Nikon d90 slr does video

I've been having fun with my dslr lately, so the announcement by Nikon that their D90 dslr would be capable of 5 minute clips of 720p video at 24fps caught my attention. Interesting to think about being able to have an interchangeable lens (at least above water) dslr/video combo. Limits are the 5 minute clips and the need to manual focus in the video mode.

Makes sense that it can do MJPEG since it has live view. Will be interesting to see the dynamic range of these sensors vs the smaller dedicated video sensors. 5 minutes doesn't seem much. Can't see why there's a limit on that considering 32GB cards are available now. The dual functionality does make for interesting times as stills and video merge. Red One was the first prototype.

I read that the 5 minute video limit is because of heat buildup in the sensor. It makes me wonder just how long it would need to cool before you can shoot another 5 minute clip, or even a still for that matter. The mic is mono, and I do not believe there is a jack for an external. Even so, high def video, interchangeable lenses and 12 mp stills in one smallish body has a lot going for it. Nikon upped the ante on Canon with this one. A friend recently returned from a trip and had put together a film from a little P and S that included sound and stills and it was impressive.

I think the future of photography is a HD video camera that will either do 12-15 megapixel stills or allow frame grabs of that resolution.

I think the future of photography is a HD video camera that will either do 12-15 megapixel stills or allow frame grabs of that resolution.

Or put another way a 12-15P still camera that shoots RAW quality video; for that matter why not 21MP or more. As Drew says, interesting times.

Isn't it funny how some scientist in 1895 or thereabout said that pretty much everything in science had been discovered.

When I was in college a fellow student, a very good one, said that all computer algorithms had already been "discovered". That was in the mid-80's. That kind of naivete is timeless.

If a camera could take 30 fps or faster, full resolution RAW video such that you could extract full quality stills, it would be a tremendous new tool for photography and would revolutionize photo-journalism. It would not replace still photography though. You can't do the same kind of lighting with full motion that you can with strobe without massive equipment.

I agree that these developments are exciting but I'm not sure adding video to a DSLR is more exciting to me than what RED is doing. They are making a real video camera out of still photography pieces. Both still have the problem of being largely manual shooters though.

Hey I spoke of the a couple months ago when the director was using his D300 for some timelapse to put into the shoot.

I don't know how long the little mirror thing would last opening and closing at 25 fps for.

Wags

In liveview mode, the mirror sits up and the feed is sampled at 720/24p. There is minimal wear on the shutter system. The interesting thing is whether it's global or rolling shutter. I've asked a few people in the 'dam to get a hands on report.

O I see....

It shoots 24p / mono sound and no AF.

They went 24p as it's the least amount of data for video I suppose.

24p is so limiting for pans, tilts, and zooms....it's an old USA Hollywood film spec...most displays cannot display 24p correctly anyhow.

If the Blu_Ray player is not connected to a HDTV that will play back 24p, it will run at 29.97.

It will be interesting to see how this is in a few years time though.

Here are some clips.

http://chsvimg.nikon.com/products/imaging/...d90/en/d-movie/

24fps is considered a curse by many modern filmmakers, especially action genres. The On Golden Pond crowd aren't as bothered.

Motion is just too fast for 24fps. The NBA all stars broadcast in 60fps is probably the catalyst to bring faster fps to the world. There is a movement toward 48fps as a standard now since most HDTV screens can handle that standard easily.

We'll see how it goes.

Here is a compiled clip from the D90 compressed to FLV. I really like the shallow DOF and the color looks gorgeous.

Yeh I've seen that one before.

Some others I watched have some really bad rolling shutter effects in it, not to good for pans.

They also say you can only shoot for 5 mins then have to let it cool down.

Iris flickers abit on moving shots too.

Just a gimmick at this stage I think, see what happens in the next few years.

30p-60p @ 1920/1080 maybe....

I got my hands on some raw 1280/720 24p from the camera now.

Dropped it straight into EDIUS which cuts up a piece of cake.

That 24p is useless for anything moving....it's such a old useless Hollywood format.

They will have to improve it allot before it beats my 1440/1080 50i HDV stuff here.

Anyhow good for some locked off shots and fun.

And what is this ghosting thing?

All this cross over between DSLR and video is interesting, but not as interesting to me as the talk of HDR sensors in the future. I'm not sure how well it would work in video, but for still shots it will be a different world when mfgs start coming out with cameras that can capture 10 or 12 EV's with one shot. The print side of HDR will lag behind (or maybe never get there) with these new technologies, but for output to screen or projection, it should be amazing and fun too!