Rumored nikon d90 buffer upgrade

the mathematician (lack there of) in me can't figure out if the expanded buffer will give the limited cpu power the ability to make 1080 a reality.. we shall soon find out. and like somebody else commented on nikonrumours, the upgrade will cost $$$.....
 
It would be great if it was true, but I doubt it. How would a buffer help? Maybe there is a sub board or something that could be replaced, but I doubt it at that price.

Still hopefully soon we will have something, if not for the D90, then another DSLR with video (D3x, D4, Scarlet, D400, etc).
 
Does it even use a buffer? It's not like the 21 fps buffershooting from the pentax K20. The bitrate is so low, so you don't need the fastest SD cards. The 5 min. cap is because of tax problems I think.
And what do i care for 1080p, I want the liveview to show the real image, after setting the manual controls...
 
while i don't believe a word of this why would 1080p suck? i assume that they would actually sample more lines and not just scale up the 720p image, so how could it not be better? you mean because of the compression that would have to be even higher? i frankly don't think that's the biggest issue when it comes to d90 quality. take a still, downsample it to 1280x720, and compress to the same frame size and it looks so much better than a video frame.

/matt
 
It's interesting that the D90 can output 1080 (1920 x 1080) in HDMI. Page 203 in D90 manual.

D90 firmware 1.0
[1] 1280 x 720 @ 24fps
[2] 4000 x 3000 12 mb @ 4.5fps

1920 x 1080 @ 24fps (IMHO) may be possible. The only question is how it will look!

Maybe Nikon planed ahead and left enough headroom to capture image to a fast SD card.
http://web.forret.com/tools/megapixel.asp?width=1920&height=1080

Either way, D90 is still a great little camera and will push the market forward.
 
BMFM FILMS said:
I call bullshi*, but I'm hopeful that it's true.
Click to expand...

Agree,
but I hope since Nikon was first in this Game;
they hopefully aimed lower with the D90 then what its tech could produce,
and hope to ad 1080p on the next house/ model to earn more.
But when they saw what hype etc the 5DII got they might want to show they can too...
or we have to wait until the next one. The jello is more important maybe.
Nikkors for sure feels the right way to go.

mrmoe said:
Either way, D90 is still a great little camera and will push the market forward.
Click to expand...

Agree
Interesting times with a very nice start after all.

/ C
 
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utako.o said:
the mathematician (lack there of) in me can't figure out if the expanded buffer will give the limited cpu power the ability to make 1080 a reality.. we shall soon find out. and like somebody else commented on nikonrumours, the upgrade will cost $$$.....
Click to expand...

We know that the processor, and all related systems, can process 12MP frames down to 720p frames (plus other image adjustments such as the Jpeg encoding) at a maximum of 24fps with a buffed sized at x, after which the additional processing time would result in dropped frames. There is 2.25 increase in resolution in a 1080p frame compared to a 720p frame (1920x1080)/(1280x720). It would therefore stand to reason that processing time scales linearly with amount of data to be processed and that an increase in buffer size should, in our case roughly along the lines of 2.25x, allow for the same processor to handle the increased data without dropping frames.

Nitemare said:
Does it even use a buffer? It's not like the 21 fps buffershooting from the pentax K20. The bitrate is so low, so you don't need the fastest SD cards. The 5 min. cap is because of tax problems I think.
And what do i care for 1080p, I want the liveview to show the real image, after setting the manual controls...
Click to expand...

The camera most definately uses a buffer to store the images it pulls of the chip while it processes and writes it to flash. The difference between the K20 and the D90's shutters lies in that one is mechanical while the other is electronic.

Edited for grammar and clarity.
 
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Damn, I would rather have the pal 50hz lighting fix, stair stepping fix or better compression algorithm than 1080p :|
 
Uhm... alright, for once I'm saying this is probably true. Who would make up a random rumor about a D90 like this? The little niche of people who CARE about the image quality is likely a good 4% of people who own the camera. Everyone else is plum plain-out happy with the "HD" from the d90 and are probably unaware of how truly crappy the 720 is. Not only that, it's quite the rumor considering it's also talking about Microphone upgrades and not just the 1080P

I think it's probably accurate. If it's not, oh well, no harm no foul but if it is then that's pretty sick. Perhaps a lot more updates will come in the future.

Then again... 30$? Hmm

December 1st, aye?
 
I would like to know the technicalities involved, like how much can the processor/memory/buffer handle? I'm willing to pay for a firmware upgrade if they can tap into the power.

Then again, I have a feeling Nikon makes a Mark II competitor in that price range.

I'm not gonna complain though, I intended on buying a D-SLR, this 720p movie mode is icing on the cake.
 
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