Nikon paid $85,000,000 for RED to make Z mount cine cameras

Two months ago, Japanese camera manufacturer Nikon bought US cinema camera manufacturer RED. No specifics of the acquisition, such as how much they paid, were detailed at the time.

Now, though, Nikon has released its financial reports, showing that Nikon paid around $85,000,000 to add RED to its portfolio. And the new RED CEO has also said that they want to release Z mount cinema cameras.

On the final page of the consolidated financial results for the year ending March 31st, 2024, Nikon disclosed how much they paid for RED and that they were acquiring 100% of the company and its assets.

The final figure was 13,167 million yen, which works out to a little under $85 million. That’s a heck of a number but it’s actually much less than I was expecting it to be. But it outlines the deal pretty clearly. Nikon has acquired RED. Lock, stock and barrel.

Z Mount cinema cameras coming

Not only this, but new RED CEO Keiji OIshi was recently interviewed by Film and Digital Times. In it, he stated that Nikon was planning to release Z mount cinema lenses in the future. He also confirmed that they are not going to be dropping the current Canon RF mount RED cameras.

We would like to introduce RED cameras with a Z Mount as one of the options in the future. It will be in addition to the RF mount currently offered, but it could take a couple of years. We also will look forward to the synergies with MRMC mainly in the cinema and broadcast fields.

The wording is interesting, however. “In addition to the RF mount currently offered”. Does that mean “We currently offer RF mount and will continue to do so”? Or does he mean “the current round of RF bodies”? and new RF mount bodies won’t be released?

I’m hoping for the former, but if there are no agreements in place with Canon, it may end up being the latter. If Canon chooses to just focus on their own cameras and dump RED/Nikon, we may not see any new cameras being released with the RF mount.

Nikon had previously suggested that nothing was changing, and that Z mount RED cameras weren’t in the works yet. Many of us simply assumed things would go on as they have been, but we’d probably start to see RAW in more of Nikon’s mirrorless cameras.

Now, the change that wasn’t happening appears to be happening. But it’s going to be a couple of years before we’ll see a Z mount RED camera, but they’re definitely on the way.

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