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Adobe Premiere Pro will FINALLY support Nikon N-RAW by end of year

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Been yearning to edit N-RAW footage in Adobe Premiere Pro for years? Well, by the end of 2025 you’ll be able to do just that

Yellow and orange gradient with "N-RAW!" text above Nikon Z6 III, which is next to Adobe Premiere Pro logo, with a plus sign in the middle
If a lack of N-RAW support in Adobe Premiere Pro has been a big bear, the wait for support will soon be over (Image credit: Nikon / Adobe / Digital Camera World)

The ‘Big N’ has slipped out a snippet of news that you might have missed, what with the fanfare surrounding today’s big news that the Nikon Z5 II has arrived. But if you’re a Nikon videographer, the announcement that Adobe Premiere Pro will finally support the legendary manufacturer’s proprietary N-RAW video format will be the bigger revelation, with planned implementation by the end of this year.

N-RAW’s lack of support via the industry standard editing software has arguably held Nikon’s huge charge into the video sphere over the past few years back a bit, with users forced to use another codec or swap to compatible software such as DaVinci Resolve. And with Nikon’s latest top-tier cameras like the Nikon Z6 III, Nikon Z8, and Nikon Z9, boasting formidable video specs, it’s entirely possible that N-RAW’s compatibility issues have prevented some creatives from introducing these powerful cameras into their video setup.

N-RAW is a 12-bit RAW video codec (which supports Rec. 2020 color gamut) that’s designed to deliver high quality footage, while minimizing file sizes, it’ll deliver smaller file sizes than Nikon users’ other Raw option, Apple ProRes RAW, making it a useful format for videographers who require top-notch video footage and want to save more space. That said, any Raw video file is going to be big, so the vast majority of Nikon videographers will still stick with H.265 (HEVC) or 10-bit ProRes most of the time.

Still, this is a huge deal for Raw video shooters and following Nikon’s much-talked-about acquisition of RED, it’s yet another boost to the ‘Big N’s’ rep as a serious video contender. Nikon has made no secret that RED is the reason why Adobe Premiere Pro N-RAW support will exist, thanks to it gaining access to the cinema camera giant's R3D software development kit.

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Mike Harris
Mike Harris
How To Editor

Mike studied photography at college, honing his Adobe Photoshop skills and learning to work in the studio and darkroom. After a few years writing for various publications, he headed to the ‘Big Smoke’ to work on Wex Photo Video’s award-winning content team, before transitioning back to print as Technique Editor (later Deputy Editor) on N-Photo: The Nikon Magazine.

With bylines in Digital Camera, PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine, Practical Photography, Digital Photographer, iMore, and TechRadar, he’s a fountain of photography and consumer tech knowledge, making him a top tutor for techniques on cameras, lenses, tripods, filters, and more. His expertise extends to everything from portraits and landscapes to abstracts and architecture to wildlife and, yes, fast things going around race tracks...

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