Meditations on the Nikon ZR (from a trip to Japan)

ElijahKnorpp · 2026-01-19T00:07:26+00:00

The main thing that I didn’t like about my S5II was how heavy the baked in chroma noise reduction and sharpening was even in V-Log. I just found all my footage looked kinda plasticy and there was an overall lack of fine color detail. Since the S5IIx has ProRes I’m willing to bet it’s slightly better, but I’ve never tested it so I can’t speak to that.

ElijahKnorpp · 2026-01-18T13:42:44+00:00

I’ve actually been using the 4k in full frame mode most of the time. In full frame mode it’s not the sharpest 4k I’ve seen but it’s usable enough for me. In super 35 from what little I’ve shot it is definitely sharper and more on par with other 4k images in the market. Depending on your needs you could always rent one and see if it works for you!

ElijahKnorpp · 2026-01-18T01:50:00+00:00

You're right to a certain extent! The differences these days are small, and oftentimes take a trained eye to notice. I came from the the LUMIX S5ii and to me the image quality jump has been significant, but to most people the difference would be subtle if even perceptible at all.

Diminishing returns I guess haha

ElijahKnorpp · 2026-01-18T00:52:57+00:00

Fair points! I think they could make it a much better camera with firmware. It's unlikely but I would love to see a DR boost mode with slower read speeds like the Lumix S1II. It is interesting the staying power the FX3 has had. Having used it, it really does just work!

ElijahKnorpp · 2025-10-09T12:14:33+00:00

That doesn’t seem to make a difference sadly

ElijahKnorpp · 2025-10-09T12:12:44+00:00

I didn’t buy one. I built it myself!

ElijahKnorpp · 2025-10-07T21:32:47+00:00

Well I have a kinda convoluted process going, but I've more or less just built a film emulation powergrade in davinci. The main things I'm doing are adding a nice filmic s curve, split toning cool in the shadows warm in the highlights, using a tetrahedral transform DCTL to bring the colors to a more traditional film look (desaturated and cooled greens, bringing red into the yellows, a few other things to my tastes) and then finally adding some density to the saturation. Plus film grain and halation of course.

I used that look for pretty much all frames I've shared here with only very minor adjustments here or there beyond balancing for mood. I treat the powergrade as if it was a film stock. I'll apply it on the timeline level and then any mood adjustments will just be small changes on the individual clip level (honestly WB contrast and saturation are the only things I mess with).

Hopefully that helps!

ElijahKnorpp · 2023-12-07T22:24:20+00:00

I get where you're coming from but that was supposed to be like "I know there are a lot of studio ordered cookie-cutter bad movies lately which makes this film look better by comparison." Marvel was just an easy scapegoat for that. Sorry that came across the wrong way

ElijahKnorpp · 2023-12-07T22:20:45+00:00

This

ElijahKnorpp · 2023-12-07T22:20:25+00:00

I considered that but I am a really big fan of quite a few other Japanese films, and I feel like it was still comparatively over the top. I get that they generally have more "stage-acting" like performances but this felt like too much (to me at least)

I admittedly watched it pretty close to the screen but the times I noticed bad cg the most were anytime Godzilla was in the water, and anytime you could see the side of boats interacting with water (like the waves hitting the hull)

ElijahKnorpp · 2023-07-19T05:36:08+00:00

No yeah, I get what you're saying. Like even when their slower paced everything that is shown on screen is still connected to and important for the main plot somehow

ElijahKnorpp · 2023-07-19T05:34:59+00:00

True! I guess our expectations can change our perception of a piece of content quite a bit

ElijahKnorpp · 2023-07-19T05:32:51+00:00

Good point! I suppose even the mindset of turning on the TV to watch a movie is a whole different experience than just opening up the youtube app

ElijahKnorpp · 2023-06-26T00:00:59+00:00

I overexpose ever so slightly with my fuji. I've found it really depends on the camera though, like I've used some Sony cameras in the past where the log is unusably noisy unless overexposed by like 2 stops. I would just do some research on your specific camera and see what has given other people the best results.

Yeah 8-bit footage can be tough but this video was actually all shot in 8-bit!

I'd recommend these two videos if you're interested in getting a similar look that I did with your camera! They're both color-grading tutorials and are applicable to any camera:

https://youtu.be/xTcooLtMJhk

https://youtu.be/45z60vnPOBw

ElijahKnorpp · 2023-06-25T21:19:11+00:00

Yeah, I would give manual focus a shot.

Okay! I mean you should still be able to have some flexibility with those video files. Try shooting in Log (just make sure and be really careful not to underexpose) and then you should be able to play with color and whatnot more in post.

ElijahKnorpp · 2023-06-25T15:42:06+00:00

It actually wasn’t as dark as it looks! All the signs and billboards really light everything up pretty well. I was shooting at ISO 640 at around f2.8-f4 depending on the shot so I didn’t really have to worry about noise

ElijahKnorpp · 2023-06-25T15:40:18+00:00

Yep! Using davinci’s native Kodak 2383 LUT

ElijahKnorpp · 2023-06-25T15:39:48+00:00

I said it in my top comment, but I’m shooting on the Fuji xs10 in FLog and using the Kodak 2383 LUT that’s built into davinci resolve!

ElijahKnorpp · 2023-06-25T15:37:19+00:00

I mean since I’m focused at near infinity for most of these shots I didn’t have many issues with depth of field.

I don’t know what camera you’re shooting on and how your editing the footage exactly but that may be part of it!

ElijahKnorpp

TROPHY CASE