Nikon Zr is coming

[Jahleh]

Finally got ZR yesterday. After changing all the settings like I have them in Z6iii, except Zebras and Vignette for R3D, got to test it a bit too.
1st, the screen is really good, you can change almost everything needed via the touch id and new menus quite quickly and intuitively. Need to figure out still what I need to set on those 4 custom buttons really.

The grip is tiny but feels ok in the hand. Still, with heavier lenses like 1kg 50 f1.2 and 135 f1.8 having the L shaped gage’s bigger grip seems to be a must, as it also has the Arca-swizz base plate for easy tripod use too. 

Quickly tested R3D NE vs NRaw to R3D hack with ISO 800 and 6400, and R3D NE was a bit cleaner in the shadows and seemed to hold the colors better too. 

The Z6iii EVF and all of it’s buttons in muscle memory seems still of course more convenient to use, but there is no going back to timy 3.2” screens after this. In various Panas and Z6iii I almost never used the screen.

Cinema tools has made a false color LUT, propably have to buy and try that too, if setting the zebras to 245 for R3D highlights does not work like zebras at 255 for NRaw.

The build quality seemed robust, but the shutter button needs a bit heavier press. Could not find the focus limiter in the menus either. Hopefully the weather allows to take both ZR and Z6iii outside, and see how the ZR handles, and what the footage looks like.

 

[ND64]

Pixel binned raw 4k120 of ZR has the same amount of details of FX3, if not more, which is a native 4k sensor

 

[ND64]

Didn't know A7siii has this saturation issue

[ND64]

I like this way of marketing to give the camera to youtubers with low number followers and turns out they're talented and need more recognition.

 

[Django]

Yeah good move approaching indie RED shooters rather than your usual hybrid / YT influencer.

Great review with strong footage. More I think of it, ZR is the perfect travel cam, street shooter. 

[zerocool22]

2 hours ago, Django said:

Yeah good move approaching indie RED shooters rather than your usual hybrid / YT influencer.

Great review with strong footage. More I think of it, ZR is the perfect travel cam, street shooter. 

Not for weddings/event videos you think? Looking for a faster setup. 

 

[Django]

1 hour ago, zerocool22 said:

Not for weddings/event videos you think? Looking for a faster setup. 

 

Faster than what? Only downsides for longer shootings I can think of is the r3d code file sizes, h265 is sorta unusable..

[MrSMW]

1 hour ago, zerocool22 said:

Not for weddings/event videos you think? Looking for a faster setup. 

 

I would absolutely use it and as above, it would be my first choice, clean sheet.

The ZR/Nikon probably doesn't quite have the AF of Sony and it might not quite have the IBIS of LUMIX, but we are really beginning to split hairs these days when it comes to spec and performance.

It's compact, has possibly THE best lens selection (IMO, there is no 'possibly' about it, - it just does including near native adaptation of Sony E glass via Megadap) and it's e Shutter only approach on the ZR and Z8 would not be an issue for me as it is with LUMIX where in certain lighting conditions, it's shit (for stills).

Give me a pair of ZR's, a single Z8 and 3 lenses of my choice, 1x monopod and 1x tripod and weddings/events would be a breeze.

No better than my current LUMIX set up, just a sideways one and one I would not hesitate to use.

I could make the same argument for Sony and Canon. It just comes down to personal choice.

[Emanuel]

This camera is OOAK. Period.

- E.

[MrSMW]

48 minutes ago, Emanuel said:

This camera is OOAK. Period.

- E.

In an alleged board meeting, it was suggested but in the end, ZR narrowly got the vote.

[Jahleh]

After shooting with ZR and 135mm F1.8 Plena outside for a few hours in depressing Autumn darkness, and another few inside with 35 1.4 it’s pretty clear the ZR and R3D NE have their perks.

ZR feels quite small and nimble with the 35 1.4, and ok with the Plena without extra L grip.
I can live without Z6iii EVF, barely. Focusing and exposing via ZR display works ok even from 20m away with the Plena at F1.8 during and after sunset.
Exposing via highlights set to 245 work fine, as does the Cinema tools false color LUT. With CT LUT there is no zebras though, only with built in Rec709 LUT.
The Red colors are a bit different (better?) than with NRaw and blue is not over saturated with LEDs.
In low light R3D NE is clearly better than NRaw. With IPP2 pipeline grading is also a bit faster to get better results, both in SDR and HDR in Resolve.

The only big downside is that neither RED Cine X Pro nor Resolve cannot export the trimmed R3D NE clips from the timeline at the moment, probably due to a bug in Red SDK. Resolve just copies the whole clips.
Shooting longer periods from sticks is then a no go atm, unless you compress the raw to H.265 and save that, or edit your project straight from the CFExpress card. Copying whole 2TB to SSD is just stupid, if there is only 100-500GB of footage worth saving.

Hopefully there is an update to Red SDK and the ZR could need a FW update too for some minor bugs and for H.265, which did look softer than Z6iii H.265.

[Django]

13 hours ago, Jahleh said:

The only big downside is that neither RED Cine X Pro nor Resolve cannot export the trimmed R3D NE clips from the timeline at the moment, probably due to a bug in Red SDK. Resolve just copies the whole clips.
Shooting longer periods from sticks is then a no go atm, unless you compress the raw to H.265 and save that, or edit your project straight from the CFExpress card. Copying whole 2TB to SSD is just stupid, if there is only 100-500GB of footage worth saving.

Hopefully there is an update to Red SDK and the ZR could need a FW update too for some minor bugs and for H.265, which did look softer than Z6iii H.265.

Wait so Resolve can't export trimmed R3D NE clips?!! You have to transcode to h265 before editing?? If so that's a major issue. I don't understand the workaround of "edit your project straight from the CFExpress card"?

As for h265 I think it mainly has to do with the super low variable bitrate which is probably to keep thermals under control, however according to Bloom's review the ProRes HQ displays similar softness which indicates the built-in NR is set way too high. Nikon needs to give ZR some NR settings to get detail back in compressed codecs.

[Jahleh]

21 minutes ago, Django said:

Wait so Resolve can't export trimmed R3D NE clips?!! You have to transcode to h265 before editing?? If so that's a major issue. I don't understand the workaround of "edit your project straight from the CFExpress card"?

Editing R3D NE raw clips in Resolve works fine.

For example if you shoot H.265 you can use quicktime in MacOS to open and view your clips, trim unwanted parts out and save only the important to SSD. 
For NRaw that does not work. I have used Resolve to import the NRaw clips from CFExpress card into the timeline, trim (cut) the carbage out, and export (save) important parts as individual NRaw clips via Resolve’s Media Management

For R3D NE and also for NRaw to R3D hacked clips Resolve’s media management exports the whole clips, not only the trimmed parts, so there is no way to save only the parts of Raw footage you want to keep. Red Cine X pro just fails on the export.

After starting to shoot NRaw I took a habit to view, trim, edit and save my daily footage after each shooting day, so that my 2TB card would be empty for the next day. That way I would have only my important NRaw footage stored, and also a quick daily clip of those important parts edited, graded and exported as H.265 to view at the same night.

With R3D NE you either store everything you shoot as Raw, or edit something out of it and store it as H.265.

[Django]

1 hour ago, Jahleh said:

Editing R3D NE raw clips in Resolve works fine.

For example if you shoot H.265 you can use quicktime in MacOS to open and view your clips, trim unwanted parts out and save only the important to SSD. 
For NRaw that does not work. I have used Resolve to import the NRaw clips from CFExpress card into the timeline, trim (cut) the carbage out, and export (save) important parts as individual NRaw clips via Resolve’s Media Management

For R3D NE and also for NRaw to R3D hacked clips Resolve’s media management exports the whole clips, not only the trimmed parts, so there is no way to save only the parts of Raw footage you want to keep. Red Cine X pro just fails on the export.

After starting to shoot NRaw I took a habit to view, trim, edit and save my daily footage after each shooting day, so that my 2TB card would be empty for the next day. That way I would have only my important NRaw footage stored, and also a quick daily clip of those important parts edited, graded and exported as H.265 to view at the same night.

With R3D NE you either store everything you shoot as Raw, or edit something out of it and store it as H.265.

Ah gotcha, so to sum things up: exporting individual trimmed R3D NE clips fails, not rendering a full edit?

[Jahleh]

3 hours ago, Django said:

Ah gotcha, so to sum things up: exporting individual trimmed R3D NE clips fails, not rendering a full edit?

Exactly. Everything related to editing works. Only if you shoot long clips from tripod and want to save only some short trimmed parts of it as R3D NE raw, both Resolve and Red Cine X Pro do not work. Kind of assumed that as NRaw to R3D clips behave the same. 

[Video Hummus]

As a Z8 owner I'm ready to buy this camera but I really wish, and I'm dumbfounded, it did not ship with a more compressed R3D option. Especially since R3D NE is basically NRAW in the RED IPP2 workflow.

I might actually wait to see what they do with the first firmware drop. Why Nikon!

[BTM_Pix]

Had a chance to have a look at one in the flesh.

It feels good in the hand and the screen is everything that everyone has already said it is.

The overall size of the camera is even more compact than I thought it would be, particularly when they are displaying it alongside the next one up in the Nikon RED range !

I was sorely tempted at the price here which works out at £1650 including the 24-70mm f4 lens for visitors.

I’m here for a few more weeks so maybe I might buckle but the issue for me is that they had a Z8 at the next display and for an old fart like me that just appeals more, especially in light of the is it/isn’t it stuff about the RAW and the file extensions etc.

I might just sit this out (again) for another year to see how the dust settles with firmware updates for the ZR and actually the Z6III as that might be the compromise play for me, although the Z8 will likely still win out.

So, ultimately, I was able to put the ZR down and walk away fairly easily.

Unexpectedly, the one I had far more difficulty walking away from the was the much maligned Fujifilm X-Half.

Kinky.

 

[Andrew Reid]

That screen looks huge. They finally did it. A world beyond 3.2 inches exists.

In the land of low camera prices, with my lack of impulse control I wouldn't stand a chance.

Just out of curiosity what are the prices on used a Sony a9 III?

I am actually more tempted by that by anything Nikon related, when it comes down under 3k.

[ND64]

I wish someone in Nikon or RED explain what they did and what these codes actually do. NRAW show less purple noise at extreme underexposure but colors are all over the place. R3D NE is in a pool of purple noise, but colors are intact.