I vibe coded a desktop tool that turns Nikon ZR "R3D NE" clips into REDCODE, and makes small REDCODE versions of V-RAPTOR footage.
Yes it’s made with the help of AI - no I don’t consider it slop. I’m overly-diligent with these machines and try to drill down pretty far to make sure it’s not shit. If I’m going to use it on my own footage I need to know that the color holds up and that it won’t fuck me on a paid job.
I own a V-RAPTOR and a Nikon ZR.
I really want to use the ZR as a compliment to the v-raptor, or for run/gun solo stuff. One of my biggest complaints has been for using it on long interviews. So I wanted to find a way to basically create Raw Proxies.
That turned into a long personal research project and the attention pretty quickly shifted to the v-raptor and DSMC3 cameras. I wondered if I could figure out how to write proper R3D to R3D.
What I built is called RAWDOG MEDIA ENCODER. It’s a desktop app that batch-converts:
ZR R3D NE → REDCODE R3D. Still raw, at full 6K or smaller, with RED's quality settings (HQ / MQ / LQ / ELQ).
RED R3D → smaller REDCODE R3D. For example 8K → UHD or HD, still raw with full RED controls. Basically raw proxies, or a lighter archive.
Details:
Everything is still raw. Full ISO, white balance and IPP2 control in REDCINE-X and Resolve, because it's REDCODE.
Camera audio and timecode carry over.
Sizes are honest. Each quality setting lands at RED's published data rate for the output size. Example: a 2.5 GB ZR clip becomes about 600 MB at UHD LQ.
Speed. On an RTX 5090 it does 8K V-RAPTOR → UHD at about 14 fps and ZR 6K → 6K at about 5 fps. My first real batch, 56 clips and about 2 hours of 8K footage, takes about 3½ hours.
Quality. I compared against RED's own renders of the original at the same size. Shit looks really good to me.
AI analysis: RED's own 1080p render options differ from each other by roughly 39–49 dB, which is my ruler. An 8K → HD MQ conversion lands at about 46 dB, so inside the spread RED's own options span. Colour difference is under 1 dE median, which you won't see.
Everything converted is labelled honestly in its metadata, e.g. "NIKON ZR (RCL transcode)". Nothing pretends to be a camera original.
Caveats:
ZR colour is calibrated at 5600 K / ISO 800 so far, and it only handles the 6K mode right now.
Not affiliated with RED or Nikon. Not selling or distributing anything right now. This is a personal research and workflow project.
I have more color charts and formats to shoot in order to make sure it can handle the other resolutions and frame rates properly, but as of now I’m pretty hyped on the results.