Nikon buys high-end cinema camera company RED

Nikon has announced it is buying RED, the high-end cinema digicam firm, for an undisclosed sum. In a press release, the digicam big, which has suffered together with a lot of the imaging trade in recent times, stated RED will develop into a wholly-owned subsidiary, as found by The Verge. RED presently has about 220 workers, and no layoff plans have been made public in response to the sale.

RED was based in 2005 and has since had its cameras utilized in fashionable productions, together with Squid Recreation, Peaky Blinders and Captain Marvel — a market Nikon plans to broaden into with this acquisition. Nikon has withdrawn from less profitable areas of the digicam market in recent times, together with ending growth on new DSLRs

The transfer may gain advantage each events, as RED’s president Jarred Lang shared on Facebook: “This strategic partnership brings collectively Nikon’s in depth historical past and experience in product growth, know-how in picture processing, in addition to optical know-how and consumer interface with RED’s revolutionary digital cinema cameras and award-winning applied sciences.” RED’s 2018 attempt to expand on its own (into smartphones, no much less) did not final lengthy, and the merchandise quickly had been discontinued.

Curiously, RED sued its new proprietor in 2022, claiming that Nikon knowingly used RED’s patented knowledge compression know-how in its Z9 digicam. Nikon, in flip, argued the legitimacy of RED’s patents earlier than the 2 firms agreed to a dismissal.