Nikon has done something cinema camera owners rarely get: it put the two features people complain about most on a public roadmap. On September 7, 2026 the company announced the development of firmware version 2.00 for the Nikon ZR, and confirmed that open gate recording and an in-camera desqueeze display for anamorphic lenses are being built for a later release.
Start with what is actually shipping. Firmware 2.00 is scheduled for release in October 2026, and it is a codec-and-workflow update rather than a headline-grabbing one. The list:
- Log3G10 and REDWideGamutRGB when recording in H.265 format. Until now the RED colour pipeline lived on the Raw side of the camera; moving it into H.265 means compact files that still hold up under a proper grade.
- A new option for selecting the level of [High ISO NR] during H.265 Log recording. Noise reduction stops being a fixed decision the camera makes for you.
- Focus peaking display during recording in the R3D NE format. Peaking in Nikon and RED’s joint Raw codec was one of the loudest omissions from launch, and it is finally addressed.
Nikon also announced updates to its RED CONTROL and RED CONTROL PRO remote control applications for operating the ZR.
Now the part that made the announcement travel. Nikon said it is developing new firmware to support frequently requested features, including open gate recording and a desqueeze display for use with anamorphic lenses, with the goal of incorporating them in ZR firmware in 2027. Read that sentence carefully, because Nikon did not choose it by accident. It is a stated goal, not a dated promise, and there is no version number attached to it.
Still, the ambition matters. Open gate reads the full sensor area instead of a cropped 16:9 slice, which is what social-first shooters want when one take has to yield a widescreen master and a vertical cut. Anamorphic desqueeze is the companion feature: without it, framing a squeezed anamorphic image on the camera’s own screen is guesswork. Both are the sort of thing that has traditionally separated a $2,199 body from cameras costing several times more — PetaPixel notes the ZR sells for roughly half the price of the Sony FX5.
The ZR earned that attention on release. Announced on September 10, 2025 and on sale from October 24, 2025 at $2,199 for the body, it pairs a 24.5-megapixel partially stacked full-frame CMOS sensor with 6K at 60p, 4K at 120p and 1080p at 240p, and was the first camera to use the R3D NE codec developed jointly by Nikon and RED. It also carries a 4.0-inch fully articulating 3.07M-dot touchscreen rated at 1000 nits, 32-bit float audio recording with the internal microphones, and a body weight of roughly 540 g.
Nikon has a strong record of adding real capability to cameras after purchase. Firmware 2.00 is the near-term proof; 2027 is where the interesting promise sits.
