2026 Camera Pick (C50/R6 mk3, FX3/FX2, ZR)

[ArashM]

On 2/5/2026 at 2:37 PM, Django said:

true! speaking of which:

..would you mind expanding on these quality of life issues, CFB extraction aside?

I apologize for the delay, before I expand, I have to say Kye in a note above said it best. In general I don't find -For me and what I shoot- the ZR get's out of the way and just works, I'm not brand new to Nikon yet find the menu diving a bit of a pain, I also can't understand why I can't assign some common used settings to the first quick menu. Getting a card out once you rigged your camera is a nightmare, have to move the whole thing off and pull off anything on the base to access the card. See below on set's like this it's a bit of a mess and you then have to spend time and make sure your camera is back to the right place! Another challenge is the tragic  H265, I shot a small table top for Sephora the other day and couple of mini clips ended up at 293 GIGs, would have shot it on H265 if it was fine, absolutely no need for red code in a perfectly lit set.

I normally shoot on cameras that just do what they need to do and that's all there is to it, we don't even really think much about the camera during the shoot, for my experience so far the ZR isn't that camera!

Again this is just me, I'm sure there are people who love using the ZR and that's excellent 🙂

Edit: spelling!

[Django]

15 hours ago, ArashM said:

I apologize for the delay, before I expand, I have to say Kye in a note above said it best. In general I don't find -For me and what I shoot- the ZR get's out of the way and just works, I'm not brand new to Nikon yet find the menu diving a bit of a pain, I also can't understand why I can't assign some common used settings to the first quick menu. Getting a card out once you rigged your camera is a nightmare, have to move the whole thing off and pull off anything on the base to access the card. See below on set's like this it's a bit of a mess and you then have to spend time and make sure your camera is back to the right place! Another challenge is the tragic  H265, I shot a small table top for Sephora the other day and couple of mini clips ended up at 293 GIGs, would have shot it on H265 if it was fine, absolutely no need for red code in a perfectly lit set.

I normally shoot on cameras that just do what they need to do and that's all there is to it, we don't even really think much about the camera during the shoot, for my experience so far the ZR isn't at all that camera!

Again this is just me, I'm sure there are people who love using the ZR and that's excellent for them 🙂

 

Thanks for the honest take and rig photo.  I can see how ZR probably isn’t ideal once you build it out like that. 

I’m also a bit skeptical about the cinema positioning. Nikon pushes R3D hard, which is great for high-end grading, but H.265 should be solid and dependable at this level, not an afterthought.

Hopefully some of this improves via firmware. Better bitrates, cleaner encoding, more mature UI. The FX3 launched pretty bare and evolved a lot over time, so there’s precedent.

For me, the appeal of the ZR is the ultra-compact body with that big screen. I wouldn’t want to over-rig it. On bigger sets with serious monitoring needs, I'd say something more modular like the C50 makes more sense.

I've decided to rent the C50 to see if it really meets my needs in client situations. Wish I could do the same with ZR but it isn't available for rental around here.

Really appreciate you sharing the unfiltered experience. It helps a lot. 

[ArashM]

My pleasure and I hope there is something helpful in there.

If I was in your shoes I would go C50 as well. I also agree and hope Nikon can address some of the short coming via firmware, they have been good about this in the past.

Please keep us up to date with your thoughts and findings.

[mtol]

Personally I'm waiting for the FX3ii and S1Hii which hopefully will both be announced in April. Many good options if you need something now, but certainly more good options in a few months time.

[MrSMW]

2 hours ago, mtol said:

Personally I'm waiting for the FX3ii and S1Hii which hopefully will both be announced in April. Many good options if you need something now, but certainly more good options in a few months time.

The rumour mill suggests both of these might indeed be coming this April. There have been smoke signals over the Dolomite mountains…