Nikon ZR H.265 is GOOD!

[00:00] The Nikon ZR is the new camera on the

[00:02] block. And one of its biggest questions

[00:04] is filming an H.265. Is it actually any

[00:07] good or is it one big smudgy old mess?

[00:09] What's up? My name's Royce and welcome

[00:11] to my channel where I talk about all

[00:12] things film and tech. And today, I'm not

[00:14] wasting your time. We're talking about

[00:15] H.265 with a Nikon ZR. Is it good? I say

[00:19] absolutely yes, it is good. I'm not here

[00:21] for the views. I'm not trying to string

[00:23] you along for the whole video. H.265 on

[00:26] the Nikon ZR is good. Do not listen to

[00:28] those initial reviews saying H.265 265

[00:30] is unusable in this camera because it is

[00:32] absolutely not true. As soon as I got

[00:34] this camera, that's the first thing I

[00:36] tested because to me that's what makes

[00:38] the Nikon ZR so important and the price

[00:41] point that it comes in and all the

[00:42] different codecs that it can film in.

[00:44] You can shoot in all the RAWs, you know,

[00:45] or with that H.265 or even H.264, you

[00:48] can get that more compressed image for

[00:50] those smaller file sizes, you know, for

[00:53] projects that aren't as big where you

[00:55] don't need RAW. So, hearing early

[00:56] reviews say H.265 265 was practically

[00:59] unusable or not good to look at. That

[01:02] really hurt because that I feel like was

[01:04] what made this camera so unique. And

[01:06] that's why I'm so glad I didn't listen

[01:07] to those initial reviews. I kind of went

[01:09] with my initial hunch thinking like, you

[01:11] know, I don't believe you and got it

[01:13] anyway. It's not just good, it's really

[01:15] good. I am shooting in H.265 right now

[01:18] in this video. So, you can already tell

[01:21] if you're watching this and you think

[01:22] this looks pretty decent, especially for

[01:23] a YouTube deliverable, then there's your

[01:25] answer. Yes, it's a little bit softer

[01:27] than shooting RAW. Absolutely. Of

[01:28] course, it's going to be. But for what

[01:29] most people are going to use it for,

[01:31] it's perfectly fine. And just to do some

[01:33] further tests, I took my kids to a

[01:34] pumpkin patch. Really harsh lighting,

[01:36] different lighting conditions there. I

[01:38] wanted to see how the footage would hold

[01:39] up in H.265. So, I just want to show you

[01:42] guys that footage. You could judge for

[01:44] yourself. And just so you know, all the

[01:45] footage you're about to see was shot in

[01:47] H.265 10 bit in NLog. And all I did was

[01:50] throw on the red NLOG film by that

[01:53] I downloaded from Nikon. No other grade

[01:56] has been done. Nothing else. I literally

[01:58] threw the L on, put it in my timeline.

[02:00] So, check that out. Let me know what you

[02:02] guys think.

[02:45] And just to compare, I did do a shot one

[02:47] in H.26510 26510 bit and in Red Raw just

[02:50] to kind of see the difference here. And

[02:52] again, honestly, in my opinion, the

[02:55] difference is so negligible, especially

[02:58] in this situation, right? This type of

[02:59] shot, unless it was going to be in a

[03:01] movie or some type of documentary, what

[03:03] have you and RAW, you'd want to go that

[03:05] route. But for me, this is just me

[03:07] documenting my son. It's a really cool

[03:09] moment. H.265 is the way to go. And

[03:12] throwing it up on the internet, you're

[03:13] not going to know the difference. If I

[03:14] told you all these shots were Red Raw,

[03:17] most of you guys would probably believe

[03:18] it. You know, the pixel peepers would

[03:20] probably be able to decipher it, but

[03:22] most people would be like, "Well, this

[03:23] camera looks great. Red Raw. Awesome."

[03:24] Me included, most likely. So, again, in

[03:26] my humble opinion, H.265 is more than

[03:28] usable. It looks freaking great. And the

[03:30] reason why this is a big deal is because

[03:32] of those compression rates and for this

[03:34] camera for being $2,100

[03:37] to have the option to go as high of a

[03:40] bit rate as Red RAW, ProRes RAW, N RAW,

[03:45] all that stuff to make it look as

[03:47] amazing as you can, but then when you

[03:50] just want to dial things down a bit, go

[03:52] to H.265, still get 10 bit so you retain

[03:54] more information for color grading and

[03:56] all that good stuff. It honestly can't

[03:58] be beat. I'm loving this camera, man.

[04:00] The image out of this thing is insane.

[04:02] Going back to those shots at the pumpkin

[04:03] patch with a grade on it, you can get

[04:05] some really cool images without even

[04:07] trying, honestly. Of course, proper

[04:09] exposure, framing your image, all that's

[04:11] important, making stuff look good. But

[04:12] if you know what you're doing, you're

[04:14] good to go. So, if you currently have a

[04:15] ZR and you've been nervous about

[04:16] shooting it, H.265, it's all good.

[04:18] You're still going to get a really good

[04:20] image. If you've been on the fence of

[04:21] getting a ZR, you know, I'm not going to

[04:23] tell you where to put your money, what

[04:25] to invest in. But what I can say is if

[04:27] you're someone like me who is a

[04:30] freelancer and is highly uh dependent or

[04:33] it's important to be able to have

[04:35] different types of filming options

[04:37] within your camera, but for it to still

[04:39] be versatile and convenient, I would

[04:42] highly recommend checking this camera

[04:43] out and consider getting it because you

[04:46] can now with these codecs bump up your

[04:48] line of work depending on what the

[04:50] budget is and what you're working on.

[04:52] Right? If you know the budget's a little

[04:54] bit smaller, the deliverables aren't as

[04:56] crazy, H.265 it all the way. But if

[04:58] you're shooting more of a professional

[05:00] commercial type thing that's going to

[05:01] need that higher quality or the best

[05:03] quality possible, you can bump up to

[05:06] either Red RAW and RAW Pro Red Raw,

[05:08] whatever the RAW offerings you want to

[05:09] do. It gives you that versatility to

[05:11] shoot however you want. So yeah, that's

[05:14] it for this video. Sorry if it was a

[05:15] little bit of a ramble, but if you found

[05:17] this video helpful, please like and

[05:19] subscribe to the channel to see more

[05:20] content like this. And until next time,

[05:22] I'll catch y'all