The Nikon ZR comes surprisingly close to a real red camera (for a lot less money).

If you shoot video professionally, there’s a good chance you’ve spat on a red camera at some point. The Red has long been a top choice for big-budget productions, offering a combination of image quality and flexibility unmatched by most consumer cameras. They’re also extremely expensive, topping out at $45,000, on the high end, putting them out of reach for most everyday projects. But now, Nikon is promising to take the most unique part of Red — the file format that powers its incredible imaging — and offer it at a fraction of the price.

The $2,200 Nikon ZR is loaded with features tailored to video shooters. It has a large and bright touchscreen, the ability to record audio with an unprecedented level of dynamic range, and enough sensor-level image stabilization to leave a gimbal for most tasks. But its most notable feature is its ability to shoot a version of Red’s R3D file format. It is a cut-down variant called the R3D NE designed specifically for use on Nikon cameras. It’s not that powerful, suppressing some data that isn’t a dedicated red. But for those willing to deal with those limitations, Red’s access to the color pipeline and discrete lighting roll-off is extremely compelling.

Nikon has made the first camera with Red since acquiring the company in 2024, and if both brands were hoping to turn some heads, I’d say they delivered. Now the question is: how close is it to a true red color?

A little less R3d, a lot less money

R3D is a video format called Compressed RAW, which stores almost everything the sensor collects as metadata while still maintaining a manageable file size. This means that settings such as white balance, ISO, gamma, and color space can be changed in post with no loss in quality. This is useful for making strong creative decisions after you’ve shot, or saving your footage when conditions aren’t ideal. I have vivid memories of filming smartphone hands-on videos in terrible lighting conditions many years ago, only to see my (now) The Waveform Podcast Cohost Marcus Brownlee publishes an exact version of the same scene after shooting on red camera. Simply put, R3d is a cheat code.

The R3D NE format supported by the Nikon ZR is unfortunately not the same R3D as dedicated Red cameras, but a modified 12-bit built around Nikon’s sensor and processor architecture (down from the more detailed 16-bit version on Red’s higher-end cameras). That’s because the ZR uses the same 24.5-megapixel partially stacked sensor as the Nikon Z6II, not Red’s own sensor and a special chip for compression acceleration. In practice, this means that R3D NE is more similar to Nikon’s N-RAW file format from a compression standpoint, and it’s definitely more taxing on my computer than Red’s traditional R3D files. At 6K 24p, the Zr’s R3D NE files could spin my fans during editing, while the R3D files I shot at 8K 24p cut like butter on a Red V Raptor.

That said, the R3Dne files from the Nikon ZR look very similar to the R3D files from the RedV Raptor. The R3D NE still uses the popular color pipeline, IPP2, which has been on Red’s cameras since 2017, offering extremely smooth highlight roll-off, great color, and almost film-like tonal response. Compared to standard R3D files, ZR’s R3D NE files look almost identical, save for a slight green cast, most likely due to the different color response from Nikon’s Expedi sensor.

A key difference between the two cameras is how they handle ISO and noise. On a red, ISO is just metadata that tells the program how many stops brighter or darker to display the image, but doesn’t actually bake in analog magnification at the time of capture. This means as long as you protect highlights while shooting, you can change ISO in post with minimal changes in noise or dynamic range.

On the ZR, changing the ISO directly changes the noise and clipping, as the R3D NE sensor gains before compression. This means that changing the ISO in post on the ZR will quickly show more and more noise. Nikon tries to get around this by forcing you to shoot at one of its two native ISOs – 800 or 6400 when recording the R3d NE. This results in a clean image, but it gets noisy if you need to make serious exposure adjustments in post. If you control your exposure with an ND filter or your aperture, the image looks great, but you definitely have less exposure control than with a dedicated red.

Even with the limitations, it’s amazing how much red power Nikon has brought to an inexpensive camera of this era. If you’ve always wanted access to Red’s color science and imaging capabilities, the ZR will get you most of the way there. There are really limits to your ability to properly expose your scene while shooting. After the fact you have the ability to adjust things like white balance and color space all at once. Still, if you mess up the exposure, you’ll easily have more trouble saving your image than you would a dedicated red.

Unlike red hardware

Another big reason people want red cameras is their modularity. Reid’s cameras start with just the “brain,” a big box that houses the image sensor, processor, and lots of inputs you can plug things into. The cameras are so stripped back, and designed around modularity, that they require a variety of additional accessories such as a monitor and handle to be usable.

On this metric, Nikon has gone in the opposite direction. The ZR is practically the opposite of a red camera—something with so many features built into it that you can shoot high-quality footage with almost zero add-ons.

A prime example is the ZR’s 1,000-net, 4-inch fully articulating touchscreen, which virtually eliminates the need for an additional monitor. The touchscreen articulates 180 degrees and looks great outdoors, although if you have something plugged into the mic jack you’ll have trouble articulating all the way around. Unfortunately, the ZR doesn’t offer Red’s famous “traffic light” and “goalpost” screen exposure tools, which are helpful for making sure you don’t clip your image—something more important on the ZR than traditional red—but it’s much sharper at 3.07 million dots and supports DCI-P3 color for a more accurate representation of your capture.

Another of the ZR’s impressive integrated features is support for recording 32-bit float audio from the internal microphone, digital hotshow, or MIC jack. The ZR is the first camera to do this, and honestly, that’s a pretty big deal. Clipping 32-bit audio is very difficult, allowing you to achieve a wide range of loudness variations without the audio being wasted. Traditional shooting setups require a separate audio recorder to record 32-bit float, and the ability to record it internally can further reduce the size of your kit.

All of this is contained within a body that is very compact and light at only 1.4 pounds. Nikon achieved such a thin and light profile by using a fanless design, which is unusual for such a capable video-oriented camera. It also manages to add 7.5 stops of physical image stabilization, something you won’t find in any of Red’s cameras.

The ZR is certainly not without its faults. The tripod thread is very close to the battery/media storage door, making it difficult to replace batteries or storage while on a tripod. The camera uses micro HDMI instead of full-size, and a single CF Express Type B slot and microSD slot make backup recording nearly impossible if you’re shooting at high quality. I also found the joystick a little short and dodgy, and there’s a disappointing 125-minute cap on recording that limits the camera’s use in longer interviews.

Still, at the end of the day, the Nikon ZR is pretty much what Nikon promised: a $2,200 ticket to shooting files like Red. It’s an incredible value for prosumer video shooters. Nikon has been leading the way in the video space for nearly a decade. The ZR is the kind of camera the company is looking for when it comes to making a comeback.

Photography by David Imel