The best in detail analysis video about the Z8. You are doing a great job, better than the biggest reviewers out there. Thank you!!

Love how detailed you go! Finding the noise reduction that the camera does is CRAZY! And testing all that. This is like a nikon z8 Bible!

Holy shit man this video is so damn helpful for the Nikon Z8 users.

I've been using the Z9 since release along with my RED V Raptor, I do mostly Extreme Sports such as Skateboarding and Big Wave Surfing, lots of challenging environments. This is what I use, if I want 8k the 8k 60fps is absolutely fantastic from the Z9 and matches my RED V Raptor 8k almost perfectly with minimal effort in Resolve. If I am using 4k which to be honest 80% of everything I do is then I use the Z9 H265 4k 60 with oversampling turned on and just get the exposure pretty good in camera and it produces from my experience using nearly all of the top tier cameras/cinema cameras one of the best looking 4k videos on the market today, it is an absolute joy to use. The 4.1k RAW 24fps in the Z9/Z8 is just not worth it in any scenario. The H265 120fps is also another absolute gem and when compared to my RED 4k 120fps footage it looks practically identical which is a massive bonus, being 4:2:0 affects nothing for me.

Really great work Josh! Not being able to color correct without compromise defeats the purpose of RAW video. Thankfully, the colors look great straight out of Nikon. Probably best to stick with NLOG or Rec709 in camera. Appreciate you taking the time to do all those tests.

Amazing! We use the Z9 for video, so this is a great addition to the knowledge on how this works. Much appreciated.

FINALLY... spent too much time trying to figure out the Nikon Z8 422 10bit formats to basically come to the same conclusion, its only via HDMI output that it will give what most Sony shooters/editors want which is 422 10bit H265 (they will even take 422 10bit H.264 since may have used it for years) so for second shooters and video guys that want to give that format its a bummer the camera doesn't shoot it internally. Shoots both higher and lower but not that damn one! ...apprecite the deep dive and keep up the great work.

You are the only creator (that I've watched - and I've watched a ton) that has actually come out and said that the h265 footage is 420 vs 422. Everyone else that I've seen says otherwise but one day as I was looking in premiere's properties section for a few clips that I took said it was 420 (extended) and I was so confused. I always thought the footage didn't compare to my fx3 footage and I couldn't figure out why I was struggling so much with my z8. I thought I was going crazy and it was only after going back and forth with Nikon that they eventually confirmed it was 420. Thanks for the detailed review as always!

Josh you always do a thorough review. I appreciate it

I wouldn't get too hung up on the lack of 422 using h.265. Yes, other cameras have the option but have you ever done a side-by-side comparison recording 422 vs 420 using the A7SIII for example? I have and I never could see any difference whatsoever even pushing colors to extremes. Of course there's a huge difference between 8 bit and 10 bit, but any kind of meaningful differences between 420 and 422 are not noticeable... at least with Sony cameras using SLOG3. Thanks for the video, very well done.

...so in depth! Thank you for putting in the work!! There were a lot of strange but somewhat expected results here. Yet, I'm hopeful that if Nikon could focus on making a video first camera with some R&D help from Red, they will iron out these kinks and could deliver a truly unique prosumer cinema camera in the near future! Heres hoping...

Great video, Josh! So informative. Hopefully that 4.1k 24p gets fixed and agreed, I would love to see h265 422 in it.

Thanks for all the details man, I wish they give redcode raw in future😁

thanks for the test and explanation, hope they noticed this issue and update next firmware

Would love to see open gate and anamorphic mode in Z8. Maybe with the next firmware update Nikon?

Thanks for this Josh. Very helpful

Had a lot of picture degradation on Z9 at 4k 25p raw and went to 8k. Thanks for confirming. Also, I thought only prores HQ and h26? was oversampled up to 30 p…NOT raw formats. Might have changed? Have done a lot of grading with the nraw 8k and found it extremely flexible. Your point about not being able to change the color temp to match because the slider didnt facilitate is shallow. There is an abundace of data to enable a perfect match, though it requires some work. Otherwise, the depth of your methodology and analysis was superb. Thank you.

Quite the deep dive in this. Thank you! Been using the 4k mode without really noticeable issues lately, but im wondering if ETTR helps that, as I tend to expose as bright as I can without clipping.

Very thorough. Eye opening about the RAW being destructive and kinda all over the place. What's the point?

Thanks for stating the firmware, every review out there fails to mention this. The firmware version makes a big difference in how it behaves.

Did you use normal quality for testing 4.1k NRAW? Normal has about one stop impact on the dynamic range.

Thank you! Very useful information. Much appreciated.

Great work, thank you

Would be curious to know (in reference to sunny/tungsten) what your RAW adjustments in resolve would have to be to match. i.e. did you add +10 in Tint, and what Color Temp do you have to land on to match?

Very interesting as someone who primarily uses the 4.1K N-Raw for almost a year to date on my Z8, I’ve never had any of the issues you described or show in your video ?🤔 For the past year I’ve gotten consistently good footage. I do use neat video for noise removal. I do use the Nikon lut to grade, but I never use it at full strength,lol. I only use Nikon native lenses?? I use Davinci Studio 18.5 version And I edit on a 60inch tv screen, so I’m always pixel peeping,lol. I have def shot Scenes in “low light” situations and while the footage is noisy and hard to clean up in those scenarios , no color shift that I’ve noticed? Maybe before adding noise reduction? But to be fair I only focus on the finished results, so I’ve never noticed.

Also maybe I missed it but did you have "extended oversampling" enabled in your video menus? That might affect your readout speed results and other things.

Great job!

Also, did anyone compare the 25P to 24P or should I get to it?

Wahouuuu, Great job. Thanks

The 4k Raw option was the most attractive to me as a R5C owner, turns out it's not without compromises, hopefully fixable with firmware updates. I'm still holding out for something with similar specs that offers open gate.

Wonderful review. May I know whats your recommendation for the CFExpress Card(s) for 8K60p n-raw recording?

And one more thing, did you have the Extended Oversampling option on or off in your video settings. I wonder what impact this has?

What’s up with the non-matching WB results for N-RAW🤯 That’s like the one biggest benefit of shoot raw…

It is a pity that H.265 10 bit has only 4.2.0 (

So Highlights Recovery is not available with N-RAW on Camera Raw page of Davinci Resolve? I think with Cinema DNG from any camera that toggle is availbe there. Please try converting N-RAW to DNG to check if thar toggle appears or not in resolve.

Is this video a reupload from something last week? Could’ve swore I watched this exact video lol

BM Ursa 12K has the same sensor tech kind of when you go up with fps and down with resolution it do not crop...and the new ursa cine as well...

Great video, thanks the deep dive. Except the bitrate, what's the advantage of using something like a h265 422, over the ProResHQ ? I get the point of using Davinci (I use it also) but I think it's worth comparing the N-RAW against the ProResRaw, for the "non-destructive" part. It can also be a great option for Final Cut or Premiere users.

Hey Josh! R5C or R5ii for hybrid shooters?

whats the memory card you use in z8 ?????

I wonder how the HDMI out videos compare

Very interesting, nice work. This helps me to get the best video quality from the Z8. One thing I wonder is whether the problem in N RAW 4K 24 fps remains constant even for 25,30,50 fps? thanks for this video

I read or heard from some official nikon source, and i really wish i could find it, that the oversampling is only effective when shooting 4K30 and higher, not 4K24.

So h.265 is 422 color or 420 color? The manual says both in two different places so it’s confusing…

hi, which camera was used to shoot the review in the studio

So it's looking like the best workflow for H.265 is to shoot 8k, then downsample to 4k in a timeline while upsampling to 4:2:2 or 4:4:4. You'll have to make sure resolve is set up properly to do this on export. This technically should work, although it's maybe not as perfect as 4:2:2 4k but probably very close. So this would give you poor mans 4k 4:2:2. This would also give you a little more detail from the slightly softer Long GOP H.265 8k files.

Of course the compressed raw is compromised raw. You don't see that kind of damage in RED raw because its 16 bit file. Even in 14 bit vs. 12 bit the difference would be noticeable in heavy WB changes or shadow lift.

I am wondering if there is a difference between the NRAW 4.1K 24p with and without Extended Oversampling enabled.

16:9 is not what we wanted ( cropped vertically). We want open gate mode, as Panasonic or Blackmagic do it. Of Nikon is serious about filmmaking, they should start paying attention.

Just want to add, I believe the sensors read data that is converted to 12 bit based on the log curve associated with the format, so SDR vs N-LOG will in fact result in different gamma values, meaning, you will in fact have more information in highlights with N-LOG than SDR. The actual sensor for the Z9 reads out at 14 BIT, which is a shame, since the A7SIII does 16 bit RAW recording.

At 4.1K is line skipped raw video. You simply can't over sample with raw video codecs.

Its not oversampling at 4k