Nikon ZR Firmware 2.00: RED Color in a Lighter File

A free update puts RED’s log and color space in the ZR’s everyday codec. Here’s what that means.

Who wouldn’t want small files that grade like big ones?

That’s the deal with firmware 2.00 for the Nikon ZR. Nikon announced it September 8, and it should land before the end of 2026.  Just like Panasonic’s recent updates, it adds real value to a camera people already own. And it’s free.

Let’s break it down.

Heads Up: This One’s for Video Shooters

Quick note before we go further. Photographers, you can sit this one out. 

Every feature here is about video: codecs, color grading, noise in log footage and focus while rolling. The folks who’ll love it are indie filmmakers and high-end content creators, the people who grade everything they shoot. This is great – with memory prices climbing, every gigabyte counts.

What’s in Firmware 2.00

• Log3G10 and REDWideGamutRGB in H.265, so RED’s log curve and color space come to the lightweight codec
• Selectable High ISO NR when recording H.265 Log
• Focus peaking while recording R3D NE, the ZR’s RAW format

Nikon’s still working on open gate recording and an anamorphic desqueeze display, targeted for 2027. And RED is updating its RED CONTROL apps so you can run the ZR remotely.

Quick Refresher: Log and Gamut

A log curve squeezes a big range of brightness into the file. Straight out of camera, your footage looks flat and gray. That’s on purpose. The highlights and shadows are safely tucked away, waiting for you to pull them back in the grade. Log3G10 is RED’s version of log.

A color gamut is the range of colors a file can hold. REDWideGamutRGB is a big one, wider than your monitor can show. More room means fewer clipped colors when you push around your grade.

Right now, ZR shooters only get RED’s log and gamut in R3D NE. H.265 uses Nikon’s N-Log. Firmware 2.00 gets both formats speaking the same color language.

One Grade, Two Formats

Picture this…you shoot R3D NE for the interview and H.265 for B-roll. Today, those clips start from two different color recipes.  

After the update, they start from the same place. One RED transform or LUT gets both of them close to each other, so you spend more time on the look instead of matching shots.

Same goes for cutting a ZR in with a RED camera. Small crews are going to love that.

The File-Size Math

H.265. Nikon’s published bitrates at 59.94p:

• R3D NE, High quality (6048 x 3402): 3,780 Mbps, about 1.7TB an hour
• H.265 10-bit (5376 x 3024): 400 Mbps, about 180GB an hour

That’s roughly nine times smaller. Shooting top-quality RAW, you’ll fill a 1TB card in about 35 minutes. That same card holds over five hours of H.265.

Truth be told, those are two different resolutions, and Nikon hasn’t posted bitrates for the new Log3G10 H.265 mode yet. Treat these as ballpark numbers.

What H.265 Gives Up

Same color, different file. On the ZR, H.265 is:

• 10-bit.  That’s 1,024 levels per color channel versus 256 in 8-bit. Log needs that extra precision to keep skies and smooth walls from banding.
• 4:2:0.  Color is stored at a quarter of the resolution of brightness. Fine for most grading, tougher for green screen work.
• Long GOP.  It saves some full frames and predicts the ones in between. Small files, but your editing computer works harder.

R3D NE is compressed RAW, so you can change white balance and ISO after the fact.  

H.265 bakes those in, so nail them on set.

The Noise Reduction Option

Log lifts shadows, and lifted shadows show noise. Cameras fight back with noise reduction, which can smear fine detail.  Fstoppers reports that some ZR owners found H.265 footage soft, likely from heavy in-camera NR. 

Firmware 2.00 lets you pick the NR level for H.265 Log. Nikon hasn’t said which levels you’ll get yet. Less NR means more grain and more detail, and you can clean it up in post where you’ve got more control.

Focus Peaking in RAW

Focus peaking paints the sharpest edges in the frame with a bright color. It’s a manual focus aid. The ZR had it in other formats but dropped it while recording R3D NE.  Now it’s back for RAW, so you can pull focus with confidence.

Paying Off the RED Deal

Nikon bought RED in 2024.  The ZR shipped in October 2025 with R3D NE built in, at $2,199.95 body-only. Firmware 2.00 pushes that RED color into a pro-format that lots of people shoot every day.

That’s how you keep a camera relevant and useful. Thanks for the improvements, Nikon.

Sources

• Nikon: Firmware Version 2.00 Development Announcement
• Nikon USA: ZR Firmware 2.00 Press Release
• Newsshooter: Nikon ZR Firmware 2.00 and Future Open Gate
• Fstoppers: Nikon Announces Firmware 2.0 Coming to the Nikon ZR