Nikon Zr is coming

[MrSMW]

3 hours ago, zerocool22 said:

 

This looks like a great camera to me. Too bad the ibis isnt as great as the lumix camera's. But looks better then fx3, has a better screen, takes better stills. Never had an nikon before. So might end up buying one. The big monitor sounds like a win, as it makes so much difference in the process of enjoying making video's. External monitors are somewhat a drag.

 

I’m considering it myself…

Seems to get a pretty long run time out of a single battery and overheating despite not having any active cooling doesn’t appear to be a problem.

Perhaps I should have waited before going all in on Lumix 🤪

I still want to see what it can do for stills and would want to test it first, but a trio of these might work as I have the adapters for the Sony lenses and the Tamron zooms are the best in my experience.

I’m moving towards a pair of Thypoch Simera C’s also and as these come in native E Mount, also has appeal going fully Nikon.

Love the RED colour science from what I have seen and the camera itself including that rear screen is what I have always wanted and hoped Lumix might do.

I still think what I have is super great, but always open to other options if they might suit me better and trimming down even further to 3 small bodies and just 4 lenses has a lot of appeal.

6-7 months to think about it and meantime, Lumix might pop out something similar and that might swing things back in favour of L Mount.

Certainly not rushing into anything or blindly jumping ship but musing on options… 

[eatstoomuchjam]

51 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

I’m moving towards a pair of Thypoch Simera C’s also and as these come in native E Mount, also has appeal going fully Nikon.

I really like my Simera C's in M mount.  I like my Leica M's more, but the M's are a lot less consistent.

You might consider going the M mount route, if for no other reason than you can get an autofocus adapter for it - and then they'll be portable to any system that you might move to in the future.

[MrSMW]

3 hours ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

You might consider going the M mount route, if for no other reason than you can get an autofocus adapter for it - and then they'll be portable to any system that you might move to in the future.

I’m looking at M-L for my current system but that won’t happen for about 6 months or so even if I do not flip to Nikon because my season is over in less than 2 weeks so other than some play time (and nothing really compares to actual work) so too soon.

I didn’t know there was an AF adapter or rather I think there is for Nikon but is there for L Mount? It would be useful but not 100% necessary.

If I went Nikon, I’d go E Mount though as it would make more sense as all my glass would be adapted.

I have looked at every cine lens going and based on; price, size, weight, sharpness, character, shorter than normal focus throw, close focus distance, they are a clear winner for me.

I have some final manual focus tests to do with my AF Lumix lenses next job first but other than having just one camera designated to AF duty, currently my S9 with zoom, I’d prefer to go MF on my hybrids as I’m not 100% happy with the AF hit rate with pics and stickiness with video…another area where based on my experience with the Zf, Nikon is better than Lumix and it can pick out faces at something like less than 3% of the screen which is bloody good!

[eatstoomuchjam]

1 hour ago, MrSMW said:

I didn’t know there was an AF adapter or rather I think there is for Nikon but is there for L Mount? It would be useful but not 100% necessary.

I don't know about L mount.  There are a few for E mount, though.

 

[MrSMW]

7 hours ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

I don't know about L mount.  There are a few for E mount, though.

 

Yes I think Techart do but they are quite expensive at something like 400+ and I do need AF for some of what I do, but I need it to be highly accurate.

The weakness of the old Lumix cameras such as the OG S5/S1H/S1R was forward tracking AF when ideally you needed a stopped down aperture, crop mode and some tweaks to the tracking to stand a chance.

Since the S5II, not an issue, but even if there is an M to L Mount adapter with AF (and I have not been able to find one), I would not trust one to do this specific job above any better than the old Lumix system.

The rest of the time, I don’t need AF and at 400+, might as well just have a cheap AF lens for this purpose.

The Zr looks very interesting however as  I always suspected it might. Enough to warrant any kind of flip, is too early to call and there is so much to consider such as…

Zr stills mode vs S1RII stills mode I suspect is a win for Lumix being the sensor is 20mp larger and has a mech shutter.

Video probably also the Lumix, especially as it has open gate which I shoot in all the time and Nikon does not…but probably can and maybe can in a future firmware release because it’s the same sensor as the S1II isn’t it?

Red Raw ‘lite’ makes the Zr very interesting but where it gets even more and most interesting to me is I could build an even more compact kit, both bodies and lenses and tripods, than I currently have.

Anyway, 6 or so months to consider and by that time there will be used Zr’s on MPB (so I could at least try one with their 14 day return policy) and Lumix may have brought a more cine-orientated camera to market than the current offerings as maybe, just maybe, they might ditch the current format for any S1H replacement…??

[ND64]

Canon managed to make a slower sensor than ZR sensor, twice the price, with less DR.

[Danyyyel]

On 9/13/2025 at 1:07 AM, Brian Williams said:

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”?)

I will never understand this thinking when someone likes photography or videography. Today the only true thing they are changing in phones is the camera. My 2 years old Samsung will handle all my social media or call perfectly. Why not invest in a camera and lens, that will be their for the next decade, rather than buy a new phone every 2 3 years for 1000 USD and more, that will sorry to say, never match a FF camera. 

[Danyyyel]

1 hour ago, ND64 said:

Canon managed to make a slower sensor than ZR sensor, twice the price, with less DR.

But if you hear Gerald, the Nikon is Shit, and the Canon will find a place as a Cine camera. The man cannot stop dunking on Nikon. Last week was, how come Nikon put cinema on this camera with its micro Hdmi... This week it is, but Dop and First AC have told me they prefer no IBIS. As if 99% of the people using the C50 will be on movie set. And not as one man band doing weddings, corporate events, social media content creation and some smaller advertising, and occasionally on some short movies.

Same, for the ZR. No one expect it to be a cinema camera and replacing the RED raptor or Arri Alexa on most sets. The Ibis is 10x more important on such a camera than a micro hdmi that you can lock with a cage, and the camera itself coming with a big screen. 

[MrSMW]

18 minutes ago, Danyyyel said:

Same, for the ZR. No one expect it to be a cinema camera and replacing the RED raptor or Arri Alexa on most sets. The Ibis is 10x more important on such a camera than a micro hdmi that you can lock with a cage, and the camera itself coming with a big screen

Agreed and one of the reasons why as much as I like the look of the new Canon, the lack of IBIS is a no go for me and if that puts me in the camp of being a non-serious filmmaker, 🤷‍♂️

I also do not want to and will not rig anything up so the micro hdmi I could not care less about.

[ND64]

25 minutes ago, Danyyyel said:

The man cannot stop dunking on Nikon.

Nikon and Panasonic to be precise 😉

But its not new thing. Shilltubers have been like this for years. What I find interesting is.. what Canon engineering are doing exactly? I mean how you get 1 stop lower DR on a BSI sensor, compared to a semi stacked sensor known for its low DR?

[MrSMW]

I wonder how soon with a firmware update they might bring the new RED Raw ‘lite’ to the Z6iii and Z8?

I guess not for at least 3-6 months after the launch of the Zr in order to not hurt sales…

It’s taken me 3 whole jobs to get my S1RII’s dialled in (note to self, never make any fundamental changes mid season, ever again) and for hybrid work, easily better than the Zr…

…but the Zr is comfortably better than my S9 and I think at least matches my S5ii and these two are the ‘weaknesses’ in my lineup.

’Weakeness’ in the case of the S9 as the Zr has it well and truly beaten (IMO) and in the case of the S5II because in my specific use case, it’s attached to the 70-200mm f4 which is bordering on being a bit of a lump by my standards and needs the battery grip due to battery anxiety for long takes and that lot requires the use of a heavy duty tripod.

I’d prefer no battery grip, a more compact and lighter and faster (f2.8) lens…such as the Tamron 70-180 and a lightweight tripod.

Clean sheet today, I’d build a system based off a pair of Zr’s and single Z8, because my ultra compact 4 body Lumix set up, can be beat.

I haven’t found a single flaw yet in the Nikon set up, but still searching…

[MrSMW]

Found a flaw.

A big one.

Price to change 😂

Just costed it and it came out at around 15k to purchase everything I need even using used prices for some of the gear and with trade in for all my L Mount gear not much over 1/2 of that, it’s not happening…which is fine as what I have is great.

Just wrestling a bit with that S5II/biggish lens/battery grip/heavy tripod conundrum, but I’ll work it out and not pollute this thread any further with dirty Lumix talk.

The Zr though I think is THE camera of 2025, especially considering the price.

It depends on your needs of course but it pretty much nails mine and I didn’t think it would, but then again, Nikon have been on a bit of a roll lately and in the hybrid mirrorless world, might just be the system to beat right now…

[Django]

I don’t see the ZR & C50 as direct competitors even though they were announced at the same time and take inspiration from the FX3. Different builds, specs and price point. Not to mention the ecosystems.
 

The way I see it, the DR per price argument is a bit of a stretch. A camera is more than just a sensor, and the two bodies are not in the same hardware category. I love for example that you can open the side door on the C50 while recording and hot swap cards. The built in fan, screw mount, included XLR top handle with zoom rockers and record. It all reminds me of the C100 which I shot so much run & gun with. ZR feels more like a vlog cam with a Z6iii in comparison. Reminds me more of Sonys ZVe1.

DR wise, yes C50 shows about a stop less than the ZR in Gerald’s tests at its 6.9K RAW base, but it also gains an extra stop in S35 mode and two stops in 4K H265. On top of that it’s open gate 7K vs 6K. Different sensors, different pipelines.

IBIS would have been great on the C50, but Canon just doesn’t include it in the cine line, just like RED, BM, FX6, FX9, etc. Bummer but not a deal breaker for me, C50 ergos look good and with 7K open gate that leaves a lot of wiggle room for stab in post.  
 

The ZR is great value image wise, but in my opinion it has some valid hardware quirks and R3D RAW comes with massive data rates. Gerald’s DR score of 10.9 was with R3D RAW, but it drops to 9.74 in NRAW, so in practice the gap is smaller than it first appears.
 

For me the C50 checks most of the boxes I need, and opens up a slew of lenses including anamorphic but also s35/s16. But for others the ZR with Z mount adaptability and R3D RAW at a mid level price point  might make more sense, and that’s fine. 

[Ilkka Nissila]

2 hours ago, Django said:

I love for example that you can open the side door on the C50 while recording and hot swap cards. 

Are you sure this is safe for this camera? While it may be that just pulling the card out while the camera is on in most cases causes no harm the manufacturers do typically warn that the camera should be turned off before removing or attaching the card or there could be data corruption. 

[Django]

43 minutes ago, Ilkka Nissila said:

Are you sure this is safe for this camera? While it may be that just pulling the card out while the camera is on in most cases causes no harm the manufacturers do typically warn that the camera should be turned off before removing or attaching the card or there could be data corruption. 

It’s not as risky as it sounds. You’re never pulling the active recording card, only the idle one. The camera is writing to one slot while the second slot is completely free, so you can safely swap it for a fresh card without interrupting the recording. That’s how Canon implements “relay recording” to allow essentially unlimited record times.

Of course if you pulled the card that’s actively being written to, you’d corrupt the file, but the workflow is designed to prevent that. It’s not really a new trick on the C50, it’s fairly standard in Canon’s cine line and a reason people trust them on long form shoots. Most hybrids including Canon R line doesn't allow this as they're photo centric and that could cause issues, I'm not even sure this works when in the photo mode of C50.. another benefit of having dual OS systems.

On a side note, I hope Nikon includes more RED OS features like traffic light system etc.

[Danyyyel]

This video is very interesting about the conversion of the Nikon NEV to RED red file. The thing that is the most interesting to me, apart from the blue channel clipping, is about the dynamic range of the camera which he test as from 8.25. I think he has a Z8, if this is true in the highlight, the z9 which has been rated at 8.5-9 stops of latitude in the CineD lab test, could be either a solid 9 (Panasonic S1ii, RED V-RaptorX), or closer to 10, that would be Arri Alexa LF territory!!! I saw someone saying that his Nikon is like a new camera, about the highlight, but also that the chroma noise reduction was also very good. 

The Nikon Z6iii/ZR, is supposed to be the same sensor than the S1ii, with the only difference is that the Nikon's are at 9.1ms and the Pana is at 12ms. I would dream if nikon could give a slower version mode with the S1ii DR/Latitude. Because most of the time the slower read, creats less noise and thus more DR.

 

 

[stephen]

An older comparison between Nikon Z6 III and Sony FX3. Nikon Z6 III has the same sensor as Zr so this comparison is still relevant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Uz0pJvveoA

While in lab tests Z6 III and Zr semi stacked sensors have one stop less of a dynamic range in practice this different is hard to see or notice in most scenes. I wouldn't worry about dynamic range. 

Once weakness Nikon Z6 III and Zr have and also Z8 is the fact that if you want the best video picture quality you have to shoot in RAW. NLog used in ProRes and x265 internal codecs is not as good as Sony or Panasonic Log profiles. x265 codec is 10bit 4:2:0. Shooting in RAW would require more time and work in post production as de-noise and lens correction have to be done in post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nyTnnbszZg

 

3 hours ago, Danyyyel said:

about the highlight, but also that the chroma noise reduction was also very good. 

 

This is because when de-bayering RED RAW files in resolve and RED software you have this option to reduce chroma noise.

Until somebody does a proper test with RED RAW file I think semi stacked sensor in Nikon Zr and Z6 III is still one stop lower than sensor on Sony FX3 for example. As previous tests shows this difference is undetectable in real world shots, it can be measured only in tests

Here is how to get rid of the blue channel clipping without renaming files to RED RAW  (R3D). Yet renaming the files gives more options and better results, so people will keep doing it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7U-WysxaRw