Vincent Versace’s First Scenes with the Nikon ZR Cinema Camera

Vincent Versace, renowned Nikon Ambassador and celebrated Hollywood photographer, has spent decades capturing the making of motion pictures. By first making them himself, as a student at USC film school, he gained a love of cinema that would follow him for a lifetime, fueling a storied career as a distinctly cinematic photographer. 

Since the day he started photographing, Vincent gravitated to Nikon cameras as his tools of choice, encouraged by his father and a family collection of classic Nikon film cameras. Now, with the release of Nikon’s first cinema camera, the ZR, Vincent is rekindling an old passion for filmmaking, blending two familiar worlds: Nikon and cinema. 

Vincent carved out time to create a short film using the ZR while preparing for an upcoming solo exhibition at Cuba’s National Museum of Fine Art that will showcase photographs from his career. 

The four-minute film explores a man’s memory of a departed lover, a ballerina, in a dreamlike black and white sequence. To achieve the ethereal look as he envisioned it, Vincent had the ZR professionally converted for infrared capture (fully aware that doing so would void his Nikon warranty.) The result is a stunning piece of cinematography, crafted with the eye and expertise of a visual storyteller who has spent the majority of his career photographing actors and film sets.

His approach to making the film was as spontaneous as it was bold. He learned the camera’s inner workings over dinner the night before shooting. Then, equipped with the ZR, his trusted collection of NIKKOR lenses, a bit of available light, and the camera’s onboard microphone, he set out to test the camera, shooting the entire film in just two hours.

“The ZR allowed me to be creative in a way that I hadn’t been in decades,” says Vincent. “The speed, the ease of use, the iteration it provides, to be able to shoot this film in two hours and have it edited in six, it just lets you make films that much quicker.”

For Vincent, the ZR represents a seismic shift in expanding accessibility. “Back when I started, everything about filmmaking and photography was incredibly expensive. Creating your first kit was tough. But this changes things. I was never this excited about filming as I am now. It’s all coming back.”

For a photographer who has spent decades mastering still imagery, Nikon’s first cinema camera has reignited a passion for motion pictures, and perhaps, signals a new era for those who, like Vincent, see it as an avenue into filmmaking.

“Take this from someone who spends a lot of time on film sets,” says Vincent, “the Nikon ZR is the perfect tool to start making films [with]. It offers pro-level technology at an entry-level price, and it’s really anything but entry-level in its capabilities.”

During his next trip to unveil the exhibition of his photographs, Vincent plans to continue shooting additional insert shots with the ZR, adding to the existing short film.

“This is going to allow people to become filmmakers who ordinarily would not have been able to make a film,” Vincent predicts. “It is already democratizing creativity.”