ND64

RED stays RED, for now.

The reality is if you lift the shadows in both Z9 and A1 "uncompressed" raw images, at base ISO, you get different results. If you do demosaicing on A1 images, and apply temporal NR, you get even more different result. If Nikon ditch the NRAW, its probably related to license costs, not the quality of the codec.

And yet Z9 is the noisier one:

For comparing two different codecs, you have to use the same or similar sensors.

I really want to "own nothing and be happy" but I'm not sure about the second half of that sentence.

It isn't for everybody because there is no high compression, yet. NRAW supports 12:1 or 1 bit per pixel. Its just 600mb/s for 6k30p, but Nikon's current options are only 4.5:1 and 7.5:1.

"In my opinion, the enthusiasm is because Atomos have a chance with Nikon to renegotiate or nullify their onerous licensing agreement for RAW recording. The agreement with RED in 2019 was necessary as Atomos were being sued for the use of compressed RAW codecs like ProRes RAW in their portable recorders, so now have to pay RED royalties on every sale (although the exact terms of the deal aren’t public)." But if Nikon decides to Not defend RED patent, there will be a lot of cameras in the market with internal raw. Canon will introduce 8:1 compression, Sony will introduce a new Sony-exclusive raw codec and call it XcR, Panasonic S5m3 will record ProresRAW. And then, who would need/buy a monitor recorder?

New but not unexpected rumors: - The Nikon Z6III camera announcement may have something to do with the RED acquisition. - We should expect some kind of a Nikon/RED announcement at the 2024 NAB show next month (maybe the Z6III?). ----- I still think its too early for any RED+Nikon development, but Expeed7 doing R3D is the lowest hanging fruit.

Nikon is going to release a Komodo competitor next month: Z6m3 with 6k30p raw 😄

I'm not sure pixel shield PDAF IP is totally owned by Sony, since Nikon has a lot of patents related to that technique. Of course many cross licencing is happening in this industry. Dual gain was invented by Aptina, now part of ONsemi, which doesn't provide sensor for any of Japanese ILC makers, but everybody is using the tech. However if they want to add AF capabilities to RED, I don't think they would use pixel shield technique, cause it degrades image quality a little bit (the shielded pixel has lower S/N ratio than the rest of the pixels). Dual pixel and quad pixel is the way to go. Nikon has some interesting patents about that too. People put too much emphasis on sensor license fees. The fees are not really a big deal. The fab costs is.

This acquisition caused some discoveries: 1- Some RED users are not mentally well. I mean who on earth glue a camera, which is a tool, to his entire identity? Its insane when you think about that. It may sound judgmental but I feel few of these guys are even closet antivaxxer. 2- People in video making echo chamber have no clue about still camera industry. Example one: they don't know how popular Z8 is. Example two: they don't know a big part of Canon market share is related to its strategy of sticking to the old habit of making cheap cripple hammered bodies. Example three: they don't know how much Nikon is involved in CMOS sensor development. 3- Making "analysis" video about a corporate deal, with almost zero published details, is so easy for some of these YouTubers, that seems "Trust me bro" is not a meme anymore, but a serious way of life!

The thing is Nikon really wanted to have a dedicated video camera in the line up, but I assume they figured removing EVF and adding couple of Fn buttons, as Sony tends to do, is not enough.

Its too soon for a collaborative work. But all they have to do, for now, is add REDCODE and active cooling to upcoming Z6III, and call it RED Phoenix or something, with $3k price. Having Nraw didn't prevent them to include ProresRAW in Z9. Unless REDCODE needs higher processing power Expeed 7 can't provide.

Bigger than Apple? Although they didn't try hard.

Nikon owns The Bolt robot, and now RED. Next should be Aputure 🙂

I was thinking about gaming industry too.. why I need to hire someone to design water physics, who will probably fail at his job, when AI can generate a realistic AND cinematic image?

I think 6k60p is 16:9 crop. And its 12bit.

If 6k NRAW is true they need Nlog2. Z6II sensor, assuming a faster version is used for this, has almost 14 stop of DR. Current Nlog is 12 stop max.

The updated list: - 6k60 NRAW, 4k120 (crop), 4k60 full ProRes RAW - New higher resolution EVF: 5.76m dot - Improved LCD - 20fps still RAW (14bit) - 120fps stills jpeg - 1/16000 shutter speed - 299 points AF - 8-stop VR (same system as the Nikon Zf) - CFexpress+SD memory cards - PSAM Dial - Camera body size and overall dimension are similar to the Nikon Z6II: 3-5mm longer width becuase of the LCD hinge and a few mm thicker - The overall height (bottom to the EVF) remains the same but the actual camera is 2-3mm taller - The grip button layouts and design look similar to the Nikon Z8 apart from the command dial which is the same as the Z6II --------

Expeed 7 can easily handle these specs, the question is the sensor. With smaller market of ILCs, they can't fab a new sensor every couple of years.

The Weibo leaker added more specs to the set, again: 7-stop IBIS, but better than Zf, has optimized video stabilization. FX frame electronic shutter continuous shooting of up to 40fps and DX frame electronic shutter continuous shooting of 120fps. 6K/60p & 4K/120p 12Bit N-RAW and record. 4K ProRes 422 HQ 10-bit MOV video, up to 4K/60p. fine shutter angle options, project frame rate and shooting frame rate are separated. ________________

That needs 8ms read out speed, which is in stacked territory. I'm not saying its impossible, but very unlikely.

If rumors are based on the real thing, body and controls will be a big step up. The problem they always have is the sensor. A new sensor, that will be only used in one body, would be very expensive, since volume is not that much. Hence the shared sensor between Z9 and Z8. Unless they find another high volume use for that new sensor.

Nikon is always conservative in specs, and they never do double jumps like 4k30 to 4k120p.

Ok we got the first sign of the hammer working, in new set of rumored spec: no 6k raw, at least internally 24.5 million pixels sensor Duo EXPEED 7 processors ISO 100-64,000 9 subjects detection AF（same as Z9） 310 single-point AF IBIS 6k30p, 4k120p N-Log/HLG internal video recording CFepress-B/XQC+SD card No N-Raw Better cooling design Something is lost in translation in that "Duo" word.