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…

 

[mtol]

17 hours ago, MrSMW said:

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

 

Every other camera has some nominal compromise for my workflow, but I'm hoping either of these cameras will check all the boxes for a long time to come. 

Really my S1H does 90% of what I want it to do to begin with, but readout speed improvements and reduced size would be welcome. 

[MrSMW]

11 hours ago, mtol said:

Every other camera has some nominal compromise for my workflow, but I'm hoping either of these cameras will check all the boxes for a long time to come. 

Really my S1H does 90% of what I want it to do to begin with, but readout speed improvements and reduced size would be welcome. 

I would have loved to have stuck either the S1H for both my video and stills work but re. the former, if only they had upgraded it with firmware to the new in camera LUT options, otherwise it was 'peak camera' for me.

OK, maybe PDAF also, but obvs not available as a firmware option...which is why for me, the S1RII is my 'S1H'!!

Please though can we have an FX3 style body with fully articulated Nikon ZR sized screen. I have no actual 'need' for this but do 'want' it and would buy it.

[Django]

The ZR with its ultra thin smart adapter is making more and more Sony users switch including a major YT camera bro..  the FX2 got horrible press and A7V has not outperformed the competition so I think its in Sony's best interest to announce the FX3 II sooner than later but the big question is will it finally give Sony users things like +4K, Open gate or even internal RAW? The recent releases make me very doubtful they'll include all of that... 

Speaking of ZR, I got to do some more testing as I await my C50 rental. I really like the camera. R3D RAW is phenomenal. But the file sizes are absolutely insane. I did notice that shooting in SDR compressed doesn't ruin the footage the way N-log does. My theory is that to keep such a compact camera from overheating, they baked in heavy NR and made the bitrate light to not heat up the card. If so, I'm not sure an update will fix the h265 log mush. Also the fact that shooting in R3D RAW changes the color science is a little jarring. Like Casey from camera conspiracies noted, the ZR feels like multiple cameras in one. The image quality and color science is all over the place depending on settings. I value consistency so not sure this appeals to me. 

[mtol]

2 hours ago, Django said:

its in Sony's best interest to announce the FX3 II sooner than later but the big question is will it finally give Sony users things like +4K, Open gate or even internal RAW?

I have a hunch they will announce something with a higher resolution and open gate. Unsure about RAW. But they have to adapt with the market and surely they're noticing the discourse around the age and limitations of the FX3. 

[Django]

25 minutes ago, mtol said:

I have a hunch they will announce something with a higher resolution and open gate. Unsure about RAW. But they have to adapt with the market and surely they're noticing the discourse around the age and limitations of the FX3. 

I dunno this is the same company that released an FX2 couple months ago with a 4 year old A7IV sensor. The A7V hasn't caught up to the competition either. Sony are in their own bubble, too comfortable being in leadership position. Don't forget they also have a cine line to protect, so unless they're planning an entire FX refresh, I wouldn't expect too much from them at this point.

In any case I can't wait any longer so it looks like I will be headed back to Canon, closed lens system but it checks all the boxes.

[mtol]

11 minutes ago, Django said:

I dunno this is the same company that released an FX2 couple months ago with a 4 year old A7IV sensor. The A7V hasn't caught up to the competition either. Sony are in their own bubble, too comfortable being in leadership position. Don't forget they also have a cine line to protect, so unless they're planning an entire FX refresh, I wouldn't expect too much from them at this point.

In any case I can't wait any longer so it looks like I will be headed back to Canon, closed lens system but it checks all the boxes.

As long as it checks all the boxes for you. You really can't go wrong.

For me both the C50 and R6III are close to checking all the boxes, but if the C50 had IBIS or the R6III had the XLR handle, they would be perfect. I know canon has some great stabilized zooms, but I don't want to get married to a system for a feature that most systems are putting in-body.

I'm currently invested in L mount, but just barely - which means I own some adapters and one lens in that system. The rest is EF glass or adapted to EF glass. So switching systems would not be too costly if any one camera hits it all out of the park.

At the end of the day, they're all good machines. I'm not in a huge rush. But I look at the price of used FX3s and kind of think it may make sense to invest in something that will hold its value as the kind of go-to camera for the next 5 years. Then again, I prefer the image out of my S1H to the FX3 any day, and had I gone that route I'd have a more valuable black box and five years of inferior images.