Could it finaly be true??

I have friend that is a professional videographer. He gives me a hard time about my "little" cameras (HC1, HV20 & 40, D90). He does like my shorts and other projects I've done but he doesn't like the quality of the images and lack of standard video features on the cameras (he uses a CineAlta all the time). So I fire back and tell him to give me the "Money". I like the D90 the best, it's just fun to use plus it's tapeless. A firmware update would be great but I keep trying to make things with it as is.

I don't believe my cameras will keep me from creating "video art" for the web. But I also want to go beyond the web and that's where I'm not sure about my equipment. My friend harps that "you can't waste time when you got people waiting around" with these non-standard cameras. Nevertheless I keep moving forward with what I have.
 
hepabst, you are correct in thinking that your video art will not be restricted by your equipment. As I'm sure you know, some of the greatest film makers used and loved 8mm and 16mm equipment at a time when this equipment was denigrated or regarded as a family memory device. One of the greatest films of all time consists of stills except for one brief moment, and I'm sure you know this film also.

The first great dslr film is yet to be made. But it will come from someone somewhere soon. Your friend is also correct - some people won't wait around. But who are these people? They're not the ones who saw that film composed of still images. They're not the ones who will recognise the great dslr film. So who is your audience? And is it really about image quality for your friend? A good 35mm film camera buries his CineAlta so deep no light would penetrate. Does your friend dismiss Anger, Jarman and others because the image quality isn't there?

You might die poor, but the equipment you now have will do the job if art is your aim. Besides, sound is at least three times more important as image.

If commerce is your aim, then that's a whole other set of considerations.
 
hepabst said:
I don't believe my cameras will keep me from creating "video art" for the web. But I also want to go beyond the web and that's where I'm not sure about my equipment. My friend harps that "you can't waste time when you got people waiting around" with these non-standard cameras. Nevertheless I keep moving forward with what I have.
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As you should (keep moving forward).
Sometimes, besides technical gadgetry (and this coming from a gadget freak), the only thing you need is the one that makes you feel good, confident, creative, maybe for no other reason than shallow DOF or color response. The Nikon look does that for me. (D90, I am hoping to jump to D3s when I have the cash, since I need two).
My DOP was very sceptical at first, giving me a hard time as well. We have worked together with various equipment, from DV to HD, and almost all makes of hardware. After one day's shoot with the D90, he is a convert. Maybe he is as crazy as me, to pursue a project with thousands of Euros at stake not with a "Pro" imaging system, but a low-grade, DSLR one.
Then again, it's not what you have, but what you do with it. And if you feel good doing it as well.
Keep up the good work.
 
I've been playing with my D90 for a couple weeks now. Much as I'd like manual ISO and shutter, using older manual lenses really isn't killing me. Heck, I can key the D90 footage far far better than DV, and rezzing it down to SD can be gorgeous. I have plenty of lights, and if you follow the "trick it into manual-ish" steps, all you need is plenty of light to kill the grain.

I'd MUCH prefer to see better compression from the thing, now that we have solutions to stairstepping and some decent manual tricks. And AF in liveview.

The D90 has made me rethink future purchases to the point that wireless follow focus is seeming like a really handy thing. Then again, that's a lot of cash, and I do believe we'll have the Scarlet this summer, which for under $5k looks simply amazing - and with the included redmote, focus looks pretty slick.

Best thing you can do for your D90? Get on eBay and get some non-cpu AI lenses. Nikon series E, older Vivitar primes, etc. The better aftermarket lenses from back-in-the-day have all the sharpness you need considering the compression, they give better f-stop control, and the focus tens to be far better damped than AF lenses.
 
Michael Carter said:
Then again, that's a lot of cash, and I do believe we'll have the Scarlet this summer, which for under $5k looks simply amazing - and with the included redmote, focus looks pretty slick.
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Hmmm correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't the Scarlet's ruff schedule delayed to possibly the following summer at least ? Also isn't it going to be well above 5k?

not sure ... but that wait could be quite a bit longer then expected.
 
Visit this thread on Red user and scroll down a bit.

Scarlet fixed-lens version predicted at $4750. Expected release may-june 2010.

Massive changes since the announcement a year ago. Fixed lens will include 8x Red zoom, remote, battery pack, heated EVF, etc. It's a 3K camera. Focus manually, AF, or by touch screen on the lcd.

Supposedly Red is hiring over a thousand people for manufacturing. The release was delayed some time due to (a) advances they made in RedCode compression, and (b) a total revamp of the design & feature set. They've seriously upped the ante since it was first described, a year or more ago. They're describing the lens as stellar.

As with all-things-Red, change is normal. They sound pretty serious though, and this week stated that manufacturing/machining is running, and they expect to have good stock quantities upon release.

Me, I have some bills to pay by summer...
 
If Nikon does the firmware upgrade on any of the DSLRs giving full manual control... I'll get one (3Ds not included...)
 
Overall it looks like Nikon's not interested in the firmware. Also, keep in mind that D90 video is really an afterthought - since they had an HDMI capable feed going to LiveView, someone said "why not be able to burn it to the card as well". And since its the Live View feed, it's optimized for what the LCD needs. My guess is that Canon's implementation happened to be easier to add controls to, and that for Nikon it's a major hurdle. Again, it's that the implementation wasn't really designed for pro video needs.

Scarlet, on the other hand, is a 3K video camera that supposedly has first-class still imaging designed in from the start. If their claims are true, you'd supposedly need just one camera for both uses. I haven't even glanced at their still specs though. If Scarlet finally happens - and it really looks like we'll be able to buy 'em by summertime - it's looks like a real game changer, possibly a moment-in-time that will be discussed by film scholars ten years from now. Maybe that sounds like red-hype, but read the specs for the damn thing and tell me if that sort of democratization of tech could lead to another "golden age" of cinema (and yes, an ass load of crappy zombie flicks with terrible acting, lighting and sound), the same way home recording led to the amazing array and quality of indie music right now (which you need web radio and Paste magazine to find, sadly). (Though Dallas just got an NPR affiliate "indie" radio station - hallelujah!)
 
Manual shutter control is not really a pro video need, just numbers tapped on some keypad in their factory and put all together into menu.I will never believe that its soooo complicated to use current video shutter speeds available in nikon cams but give manual control to switch between them and lock them when you want to.
 
Well the Nikon team aren't the smartest of bunch, and their reasoning is lazy and rubbish for the most part....


Nikon Support said:
The frequency of the electrical grid in Europe is 50Hz. While this is not normally visible to the human eye, all mains-powered lights (particularly fluorescent ones) do flicker at this very frequency (50 cycles every second).

Now, when you overlap the 24fps speed of the D90 video with the 50Hz flicker of the lights, as 50 is not an exact multiple of 24, it causes interference that to a smaller or greater degree manifests itself as you can see in the sample clip that you have attached. It is a natural occurrence and one of the artifacts that can not be avoided without either compromising the camera's functionality and the video quality, or unreasonably increasing the price of the camera itself. We believe that the benefits of the 24fps video functionality greatly exceed the minor drawback that come with it.

For your information, adjusting the ISO and the shutter speed (actually exposure time) would not remove the flicker as it is not related to those parameters. Increasing the exposure time could slightly reduce it, essentially by the effect of motion blur - however this would have also affected every moving object in your videos. For your information, there is no D90 firmware update announced or planned.
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I corrected them, obviously, but they see no problem with having auto control and they don't care or really know anything about exposure time and frequency of electrical grids, as well as being oblivious to what competitor video DSLRs and actual camcorders are capable of.

My suggestion is to just bombard them with questions and demand answers until R&D get enough complaints ;)
 
Nikon wants to force people to buy into the next iteration.
Do they ever release updates with new features other than bug fixes?
 
Seeing how they out sell Canon I'd say they are know what they are doing a good job. It looks like they put manual controls on the D3s and probably they next cameras will do the same.

BandanaDan said:
Well the Nikon team aren't the smartest of bunch, and their reasoning

is lazy and rubbish for the most part....




I corrected them, obviously, but they see no problem with having auto control and they don't care or really know anything about exposure time and frequency of electrical grids, as well as being oblivious to what competitor video DSLRs and actual camcorders are capable of.

My suggestion is to just bombard them with questions and demand answers until R&D get enough complaints ;)
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Zim said:
Seeing how they out sell Canon I'd say they are know what they are doing a good job.
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Exactly!

The bottom line for Nikon and most companies currently is sales, and as far as that goes they are doing quite well. There are enough people out there that don't know what manual control is, care or even want video yet and this has not shown in the sales yet. It will eventually and the companies who have video divisions will understand what is a stake here will show major gains. Nikon is just barely ahead of Canon in the 2009 market sales of DSLR's so it won't take much to drop.

again the masses want auto focus, stabilization and 60 minute recording time way ahead of 1080p, a great codec and manual control. Nikon as a new comer to video is going to deliver what the masses want...
 
I agree, I actually would rather not have 1080p. Full manual control, a better codec and improved Jello is all that I want really. I don't really care for auto focus, if it's there great but it would never be a deal breaker for me.
 
I agree with you.

zergtherobot said:
I agree, I actually would rather not have 1080p. Full manual control, a better codec and improved Jello is all that I want really. I don't really care for auto focus, if it's there great but it would never be a deal breaker for me.
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