Nikon Announces Firmware 2.0 Coming For The Nikon ZR

For some Nikon ZR users, Christmas will come a little early this year as Nikon has laid out a clear roadmap for its upcoming firmware updates in 2026 and beyond.

As one of the first in line to purchase the Nikon ZR upon its release last year, I am personally familiar with the attributes that make it such a powerful camera value for filmmakers. I am also, however, well aware of the camera’s particular quirks, many of which you have no doubt heard about in the various online forums. Luckily for ZR users, many of the items on our wishlists are the type of things that are fixable via firmware. The question was always: when will this firmware actually arrive? Well, Nikon just answered several of our questions.

Nikon has announced that firmware v2.0 will indeed be available in 2026.

The first change will be that ZR users will now be able to shoot in the Log3G10 and REDWideGamutRGB curves when shooting in H.265. This is critical as it will allow users who purchased the camera specifically for the RED color science to access that without the file size penalty of always needing to shoot in R3D NE.

Of course, the biggest complaint about the ZR is that those smaller H.265 files have also come with an unmistakable softness not present in the Raw formats. This is supposedly the result of overaggressive native noise reduction. So, in the new firmware, Nikon is letting ZR users select their desired level of High ISO NR, which should, in theory, allow you to negate that H.265 softness by bypassing some of the noise reduction currently happening in camera.

The other big change addresses one of the more perplexing issues with the ZR upon launch. Up to this point, focus peaking has been available in all formats except R3D NE. A big oversight. But this has now been solved, and ZR users will now have access to focus peaking so they can use manual glass to make the best of that beautiful R3D NE footage.

There are a couple of things we will still have to wait for. Nikon says that both anamorphic desqueeze and open gate are on the to-do list for 2027. They are coming. Just not this year.

Perhaps the most notable thing still to come, which Nikon has acknowledged is in development, is the ability to use the ZR with the existing RED Control and RED Control Pro apps. If you’re a RED shooter, you know how excellent these programs are. Being able to use them with the ZR may be an actual “game changer” for many ZR users.

Nikon says the new firmware is coming before the end of the year.