As the dust settles on Nikon’s takeover of RED, Jon Devo ponders the effect of this bold move

Jon Devo instagram.com/gadgetsjon

Jon is a professional photographer, videographer and technology journalist.

A first look at what a Nikon RED Z camera could look like.

Jon Devo

By now, the dust has settled on the monumental announcement made by Nikon that it was set to become the sole owner of rogue camera brand RED Digital Cinema. After years of vying for hybrid camera supremacy and struggling to overcome Sony’s sustained dominance, as well as the resurgence of competitors such as Canon and Panasonic’s Lumix, Nikon seems to have chosen a nuclear option in a bid to turn the tide. People paying attention to camera world news would have already been wowed by the news that RED had just launched the world’s first commercially available large format global shutter camera, in the form of the RED V-Raptor X. So it was even crazier when the announcement came through shortly after that the company’s founder James Jannard and current company president Jarred Land were selling up and cashing out.