Going to Australia, just bought a Nikon D3S...questions

R

rugbym8t

Member
So I am taking a trip to australia for fun, and I wanted to take a cam with me to document the fun. I currently own a RED ONE (too big and a pain to carry light), HVX200 (about to be sold) and a Sony EX1 (solid option, but what about stills). So with that in mind, I just pulled the trigger on the 3DS. I have a bunch of lens from my RED, so covered there. But wanted to see if there was a good place to learn about this cam's video abilities? Tips? What does the workflow look like? Please no flames...

Sorry for the barrage of questions, and yes I bought on impulse, but work with me guys.
 
Last edited:
Hi,
d3s is quite great camera for every kind of use.

- It has full manual mode for video recording so i recommend use only manual mode for video.

- I recommend use another bigger LCD for video. Its hard to keep focus where you want.

- Also recommend another battery pack or 2. With using liveview its only for a few hour.

- Only disadvantage is the video compression. If you do some postproduction like color grading you will see some noise and quantitization. But there's a option using color curve inside nikon.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG#Quantization
 
Take plenty of media cards. Not sure what it uses. Compactflash? Maybe a monopod. Take the camera manual with you since you just got the camera. Extra battery. Take lots of pictures and video.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I am looking for a simple answer. what is the MB/s of the 720p video stream? On mac, are folks just taking that and converting to Pro Res for editing and such? I have a couple of weeks to master before the trip.
 
Bitrate is about 35MB/s. I'm not a MAC user but i'm using default codec MJPEG for editing also. Its just better than converting and loose quality.
 
you mean bits, or 3.5 megabytes, right? and i'm still surprised since the codec and matrix are the same as on the d90 which produces 1-2 MB/s. the d3s produces a slightly sharper image so it should be slightly higher but not by much.
 
I have been shooting video with the 3Ds for about a month and am really happy with the results. The one thing I have found to make life a bit easier is that I need to convert to ProRes before cutting. I tried cutting with the native .avi and for simple cuts it was Ok. Once I started layering things, adding effects FCP just did not like it.

I was surprised at how little storage you need for the video, but it does eat up the batteries pretty quick. If you can not charge where you are you are going to want a minimum of three.
 
I can cut the D3s MJPEG AVI using Premiere CS4 without any conversion needed. Just install the right CODEC and there you go.
 
I also cut the AVIs directly if FCP. But when you start a new sequence you'll need to set the sequence settings. Only a few codecs get realtime playback without render on my MacPro.

Frame Size 1280x720 (720p 16:9)
Aspect Ration: Square
Editing Time Base: 24
Compressor:
- Apple Pro Res
- Apple Intermediate

But like PB said, more then a few layers or filters then you'll need to render and I guess the speed of you computer is the biggest factor... the files are so much smaller then RC28 or RC36... its great copying the movies from a CF reader ; super fast... and converts to ProRes are much faster the H264. I use my Red CF cards in the D3s but I format then with the D3s first.
 
Oh you can cut in the native format no problem. But after a few projects I learned the hard way that it just was not as stable as what I am used to. If you have the time, and lets face it storage is cheap now, it just makes your life a whole lot easier in the long run. Plus I found color correction in ProRes is much cleaner than the .avi format.
 
All true... if I'm working on a big project converting to ProRes is the ticket. Plus the conversion is so fast, compressor cuts right through it.

But it nice for small projects to edit native and keep file size low. Plus if you set your sequence preset to ProRes any time you render or export the final movie the scratch file is converted to ProRes.
 
After converting avi into ProRes and editing in FCP, what the best format for exporting?
Sorry about this question. I'm just getting familiar with video feature in my D3s.

Thanks in advance!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top