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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

RAW over HDMI is here! The Nikon Z6 and ProRes RAW

rand thompson

rand thompson

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Can't wait to send in my Z6 and get full frame RAW with autofocus back! Man that's going to be a fun camera to use on the gimbal!
 
Misha,


it's probably the highest resolution that can currently be transmitter over HDMI with this current firmware.
 
Nikon Z 6: ProRes RAW Video




By Nikon USA




 
Misha,


The Nikon Z series 6 and 7 cameras can only output the following resolutions in the Raw mode listed below. So that is only what can be recorded to ProRes Raw currently.


On the Atomos Ninja V you need to go to the Input settings and select the Camera as Nikon, the Gamma as N-Log, and the Gamut as Nikon RAW. You also need to go into the Recording Menu and select ProRes RAW or ProRes RAW HQ as your recording format.

Here are the various frame rates and resolutions you can output when RAW is selected:

3840×2160 30p FX
3840×2160 25p FX
3840×2160 24p FX
3840×2160 30p DX
3840×2160 25p DX
3840×2160 24p DX
1920×1080 60p FX
1920×1080 50p FX
1920×1080 30p FX
1920×1080 25p FX
1920×1080 24p FX
1920×1080 60p DX
1920×1080 50p DX
1920×1080 30p DX
1920×1080 25p DX
1920×1080 24p DX
 
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So you get 3840x2160 in FX mode(full-frame) from a 6k wide sensor, that is about the same as giving someone RAW cooked meat.
 
Hopefully that 3840x2160 is a "full sensor" or almost full sensor downscale and not a crop. Maybe they will be able to tweak out additional resolution but I think that's probably the max Raw output from the camera that you can hope to get over the HDMI output.So I guess there's no such thing as a free lunch.
 
rand thompson said:
Hopefully that 3840x2160 is a "full sensor" or almost full sensor downscale and not a crop. Maybe they will be able to tweak out additional resolution but I think that's probably the max Raw output from the camera that you can hope to get over the HDMI output.So I guess there's no such thing as a free lunch.
Click to expand...

Apparently, according to Newsshooter tests, it's a full frame capture so I'm very curious how they went from a 6K sensor readout to 4K final RAW image. This is maybe something Phil would know since he's the mad scientist when it comes to these things (I could be wrong but I thought he mentioned somewhere he had a Z6) .

Another interesting piece about this update is that they mentioned that resolution and frame rates are subject to change in future firmware updates. I wouldn't be surprised if they're trying to figure out how to either get full 6K sensor readout over to the Atomos or get some extra fps at 4K.

Regardless, it's fun watching Nikon push this stuff out when they have zero concerns about cannibalizing any of their non-existent cinema lines, which is probably a huge concern for other hybrids in the market.

Mine's in the mail. When it gets back, the first tests I'll be doing are...

1. How close to FF is it really?
2. What's the HDMI-out lag to the Ninja V (currently 9 frames at 24fps - ouch!)
3. Dynamic range of Prores RAW vs NLog
4. Various Prores RAW tests vs my Epic-W
 
Ryan,


Hopefully all of those questions will be answered better by either Nikon, Atomos or Phil.
 
Got mine back and can answer the first two questions..

1. Prores RAW filming on the Nikon Z6/Ninja V is about a 1.01 or 1.02 crop, which is awesome! (vs 1.10 with NLog)

I took some snapshots of the Ninja V screen with my phone to show the difference.

Camera Mode (FX - full frame)
bIOpLj0r.jpg


Video Mode (FX - full frame NLog to Ninja V)
Q09vd4or.jpg


Video Mode (FX - full frame Prores RAW to Ninja V)
5OxsqZBr.jpg


2. HDMI-out lag at 4K 24fps is now a much more manageable 5 frames (vs 9 frames with NLog)

In this test (other tests were all consistent)...
Laptop Screen (source): 24:02
Nikon Z6 LCD Monitor: 23:20 (6 frame delay)
Ninja V: 23:21 (5 frame delay)

n3McueSr.jpg


So really promising so far. I can't do any additional testing because I'm on PC and Adobe hasn't rolled out Prores RAW support for Premiere yet.
 
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I don't have the Nikon, but do have a sigma fp - which i believe to be the same sensor.

The fp scales the 6K down to 3840 as well, it doesn't have an OLPF and so their reasoning is that the scale can help with moire and on a practical basis it works well - i've not seen an issue.

For the most part all these modes are 12 bit from the sensor, or 10 bit for higher frame rates. However in crop mode that sensor will do 14 bit - so it would be interesting to see if the tonality of the crop mode differs at all. I suspect not.

This particular generation of camera offers huge bang for the buck - i hand a 2TB SSD of the sigma for an hour and half of 12bit 4K RAW recording. I used it over the break to shoot some scenes. It was so quick and easy to haul around. The results of no compression are wonderful and well, i don't need to tell anyone here what grading RAW is like.

I would prefer to see other capture resolutions, like a 2:1 4096 option.

cheers
Paul
 
Anyone knows if Nikon will ever use the CFexpress update firmware to enable internal Prores recording (even 422 only) on a next Z model ?
We shouldn't be to far of the needed processing specs nowadays.

I'm loving my Z6, and that would be the only spec I would need to upgrade it.
 
Bérenger Brillante said:
Anyone knows if Nikon will ever use the CFexpress update firmware to enable internal Prores recording (even 422 only) on a next Z model ?
We shouldn't be to far of the needed processing specs nowadays.

I'm loving my Z6, and that would be the only spec I would need to upgrade it.
Click to expand...


same here, really love the camera. It would be a very logical step for them. Let's hope the Sandisk cfexpress card commercial is an indication of things to come (it features Nikon camera and mentions Raw video) :).
 
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