Nikon candidly admitted they “considering acquiring RED due to the lawsuit filed against Nikon”

Hiroyuki Ikegami, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Imaging Business Unit at Nikon told PetaPixel.:

“Due to the lawsuit, we had an opportunity to understand and learn more about RED itself and RED’s history, and we had the opportunity to speak with the founder, Jim. We also recognized that the professional digital cinema market is huge and covers many areas, and since the Z 8 and Z 9 launches we see a growing market in the creator area, ”

We all had the idea that this was the main reason for the acquisition…but it’s nice to get the official confirmation of this story.

Nikon also told Petapixel that they begun considering the development of Nikkor cine lenses. Moreover:

“We will maintain the RF mount. A Z-mount RED camera will not be available for a while. So you can buy the present lineup comfortably,”

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Rumors about the Nikon Z7III having a 67 MP sensor from Towerjazz are just pure funny speculations

The Weibo account E8M-888 is again sharing pure speculations about the upcoming Z7III sensor.He claims the Z7III will use a new 67MP Towerjazz sensor.

But there is a but:

In those years he has been never be right once…so I would be surprised if he would be right on this one. Other bloggers are picking up his “rumors” so my hand is forced to type once more…it’s pure SPECULATION. There is no source, not even a hint of half baked rumor.

The reason why they think they can trust him is because he actually share CORRECT camera registrations form China. This is official data he reports diligently. But beyond that whenever he shares some camera specs it’s just him playing with fantasy numbers 🙂

This is not mean to be disrespectful to the bloggers or to E8M. E8M makes a great jobs on the official registrations and also states often he is speculating on the specs. And I understand that some bloggers eager to share some rumor fail to notice that this part is not a real “rumor” 🙂

Just announced: new Topaz Photo AI v3.0.0

Topaz just released the brand new Photo Ai 3.0 (Click here). I use this software a lot and I think it does an impressive job. The updates are really big too!

Press text:

Photo AI’s creative potential has been unlocked in this version, allowing the creation of your own workflows for the first time with presets, flexible ordering of enhancements, panel docking & collapsing, enabling RAW color and lighting adjustments, and a standardized Topaz UI across all of our applications.

Presets

Save your commonly used filter combinations into a single stack, including the filter settings and selections. Presets will then appear in the enhancement menu so that you can reuse your favorite settings and selections across any of your photos with a single click. This will speed up the process of editing large batches of hundreds or thousands of photos at a time. You can also delete old presets by hovering over them in the enhancement menu.

Docking & Collapsing

You can now dock the floating control panel on the right side of the viewport for easy access, or undock it and move it to where you need on top of your working preview area.

The right panel is also now collapsible, making more space for viewing your image while editing. For maximum space, try undocking the control panel while in collapsible mode.

Reordering

You can now re-order and combine your enhancements in any order on the right panel, allowing you to more dynamically chain effects together. For example, you can now sharpen the entire image first before denoising the background and then sharpening again with just the subject. Changing the order of the filters will affect the way the output is processed, and this freedom will allow you to achieve results that otherwise were not possible within Photo AI.

RAW Balance Color & Adjust Lighting

On top of RAW Denoise, you are now able to adjust the color balance and lighting for RAW files inside Topaz Photo AI using our AI-based filters. This allows you to get the best quality possible out of your image straight from the camera and inside the application without having to make these adjustments in an external application even for RAW files.

Other Updates

Screenshot 2024-04-11 at 5.36.16 PM
On top of these exciting updates, both Face Recovery and Preserve Text can now be applied to the image multiple times, allowing you to control the strength of the effect on different subjects and areas of the image independently. We have also added other performance improvements and fixes under the hood. Take a look at the full changelog for more.

UI Refresh

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Topaz Photo AI has been updated with a standardized Topaz UI framework, with new colors and icons coming to Topaz Labs apps for a unified, streamlined look.

Changelog

  • Refreshed user interface with Topaz UI style
  • Implemented drag and reorder enhancements
  • Implemented basic preset functionality
  • Implemented docking and undocking feature
  • Enabled Text Recovery to be added multiple times
  • Enabled Face Recovery to be added multiple times
  • Enabled Adjust lighting for RAW images
  • Enabled Balance color for RAW images
  • Fixed Adjust lighting crash on M3 with macOS 14.4 and above
  • Fixed switching models on Denoise not updating the preview
  • Fixed export output suffix not matching enhancements order
  • Added preference for RAW Adjust lighting strength
  • Added camera profile for Panasonic G9M2
  • Added noise profile for Sony ILCE-6700

Lexar announced new rugged 1Tb SD cards

The new cards will be displayed at the NAB show and be soon available for reorder on their official storefront at Amazon and BHphoto.

Press text:

Lexar’s new Rugged Series includes the ARMOR GOLD SD UHS-II V60 Card. This card offers a max read speed of 280MB/s and a max write speed of 210MB/s,1 features an IP68 rating, and supports seamless 6K video capture. The ARMOR SILVER PRO SD UHS-II V60 Card also clocks in at a max read speed of 280MB/s and delivers a write speed of 160MB/s.1 It is also rated IP68 and supports 6K video as well. In the SSD category, the ARMOR 700 Portable SSD leverages USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 to provide max read/write speeds of 2000MB/s1 and an IP66 rating lets users know that its design protects against both water and dust2 and is built to withstand up to 3-meter drops and falls.2

Reminder: The Silver Lexar cards are on discount at Amazon and BHphoto:

Press text: Keiji Oishi, of Nikon’s Imaging Business Unit, assumed the role of CEO at RED


Keiji Oishi – Former Department Manager of Nikon’s Imaging Business Unit is now the CEO of RED (image courtesy Nikon)

Today Nikon issued a new press release (see below). As noted by one of our readers (Thanks!) Keiji Oishi is a principal executive centrally involved in the Z System success. This specifically includes Nikon’s aggressive Firmware update strategy:

Nikon Completes Acquisition of US Cinema Camera Manufacturer RED.com, LLC

Nikon Corporation (Nikon) hereby announces that as of April 8th, it has successfully acquired 100% of the outstanding membership interests of RED.com, LLC (RED), which offers revolutionary digital cinema cameras and award-winning technologies.

Upon RED becoming a wholly owned subsidiary, RED’s President Jarred Land became a close Advisor to the company, along with RED’s founder James Jannard. Keiji Oishi, of Nikon’s Imaging Business Unit, assumed the role of CEO and Tommy Rios, Executive Vice President of RED, moved into the role of Co-CEO.

“Welcoming RED, a company that has been at the forefront of innovative technology, to the Nikon family is sure to expand the possibilities of imaging expression, and further delight the market with its innovation,” comments Hiroyuki Ikegami, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Nikon’s Imaging Business Unit. “Combining the best of both companies and working together to develop new, distinctive products, is our goal and for the brand to remain the choice for fans of Nikon and RED, and possibly reach out to an even wider audience.”

“I believe it is my mission as the representative of RED to develop the market in a way that will pay respect to the corporate cultures of RED and Nikon,” says RED CEO Keiji Oishi. “You can look forward to RED’s future product development which will aim to meet and exceed the expectations of cinematographers around the world.”

“We are the pioneer in digital cinematography, and the synergy with Nikon will only help us to continue to evolve,” says RED Co-CEO Tommy Rios. “We’ll continue to deliver cutting-edge technology that no one has ever seen before. We remain committed to working together with the RED dealers around the world.”

Newly appointed RED Advisor James Jannard comments, “It is a proud moment for me to see RED, a brand that I have nurtured with passion for over 20 years, gain the opportunity to achieve new heights with the help of Nikon, a company that I also love.”

RED Advisor Jarred Land shared his excitement, stating, “By joining the Nikon family, a company that is known for the advanced technology that it has been cultivated over many years, I am confident that RED will bring a new era to the professional digital cinema camera market. It is an honor to be a part of this new chapter.”

There will be no changes to RED’s current product lineup, partners, and relationship with the dealers. RED will continue to support its policies with warranties, repair services, customer services, and overall product support.

Nikon and RED will merge the strengths of both companies to develop distinctive products, while leveraging the business foundations and networks of both companies to expand the fast-growing professional digital cinema camera market.