Author Topic: Nikon + Red, nikon cinematic  (Read 173 times)

Fons Baerken

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Nikon + Red, nikon cinematic
« on: February 14, 2025, 10:00:15 »
Nikon goes cinematic,

a few of the many links to be found on nikon going cinematic since their Red take over!

https://www.nikonusa.com/p/nikkor-z-28-135mm-f4-pz/20127/overview

https://www.nikonusa.com/content/red-luts?utm_source=MKT

Ilkka Nissilä

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Re: Nikon + Red, nikon cinematic
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2025, 11:15:10 »
The Technical LUT that came at the same times as the RED creative LUTs is an improvement over the previous (camera-specific) ones which have been shown to give some artifacts at times. I quite like the new technical LUT and it makes shooting in N-Log result in natural results that are suitable for general use, while maintaining the Nikon style of image. I've also used the film bias LUT which also looks nice. The other RED creative LUTs maybe a bit effecty to my taste and I'm not likely to go into that direction.

I think a power zoom like the 28-135 mm is good to have in the Z ecosystem for those situations where controlled, slow zooms are needed during video recording. Also I think sports photographers who can set remote cameras may want to use this lens (e.g. ice hockey roof camera above the goal). However, I suspect that most users will find the weight of the lens quite substantial and choose a regular stills lens instead, to avoid having to deal with the extra weight and size of the power zoom. I think this is a necessary lens for Nikon to have and will probably allow some users to stay with Nikon instead of switching to another system which supports this functionality. It's interesting how opinions differ on the power zoom functionality. A lot of videographers will say that zooming using a stills lens is terrible because it's so hard to turn the ring at an even speed and not too fast so as to result in footage that looks nice. But then there are users who will use the power zoom too fast and at variable speed and that'll look just terrible. It's a feature that should be used with careful consideration rather than because it's easy to do. I have noticed that live concert coverage on TV uses camera movements and power zooms a lot, but these are very slow and carefully thought out, to make the image look more alive yet not to disturb the viewing enjoyment like a max speed rocker zoom on a camcorder would. In cinema, I don't think zooms are used all that often, they plan camera movements carefully and set up rails for each shot, practicing the camera movements until perfected ... and seemingly camera movement is preferred over zooms in making cinema. I think Nikon's example video of a break-dancer has too fast zooms, too much movement, too many too short clips, and too much use of telephoto with tight framing leaving important bits out of the scene. Will users have better taste? Yes, I get it that the rapid flashy sequences are what US TV shows in many cases, but I found it difficult to watch. I lived two years in the US and wasn't able to watch the TV because of this style of presentation. I did see one excellent movie.