Nikon Z6 Prores RAW Review: Worth it?

I finally had a chance to shoot a project with the Nikon Z6 and the Atomos Ninja V. I tested both N-Log and Prores RAW, and here’s what I have to say about it:

Thanks to Nikon India for arranging an Atomos Ninja V and lenses for the shoot. Special thanks to Naveen and Yusuf for supporting us and thanks to Vinod for helping us with the lenses. The Nikon Z6 (Amazon, B&H) is my own.

In a nutshell, here are the positives and negatives of N-Log vs Prores RAW with this combination:

Feature	N-Log	Prores RAW
Price	Free	$200 in some countries
Exposure	Easy	Need to underexpose
Colors	10-bit 4:2:2	12-bit RAW
LUTs	Official and third-party	None available
Dynamic Range	12 stops	12 stops
Colors (Monitoring)	Easy with LUTs	Unreliable
NLEs Supported	Any professional NLE	Only FCP X, Scratch, Edius (Premiere Pro coming soon)
Color Grading Expertise	Good	Very Good
HDMI Lag	400ms	200ms
Crop	1.1x	1x
FCP X Support	Full	Not implemented yet (hopefully soon)
Lowest ISO	800	100

Takeaway

RAW is theoretically good – you get to shift White Balance and have lots of options in color grading. But all that assumes you have a great colorist on hand.

You can grade in FCP X, but seriously, how many will in the real world? How many can grade well enough to take advantage of RAW?

Interacting with thousands of filmmakers monthly, I can tell you: not a whole lot.

Until the workflow is solid i just can’t recommend Prores RAW. N-log is still 10-bit 4:2:2 so its good enough for almost every person who’ll be using this combination of gear. The armchair warriors can play in their back yards but professional filmmakers and photographers who rely on Nikon and Nikon colors must at present stick to N-log.

I’ve been able to get great results with N-log on the shoot, and more importantly, I can get Nikon colors.

That’s what matters most, to me at least. What do you think?