaming .NEV to .R3D in finder and then importing files to Resolve.

[ND64]

2 hours ago, Jahleh said:

This seems to work both in NRaw High and normal, when renaming .NEV to .R3D in finder and then importing files to Resolve.

Yea, and I suggested considering NRAW normal as R3S LQ. But you have to be careful about base ISOs.

[Andrew Reid]

So is NRAW really REDCODE or is REDCODE really NRAW, I am confused now.

[mercer]

Maybe NRaw from the Z6iii onwards is Redcode?

[BTM_Pix]

If you put a card from a Z8 NRaw recording in a Z6iii does it play back?

And vice versa.

[Jahleh]

1 hour ago, ND64 said:

Yea, and I suggested considering NRAW normal as R3S LQ. But you have to be careful about base ISOs.

Except it does not work if you import the NRaw clips from CFExpress to Resolve timeline, cut and export the parts you want to save via Media Management and then rename .NEV to R3D in Finder. 
 

it only works if you copy the clips straight from CFExpress to some Finder folder, then rename them, and after that import them to Resolve. It seems Resolve media management is doing something while exporting the .NEV files. 

[Ninpo33]

On 9/10/2025 at 12:05 AM, Davide DB said:

 

That's exactly why they started with an "entry-level" camera. They are re-implementing their algorithms in Nikon's processors and hardware, which are cheaper and more efficient (it wasn't hard to figure that out, given the economies of scale).

We should also expect big news regarding other Red features, such as the integration of a global shutter sensor. I imagine that the process will then be a two-way street. A future Red camera will have Nikon processors and technology.

Yes I agree. I’m ok with this strange little  ZR as a sort of 1st gen beta to roll out the new cross pollination. Smart to make it $2,000 because it’s still very capable but it will allow them to test out all the features on content creators, and then hopefully roll it into pros later.

[Brian Williams]

I think this camera looks pretty great for the price.

Its still out of my price range, unfortunately, I’ll have to stick to an iPhone 17p to get my raw kicks.
 

But I can’t think of anything in the price range that comes close.

(Is the Panny S5 IIX also considered a “content creator camera, as well”?)

[Davide DB]

15 minutes ago, Ninpo33 said:

Yes I agree. I’m ok with this strange little  ZR as a sort of 1st gen beta to roll out the new cross pollination. Smart to make it $2,000 because it’s still very capable but it will allow them to test out all the features on content creators, and then hopefully roll it into pros later.

With this aggressive price, in the next few months we'll see if it's capable to shake a little the market. Next iteration of Z9 will probably incorporate some of these features.