Now that Nikon have announced the addition of in camera grain for their Nikon ZF cameras (and possibly others) I thought I would share some thoughts on what I feel about the ability to add grain to your images in your recipes.
Nikon ZF implementation
Nikon are adding a quite robust system for the addition of grain to your photos. From the latest announcement, they will be adding.
• Three sizes of grain.
• Six levels of intensity of that grain.
• Film inspired aesthetic.
The update will be coming to Nikon cameras in 2025, so I should imagine, they will release it with the newly announced silver Nikon ZF which is due for release soon.
Digital grain in camera, what is it?
As the name suggests, it is the addition of film like grain into your digital images. Fujifilm cameras have had this feature for years, and I’m sure that other manufacturers might have added it on the past.
The grain effect is embedded into the cameras jpeg output, and your images will have that retro, film like look to them.
Well, that’s the theory.
My thoughts on embedded grain in jpegs?
It may come as a shock, but in my years of delivering custom film simulations to Fujifilm cameras, for my personal use I ALWAYS turned film grain off.
The thought of capturing an image, and having digitally recreated grain really does not strike me as a an option that I like to use. Once that image is taken, you simply can’t remove that digital grain without losing data, and for me, if I want grain in my image, it makes far more sense to just add it in post (then I’ll have a clean copy and a grain copy of my images).
However, I have yet to use or see Nikons grain implementation in action yet. It may be implemented in a way that works better than Fujifilm’s… And then again… It might not.
Conclusion
It is great that Nikon are adding a grain feature to their Nikon ZF, and I am sure that many people will use it. For me, I’ll leave that decision until I see how Nikon have handled it’s implementation.
I can see it being useful for the black and white options on the ZF. Grain just works in black and white. However, getting the grain right on colour images can be more tricky, so only time will tell!
Which is your preferred method? In camera grain or adding it in post?
One Camera One Lens Photography 
Well Mark, same here – I’m not really a fan of applying this in-camera. For people who never shoot RAW it’s not the smartest move I think, since you’ve got nothing to fall back on. Camera grain has been around for a while though, and it was Olympus back in 2008 that pioneered film simulation and grain on DSLRs – Fuji only jumped in a year later with film simulation on mirrorless, minus the added grain. If someone insists on doing it with JPEG only, I’d say better handle that in post. If you’re shooting RAW, it doesn’t matter anyway. Color toning to create a certain mood is one thing, but adding grain? That’s more of an art form I think – so yeah, to each their own 🙂 Great and interesting article! All the best, Marc.
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