Nikon Zr is coming

[Davide DB]

So, everyone is talking about quality and analysis on the videos shared on YouTube, but no one has had the chance to download a raw file?

Did the shilltubers sign NDAs that don't allow them to share the original files? Will we have to wait for the camera to get into the hands of common users?

[Jahleh]

9 hours ago, ND64 said:

The h.265 itself is not the problem. Its that you can't turn off the NR with h.265, and in low light its too much. Nikon didn't change this even after all firmware updates they did for Z9/Z8/Z6III, so its safe to say its not going to happen with Expeed 7. Probably because power consumption will be noticeably higher if the encoder has to compress noisy image. 

Look at S1ii and it probably has baked in NR in h.265 even more than Nikons have. Was it in CVP’s review that Zr had a setting for NR in the menus. Hopefully it is there in the final software. Nothing to complain about Z6iii’s h.265 IQ so far though. 
The NEV to R3D hack can be used for quick edits straight from the CFExpress card, but as long as there is no working solutions to trim the files and save them as R3D I prefer the original NEV work flow and maybe Nikon colors too. 

[Ilkka Nissila]

10 hours ago, stephen said:

NRAW / RED RAW normal has a compression ratio of 7.5 which is comparable to BRAW 8:1. NRAW / RED RAW high quality - 4.5 compression ratio comparable to BRAW 5:1. 

The R3D NE is only available in bitrates similar to N-RAW high quality, not normal, which is what many people seem to be complaining about. 

[Jahleh]

A quick example from yesterday. Shot about 43 minutes of 6k50p NRaw normal footage from tripod and it took about 500GB of storage. After trimming down NEV clips in Resolve and exporting only important parts they took only 50GB. 

With R3D NE it would have taken 1TB of storage and if trim and export do not work in Resolve it would be 1TB vs 100GB of storage needed to store those R3D NE files. Simply too much, if you multiply that for like 100 days or more in a year

[stephen]

2 hours ago, Ilkka Nissila said:

The R3D NE is only available in bitrates similar to N-RAW high quality, not normal, which is what many people seem to be complaining about. 

N-RAW Normal is still there and can be renamed to  RED RAW. I understand that's not an option for people who want to trim but then as Jahleh said why not use NRAW. I was impressed recently by some of the color grading done in the movie The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. It was shot on Sony Venice 2, (Sony A1 sensor) at 8K RAW and transferred to 4K Digital intermediate. Following Hollywood workflow another option would be to do the trimming plus some WB and exposure balance in Resolve and export in something like ProRes 4:4:4. RAW video workflow will usually more work.

13 hours ago, ND64 said:

The h.265 itself is not the problem. Its that you can't turn off the NR with h.265, and in low light its too much.

ProRes 10bit 4:2:2 4K is an alternative, cinema tools test shows texture of image is good. Or expose h.265 2 stops to the right. When I am shooting at night with Sony ZV-E1 and don't expose 1.7 to 2 stops to the right, there is plenty of noise in the shadows. 

IMHO this is not a camera to get if you shoot a lot of 4K 60p or 120p and have a fast project turnaround that requires the use of x265. It is specifically for people who want to shoot predominately or at least 50:50  RAW video and are ready to absorb the cost in time and money. 

[MrSMW]

3 hours ago, Davide DB said:

So, everyone is talking about quality and analysis on the videos shared on YouTube, but no one has had the chance to download a raw file?

Did the shilltubers sign NDAs that don't allow them to share the original files? Will we have to wait for the camera to get into the hands of common users?

Probably and until Resolve etc support the new codec.

But then I've seen some side by side comparisons with Nraw where the reviewer is saying, "look at how much less noise there is" and I agreed, there was less, but also, "look how much better these skin tones are" and I thought, really? have you got your labelling wrong because the Nraw looked better in your side by side examples.

So I guess until folks you know, love and trust start showcasing or you can get your own hands dirty, the jury is still out on just how good it is beyond the hype.

My own personal jury has ruled against it despite thinking the camera looks fabulous, the screen is killer and the pricing excellent, but no way am I going to be using those file sizes.

Lumix, get on with the S1H2 please.

[Ilkka Nissila]

4 hours ago, Jahleh said:

A quick example from yesterday. Shot about 43 minutes of 6k50p NRaw normal footage from tripod and it took about 500GB of storage. After trimming down NEV clips in Resolve and exporting only important parts they took only 50GB. 

With R3D NE it would have taken 1TB of storage and if trim and export do not work in Resolve it would be 1TB vs 100GB of storage needed to store those R3D NE files. Simply too much, if you multiply that for like 100 days or more in a year

It's only a 1:2 difference. You can get similar file sizes from Prores 422 HQ 4K as N-RAW Normal 6K, and the Prores looks gorgeous at least from the Z8; I would expect the same from the ZR. There could be an issue though if you want 50 or 60 fps then the quality may not be as good from the ZR as it is with the Z8 (due to lack of support of extended oversampling).

[Ilkka Nissila]

15 hours ago, ND64 said:

The h.265 itself is not the problem. Its that you can't turn off the NR with h.265, and in low light its too much. Nikon didn't change this even after all firmware updates they did for Z9/Z8/Z6III, so its safe to say its not going to happen with Expeed 7. Probably because power consumption will be noticeably higher if the encoder has to compress noisy image. 

So is the High ISO NR item in the Video recording menu grayed-out when selecting h.265?

[Davide DB]

3 hours ago, MrSMW said:

Probably and until Resolve etc support the new codec.

Actually from what I see Resolve 20.2 support prores raw already.
I could find S1II files to download actually.
 

[Danyyyel]

Funny how the ZR has reached legendary status even before its launch. Youtubers getting destroyed in the comments when making some stupid comparison. This is one example, but I have seen others... if you would have told me a Nikon camera would have got so much support, I would not have believed it. They really have got some momentum, I hope they try at least to satisfy the request of the people toward the ZR, because it is their Canon 5DmarkII moment.

 

[Danyyyel]

Nice video about the ZR audio capabilities. The internal mics are quite impressive for onboard mic, but the directional pattern can only be used in non RAW video.