D90 True Motion Pictures - One Opinion

[linear]

I don't care what the camera can do in the hand of advanced movie shooters.

I care what it can do in the hands of CASUAL movie shooters.

 

[Alex P. Schorsch]

I just figured out how you can record sound with an external mic on the D90. It works perfectly. It's a cool piece of equipment called a clapboard. Audiovisual technicians on a computer with digital audio shouldn't have a problem synchronizing with a good old clapboard and freeze frame.

 

[illy]

what you can do with it not what you can't do with it, the whole idea is positive in my book
--
http://illy.smugmug.com

 

[rbungay]

D90 users likely won't use dolly's, do post production audio, employ focus pullers and likely would want extended recording times. While the D90's limitations may not pose a problem if used in a movie making context, I think they will for the average user who is not a professional movie maker.

I also think the ergonomics of movie making with a DSLR are the D90's biggest limitation. I don't believe that movie cameras require the user to support part of the weight of the camera with the same hand that they focus with. Pecise focusing will be an issue for the D90, I think. Not to say that perfect focus is always need in moving making but the user will want a certain precision to reflect his/her creative vision.

Just my opinion- I think the D90 is a winner and I would love to have one, but for my taste, I would have preferred it if Nikon had put the R&D money in an articulating HD LCD - which would have been great for macro work.

 

[joepix]

I've shot a few hundred medium budget TV spots, and most of them were MOS (no live sound). Few shots were longer then 10 seconds. And focus was set for most shots before the film or tape rolled.

I'm sure if the image quality of this camera is good enough, it will be used for all types of video clips. And, if that's the case, some enterprising company will make a focus-puller device that will adapt to Nikon lenses.

I would much rather have control over the focus points in a moving image then rely on any autofocus. Especially since the larger chip size cuts DOF and allows for creative use of focus- something that is difficult or impossible with the tiny chips in low budget camcorders.

And this is Vs 1.0. What's next? Maybe a full-fledged Nikon camcorder that also takes stills?

 

[Don Andre]

The dpreview crybabies, it's always the same.... extreme whining and complaining before even being able to have a look at it. I thank you that you take a different approach, but nevertheless we should keep the discussion real. Motion pictures is ONE topic and it's hard to do even with real equipment since you require script, people, scenes, acing, probably lighting and quite a lot of post processing (much more than photos usually). There is so much more that you can do with short videos and why not just be happy having a camera that can do it, than one that cannot.

Usually one first explores and exploits a feature and then complains about its limitations than having just heard of it and starting to cry. Some people here need to take a break seriously.

--
http://donandre.ipernity.com

 

[aceattorney]

But as for a great 5.5 minute continuous shot in modern cinema, check out Atonement.

--
My Hummingbirds!
---> http://www.hummingbirdaddicts.tk

Dragonfly Eating a FLY!
---> http://ImageEvent.com/aceattorney/dragonflyenjoyingmeal

 

[Pooey]

When I read whiny stuff from the uninformed I wish that someone would set them straight in an authoritative yet respectful manner.

You did a very good job.

--
Alan

 

[Luke Kaven]

Films routinely use quality sound recording equipment and the sound
is then sync'ed to the motion in post-production/editing.

Again, this misses the point a bit. If you have the money to do true
syncing with separate equipment, you'll just buy or rent a Red. Why?
Well, because the sync slate alone costs more than the D90. Your
overall budget is already well outside the consumer DSLR scene.

It would be nice to be able to film a complete musical performance, even a ten minute performance, without interruption. We'll have to wait a generation for that.

You can bet that Albert Maysles and his associates are keenly interested in the technology, but the five minute limitation requires some reckoning. Even when Albert shoots in 16mm, he still gets close to 20 minutes a reel. So the D90 would cramp the cinema verite style a bit, though with more than one shooter it might work. BTW, I don't recall seeing his associates use slates for sound sync when they worked with me filming musical performances. They are used to working off sound/visual cues from the material.

Thom, do you happen to know what the duty cycle is? After shooting a five minute clip, how long do you have to wait to shoot another five minute clip?

Luke

 

[tinrobot]

Exactly the whole "manual focus is the real thing" argument is
completely bogus. This is a consumer small camera that is not
intended to be operated by a team of two people.

Doesn't matter what it's intended for, I'm sure some enterprising groups of people will do exactly that. The vast majority of people won't bother to pull focus, but those people aren't serious about shooting motion pictures. If someone is serious enough, they will find a way to pull focus, and it will pay off in stunning images.

Argument like "there's no need for mic input" are also bogus, as the
sound is not intended to be recorded on a different device and
WITHOUT TIME CODE.

Again, it doesn't matter who decides what the intention is or isn't. Serious people are going to find a way.

Lack of time code is why someone invented the clapper 80 years ago -- so people could sync sound to picture manually. And unlike unstable analog recordings, with digital technology, the speeds are rock solid, so once you sync that first frame, you're gold.

Finally, I don't care if 720p is marketed as HD. Real HD is Full HD.

It's about the same as the difference between 6MP and 10MP, only the pixel peepers will notice. In other words, it's good enough.

...and you know the next generation of cameras will be even better. This is just the start.

 

[tko]

In the old day, exotic sports cars didn't have automatic transmissions, air conditioning or stereos. That's not a very good argument to explain why a Honda shouldn't have them.

My car doesn't have A/C, so it's an Italian racer : ) I don't see the logic here. You're going to mount your D90 on a dolly w/a focus pulller? Is that really how you think it's going to be used?

The D90 isn't an exotic video camera. I fail to see why YouTube Videos wouldn't be improved by just a $500 (or even $300) dedicated video camera. If people aren't buying at $300 video camera, why would they buy a D90 to take better videos? Since people aren't using focus marks and dolly pullers, you're going to see a lot of blurry, shaky videos. But I agree with you - it's a blessing they will be short.

It's real easy to buy a 3 CCD HD pro level camcorder. You can already buy tiny ones that record to either a disk or removable media. What advantage does the D90 offer over them?

Really, is the D90 going to match a nice little HD camcorder in quality and features?

 

[lorteti]

The lack of time code is a big problem in real world shooting. Today’s indie film making usually shoot more than 50 shots a day. I don’t think the editor will be happy to sync all these shots manually, it will take ages.

The best solution is to add an external unit that function as a storage media that also record sound simultaneously in one AVI file.

The difference between 720p and 1080p is not 6mp vs. 10mp. It is much closer to 6mp vs. 14mp. And that difference is big enough to consider. Especially when the movie will be projected on 200 inch screen or bigger.

But give it a break, this the first try from Nikon. And I’m very happy to see it happen. Let hope the next generation DSLR’s will fix it all.

jx

 

[DA98]

If there is no TC available, you can use the mono recording of the D90 as a reference track, and by comparing the waveforms of the two sources, put them in sync visually. It's something I did all the time while working in postproduction ten years ago with the old Soundscape DAW. It was easier and a lot faster than the alternative method.

Heck, I spent so many hours looking at waveforms that at one point I was able to guess some words just by seeing their waveform... just like lipreading!

--
Space for rent.

 

[PerL]

If there is no TC available, you can use the mono recording of the
D90 as a reference track, and by comparing the waveforms of the two
sources, put them in sync visually. It's something I did all the time
while working in postproduction ten years ago with the old Soundscape
DAW. It was easier and a lot faster than the alternative method.

Heck, I spent so many hours looking at waveforms that at one point I
was able to guess some words just by seeing their waveform... just
like lipreading!

--
Space for rent.

Should be no problems in a simple application like Garageband or maybe you can do it directly in iMovie or similar applications for PC.
--
http://bonusphotography.wordpress.com/

 

[cacophony]

The point is that the huge sensor, high quality interchangeable optics, and low noise at high ISO will give you substantially better 720p image quality than you could possibly achieve from a consumer camcorder. You'll also get much more professional looking results because of the DOF control.

Yes, it will be more work than using a camcorder, but the reward will be tremendous.

If you just care about convenience at the expense of image quality why don't you use a P&S? Why wouldn't video equipment benefit in the same way as photo equipment from huge sensors, quality optics and low noise?

 

[linear]

Consumers don't want bad audio, but they also don't want the hassle and cost of additional devices and postprocessing, when it would be so much easier to just stick a nice microphone in the hotshoe if the camera were well thought out and had a mic connector.

 

[linear]

It's not about saving money, it's about the hassle for a person to have to deal with two cameras at the same time.

 

[PerL]

Consumers don't want bad audio, but they also don't want the hassle
and cost of additional devices and postprocessing, when it would be
so much easier to just stick a nice microphone in the hotshoe if the
camera were well thought out and had a mic connector.

It would be more convinient, but there are obviously work arounds.
--
http://bonusphotography.wordpress.com/

 

[Bob Jameson]

It's real easy to buy a 3 CCD HD pro level camcorder. You can already
buy tiny ones that record to either a disk or removable media. What
advantage does the D90 offer over them?

Really, is the D90 going to match a nice little HD camcorder in
quality and features?

Of course not, but there are unique features of the D90 that you can't get from a $5,000 camcorder - the amount of depth of field and changeable lenses. That's all. It's not a one for all solution. It can be great for shorts and advertisement (just like how Nikon is using this in their ad for the D90). Nothing else.

 

[linear]

I don't have 4 hands for holding the camera, zooming, focusing, and pointing a microphone.