Surprising news: Nikon officially acquired RED!

No, this is not an early April fools joke nor a crazy rumor! Nikon did indeed acquire 100% of RED! The question is….what benefits does this bring to Nikon and RED?

For Nikon:

  • Maybe some Nikon cameras will get the REDCODE RAW recording feature
  • Access to some amazing sensor tech

For RED:

  • Maybe future RED camera will have Z-mount instead of the current Canon RF mount
  • Red could have access to Nikon glass

What do you think about this news?

Official press text:

Nikon to Acquire US Cinema Camera Manufacturer RED.com, LLC

TOKYO – 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.

Just announced: new DxO PureRAW 4

Today DxO released the new DxO PureRAW 4 software (Click here). Below you can read the full press text and a couple of youtube reviews:

Press text:

DxO PureRAW 4 introduces a new generation of its breakthrough denoising AI and sets new industry standard for RAW image quality enhancement
With numerous workflow enhancements, DxO PureRAW 4 asserts its position as the indispensable first step in any photographer’s RAW processing workflow.

Paris (France): With a heritage spanning over two decades, DxO Labs continues to lead in optical corrections and RAW image processing by introducing DxO PureRAW 4 which sets new industry standards with its new generation AI denoising technology and improved lens softness correction. RAW enhancement with PureRAW 4 offers demanding photographers exceptional image quality by adjusting its image-correction algorithms in direct response to the lens and camera combination used to create each photo.

“PureRAW 4 features updated denoising and demosaicing algorithms, developed through our deep learning technology and billions of sample images,” explains Jean-Marc Alexia, VP of Product Strategy. “Helped by a real-time preview, this version also gives photographers greater control over their images, with additional settings and faster workflow features.”

Introducing DeepPRIME XD2: Advanced Deep Learning-Powered Denoising and Demosaicing

In 2022, DxO’s DeepPRIME XD technology set a new standard in noise reduction and demosaicing. Building on this legacy, DeepPRIME XD2, trained on billions of images, advances further, producing images of unprecedented clarity and detail.

“XD2 is the culmination of years of high-level research,” explains Wolf Hauser, Head of Science at DxO. “The neural network we have built continues to get smarter, surprising us by how images keep getting crisper and cleaner.”

Unique and improved lens softness correction

Even the best lenses lose sharpness towards the edge of the frame, and image softness is often most obvious when budget optics or complex multi-element zoom lenses are involved. To rectify this, PureRAW offers a unique approach to optical sharpening. It is a process enabled by DxO Optics Modules whereby mathematical models are developed from observing each lens’ performance across the entire field of view and focal range. This modeling ensures that precise, incremental, levels of sharpening are applied across the image in direct response to the lens’ measured performance. This is why software that uses global sharpening cannot compete with DxO’s laboratory-based lens testing.

Advanced settings for denoising processing

DxO PureRAW has always delivered excellent results without the need for guesswork and complex sliders. However, for those photographers who want to fine-tune their results, version 4 introduces a new level of control through the addition of new sliders like Luminance and Force Details.

This new version also provides real-time correction previews so that photographers can get an immediate sense of how images will be processed, and get direct feedback if they choose to make any adjustments.

Major workflow upgrades

A new widget detects when memory cards and external drives are connected, launching DxO PureRAW 4 automatically so that photographers can quickly begin ingesting and processing RAW files. The widget also acts as a hub to keep photographers updated on the status of tasks. In addition, photographers can now use advanced batch renaming. For example, mixing plain text with automated tokens to fit any naming convention.

Finally, version 4 allows users to compare different output files (DNG, TIFF, JPEG) with the original RAW file when viewing images after processing, and has a revamped processing window for greater efficiency.

Price and availability

DxO PureRAW 4 (Windows and macOS) is now available for download on the DxO website (https://shop.dxo.com/) at the following prices:

DxO PureRAW 4 €/$119 £109
DXO PureRAW 4 Upgrade €/$79 £69