Understanding and Optimizing the Nikon D90 D-Movie Mode Image

frisco said:
You might be alone on this one....Remember this is a DSLR....People want/pay for convenience.....

You wouldn't believe how many $8000 Canon 1dsMll and lll's are sold to amateurs with exotic lens.

No still guys are going to want separate syc sound. They just want to plug in a mic, wired or wireless.

There seems to be about 4 different price points for dslr's. People are already accustomed to paying big money for still gear.

frisco
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Sorry, yes I see your point. But I'm referring to anyone who uses the audio professionally. Not a point and shoot kind of guy.
 
this audio talk is really offtopic

pro audio is recorded externally. d90's mono would perfectly sync as many tracks as possible. reporters will have to look elsewhere for a camcorder, not for d90
 
Norbert said:
Does it reset live view as well so you have to redo all your settings after 5 minutes?

The highlights are sweet, but shadows seem to be very black in most clips I see... black as in crushed. Is there a way to make them a little more neutral in camera?
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It doesn't reset liveview. Chances are, however the camera will auto-shut-off.

Picture Controls will help the heavy contrast. People have to just start adjusting them.
 
buildyo said:
I actually did that before and thought it looked good just wanted to hear your opinion :dankk2:

Another question:
To get low ISO you close the arperture on the manual lens, aim the camera at the white wall, you lock the exposure, then enter Live View and then open the arperture manually.

Does this noise free setting stay when you leave LiveView and reenter it. It should but who knows if it really does. It would be a pain if your procedure has to be repeated every time Live View is left.

Edit: Just saw that Norberts question is somewhat related.
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You do have to repeat it every time you exit LiveView. Which is why we need a solid solution, or repeatable solution. A dimmable light source or a few different shades of grey?
 
cacophony said:
So I finally got this trick to work with my 50mm 1.8 lens. But I'm not really seeing the point yet because I get the same noise free results in low light by just leaving everything in auto mode and opening the lens up to 1.8.

So maybe the easiest "trick" of all is just to shoot wide open with a fast prime in a low light situation?
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Not a trick, honestly. Just tellin' the camera what to do.

And, the idea is to not get noisefree at 1.8, but at other apertures.

I have yet to see a noisefree images, even shooting wide open, without locking the exposure down. In the shadows I can clearly see crawling grain. Not until I actually expose for a specific stop do I get clean shadows.

Noise, remember, is less likely to show in light areas. Look at your darks.
 
Norbert said:
The highlights are sweet, but shadows seem to be very black in most clips I see... black as in crushed. Is there a way to make them a little more neutral in camera?
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I'm not sure, but since you can use custom color curves and what not, it seems it should be possible.
 
Kholi, you have a printer? Instead of stopping down the lens, print out "shades of grey" on card stock and point the camera at that and determine which shade of grey suits what needs.
 
cacophony said:
So I finally got this trick to work with my 50mm 1.8 lens. But I'm not really seeing the point yet because I get the same noise free results in low light by just leaving everything in auto mode and opening the lens up to 1.8.

So maybe the easiest "trick" of all is just to shoot wide open with a fast prime in a low light situation?
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I got my D90 yesterday evening.
I am definitely getting different ISOs doing the Kholi trick vs just shooting wide open in very low light situations. Haven't had a chance to play with it in daylight yet, but last night tricking the camera made for video that would be usable, whereas shooting it auto at f1.4 was just too noisy (14 watt consumer CF for medium sized room).
 
Car3o said:
Kholi, you have a printer? Instead of stopping down the lens, print out "shades of grey" on card stock and point the camera at that and determine which shade of grey suits what needs.
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This is exactly what I was thinkin'.. Sometihn' like grey cards. I'll have to see if it works, though.

It should! And this would make life easier in a real shootin' environ.
 
Car3o said:
Stoiga has the best low light footage to date.
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It gets kind of tricky,as you have to find intermediate points of light to lock the exposure.Not to dark,because it will overexpose...had some fun otherwise.thx
 
So people have had luck using an AF lens with aperture ring (such as the 50mm 1.8D)? On my D70s, once I mount the lens, the lever contacts the body and the aperture opens up. That's with the aperture set at f/22 when I mount it. Unlocking the ring and turning it up to f/1.8 does nothing. Does the D90 behave differently? Or do you unlock the lens and open it up before mounting?
 
I tried this with D40 and D90.With 75-300mm you`ll have to lock the lens to f4.5, and leave it there.

If the lens is not locked, cameras will pop-up a msg, that you have to lock the aperture, and picture process will be disabled. Even after mounted, if you`ll try to unlock, the same message will pop-up.

AF lens specialist input on this matter will be more than welcomed.

I was "forced" to do the editing in Premiere Pro, as Vegas is not recognizing the entire set of clips. What I mean by that, you have 40small clips in one folder just copied from D90.

You open the clips, and you drag them down to the time line, only 35% of them are showing up. Sound looks ok for all, but on video side most of them are missing.

Don’t know if this is a codec related problem, however in Premiere and AE they work just fine.
 
Just got my D90, can't for the life of me figure out how to lock the exposure. Press AE-L once... nothing stays locked. What the hell am I doing wrong?
 
Not readin' that manual. ;D

Go into the menu under the "pencil" icon, selection F, assign AE-L/AE-F function, choose AE-L (LOCK)
 
Ok so... I've screwed around with this thing for a few hours now, and you CAN lock the ISO speed... not sure about the shutter yet (I need daylight to determine that).

It is simple. Set your ISO speed, press AE-L, then Enter LiveView Mode. If you're in LiveView, exit LiveView, unlock AE-L (by pressing the button), set your ISO speed, press AE-L again, re-enter LiveView.

I don't think Exposure Compensation determines shutter speed, but it is a useful tool to adjust before shooting, and it won't effect your exposure setting. Simple press and hold the PLAY button and select up or down.

More to come.
 
I'm getting my best looking images at ISO200. DO NOT think this works as if it were a normal video camera... settings have to be locked before you're in LiveView.

Rolling Shutter sucks, but I honestly can't think of a reason why I'd ever use a shot that was filmed within the camera's limitations.
 
You can't lock anything before you go into Live View mode... Anything you've done, for a split second, even if you lock it before hand, is erased prior to entering.

Test it by: putting the camera on a tripod, pointing it toward a constant shadow and adjusting your ISO.

If your ISO is higher then you'll see more grain and you'll have a brighter image. I'm pretty sure you won't see a change once you put it in a steady position, point it toward a shadow, don't touch the aperture and only change ISO.

I invite ya to try it. And, if it does work, then I have a faulty camera because it's doing nothing for me. Anyone else?

Also, there's a video clearly showing that the Exposure Values do effect the shutter speeds in Auto modes. Once it's locked you can't adjust anything.
 
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