Nikon Z30 | Cinematic Video 4K Test in 2023 

Not needed! Just keep making videos.

It is pretty awesome. Cheers!

I agree.

Thank you!

Yes, I know. That’s why I mention both are graded. I also mention the grades aren’t super heavy, so I’m comparing these two the way most consumers would use them. No one will use these two cameras to film the next Netflix show with a heavy grade on top. Thanks for watching.

@@visualsbyst For many users, I would say that 8-bit would probably serve their needs. Especially if they’re focusing on RU-vid content.

@@AllThingsFilm1 sure. More and more cameras have 10 bit now, though, so 8-bit might be a thing of the past at some point in the near future.

EXACTLY!! 8-bit is fine as long as the image was captured well in camera- but try to change white balance/get details from shadows or highlights/apply an aggressive grade and the 8-bit will fall apart much quicker than the 10bit. Kind of like jpeg vs. RAW - jpeg is fine as long as you don't need to tweak it much...

While I didn’t change the white balance much, shadows were raised in camera. I shot this in a custom flat profile that acts as log somewhat, which means mids and shadows are raised to give you more dynamic range. Usually people don’t like to shoot 8-bit in log, because of the image falling apart when they grade it. All of this, I’m showing in the video: slightly raised shadows and mids, pushing colours in the shadows, mids and highlights and tweaking oranges, reds and yellows.

Same here!

Yes, probably the lens. The Nikon 40mm f2 is a bit soft at close distance.

Thank you very much and thanks for subscribing!

Thanks for watching!

Hey, thanks for watching. I don’t have a tutorial up for this grading. It was graded with my LUT with some further adjustments.

Yup, I forgot to mention that, but I kept it pretty similar. 35mm f2 on the Fujifilm and 40mm f2 on the Nikon. However, I realized in the past that Nikon lenses blur out the background a bit more than Fujifilm lenses. I think Fujifilm aperture numbers might be slightly off. I remember comparing a 20mm f1.8 Nikon (on crop) vs 23mm f2 Fujifilm and I shot both at f2 at same distance from the subject. Technically, Fujifilm should have given me more blur, because it was 23mm, but actually Nikon gave me more blur. But yeah, the lenses here were pretty similar. Nikon was slightly longer focal length.

@@visualsbyst ah right perfect thanks so much. Now I am even more interested in picking up the 40f2 .. especially for video. Seems like a steal at the price

Thank you.

Enjoy!

In my opinion it is very capable. Thanks for watching.

Thank you very much. No D-lighting and no NR was used. Just a flat profile.

@@visualsbyst thanks! youre very talented man! cheers from Mexico!

Yes, it is.

Hi, thank you. I use DaVinci Resolve. It is free, but professional software for video editing. The mode depends on the camera. If the camera has log, I’d use it. If it doesn’t, I’d use some flat profile. The settings depend on the lighting. If I’m shooting in 24 fps, then my shutter speed is 1/50. The aperture depends on whether I need shallow depth of field or not. The ISO depends on how dark the scene is.

Hey, thank you for watching. If I understood correctly (my Spanish isn’t the best), you are asking how to install the flat profile on your camera. You will have to transfer the profile on an SD card and then put the card in the camera. Go to Menu - Photo Shooting - Manage Picture Control - Load - Copy to Camera and then pick the profile. Click OK. Then you’ll find the profile on your list of all the other profiles. Let me know if that works.

@@visualsbyst Thank you very much, it works perfectly. Excellent content you generate

Hey, thanks for the purchase. So the LUTs are for videos and the PRESETS are for photos. The LUTs you will have to use in any video editor like Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve. DaVinci Resolve is free. Once you download and install a video editor, you’ll then open the video in that program. You’ll have to install the LUTs in that program and use them there. Once you do all that, let me know if you’re still having problems.

Autofocus is good but obviously not the best. Depending on what you’re filming, you won’t always depend on the autofocus anyway. Overall, it’s good enough. Image stabilization is nonexistent, so you have three options: a stabilized lens, a gimbal, or post production stabilization. All three can be good enough, but the first two are probably preferable.

Yes, Looney Tunes! 😂

I use DaVinci Resolve, but Adobe Premiere is good too.

Thank you!

Thank you very much!

Hey, thanks for watching. That’s right, Z30 doesn’t have log. Log isn’t the best if you’re shooting in 8bit. LOG is usually in Rec2020 color space and needs to be transformed into Rec709. That is sometimes problematic if the image is only 8 bit. Since the Z30 is 8 bit and doesn’t have LOG, I like to shoot in flat profile. This profile lowers contrast, increases shadows and lowers highlights, so they are controlled easier. It also may decrease saturation slightly. Then, when I post process it, I can add contrast how much I want and I can push some colour in shadows, mids and highlights if I want to. One thing you don’t want to do is shoot in flat if you’re not going to edit. If you’re going to use the video straight out of camera, then the video might be too flat. Hope that helps.

@@visualsbyst thank you for you response! That's great to know actually, I appreciate that. I believe from what I've seen from other reviewers, the standard colours on the Z30 are actually great, would you agree? If i didn't plan to edit my videos it would be just fine, shooting not in a flat profile of course.

Colours are very good, yes. Also, you can tweak any profile in camera, so you can even make the standard profile a bit flatter if you wanted to. That would probably be the best way to go about it if you’re not editing.

@@visualsbyst thank you thats really helpful! so is flatter meaning colours will be dull and that would give you more flexbility in post to color grade?

Hey, sure. I’ll make a video on video editing in the next week or two. I use DaVinci Resolve, but you can use whatever suits you, including Adobe Premiere. DaVinci Resolve, however, is the most powerful free software out there, in my opinion. Cheers.

You have to install it on your camera. You’ll have to put it on a clean SD card and transfer it to your camera. Once the SD card is in, find the custom picture profile in settings and there will be an option to upload it. If you’re having trouble, search “how to install Nikon picture profile” in Google or RU-vid.

I just uploaded a video showing the LUTs.

Fuji 35mm f2 and Nikon 40mm f2.

@@visualsbyst thanks

Any that can support its weight. The camera is very light, so it depends on which lens you have on. I used it with a Weebill S.

Gh5. I already answered that.

You absolutely can film weddings with LED. If Canon Vixia gave you the quality you required, then this camera will give you even better quality. It has a much larger sensor and it is 4K.

@@visualsbyst thanks a lot my friend! 😊👍

It’s 40mm f2. It wouldn’t be impossible to do it with the kit lens, though. The video is lit with an off camera light with a softbox. The light you see in the video is just ambient and doesn’t light the scene. If I was using the kit lens and had to stop down to 4.5 or 5.6, I would just turn up the light and keep the ISO low.

@@visualsbyst 2 questions: 1. I downloaded the free LUT you posted for Nikon Flat, but how do I apply it to in premiere pro? 2. Is Flat footage simply rec709 with saturation and contrast turned way down?

1. The flat profile is to be installed in camera. It’s not a LUT, it’s a picture profile. 2. The profile is rec709, yes. The curve was changed to make it flatter.

@@visualsbyst Once the flat profile is on the camera, how do you get it back to Rec 709?

It’s already Rec709. You don’t have to change it.

No, I haven’t. Although, I only recorded clips that were 30-35 minutes long and didn’t go past that. Not because it was overheating, but because I never had to.

I don’t know exact settings, but for the video, the shutter speed is 1/50, 4K24. ISO is whatever it needs to be to be properly exposed.

Settings? It’s 4K 24fps.

@@visualsbyst what about the other the shutter and iso ?

Shutter was the usual 1/50, ISO is irrelevant. Your ISO will depend on your lighting. Your lighting will be different than mine.

@@visualsbyst thank you very much :)

Hi, I used the 40mm f2 for the Nikon and 35mm f2 for the Fujifilm. However, don’t focus on that. It’s irrelevant which lenses I used. Pick the right lens for the job. You could get the same look with an 85mm, or the 24mm, only the perspective would be different, but the colours wouldn’t change. I colour graded this and that’s where the colours come from. Whatever lens you have right now, you could film something similar.

Thank you so much for the answer) So it's native lenses for the systems with close focal distance and aperture. As for the colours I had some wierd colour accents with cheap chinese TTArtisan 12mm so now I pay attention to lenses regarding colours as well).

@@Qwertzytamine Yes, that’s correct. And yes, cheap lenses from TTArtisan and similar might be tempting to get, but there’s always some issue. Even many Viltrox lenses have issues and they aren’t that cheap. My 56mm f1.4 had awful purple fringing in high contrast situations that could even be completely removed in post. The Nikon lenses might be plastic and cheap looking, but the image quality is much better.

Zoom H1N.

It depends. What kind of documentaries? If this project will be more for you, then the Z30 is fine. If you want to do it for a living, maybe you should consider a 10-bit camera. You could do it with the Z30, but if you’re more serious about making documentaries, you’ll likely want to upgrade to a 10-bit camera in the future, so why not get it now and save money in the long run.

That is only for photos. Pretty much every Canon, Nikon, Sony, Panasonic and Fujifilm camera is capable of shooting 14-bit photos. Some cameras have the option to choose from 12-bit or 14-bit. Personally, I’d only shoot in 14-bit, although even 12-bit is good enough. Z50, Z30 and Zfc can only shoot 8-bit video.

40mm f2

40mm f2

Vast majority of cameras don’t have shutter curtain when you change lenses. It’s never been a big problem. Eventually, some dust gets in, but you can blow it out. I don’t think shutter curtains are a solution either. Dust can easily get in around the shutter curtain when you’re changing lenses. Then when you turn the camera on and the shutter curtain is lifted, all that dust that was on the curtain, gets on the sensor. So, it’s the same problem.

@@visualsbyst Thanks for Your reply. The Z9 does have a shutter curtain so Nikon does think this is an option for sensor protection. I think this an area in which developments will occur. Having corrected sensor dust spots in Davinci Resolve using a a png mask I know that is something I want to avoid.

40mm f2 Z-mount.

thank you very much. I wish nikon made F1.8 dx lenses..@@visualsbyst

I’m using a fairly cheap and simple Zoom H1N. That’s it. Not running it through anything else. My processing isn’t complicated either. I listen to it and see what needs to be done. I might take out some low frequencies and tweak it slightly. I don’t do much to it. Thanks for watching.

40mm f2.

@@visualsbyst ow! Thanks

I like the 8 bit better, too. Keep in mind, though, that this wasn’t just a comparison between 8-bit and 10-bit. It was two different cameras and so the reason I like it better is because I like the Nikon look better. Thanks for watching.

If you’re talking about LUTs, yes they do.

@@visualsbyst thanks

Nikon 40mm f2 and Fujinon 35mm f2.

I haven’t shot very long clips, but the ones I’ve shot, it didn’t overheat. I’ve shot clips over 30 minutes in 4K 24fps.

Hi, the free one is a picture profile for Nikon cameras. You would install it into your camera and then choose it while recording.

@@visualsbyst and I've just recently purchased a Nikon Z30 and realized that some setting arent available at the moment neither can i video record. Is it because the camera doesnt have an SD card atm?

Might be. I can’t tell for sure. Just put the SD card in and see.

Which ones?

Is that true? Link me to this amazing stuff you created with it.

Cause he's a vampire in real life.

I will make a video showing that next week and I'll notify you. Thanks

Yes!

40mm f2

@@visualsbyst thank you so much for answer. I think to buy one of this lens.