D90 footage looks horrible...

Rylan Zolinski

Rylan Zolinski

Well-known member
And I don't know why... It looks as if it's compressing itself? I tried numerous tests and it all comes out looking the same no matter what the settings are. I even tried importing it into Premiere and then exporting it and that did nothing as well. Any idea on why it would look like this?

Edit- I am uploading footage right now to show you what I mean...

http://vimeo.com/18735691

P.S, excuse my cousin, haha! It's sort of hard to tell from this footage alone, but when you go to the fullscreen mode, it looks all pixelated and that's how the average footage looks when I dump them from the card.
 
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I own a D90 as well. It's horrible. There are threads on here that show how you can get rid of some of the skipped lines that are every 8 or 9 lines, but I stopped using it when I got it. I'd rather shoot nothing than shoot on the D90. Sell it and get a used t2i or GH1. Either of these are WORLDS better. (Even an unhacked GH1).
 
I'm somewhat amazed that you've got 555 posts & you didn't pick up on the fact that the D90 doesn't cut it for video.
 
why so picky? beautiful pictures aren't limited by such things, neither are great stories. i've made a feature with the d90 that's currently getting international acclaim, especially for the cinematography. I'd rather shoot vhs than nothing. in fact o sometimes do, even though i actually record to dv. anyway, high resolution and such can definitely be important for some types of work and i agree it's weird that you haven't heard about the problems.
 
I've shot Nikon for stills since the 80's, still use the D90 as my main stills cam, but the T2i has taken over for video.

But... I shot a concert with the D90 and there's something just punchy and cool about the color and contrast... it's capable of some pretty footage, once you mess with all the manual tricks (and I think a bit of luck comes into play). Count me as one of the disappointed when the D7000's video upgrade was so meager.

But there is a free stairstepping removal plugin for FCP that works pretty well, that's a god start.
 
I'd rather shoot nothing than shoot on the D90. Exposure control was such a pain in the neck, and the stair-stepping, given I do VFX work on my films as well, I figured if I waited for a better camera, it would take less time than trying to fix those broken shots. I didn't spent 2 years putting together a screenplay that I really like just to be disappointed with visual issues that I feel detract from the story. For me, it was better to wait another year and get a camera that I was happy with the results.

You can probably sell the D90 for a decent amount as it does take beautiful pictures. I would without question shoot on a t2i before a D90 any day of the week. No, it's not perfect, but all things considered, if you shot at 1080p and then still wanted 720p, the downsampled image will be SUPERIOR to the D90 footage.

Sure, story is important, but if I want my material to be taken seriously, I need to at least hit a certain level of quality. Sure, only you can decide what is good enough for you, but when someone watches my material, I don't want them saying "Why is the image so blocky" and not paying attention to the story.
 
The d90 movie side was more of an experiment for Nikon. I still use mine for stills every single day of the week. I am ready for the d7000. Hopefully for both stills and video this time.
 
Not arguin' with you guys, I've done national broadcast spots with the T2i. It's shockingly good for the $$. But no, not selling the D90 anytime soon, kicks canon's butt for useability on stills.

John, are ya sure you want the D7000 for video though? Doesn't seem to be worth it feature-wise compared to the Canon bodies. I shoot a lot of 720p 60 for slowmo.... and having 1080 for after effects work is pretty handy.
 
Do you have a link to the national spot?
Michael Carter said:
Not arguin' with you guys, I've done national broadcast spots with the T2i. It's shockingly good for the $$. But no, not selling the D90 anytime soon, kicks canon's butt for useability on stills.

John, are ya sure you want the D7000 for video though? Doesn't seem to be worth it feature-wise compared to the Canon bodies. I shoot a lot of 720p 60 for slowmo.... and having 1080 for after effects work is pretty handy.
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Check some of the stills on my IMDB page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3424447/

All of the movie stills posted are from D90-based films I've made. I'm looking into getting some use out of my 5D Mark II for video work but I've mostly used it for stills and 3D animation texture gathering. Just look at it this way, it's better than SD footage, not quite as clear as 1080p cameras, but it's still much more cinematic-looking than a consumer handycam with 24p. My experience went like this: Canon GL1 --> DVX100(school's) --> Canon HV20 --> Nikon D90 --> 5D Mark II. We've come a long way with camera tech, the D90 is finicky but it can do so much, if you need more, like everybody said, a T2i or D7000 may be a better fit and that's cool, whatever works best.
 
I agree, I like the stills out of my D90 much more than the 7D. The other problem with the D90 is the horrible rolling shutter. It really limits what you can do. Work rolling shutter I have experienced yet.
 
I have no idea why people are even discussing the D90 as a video camera at this point when there are great choices out there. The D90 discussion is about what 2 years old?
 
Just want to make sure that anyone buying a D90 knows it is GREAT for stills and HORRIBLE for video. At the time I bought it, I didn't research well enough and was very disappointed. They are still sold commercially so they are still a valid discussion :)
 
ethan cooper said:
mattsand - sharpness isn't my quibble with the d90 it's the chunky blocky artifacting.
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sure, that's why i wrote resolution and such. it doesn't change my point, which is you can always do something with what you have. when we did the feature it was the only 24p dslr available, then since i have it i use it. would i chose the d90 now? hell no.
 
Zim said:
Do you have a link to the national spot?
Click to expand...

Here's one that's just compressed all to hell - this aired on comedy central and something like IFC or oxygen, not sure, didn't do the buy. Delivered it 720p.

This was shot literally the morning after I unpacked the box - one shot (guy in doorway) was with a DVX, kids running was older stuff shot on a sony - and several stock footage shots. Everything with product in it or specific to the script was the T2i (pills, sugar, etc). Shoot to delivery was like 4 days, insane project. (that's my darling wife hating on tiny energy shots BTW, 2nd shot... she's a good sport when I'm in a rush and she has great hair for green screen tests. Funny to have a yoga teacher doing a caffiene ad...)

I wrote the music for this one too, that's kind of my favorite part of all this. The "Strike" plugin for ProTools was a life changer for me, awesome way to write drum parts, truly groundbreaking piece of software.
 
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