RED Cameras - Nikon Z Mount Option

[Zack Birlew]

Hi, everybody, I've been looking at new lens solutions and we're at the time when Canon EF and Nikon F are starting to become harder to find as native mirrorless mounts are taking over. Since there's surely different sensor design considerations for each mount and because Canon is locking down their third-party lens support for RF, what about RED offering at least a Nikon Z mount version of their cameras?

Sony surely wouldn't offer native E mount compatibility due to competition with Venice and L mount is perhaps not as widely used as other mounts but Nikon Z not only has as much support as Canon RF but also can get Sony E mount support via adapters, a nice workaround and a two-for-one approach! It's all about offering lens support options going forward and moving past the Canon RF lock down as I'm sure there are just as many people wanting to use their Nikon Z lenses as there are people wanting to use their native Canon RF lenses with their REDs. What do you think? Would this be a good move or is there issues with offering something besides RF?

 

[Jordan Dery]

This will unlikely ever happen. 2 things come to mind, first Jared has spoken how he has very little interest in the Z mount and secondly they are currently in a lawsuit with Nikon.

Jordan

 

[Zack Birlew]

To be honest, when I wrote this, I forgot about the lawsuit completely! Can’t believe there’s been no updates on that but it’s a shame that we didn’t have the option sooner anyway, I mean really, RED missed out on a big opportunity with lens selection choices for their users. If Nikon F and Canon EF are being phased out then everybody is sitting in their own proprietary lens camps like the old days, save for the ingenious people that made the Sony E adapter for Nikon Z. New rumors about the Canon C700 II having a Redcode recording option makes the Canon RF-only choice more sensible now but all it takes is for someone to come up with something for overcoming mirrorless lens mounting limitations and the whole issue could be moot.

 

[Phil Holland]

Providing some thought here. You can adapt over 60 lens mounts to Canon RF with no real issue. And there's a lot of adapters out there.

You can potentially adapt Sony glass to Z-Mount and X-Mount. You can't adapt Z or X to Sony or anything else.

L-Mount shares the same flange depth as RF Mount. In theory on a pure mechanical lens more cross compatible lenses should be possible.

All modern electric mirrorless mounts require licensing, collaboration, and more to deploy on a 3rd party basis if that's even something the mount/camera manufacturer offers specifically when it comes to pins, features, etc.

Nearly all of the efforts from modern mirrorless camera manufacturers are very much aimed into making you buy into their system and try to keep you there. That was also pretty clear during the era of DSLRs. It's fascinating on any level we have RF on DSMC3 cameras at all considering all that.