Nikon Zr is coming

[Davide DB]

finally something different

 

 

[ND64]

Somebody discovered the h.265 softness issue is a variable bitrate bug. With Nlog its too low. It should be 320Mb/s but its 32Mb/s. They forgot a zero 🙂

[Emanuel]

On 11/23/2025 at 9:51 PM, Danyyyel said:

For now as a Nikon shooter, I am more inclined to shoot NRAW and do the renaming trick to R3D, than to shoot R3D as I am finding that the Nraw has more DR than the R3D and you can shoot the normal version that takes only about 370 mbs for 24 fps in 4k and 700 mbs for 6k. This is a little test of conversion of Nev to R3D. You have NEV (Nikon RAw), NEV but using the RED lut, Then the Nev to R3D renaming and finally the REDraw file. then  So I need to make a little bit more test, with skin tones etc, but they are quite close to me, even more so that even between the different red cameras like the Raptor and Komodo, their is some color difference. The yellow are a little bit more saturated and the image is a little more toward yellow in the Nikon ZR redraw R3D files. On side by side test the ZR was the more yellowish of the red camera. So it might balance out in the end. 

I see fair differences between them you've actually pointed out. Far to even be similar once converted unless when native perhaps, to my eyes :- )

[Andrew Reid]

On 12/1/2025 at 10:42 AM, Davide DB said:

finally something different

 

 

The comments say Nikon has such great colours, but with LOG footage the colours are up to the user not the camera.

[stephen]

We can control H265 quality in Nikon Zr and results are not bad at all. Interesting, I've never heard anybody mention this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHbq8g6dBCk 

 

[Andrew Reid]

They all look the same these cameras to me.

[ND64]

10 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

The comments say Nikon has such great colours, but with LOG footage the colours are up to the user not the camera.

It's the same "Canon makes better skin tones" superstition among photographers while we could get whatever skin tones we wanted with raw files all these years, but this time among videographers. Now convenience is part of the color science tho. If the image is just two clicks away from their perception of pleasing colors, means the camera produces great colors.

[Davide DB]

Just on this forum, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of comments about this brand or that camera having terrible colors, awful skin tones, colorw impossible to match, and now everything depend on the user?

What did I misunderstand about your comments?

Here's a simple search for you.

https://www.eoshd.com/comments/search/?&q=Colors&type=forums_topic&search_and_or=or

[Andrew Reid]

13 hours ago, Davide DB said:

Just on this forum, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of comments about this brand or that camera having terrible colors, awful skin tones, colorw impossible to match, and now everything depend on the user?

What did I misunderstand about your comments?

Here's a simple search for you.

https://www.eoshd.com/comments/search/?&q=Colors&type=forums_topic&search_and_or=or

I'm talking about LOG video, it really does depend on the user more than the camera how the colours come out, especially as the modern range of gear now have a similar high level of codecs.

So the Z-LOG = S-LOG = F-LOG they're all very much the same sort of thing.

Whenever you see this LOG footage on YouTube, it's been graded by the user, either with a LUT or with their own grading skills in Resolve. Yet all the comments are like this... WOW the camera has great colour science, blah blah blah.

And i's the same with RAW... All the sensors are now at a high level, similar dynamic range and so on. If anything they are now too good and are moving AWAY from the look of film.

As for colour science...

If you shoot JPEG or rec.709 video, then what the camera is doing matters far more.

But in LOG they are all using a very similar wide colour gamut, and similar LOG curve, similar white balance, it is only the 8bit side that still has a big variation between Film Simulations, Photo Styles and Creative Looks.

So just bear in mind next time you see footage on YouTube that the LUT is doing 99.99% of the colour you're seeing not the camera.

[Andrew Reid]

13 hours ago, ND64 said:

It's the same "Canon makes better skin tones" superstition among photographers while we could get whatever skin tones we wanted with raw files all these years, but this time among videographers. Now convenience is part of the color science tho. If the image is just two clicks away from their perception of pleasing colors, means the camera produces great colors.

Canon does do better skintones but it applies to the 8bit JPEG engine and rec.709 Standard video recording mode, it doesn't apply to LOG because the look of skintones come from the post processing side i.e. LUT.

I am amazed people don't know this haha

[Andrew Reid]

I had a play with the Nikon Zr today and quite liked it, it's a capable, good value for money Sigma-Fp style camera with very good autofocus and finally a screen with which you can see what is in focus and what isn't. Well done Japan for going large after 25 years of 3.0 inches.

It's the sort of camera that would be very exciting back in the day of the DSLR video revolution to say the least...

Nowadays though, I find other stuff more exciting.

Also the screen tilting mechanism sucks... I'd far rather they'd drop the YouTube vlog-style swivel screens on a camera like this and have a standard tilt screen that is ON AXIS with the fucking lens, and with it being so large it really feels unbalanced stuck out at the side and blocking the ports.

In a way the Zr feels like a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K but done well.

But it doesn't feel very high-end, even if the image is.

Also I miss the EVF and think the Z6 Mark III is even more bang for buck.

So yeah, doesn't set my hair on fire but it's going to be a very decent buy for a lot of people.

[stephen]

Nikon ZR vs Arri Alexa Mini Color (R3D NE, N-Log, Log C)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgJGK3YpIx0 

 

[zlfan]

nikon photo cameras have that kind of extremely sharp glow, i used v1 10 mp for its 60p mode, coupling with nikon's 18mm f1.8 (?, kind of forgetting the lens spec, long time ago), the video clips on my computer screen are very sharp and has some kind of glow (lost on youtube). now with om1 20mp 120p and zeiss zf 21mm f2.8, i still don't see that kind of sharpness glow. 

each camera manufacturer has its own secret juice. 

[Danyyyel]

23 hours ago, stephen said:

Nikon ZR vs Arri Alexa Mini Color (R3D NE, N-Log, Log C)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgJGK3YpIx0 

 

I always said how the Nikon colors were close to the Alexa one. I used to work as an on set photographer on movie shooting including Netflix in my country. And many times I had to match them to the Movie own colors that were mostly shots on Alexas. And they were damn close, as this test shows. I did not do video to video comparison, but Nikon colors have always been so good. 

[Danyyyel]

On 12/7/2025 at 4:23 AM, ND64 said:

Somebody discovered the h.265 softness issue is a variable bitrate bug. With Nlog its too low. It should be 320Mb/s but its 32Mb/s. They forgot a zero 🙂

I sincerely hope they correct this very fast. From my use, I would not say it is as bad as people are saying, but until now the h265 from my Nikons has been very very good. 

[Andrew Reid]

1 hour ago, Danyyyel said:

I always said how the Nikon colors were close to the Alexa one. I used to work as an on set photographer on movie shooting including Netflix in my country. And many times I had to match them to the Movie own colors that were mostly shots on Alexas. And they were damn close, as this test shows. I did not do video to video comparison, but Nikon colors have always been so good. 

The Alexa Mini in that video looks much better than the Zr in rec.709

The LOG modes are just a wide gamut colour space.

Nearly all cameras look the same in rec 2020.

[Jahleh]

12 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Nearly all cameras look the same in rec 2020.

After two or three years of editing HDR  out of S5, S5II and GH6 footage and then from GH7, Z6III and ZR I wouldn’t say they look the same. Panny’s footage can be tweaked to look almost similar than Z6III, but still it just doesn’t look as good to my eye.
The ZR R3D NE also looks a bit different than NRaw, but it is debatable which one’s colors are better. In this same context Iphone 15 Pro Proress footage stands out, and not in a good way, when viewed on a big screen.

[Andrew Reid]

11 hours ago, Jahleh said:

After two or three years of editing HDR  out of S5, S5II and GH6 footage and then from GH7, Z6III and ZR I wouldn’t say they look the same. Panny’s footage can be tweaked to look almost similar than Z6III, but still it just doesn’t look as good to my eye.
The ZR R3D NE also looks a bit different than NRaw, but it is debatable which one’s colors are better. In this same context Iphone 15 Pro Proress footage stands out, and not in a good way, when viewed on a big screen.

In terms of colour in LOG and rec.2020 the only difference between cameras these days is how easy (or otherwise) they are to grade, for example C-LOG on the old Canon 1D C was so easy, it only needed the addition of contrast and barely any colour grading at all to look cinematic.

Now there are massive differences between LUTs compared to between LOG curves and colour.

So when you see all these reviews, tests and comparisons you are just seeing a LUT!

It's almost comical really, nobody gets under the skin of what the camera is doing - they're just putting their grading skills and LUTs on show.

And the codecs are all so good... no more 8bit banding.

I compared the Sony a1 SLOG3 H265 8K to Nikon Z9 NRAW 8K and there was nothing in it really, not even in terms of noise and shadow detail. You could do just as big a grade or white balance shift on the H265 footage as you could with NRAW.

Now the way I like to think of RAW as useful is as follows:

- As a way to bypass poor camera image processing... Hardly needed now... In the old days, light and day difference between something like 5D Mark II compressed H.264 and uncompressed Magic Lantern Raw (in Cinema DNG), even at 1080p it was a different league of image quality.

- As a way to increase image quality with drawback of huge file sizes. Now we get if we're lucky a 1-2% increase in image quality for a 1000% increase in file size (over H.265 10bit)

- As a way to turn off in-camera sharpening and white balance (do it in post). However image processing has got so flexible you can turn sharpening off in LOG... look how smooth and natural Canon LOG looks on the old 1D C or EOS R6 III 10bit H.265 for example

- A file format to show to clients that says you're serious 🙂

And we all know why the majority of videographers are fawning over raw delivery whereas ARRI ALEXA DPs casually go round doing it all in ProRes

That is another comparison the YouTube bros refuse to do well... the ALEXA ProRes vs ARRI RAW and Canon LOG vs RAW

I haven't seen a single good comparison!