Looks like H.265 is soft, but the raw is sharp and detailed and has as much dynamic range as the Panasonic LUMIX S1II, and thus compares favorably (according to Cined.com) to the dynamic range on the Red Raptor. “ The difference to high-end cinema cameras is diminishing further, as we are already in RED RAPTOR territory with the LUMIX S1II.”
I was going to get it to shoot mostly H.265 (for the big screen) but may now hold off until perhaps Nikon sorts the softness issue.
ronno wrote:
I mostly wanted to know how good the h.265 is - and apparently it's not great (yet).
No-one else seems to have really tested that.
RAW video isn't worth the it for my workflow/
I think most users would care more about H.265 and 4K60 being the priority not Red Raw or Open Gate or any of their other silly codecs that are present today.
I get the need to support them but H.265 is so good, there just isn't a real reason to shoot in RAW for video unless you have very specific or high end needs.
A video camera with one card slot isn't going to have those RAW video needs IMO but who knows.....
I find it truly amazing that some find ways to run down the ZR essentially because it’s video quality is too high…
And the more evidence we have about that quality the more active these voices become.
H265 does seem a little soft and Nikon may be able to fix this but this camera is all about raw video.
The backup concern is reasonable but the rumored SSD USB capability may address that the same way that external recorders address it for the RED high end line.
bernardl wrote:
I find it truly amazing that some find ways to run down the ZR essentially because it’s video quality is too high…
And the more evidence we have about that quality the more active these voices become.
The backup concern is reasonable but the rumored SSD USB capability may address that the same way that external recorders address it for the RED high end line.
Cheers,
Bernard
Who is dogging it? Its a great camera. Red Raw, ProRes, Open Gate etc- All worthless spec for most users.
h.265 is way more important to me and most mid level users.
Its the reason the r5Mk2 sucks for video unless shooting raw or 30FPS.
I get Nikon needs to sell the marketing and the elusion of someones Youtube content is going to look better if they use RedRaw but in the end it will probably look worse unless they are good at converting it. Thats just the truth
Again though, its a fine camera at the price point!
Zr, even with the short comings, is a value champ. And once that firmware update comes that allows recording to external drive via USB-C, that kinda solves some other issues people had with redundant recording, assuming you can record to CFExpress and USB-C at the same time.
Totally! But the h.265 needs to be better than it is at present.
PixiPhotography wrote:
Zr, even with the short comings, is a value champ. And once that firmware update comes that allows recording to external drive via USB-C, that kinda solves some other issues.
PixiPhotography wrote:
Zr, even with the short comings, is a value champ. And once that firmware update comes that allows recording to external drive via USB-C, that kinda solves some other issues people had with redundant recording, assuming you can record to CFExpress and USB-C at the same time.
Not if the H.265 looks that bad-
I really hope this is something with the firmware because that was shockingly bad-
Also do you really think people would buy this camera to rig it? Isn't a compact camera with a massive flip out screen more in the handheld range?
Having to rig it for an SSD, it sort of defeats the purpose of a small camera.
This camera checks alot of boxes for me, I am really hoping this codec issue was a bad test or something else .
EB-1 wrote:
I prefer tests and reviews of the product gainst a fixed standard, not against another random product.
EBH
And what is your fixed standard?
(BTW the Lumix is not random - it's the one mirrorless/hybrid with raw video DR rivaling the Red Raptor, and happens to have the same sensor as the Zr.)
Those imatests seem to be a joke - two cameras can have the same imatest score, but then doing a deep dive one of the cameras can recover three times more in the shadows without falling apart than the other.
Example: R5II and Sony A1 - seem to have imatested the same, but the actual results are radically different. The Sony wins hands down. R5II is a real mess in the shadows.
I have owned both of the above (sold the Canon), and Cined.com proves this discrepancy out in their latitude tests of these two cameras.
After watching that review - this makes me think the Panasonic S9 might be really underrated if you don't need the partially stacked sensor. Aside from the H265 issues, the stabilization seems worse on the Nikon vs Panasonic as well.
I want this camera almost exclusively for manual focusing on the 4" screen. It's a bummer that it doesn't have a lower bitrate codec that measures up. I don't shoot a ton of long shots so RAW is not a total deal breaker but I can see how it would be for many.
I still have hard time understanding this concern with shooting RED raw. I just bought two 2TB Nextorage CF4.0 cards for 430 US$ each leverage Amazon time sale (high end Japanese brand recommended by Nikon, former Sony engineers) and external SSDs can be had for very cheap once that is supported in firmware.
All it would take is to use the RED Raw files for editing and then convert them to H.265 for archival to limit hard disk storeage needs. That it will at worst still be slightly better than in camera H.265 (even if Nikon fixed the current softness issue).
I will wait until there is an eyewitness report of a ZR running for 12 hours outdoors in the sun on a 95ºF day in Miami before admitting any interest in the ZR.
bernardl wrote:
I still have hard time understanding this concern with shooting RED raw. I just bought two 2TB Nextorage CF4.0 cards for 430 US$ each leverage Amazon time sale (high end Japanese brand recommended by Nikon, former Sony engineers) and external SSDs can be had for very cheap once that is supported in firmware.
All it would take is to use the RED Raw files for editing and then convert them to H.265 for archival to limit hard disk storeage needs. That it will at worst still be slightly better than in camera H.265 (even if Nikon fixed the current softness issue).
Cheers,
Bernard
So buy 1 thousand dollars worth of CF 4.0 cards, and a few external SSD's for another thousand bucks-
Also wait for firmware-
Then connect one of those to SSD's with a mini hdmi cable to the camera while recording....Then at the end of all of it, convert to the very codec we are saying should look better out of camera?
Not following your logic here Bernad!!
Again I like this camera but and have it on my radar to purchase but you love for Nikon is a bit overboard with this one
