Nikon is buying the RED camera company, and here’s what it means for filmmakers.
Last year I made a video titled “Nikon And RED Just Changed Video Cameras Forever,” which, that’s a big take, I know. But the premise of that video was that RED had a patent on compressed internal RAW recording that prevented other camera manufacturers from including it in their cameras. Nikon said too bad, RED, we’re going to do it anyways, and included RAW recording in the Z9 and Z8. RED sued them, they went to court about it, and eventually they settled, with the end result being that Nikon could then legally use compressed internal RAW recording in their cameras.
A lot of filmmakers were surprised that happened, myself included, which is why I said the world of video cameras had changed, because for the first time we were finally seeing camera manufacturers other than RED be capable of using compressed internal RAW video.
Well, in the next twist of this story, Nikon has posted a press release stating that they are now purchasing the RED camera company. And that is what we need to talk about today.
How Could This Happen?
Let’s start with the basics, because I’m sure you may be wondering how this could even happen. Well, here’s my big theory. Back in 2021 a YouTuber named Sam Newton, who I have not had the honor of meeting yet but hopefully will one day, made a music video called “Shoots On Nikon,” the entire premise of which was that Nikon cameras are essentially potatoes that happen to take photos and videos. My theory is that Nikon took such offense at this that they said, you know what, we’re going to make our cameras have the best video quality, including spending millions of dollars taking RED to court over their patent and then finally just buying RED outright. Yes. Sam Newton made this happen. It’s his fault. If you’re upset about it, take it up with him.
Okay, joke theory out of the way, here’s probably how things really went down, and keep in mind I’m not a lawyer or an expert on any of this, this is just where I’ve landed after reading a lot about Nikon and RED fighting.
The first thing you need to know is that RED is not a publicly traded company. They do not have shareholders or anything like that, so if they want to sell themselves to a bigger company there isn’t nearly as much red tape preventing it from happening. And if we’re talking about bigger companies, for context, Nikon’s press release says RED has 220 employees. How many employees does Nikon have? About 20,000. In short, Nikon has the size and the money to easily gobble up RED.
Why Would RED Want To Sell?
Here’s the deal. We know camera manufacturing is expensive, especially considering RED is designing cameras and sensors in house, and that is not cheap. And yes, their cameras cost a good healthy chunk of money if you want to buy one. But the cinema camera market isn’t exactly massive, and a lot of it is built around the concept of renting a cinema camera to film something rather than buying one. So first of all, RED may not be selling as many cameras as you would think.
And I’m sure RED has been making good money with their cameras, but back in 2018 RED also made a mistake. A big error. Do you remember what it was? RED said, hey, I know we’re making good money from our high end cinema camera business, but it’s pretty niche. What if we made something that wasn’t niche, that everyone would want to buy?
Enter the RED Hydrogen One phone. Do you remember this? I feel like we all just collectively tried to forget it. But yes, RED tried to make a phone. It was expensive, it had a delayed release, it had big bezels, it weighed almost as much as a brick, and it was essentially dead on arrival. I had so many friends talking about pre-ordering that phone because, in their words, it would be cheaper to buy a phone like this and use it as a monitor for their RED camera than to actually buy a RED camera monitor. Which was true! It was actually cheaper. But regardless, whenever that phone released it felt like RED dropped it faster than you could drop a potato. And yes, that is a callback to the previous joke about Nikon being potatoes.
Anyways, my point is that RED sank a lot of money and a lot of development cost into trying to jump into that market, and they learned, just like Amazon did with their Fire Phone if you remember that one, that it takes more than a cool camera gimmick to make people want to buy a phone. And they failed.
So my theory is that RED has been hurting for money for a while. Remember, they’re not publicly traded, so there are no reports they’re legally required to release about how much money they’ve made. But whenever you factor in the failure of a phone with all of its development cost, plus having to spend money on a court case with Nikon as well as other camera manufacturers, can you imagine how appealing it might be if Nikon suddenly backs up a big truck full of money and says hey, we would love to just buy your company, we have the funds and the engineers and the resources to support you and help you grow, and you can still keep making high quality cinema cameras?
Clearly RED said yes, because here we are.
RED Is Not Going Away
Here’s the first thing you need to know about the future. RED as a camera company is not going away. In Nikon’s press release they say RED is going to be a wholly owned subsidiary of Nikon, so they have no current plans to dissolve RED, or change the badging of their cameras to say Nikon, or even better, change the camera company name to Yellow. Because, get it, because RED is a color and Nikon uses yellow in their branding. They’re not going to do that. It’s a dumb joke. Okay.
At least for now, RED is going to keep on making cameras just like they have been. But that said, things do have to change, right? So here are some of the ways they could.
Cinema Lenses And The Canon RF Mount Problem
First, RED does have lenses that they’ve made. They’re called RED Pro Primes and they came out in approximately 2009, I think, and you can tell me if it was earlier than that. Does Nikon make lenses? Yes. But do they make cinema lenses? No. But what if they did? Nikon just made a big leap into the cinema camera space by buying RED. Can you imagine them creating high end cinema lenses for RED cameras? Can you also imagine them putting their autofocus technology into those lenses? That would be pretty darn cool.
Staying on this lens trend, we also need to talk about something a bit controversial, and that’s the fact that RED currently sells a decent number of cameras that use the Canon RF mount. And who is Nikon’s biggest competitor again? Is it Canon? Yes. So in one of the weirdest turns of events, by buying RED, Nikon is now going to be manufacturing cameras that use one of their biggest competitors’ lens mounts. Interesting. How long do you think that is going to go on for? And more importantly, how long do you think we have before RED introduces a camera that takes a Nikon Z mount?
To be clear, I’m not really concerned about Nikon coming in and cancelling all the RF mount RED cameras and saying sorry to anyone who bought them, go buy a new Nikon mount camera. I’m betting they’re going to continue to support all of RED’s previous cameras, at least for a while. But that said, you have to imagine changes are coming.
If you want to go deeper, I’ve also got Sony Camera Overheating? Here’s How To Prevent It! and Sony FX5 vs FX3: Is RAW Worth $2,000 More?! (Here’s What I’d Buy).
Sensors
Speaking of changes, we have to talk about sensors for a second, because for a while now Nikon has not been fully designing and manufacturing all their sensors in house. Instead they’ve been using sensors at least partially designed or manufactured by Sony. But hold up, because Nikon just purchased RED, who make all of their camera sensors in house. So is there a chance Nikon could take that sensor technology and start doing more internally instead of going to Sony for sensor designs? There’s definitely some potential there to think about.
Internal RAW And Who Owns The Patents Now
Not to mention we have to talk about internal RAW recording, because that has been a very hot topic for years. By buying RED, Nikon is getting access to all of RED’s patents on internal RAW. Nikon already had the right to use compressed internal RAW in all their future cameras thanks to the settlement with RED in court last year. Suddenly now, Nikon has found themselves being the ones in control of those patents.
It’s no secret that RED has been very quick to sue literally any company that has implemented internal RAW. They sued Sony. They sued Apple. They sued and lost to Nikon. And it looks like they probably made some sort of deal with Canon where RED would get the rights to use Canon’s RF lens mount and they would let Canon use some form of compressed RAW in their cameras.
But the big question is how all of that is going to change with Nikon in charge. Are they still going to be willing to sue other companies over internal RAW, or is there a chance they may see an opportunity to make significantly more money licensing out that RAW technology to companies like Sony and Apple?
In a perfect world, I would love it if Nikon did this, and not just because I use a Sony camera and an iPhone, but because it feels like compressed internal RAW recording should be a technology that is not patentable. Just like how every manufacturer has some form of RAW photos available in their cameras, I would love it if they all had the ability to have some form of RAW video as well, which currently is not possible because of that RED patent.
So it really remains to be seen. Either Nikon could hold onto RED’s patents, continue to sue anyone that attempts to circumvent them, and probably make a boatload of cash because filmmakers may consider switching to Nikon just to get RAW video. Or maybe Nikon’s accountants will crunch the numbers and realize they can make more money by licensing those RAW patents out.
It All Comes Down To Money
Remember, it’s all about money. All these companies want to do is make money, and that’s really what Nikon acquiring RED comes down to. At its core, just like any acquisition, it’s about money. Nikon saw that RED was hurting after a failed phone and years of lawsuits, and if it wasn’t obvious from the Z8 and Z9, they are clearly trying to push into the high end filmmaking space.
And so here we are. It’s not April Fools. All RED filmmakers are becoming Nikon filmmakers, and we’ll have to see how this all pans out in the coming months.
If you’re a filmmaker who is wondering what gear you should buy, because I know we just talked a lot about gear here, I’ve put together a filmmaking gear guide that shows you all of the equipment I recommend you purchase for filmmaking. And spoiler, there are no Nikon or RED cameras on that list. But maybe I should add them. You can download the guide completely for free.
Thanks so much for reading, and have a great day!