Nikon has announced several firmware plans for the Nikon ZR. Here they are in one figure first.
Ver.2.00 in 2026, Open Gate in 2027. A camera that keeps gaining features after you buy it is appealing for people buying now too. But the roadmap mixes plans whose contents are decided with plans that are still at the “we’re aiming for it” stage. I want to separate the two and think about how to use them when deciding whether to buy now.
I bought the ZR myself and use it. This isn’t a comparison against other cameras. The roadmap is based on Nikon’s announcement of 8 September 2026, checked on 1 November.
What’s decided, and what isn’t
Line the plans up and the level of detail varies a lot.
| Plan | When | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Ver.2.00: Log3G10 / REDWideGamutRGB in H.265 | 2026 | Announced |
| Ver.2.00: High ISO NR level in H.265 Log | 2026 | Announced (number of levels not announced) |
| Ver.2.00: focus peaking in R3D NE | 2026 | Announced |
| Open Gate recording | Goal: 2027 | Resolution, frame rates and format not announced |
| Anamorphic desqueeze display | Goal: 2027 | Details not announced |
| Remote control from RED CONTROL / PRO | Not announced | Coming via an update to RED’s apps |
| NIKKOR Z CINEMA T1.9 VV (nine lenses) | Not announced | In development, starting with a 50mm |
Sources: Nikon, ZR firmware Ver.2.00 in development (8 September 2026), cinema lenses in development (same day), ZR Download Center (checked 1 November; the latest is Ver.1.11)
Ver.2.00 can count as a reason to buy
Since its contents are decided, I think Ver.2.00 can count as a reason to buy. The big one is RED’s colour settings (Log3G10 / REDWideGamutRGB) coming to H.265.
The ZR’s RAW format, R3D NE, lets you grade heavily, but a 1TB card only holds about 35 minutes. H.265 holds about 330 minutes on the same 1TB (the settings differ, so this isn’t a quality comparison). If Ver.2.00 lets you choose RED’s colour settings in the lighter H.265, it becomes easier to grade YouTube and travel videos too. I go into more detail in R3D NE vs H.265 and the Ver.2.00 article.
Still, it’s planned for “2026”, and as of 1 November it hasn’t arrived. It’s worth remembering that it isn’t something you can use today.
If Open Gate is what you’re after, it’s fine to wait
On the other hand, if Open Gate is your main reason, I think it’s reasonable to wait until the details are out.
The ZR’s sensor has the same 3:2 shape as a photo. Video today is a wide 16:9, so a strip at the top and bottom of the sensor goes unrecorded. Open Gate records the whole sensor, top and bottom included.
Where it pays off is when you crop a vertical video later. Crop a vertical frame out of 16:9 video and the height can only be as tall as the video. Record the whole sensor and, working it out from the ZR’s photo size, you get about 1.2 times the height. It becomes easier to make a horizontal YouTube video and a vertical Short from a single shoot.
But what’s been announced only goes as far as “the goal of incorporating them in ZR firmware in 2027”. Resolution, frame rates, recording format and how long it can record before overheating are all unknown.
If you need Open Gate with specific settings for work or a project right now, choosing a camera that can do it today is the safer bet. Future firmware isn’t a substitute for a feature you need now.
If you mostly shoot photos, you can ignore the roadmap
Everything on this roadmap, Ver.2.00 and Open Gate alike, is a video feature. If you mostly shoot photos, it shouldn’t change your decision.
Looking at the ZR as a photo camera, whether it has enough resolution matters more. I worked that out from how much detail the human eye can see in my article on the ZR’s resolution (Japanese).
What to check before you buy
So I don’t get pulled around by the roadmap, this is the order I’d think it through in:
- Can today’s ZR shoot what you want to shoot?
- Including recording formats, cards, lenses and your editing setup, will it work for everyday use?
- Do the three Ver.2.00 features help the way you shoot?
- Treat Open Gate and the rest of the 2027 plans as a nice bonus if they come
In this order, even if the plans slip or change, your decision to buy still holds.
Why I chose the ZR
I chose the ZR because I wanted to keep both photos and video as clean as I could. Working from the human eye, 24.5 megapixels is enough for photos, and for video it records 6K RAW in the body. Of the five bodies I compared, it was the cheapest one that could do that (my article on the ZR’s resolution, Japanese).
I still use it for both photos and video. The photos in my Nook The Wharf article (Japanese), from Awaji Island, were shot on the ZR too.
References
- Nikon: Nikon is developing firmware version 2.00 for the Nikon ZR full-frame sensor camera (8 September 2026)
- Nikon: Nikon is developing nine cinema lenses in the NIKKOR Z CINEMA T1.9 VV series (8 September 2026)
- Nikon: ZR Download Center (checked 1 November)
- Nikon Japan: choosing a recording format on the ZR (Japanese)