A lot has been posted on the purchase of Red Digital Cinema by Nikon. Much that I’ve seen seems concentrated on the fact that the acquisition gives Nikon a significant position in the cinema market but that only part of the story I think. It’s fairly obvious and reasonable that Nikon can leverage Red’s various expertises to create a full set of video oriented cameras. I do expect that Nikon will allow Red to continue to be a pro-cinema brand and will not interfere with their cinema products; it’s likely that Red will orient themselves to the cinema world completely. I think it will be interesting to see where the Nikon branded camera’s end and the Red branded camera’s start and if there’s an overlap model or two in the videographers space or if the videographers space offerings become Nikon branded products. It’s also likely the Nikon will take over the currently outsourced manufacture of Red camera’s and other equipment - it will be an interesting question to see how the branding on that shows up. It’s easily to assume hat Nikon will take over the manufacture of Red’s optics. Still, there’s another aspect to the purchase thats worth looking at in terms of the overall industry.

Red also comes with a significant patent portfolio - the Raw compression patents are just a part of it. Another part is the global shutter technology. Another are their codec technologies. Still another are their large format image sensors. There are some hints in the financial and legal world that Sony’s global shutter is dependent on Red licensed technology (conversely Red’s global shutter and indeed all of their sensors are dependent on various Sony technology and licenses). Since complex cross licensing agreements are very common in the technology industry this has the possibility of getting interesting. I’ll note here that Sony has a history of buying licenses of technology with its implementation expertise - if they want to use your technology getting them to implement it for your product is far less expensive if you allow them to use the technology. I’ll also note that both the Sony camera and the Red camera are roughly 33MP designs - meaning that the back ends are similar, e.g. the pixel transistors are different but everything else is the same. In particular the back end bus that moves all that data to a buffer in image processor would be essentially the same (although the actual silicon could be very different looking and using different circuit designs for the same process).

Of all the possibilities is that in order to get certain cinema technologies and global shutter technologies Canon will have to license is rather legendary auto-focus capabilities. I doubt they would want to but thats the point of the portfolio - Nikon can use the portfolio directly (if it hasn’t already) in its camera’s and also use it as a cudgel to get technologies they want, such as perhaps a better autofocus system. One can argue that Canon might not give up its AF technologies to get RAW compression and thats probably true. Raw compression and global shutter is a different value proposition altogether one that I think Canon would find attractive. And keeping the EF/RF mounts as supported options on Red will just add incentive to the deal. Sony’s AF is also extremely good and they would be an equally good partner.

This is all speculation - my point is that there are additional advantages to Nikon from the acquisition beyond the additional of cinema cameras and lenses. How many of them will be utilized that we actually find out about will be interesting to see.

^^^^THIS^^^^

Most people carry smartphones these days. I have an iPhone 15 Pro Max. It is as good as MOST point-and-shoot cameras most of the time and it does MANY other things I need to do besides photography. For $300, the OP isn't likely to find a pocket camera that comes close to what any recent smartphone camera can do.

My favorite thing about the iPhone is that it immediately sends the photo to my iCloud server account. My Mac downloads it immediately after I turn it on and start Photos. The image is backed up, available on all my devices. Edits I make on my Mac show up on my phone. A few samples (below) show its versatility.

The modern smartphone is REALLY good for what it is. dSLR or MILC quality? NO. But sometimes, the best camera you have is the camera you have with you, and the one you actually use. My iPhone is always with me.
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It is likely that most UHHers have seen a $2 bill? You may well have wondered if it's funny money. It's not. The $2 bill has been printed by the U.S. Treasury almost continuously since the Civil War, and there are still 1.4 billion of them in circulation. The last series of $2 bills was printed in 2017.

• The $10,000 bill was the largest denomination ever to be printed for public circulation in the U.S.
• A collector cannot legally hold a $100,000 bill. What to govt. would do if you have one is unknown.
• Today, a $500 or $1,000 bill may be worth more than its face value as a collector's item.

We all know that superglue (cyanoacrylate - CA) is great stuff, and many of us know that mixing in some baking soda makes it much stronger. "Fix This House" on YouTube did a test of CA alone and mixed with other ingredients. He glued 1/4" pieces of plastic end-to-end, let the glue cure for a day. Then applied weight. CA and steel wool held about 97 lb, but the CA and baking soda supported even more weight. All the additives increased the strength of the bond well above CA alone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6a5aArrmUo

I recently purchased Ansel Adam's book, "The Negative" specifically to understand and learn to apply the zone system of exposure. I just reached the chapter on the Zone System and though I shoot digitally, I'm finding that this system is amazing and can definitely be an added bonus. I also recently purchased a top mint condition Hasselblad 500CM that I'm over the moon excited to start using; however, there are some things that I need to learn about film photography. I've become a student once again and it's truly exciting.

Where were youse guys in the 60s? No Lucas jokes?
Lucas, the prince of darkness. Motto: get home before dark

I used to have a custom labeled mason jar of official Lucas smoke.

Have you let the smoke out of the wires on your British machine?
Here is one Lucas Replacement Wiring Harness Smoke kit, P/N 530433, along with the very rare Churchill Tool 18G548BS adapter tube and metering valve. These kits were supplied to Lucas factory technicians as a trouble-shooting and repair The smoke is metered, through the fuse box, into the circuit which has released it's original smoke until the leak is located and repaired. The replacement smoke re-introduced.
Lucas is the patent holder for the short circuit.
Lucas - Inventor of the first intermittent wiper.
Lucas - Inventor of the self-dimming headlamp.
The three position Lucas switch - Dim, Flicker and Off.
The Original Anti-Theft Device - Lucas Electrics.
Lucas is an acronym for Loose Unsoldered Connections and Splices

Back in the 70's, Lucas decided to diversify its product line and began manufacturing vacuum cleaners. It was the only product they offered which did not suck.
Q: Why do the British drink warm beer? A: Because Lucas makes their refrigerators
Alexander Bell invented the Telephone. Thomas Edison- the Light Bulb. Joseph Lucas invented the Short Circuit.
There are no British Astronauts, because they saw the spacecraft had Lucas switches, and everyone quit.
Lucas Electric, from the country that brought us the Dark Ages.

I've had a '64 Triumph and a '66 BSA, chopped.
For the Triumph, I ended up pulling the harness and nailing it to a chunk of plywood.
I could get the wire right, in 16 gauge, proper ends and fit, and Working.
The BSA I just wired in place. The board finally ended up at Marlin's shop
With the headlight, on the horn was an emergency stop. Engine and system couldn't handle the load.

I just received a bill from Disney + for 20 + dollars. When I signed up for the Hulu package that included Hulu, Disney +, and ESPN +, it was around 11 dollars. I expected an increase but not almost double. When I examined the bill, it showed four charges, not three. When I drilled down to see what I was being charged for it showed one service at x dollars, another at x dollars, a third at x dollars, and the fourth was a charge for Disney add free. Since I first signed up for the service I have never watched anything on Disney, only on Hulu and ESPN. I don't need the add-free Disney since I haven't used that part of the service. I never asked for it to be ad-free but they just automatically added it. That is pretty sneaky. I will be sending them a nasty-gram and tell them to refund anything I paid for their ad-free service.