NIKON x RED ZR | $2,199 Pocket RED Camera is STUNNING!

0:00 So, it has been a while since I

0:01 have been this excited about a mirrorless camera.

0:04 This is not just a a Nikon camera.

0:06 It is the first collaboration they've really done with RED.

0:09 Well, actually, I don't even know if you call it a collaboration

0:12 because basically RED has always had a patent on compressed RAW.

0:15 Maybe one of my favorite things about RED cameras.

0:17 It's very smooth to work with.

0:19 It's very fast.

0:19 It's easy.

0:20 And it's not tremendously huge of a file.

0:24 I want to say it's actually similar to ProRes

0:26 in terms of file size, but it's raw.

0:28 You know, just like when you take a raw photo,

0:29 you could change the white balance of the ISOs.

0:31 Then Nikon came in and was like, "Well, you know what?

0:33 We're going to put compressor on our cameras."

0:34 And then Red sued Nikon and it was all

0:36 this crazy stuff like they're fighting and then

0:38 all of a sudden it's like, "Oh, guess what?

0:39 Nikon bought Red, so now they're one." It's like having two people that just

0:42 hate each other and then all of a sudden you find out they got married.

0:44 It's like what?

0:45 And then they have a baby and this is

0:47 their first child right here, the Nikon ZR.

0:50 This will give a 6K 60 in red code raw fullframe badass screen.

0:56 I've gotten used to this.

0:58 So, this just looks absolutely tiny now.

1:01 Yeah.

1:01 It also has ProRes internal, ProRes RAW, dual native ISO at 800 and 6400.

1:07 Wow.

1:06 Guess how much this camera costs.

1:08 Five like 5Gs.

1:10 5G is what you would think, right?

1:12 Yeah.

1:12 So, it's 6K.

1:14 6K 60.

1:15 6K full frame.

1:17 And you could shoot that with like Nikon's IBIS and autofocus.

1:21 Well, it's got to be close to an FX3.

1:23 It's gonna have to be It's gonna have to be three grand 35.

1:26 If it's cheaper, that's it's gonna be tough for everybody.

1:30 All right.

1:31 It is cheaper.

1:33 What?

1:33 2,200 bucks.

1:34 22.

1:34 I know, right?

1:36 What?

1:36 I think Nikon's just trying to get everyone to switch over.

1:38 They're just like, "Hey, we're going to just like take a loss

1:40 on this camera so everyone just switches over and then you

1:42 guys could buy our lenses and you're stuck

1:44 in our ecosystem." I think that's what they're trying to do.

1:46 Now, this video is not sponsored by Nikon or Red,

1:48 but it is sponsored by myself and my tripod,

1:51 Trix, the fastest tripod to set up and level out with just one clutch action.

1:56 Now, comes in two flavors.

1:57 The premium carbon fiber version as well as the aluminum version, the Trix SE.

2:02 We are back here at the Haven Camera Rentals here in Culver City,

2:06 Los Angeles, California, United States of America, planet Earth.

2:12 Are we We could be on the inverse.

2:14 could be in the matrix.

2:16 Going to be limitations with this.

2:17 We know this, right?

2:18 Obviously, at that price point, there's something that's not a Raptor.

2:22 Yeah.

2:22 I mean, like, I don't see a fan in here,

2:24 so I have to run some overheating tests on it.

2:26 So,

2:26 but it's okay because I I'm I expect for an FX like an FX3,

2:30 I expect there's limitations

2:32 based on its price point, right?

2:34 And you go a little more expensive, you get an FX6, you get a few more things.

2:37 You're going to be sad when you see Oh, no.

2:40 Not micro.

2:41 Ah, come on.

2:44 No, you don't make broken micro HDMI.

2:47 So, now the only problem is we need more Nikon mount lenses.

2:50 Zmount?

2:50 Yeah.

2:50 Yeah, we need Zmount cinema lenses.

2:52 But I actually do have a Z to E-mount adapter.

2:56 And so far,

2:57 yeah, the flange distance is so shallow on Z

3:00 that I could actually put one in here.

3:01 And so far, using E-mount lenses has not been a problem.

3:06 Yeah, but man, I love Nikon glass.

3:08 Like if you if I think Nikon glass is my favorite still glass period.

3:16 Interesting.

3:15 Oh, Nikon primes are gorgeous.

3:18 Not a red design sensors though.

3:19 So this is still a Nikon design sensor we think.

3:23 I think so.

3:23 I know it's 15 stops of dynamic range is what they're global.

3:26 So it's not global.

3:27 Not global.

3:28 Okay.

3:28 So then it's Nikon, right?

3:29 Cuz we know Red is all in on global now.

3:31 I'd be curious on how the Log 3 G10 looks out of this compared to like a Red.

3:35 Oh well.

3:36 Why don't we just do that?

3:36 Let's go rumage through and make a mess

3:38 in the shop so that Nicole could be like, "Damn it, another mess." The Nikon ZR

3:44 against uh the much more expensive Bigger Brothers.

3:47 Also, Ken has just moved to Los Angeles and he's already a supermodel.

3:51 This is the only one with Ibis.

3:53 It's the one that has like the best autofocus.

3:55 How's the autofocus on these?

3:56 Have they gotten better?

3:58 No.

3:58 All right, rolling.

4:00 This is making me anxious having three

4:02 cameras recording Red Code RAW, 6K, 6K, 8K.

4:05 We're just burning through about a terabyte every two seconds.

4:08 So, let's hurry this up.

4:09 Come on.

4:10 The Nikon and the Komodo X and the Raptor.

4:13 The Raptor.

4:15 Yeah.

4:17 Raptor.

4:17 He just pointed at the Nikon and called it a Raptor.

4:20 Oh, man.

4:23 Wow.

4:22 Komodo X has that magenta,

4:24 which makes me wonder if that was like an offset white balance,

4:27 but obviously since we can go and look at the RAW file,

4:31 I actually see that it's actually not offset.

4:33 It's actually right there in the middle.

4:34 So, there might be like an offset that needs to happen

4:37 as like a BC camera with the Raptor.

4:39 That's not bad.

4:40 The fact that this $2,200 camera can be a Bcam to a Raptor.

4:44 I mean, it got me.

4:44 It's kind of crazy, right?

4:46 Yeah.

4:47 Pretty impressive, huh?

4:47 That little guy.

4:48 Walk a little bit towards the lens.

4:50 So, come towards us.

4:51 This is focusing.

4:54 Autofocus.

4:54 I don't have autofocus.

4:56 Why would you spend $30,000 on a camera that can't autofocus?

4:59 My iPhone could autofocus right away.

5:02 Waste of money.

5:03 That looks pretty good actually.

5:05 See the color saturation maintained.

5:06 So back in the day there was a really big argument with red log film

5:10 and dragon color that these bright reds like

5:12 this like tail lights would be really screwed up.

5:15 So they put a lot of work in the new

5:17 red color science to really maintain all that consistency,

5:21 saturation, everything without clipping.

5:23 For the price that they want to sell this for, that's like kind of crazy.

5:27 Yeah.

5:26 And I shoot a lot of tests in this room with this lighting.

5:30 So I know the room well and I know the lighting well.

5:33 So, all right.

5:33 Good job, Nikon.

5:34 All right, so now that I've thoroughly hyped up this camera to you,

5:37 let me just bring it back down to earth for a second.

5:39 So, when you take this much power and put

5:40 it into something that this small without a fan,

5:43 overheating is probably going to be a thing.

5:45 So, of course, I threw it in the magic incubator at 104° Fahrenheit or 40° C,

5:50 which is typically the upper end operational limit of cameras.

5:55 And it did not take very long at all for it to cut out on us.

5:58 There is kind of like this high temp mode which of course

6:01 I had it on that now in nice air conditioned room temperature

6:04 it definitely handled a whole lot better but that doesn't give me

6:07 a ton of confidence if I need to go film in the desert.

6:11 A lot of people just imagine Los Angeles

6:13 to be beaches and palm trees but literally you look the other direction and it's

6:16 just desert like Death Valley is right here.

6:19 So filming at over 100° is not an uncommon thing.

6:22 And I do remember like going back to like shooting on older Red cameras.

6:26 I was more of a red shooter back in the DSMC 2 days being on set on a hot day

6:32 and the entire crew just waiting for my Scarlet W

6:36 to cool back down so we can continue with our filming day.

6:40 And honestly, I feel like that is the only reason why they felt

6:44 like they could possibly release this camera at $2,200 because I do think,

6:50 okay, if they're going to give us this at 2,200 bucks,

6:53 what would they give us for double that?

6:55 like what would a $4500 Z cinema camera look like?

7:00 Because that's what I'm really interested in.

7:03 Another thing that's interesting is that there's

7:04 variations of Red Code RAW, right?

7:06 So before it was like 8:1 is where I typically shot a lot, but then there's 3:1,

7:11 which is like less compression,

7:12 and then like 12:1 if you want like smaller file sizes or 6.

7:15 But anyways, Red simplified it on like

7:16 the Komodos where it's like LQ, MQ, and HQ.

7:20 So, the three variations, but on here it is R3D NE, which I haven't seen before.

7:27 Seems very comparable to MQ.

7:29 So, it's not just some like super baby version of Red Code.

7:32 No, it's like solid red code.

7:34 I mean, I wouldn't mind having the option

7:35 of a lighter or heavier version of the Red Code.

7:38 But what is kind of nice is that it is just one file.

7:40 So, if you've ever shot Red, you'll know that like one video clip basically

7:44 gets split up into a bunch of different files.

7:46 This is what it looks like.

7:48 But on here, it's just one big old file.

7:50 Like I had one clip out of here that was 300 gigs.

7:53 Just one file.

7:54 Now, I think it's safe to say that the ZR,

7:56 even though it weighs only just over a pound, I think it's an absolute beast.

8:00 It's a monster.

8:00 And we've known that this is the direction that technology is going to take us,

8:03 which is exactly why we designed the Tribeex at the size it is.

8:07 It is not designed to replace your full size 75

8:10 or 100 mil tripods for those big ass cinema cameras.

8:13 I wanted it to be able to just easily just be thrown

8:15 into a Pelican case that you could travel with, fly with, go into a suitcase.

8:18 Light enough to take to the top of the mountain,

8:20 but still maintaining that fluid head performance

8:22 so we can really maximize the image.

8:24 Now, if we look next to the very sad HDMI port,

8:26 we do have a USBC port, which can be used for data transfer.

8:30 Now, it doesn't show up like a drive like the Sony's or DJI do,

8:34 which I which is what I prefer, but you can still import it using software.

8:38 But of course, we could use it to also

8:39 power the camera as well as recharge the battery.

8:42 And look at this.

8:43 There's a quarter 20 with locking pins on this tripod.

8:45 So, I could attach this Small Rig arm to hold this Small Rig battery.

8:50 Sponsored by Small Rig.

8:51 I think this is just a regular Nikon battery.

8:54 16 W hours.

8:56 I did 4K 24 full-frame in red code raw and it lasted an hour and 51 minutes.

9:02 So, almost 2 hours of 4K red code raw on just the the stock battery.

9:07 super efficient with this 212 watth battery.

9:10 This thing will last till next century.

9:12 We won't even be around by the time this thing dies.

9:15 There's also another accessory mount, a/420 that goes right here,

9:18 which would actually track with the head,

9:19 which is more designed for like a monitor, but this monitor right here,

9:23 this 4in display definitely makes me need an external monitor less.

9:30 1,000 nits.

9:31 So, enough for me to reference the screen, make sure I'm in focus,

9:35 do what I need to do, and we are literally like right at noon right now.

9:39 The sun is blasting straight down on this monitor,

9:42 and I'm able to know that this shot is in focus.

9:45 This 4-in screen, I hope,

9:48 is a trend for mirrorless cameras because I love

9:53 having this 4in display cuz you think about it,

9:56 most mirrorless cameras might have like a 3-in display

9:58 and then you would have to attach with HDMI

10:00 cables and have another thing to power and all

10:02 that stuff just to get a 5 in, right?

10:04 This is right there in the middle between the two.

10:06 It's easier to be inspired on the spot when you're filming with a nice display.

10:10 I mean, if you ever shot with a 7-in display,

10:13 you know that like you're like, "Wa,

10:15 my shot's looking awesome." I mean, in the end,

10:17 it's the same shot as if you didn't have the monitor, right?

10:19 But in that moment, it feels a lot more inspiring.

10:22 You're going to be able to catch more things in the frame, like, "Oh,

10:25 that shouldn't be there." Or, "Oh, I need to clean this up." Or whatever.

10:28 Going from 3 in to 4 in doesn't sound like a lot,

10:32 but an inch makes a big difference, right, Carrie?

10:35 I don't want to answer that.

10:36 Especially when that inch is in between your legs

10:40 because today I have been stretching for over

10:43 a 100 days straight around an extra six inches

10:46 that I can do the splits which is pretty good.

10:48 I'm just going to keep it going though and hopefully soon

10:50 I'll be able to just blah flat out shoot that hurts.

10:55 But anyways, links down there in the description for the Trix.

10:58 This is the SE aluminum version and has

11:00 a few limitations like this only has two locking positions.

11:03 And this still does have a counterbalance,

11:05 but it's not adjustable like the carbon fiber one.

11:07 My go-to is still the carbon fiber version,

11:09 but uh we definitely heard a lot of you say it's out of the price range.

11:13 So, we really designed this to cut the price down in half.

11:16 Now, I'm kind of curious how this camera is as more

11:19 of like a a vlogging camera or just like a you know,

11:22 you go out with your friends and you want to record stuff.

11:24 You don't necessarily want to record Red Code RAW.

11:27 I got this ramp right here.

11:29 So, I'm basically going over to the opposite end of the spectrum.

11:33 We're shooting in H.265 right now.

11:35 So, a nice compressed format.

11:37 But the downside of recording in H.265 is

11:40 that I can't shoot in RED's color science.

11:42 You can only shoot Red's color science if I'm shooting R3D.

11:46 So, in the RAW format in here,

11:48 I'm shooting in Nikon's log, so N log in 10 bit H.265.

11:52 How's that RAM coming along?

11:54 Uh, I also have the sport stabilization on.

11:58 So, it is a IBIS.

12:00 I must say I have been pretty impressed with Nikon's IBIS, though.

12:02 I mean, it definitely is more effective than say like Sony's IBIS,

12:06 but it's not as far as Canon's ibis where

12:09 you start to get some of that warpiness, right?

12:11 Like, I'm just going to kind of like wobble around a little

12:13 bit and I don't think you'll really see too much wobbliness.

12:18 Whoa, that isn't bad.

12:21 Oh, he was going way faster than I thought he was going to go.

12:23 Oh my god.

12:24 No fear.

12:25 I got to act tough for the camera.

12:26 You know, my girlfriend's watching this.

12:29 So, it's interesting.

12:30 Really capable as just like a daily carry having fun with friends camera,

12:34 but also can then just flip into like Red

12:36 Code RAW and then just shoot 12 bit raw.

12:40 It's interesting.

12:41 It's very interesting.

12:44 One of the fun things about this ramp though is I can

12:46 keep elevating it to make the jump a little bit more aggressive.

12:50 Vlogging is a very different mindset from like cinematic filming, right?

12:53 Where, you know, cinematic filming, you know,

12:55 record when you need to and you cut as soon as you can.

12:58 But, uh, in vlogging sometimes you just let it roll.

13:01 So, if I have a half a terabyte card that I have in here right now, uh,

13:05 I think I could get like 40 something minutes in Red Co Raw in the high setting.

13:09 Uh, but basically here, let's just record for a very long time.

13:13 Dynamic range test.

13:14 Walking into the shadow and I'm probably going to look fairly dark,

13:17 but can I brighten it up in post?

13:20 I should be able to.

13:20 10 bit log still.

13:21 15 stops of dynamic range is what they claim.

13:24 All right, time for some slow motion.

13:26 Now, we have 60 frames per second in full frame

13:29 or we also have 120 frames per second in 4K, but the 4K does have a crop.

13:34 I believe it's similar to Super 35.

13:36 I have already played with it a little bit and uh I find it to be pretty good.

13:40 And Nikon's autofocus also solid solid autofocus now.

13:45 All right, I agree.

13:46 Go for it.

13:47 Oh, I shot a stall there.

13:51 Woo.

13:51 You know what I don't like?

13:52 The mic jack's in the way of the screen swiveing.

13:54 I wanted to get a low shot and I went to go swivel the screen.

13:59 Yeah.

13:58 And I couldn't straight up do it.

14:00 The camera itself is a very minimalistic, simple design.

14:03 Not that many buttons and switches.

14:05 size comparison to the Sony A74.

14:08 Definitely very flat opposed to having like a a grip.

14:12 Battery goes down here on the bottom and then CFast Express TypeB.

14:16 If you look inside deeper, there is a little micro SD card slot in there.

14:21 So, technically it is dual card slot,

14:23 but you're not going to be writing, you know, Red Code RAW to this.

14:25 The H.265, I've been able to write to this.

14:28 I do also appreciate that there are some creator

14:30 friendly features in here like the product focus mode.

14:33 can switch that mode on and it'll just focus to whatever I'm presenting.

14:36 And apparently this thing has 32-bit flow audio in here.

14:39 So I still have to do a little more testing

14:40 to see how exactly do I get the 32-bit flow.

14:43 But clearly just goes to show Nikon is hard at work

14:45 making a camera that is appealing to us video folks.

14:49 Now time for my favorite and least favorite things.

14:52 I think there's the obvious drawbacks like the no fan and micro HDMI,

14:56 but I think the the thing that I wish

14:58 it had was the red color science across all

15:03 the codecs cuz right now I don't know if

15:06 I want to shoot everything in red code raw.

15:08 Now, of course, you get Nikon log through

15:10 all the other codecs and it's all right.

15:13 I feel like Nikon log handles highlights pretty well.

15:16 I don't really care for what it kind of does in the shadows.

15:20 more of a personal preference, but the Red Code RAW,

15:23 I do like how that looks on here.

15:25 And again, I do love Red Code Raw because of how easy it is to edit.

15:29 I mean, I could edit Red Code Raw on my laptop, no problem.

15:32 It'll just blast through it.

15:33 I also wouldn't mind a few more exposure tools like waveform or false color.

15:37 I mean, we still got histogram.

15:38 I didn't see any open gate settings, you know,

15:40 4x3, so for those of you who really want that.

15:43 But with all that said,

15:45 these are small problems considering the power to price ratio.

15:52 So for 2,200 bucks, it's just crazy to me that we're

15:56 getting red code raw in 6K with Nikon smart features.

16:01 I mean, if you've ever been like, "Oh,

16:03 I would like to try shooting on Red one day." Like, this is basically there.

16:08 And my favorite thing about it is it feels

16:11 very pleasant to use as it's a very well-rounded camera.

16:16 I would say from like this huge screen to the menu

16:19 and user interface is pretty easy to understand and navigate.

16:22 The 7.5 stops of image stabilization with this IVIS is good.

16:26 The autofocus is solid even when I'm using adapted lenses.

16:30 So now when I use E-mount lenses once

16:33 in a while it just won't register like my f-stop.

16:35 So I just have to reboot it and then it starts to work.

16:38 But like the autofocus works good.

16:39 And that is actually a big deal for someone like

16:42 me that's kind of like looked at this camera and it's

16:44 like h like am I ready to sell all

16:48 my Sony's and just go all full on like not yet.

16:52 But there is something about this camera that is it's very appealing to me.

16:57 And I could always taste test this camera because of that lower cost of the body

17:02 and then adapt my Sony lenses to it because

17:05 of that small flange distance that Z lenses have.

17:09 Obviously, you're going to get best performance

17:11 out of Nikon lenses on the Nikon camera.

17:14 But honestly, I've tried some Sony lenses, some Tamron lenses,

17:17 and all from E-mount, and it works good enough.

17:20 And I'm just dying to know what's next on the Z Cinema lineup.

17:26 That is all.