How to solve overheating on D90 to shoot a wedding?

T

Tesa

New member
Hi, I'm Tesa and I'm new here :)

I wanted to know your opinion about this: I'm getting interested in shooting weddings and I have a Nikon D90. But the shootings I've done (like shooting a live band) have result in overheating too soon. I wouldn't know exactly how much time, but let's say about an 30 recorded minutes and an hour of having the live view On (active). So the camera asks me to stop recording and shows a countdown and turns off, you know... and if you wait some minutes you can shoot again but it will overheat again in a few minutes... so as far as I see this makes it impossible to shoot a wedding with a D90 (at least just with one, and with two, all would have to be very well orquestated)

What do you think? I see pople that have shot weddings on the D90, how do they solve this issue? Or they necessary have 2 or 3 cameras?

Thanks a LOT!

Tesa
 
i don't know the d90 very well personally but i know i used to shoot weddings with my t2i and dealt with a lot of overheating there. The things i found that helped the most were first to get a battery grip or an external power supply. The batteries tend to get hot and hold a lot of heat when shooting in live view for a long time. The next thing that helped more was to use an external monitor. This turned off the internal one and saved a bit of heat there. Finally when i would still overheat I was able to swap memory cards and that helped out there. It made for a nightmare in post because your clips are scattered through 2-3 memory cards and all out of order on each but in a pinch it helped me keep shooting.

Having 2 or 3 cameras is a plus and a minus. Its hard to operate if you are a one person band and you are thinking about if your camera b or c are getting the shot. But in post if you screw up on camera a, it overheats, your focus sucked, whatever, having a static cut away can help. I use a couple of old HV30s as my cut aways mixed with my t2i or now my d600. They don't look as good, the resolution is lower sure, but they look better than nothing when your A camera took a crap on you. Plus they are reliable on full auto for at least 60 minutes at a time before you will need to swap tapes on them.
 
Shooting a wedding with a D90? I dunno - really terrible jello and aliasing. Pretty much the worst of the DSLR lot (hey, it was a killer still camera, not bashing). I got my son a used T2i with a 50mm 1/8 for Xmas on eBay for under $400; I shoot a T2i with all of my Nikon glass for video. My only heat problems have been outdoors in the summer - it takes the kind of heat that nobody would want to get married in (my particular T2i body anyway).

I often use a view-camera viewing cloth - they're black on one side and white on the other. White side reflects the sun. Just flop it right over your head and camera and you'll look like Ansel Adams. For commercial shoots or music videos I'll have an assistant follow me around with a golf umbrella - but it does get to 100+ all summer here. A few people have posted about using ice packs, but if it's humid out, those get really drippy.
 
One of the worst DSLR's for video -- I mean, it was the first DSLR to offer HD video acquisition quite a few years ago so things have come a long way. I'd really reconsider shooting something as important as a wedding on such an unreliable camera.
 
Phil1076 said:
One of the worst DSLR's for video -- I mean, it was the first DSLR to offer HD video acquisition quite a few years ago so things have come a long way. I'd really reconsider shooting something as important as a wedding on such an unreliable camera.
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I never found the D90 to be "unreliable" and it was a fantastic sub-pro body that Nikon got smashingly "right", in my opinion. It started the DSLR video craze, but the image quality for video can be very dicey.

The only problems I had with the D90 was focus - that and my D7000 both needed service if they took a decent bump. The mirror-sensor alignment can get jacked, and many people reported D90's not properly setup when new. There are even web sites showing how to adjust the sensor position on the D90, the problem being ubiquitous enough.
 
Tesa said:
I see pople that have shot weddings on the D90, how do they solve this issue?
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Really? I haven't seen anyone, even back in the day. As others mentioned, the D90 was a great "proof of concept" for DSLR video, but I've never actually seen one used for anything like a wedding. A short film perhaps, or interviews, etc, where the environment can be controlled and carefully planned around the limitations of the camera, and you can do it over if the shot gets ruined and need to take a break, etc.

I have seen many folks using Canons for weddings, the 5D being one of the most popular. However even that has recording limits. There are ways to creatively work around those limitations (it doesn't actually overheat as much as reach the file size limit and need to press record again), but usually it isn't the only camera being used at an event anyway.

Personally, I'd use something like a Panasonic GH- heck, even the old GH1 is super cheap these days - and it can record until you fill up the card without stopping for anything. Less problems than the D90, sharper image and less noticeable rolling shutter.

I hate to be one of "those guys", but I think my solution to your problem would be: don't use the D90 for a wedding!
 
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