If you’ve been waiting for a Nikon Z6 to come in at a price that just can’t be beaten, well here you go!
You can get a Nikon Z6 for $1,600 new!
Here Are The Nikon Deals
Nikon Z6 Deals – B&H
Nikon Z Lenses Deals – B&H
Nikon F Lens Deals – B&H
Right now the Z6 is the camera to beat, both in price, performance and build quality. The Z lenses are also pretty incredible plus there is still a whole army of F lenses to use. This, in my opinion, is the best full-frame mirrorless camera if you’re ok with just living in the Nikon lens echo system or adapting F lenses.
It’s a cool camera and probably my favorite camera currently, yes I like it more than my X-T3 and X-Pro 2, although right now I’m using my X100V the most.
I also can’t speak for the X-T4 yet, it looks phenomenal but personally I’m waiting for the X-H2 which hopefully will give me something I don’t yet have in the X-T3 and Z6 combo.
Nikon Shoots ProRes RAW Video
I got the Ninja V for my Nikon Z6 so I could shoot ProRes 422 with 10-bit. It also shoots ProRes RAW with the $200 firmware update which in my opinion should be free.
I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching ProRes RAW on the Nikon Z6 to try to figure out if it’s worth it or not, especially now that ProResRAW works with Adobe Premiere. It’s a tough decision for me since 10-bit with that N-Log looks absolutely amazing.
Here is the gist of what you can expect if you decided to go ProRes RAW on the Nikon Z6.
Full Frame 4k RAW Line Skips
When shooting FX 4k video, you will get some line skipping. Meaning you’ll see some extra moire patterns and aliasing. The reason is, the camera dumps the full Bayer color image pattern and the 24MP sensor would actually output a 6k image not a 4k image. So they have to skip every third line or something to get the image down to 4k.
I’m not sure why Nikon doesn’t just give us 6k, the sensor can do it according to its readout modes. The only thing I can think of, or at least that I suspect is that the HDMI port will not support that much data. It might only be HDMI 1.4 instead of 2.0 or something, just my guess. Maybe they could do it over USB-C, but there are no ProRes RAW USB-C recorders that I know of.
They could also be holding out 6k to protect another camera that could come out this year.
Why don’t they scale the 6k image like they do with the 10-bit signal instead of line skipping?
You can’t with RAW. You can only get the raw unprocessed pixel data from the sensor so you have to skip lines. Actually a lot of cameras outputting ProRes RAW right now do the same thing, except the Panasonic S1H, a phenomenal camera by the way. I rented it, had so much fun with it. It’s just al little too big for me personally.
Full 4k Sensor Readout with RAW with DX Mode
DX mode apparently will give you a full 4k readout using the DX crop, from what I’ve read. Meaning and APS-C crop or just about super 35mm. Still, a reasonable format even by today’s standards. That’s only a little smaller than the Red Dragon 6k sensor.
I’m not really sure why the community is so against using crop modes on these full-frame cameras. I do it all the time, as long as I have enough light and I shoot with my APS-C Fujifilm cameras all the time and the images are great.
Sure there is a “full-frame” look, but mostly what people think this is, comes down to overusing and abusing shallow depth of field. That’s it.
So while the ProRes RAW line skips with the FX readout, it has a full sensor readout with the DX crop. Pretty cool.
You Lose LCD Functionality Shooting ProRes RAW
Because the RAW image bypasses the camera processing you’ll lose a lot of your LCD functionality and you’ll have to focus check and exposure check with the Ninja recorder. Which really isn’t the end of the world considering how good the Ninja tools are.
My Only Gripe With The Nikon Z System
While I love the Nikon Z system and think it’s the best system with the most potential currently, the Z lenses lack a little pop compared to last generation’s F lenses.
Why is that you ask?
Having perfect lenses based on metric scores is the current trend brought about by all the living room lens reviewers that have flooded the Internet demand perfect sharpness corner to corner at all costs.
The good news is, if you’re a living room couch photographer, the Z lenses are sharp, the corners are super sharp and there is little distortion and few aberrations.
