Nikon ZR Review

Nikon bought RED in 2024, and the ZR is the first camera that shows what it was for. It records 6K at 60p internally in R3D NE, a 12 bit raw codec derived from REDCODE, off a 24.5 megapixel partially stacked sensor with dual base ISO at 800 and 6400 and more than fifteen stops of claimed dynamic range. Nothing else writes that format at any price, never mind 2,199 dollars.

Audio is 32 bit float from the internal microphones, so a badly set level is recoverable in post. The four inch rear screen runs to 1000 nits across DCI-P3, which removes the external monitor from most jobs, and stabilisation is rated at 7.5 stops.

What Nikon left out is the whole argument. There is no viewfinder and no mechanical shutter, so flash sync stops at a sixtieth and some artificial light will band. The EN-EL15c battery covers roughly 100 minutes of recording, so budget for a handful of them. Stills are perfectly good and plainly not the job. Read it as a cinema camera that happens to take Z mount lenses and nothing near the money competes.