No, it’s not April 1st yet. I might have just woken up, but I did double-check the date. Nikon has announced that it is to acquire the cinema camera company RED. It looks like Nikon has taken a leaf out of the Facebook playbook.
Nikon was embroiled with RED in a lawsuit over RAW video patents. Nikon initially did not include the promised RAW video in the Nikon Z9 (buy now) but later introduced it. A lawsuit ensued, instigated by RED. If you can’t beat ’em… Buy them?
Nikon finally does cinema?
Nikon was the first company to introduce video into DSLRs with the Nikon D90 in 2008. It was an interesting – but welcome – decision from Nikon at the time. Especially considering their major disadvantage.
Out of the major companies producing mirrorless cameras today – Canon, Sony, Fujifilm and Panasonic – all of them have a strong history in cinema or broadcast. They’ve all made cinema and/or broadcast cameras and/or lenses.
Nikon had pretty much no cinema or broadcast experience, which is why it took them several new body releases before we got simple things like manual exposure control. Nikon’s learned a lot since then. Their cameras have come a very long way since 2008.
With the acquisition of RED, Nikon well and truly plants itself into the world of cinema. And it does so with a brand that’s well respected. At least, their products are respected, even if their promises, marketing and legal tactics are not.
Why is this a big deal?
RED burst onto the scene in 2005 with a lot of big promises that initially didn’t live up to them. You can see all about that in the video below. In 2009, however, the first Hollywood feature film to be primarily shot on RED was released. It’s an odd film if you haven’t seen it, called District 9.
But during the development of RED cameras, RED filed a patent for their 4K and higher resolution RAW process. Whether they did it rightly or wrongly is another debate, but they did it. They’ve been accused of holding up the entire cinema camera industry due to its RAW video patents, which it has enforced aggressively.
RED even went after Nikon after they released firmware 2.0 to add ProRes RAW and N-RAW video recording capabilities to the Nikon Z9. RED said that Nikon broke the patent, Nikon say they didn’t and that the patents shouldn’t have been granted in the first place.
Obviously, we’re not privy to the negotiations of that lawsuit, but Nikon found an easy out. Buy the company.
What are the implications?
There are several possible implications for the acquisition that may be either a good or a bad thing. Firstly, there’s the RAW patents, so let’s get them out of the way. The specific of the patents doesn’t really matter, but the short version is that Nikon now owns them, and not RED.
It obviously means that Nikon’s lawsuit with RED goes away. Nikon isn’t going to sue itself for using intellectual property it now owns. There are a number of companies out there, such as Atomos, who are believed to have licensed the RAW patents from RED in order to implement RAW video in their products.
This is why almost all cameras on the market today support the Atomos Ninja (buy here) for recording ProRes RAW instead of implementing it internally. This means that Atomos and any other company licensing the payments are now paying money to Nikon instead of RED.
While Nikon is also a company that thrives on its intellectual property, this could be good news for the industry. Nikon has taken a slightly more relaxed attitude than some other manufacturers when it comes to its Z lens mount, for example.
It’s entirely possible that Nikon could go in a different direction to RED and start licensing the patents to more companies. Could this mean we’re finally seeing the RAW video revolution we should’ve seen a decade ago?
Even if they don’t, now that Nikon owns the rights, I think we can expect to see RAW video implemented into more Nikon mirrorless cameras if nothing else.
The full announcement
For those interested, here’s Nikon’s announcement in full.
Nikon Corporation (Nikon) hereby announces its entry into an agreement to acquire 100% of the outstanding membership interests of RED.com, LLC (RED) whereby RED will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nikon, pursuant to a Membership Interest Purchase Agreement with Mr. James Jannard, its founder, and Mr. Jarred Land, its current President, subject to the satisfaction of certain closing conditions thereunder.
Since its establishment in 2005, RED has been at the forefront of digital cinema cameras, introducing industry-defining products such as the original RED ONE 4K to the cutting-edge V-RAPTOR [X] with its proprietary RAW compression technology. RED’s contributions to the film industry have not only earned it an Academy Award but have also made it the camera of choice for numerous Hollywood productions, celebrated by directors and cinematographers worldwide for its commitment to innovation and image quality optimized for the highest levels of filmmaking and video production.
This agreement was reached as a result of the mutual desires of Nikon and RED to meet the customers’ needs and offer exceptional user experiences that exceed expectations, merging the strengths of both companies. Nikon’s expertise in product development, exceptional reliability, and know-how in image processing, as well as optical technology and user interface along with RED’s knowledge in cinema cameras, including unique image compression technology and color science, will enable the development of distinctive products in the professional digital cinema camera market.
Nikon will leverage this acquisition to expand the fast-growing professional digital cinema camera market, building on both companies’ business foundations and networks, promising an exciting future of product development that will continue to push the boundaries of what is possible in film and video production.
Everybody will be waiting to see what Nikon does next, particularly its competitors. With a big injection of new tech from RED, Nikon could have some huge gear announcements over the next couple of years.
Whatever happens as a consequence of this acquisition… it should be interesting.
