Recording on NanoFlash with Nikon D800E

[Jack Zhang]

I did get it to work passing through my Intensity Pro. The only caveat is that the sync is thrown off with the Intensity Pro's output. (adding black and green bars)

If you're talking about playback, Some Samsung monitors have been able to accept 1080p playback from the Nanoflash (not having "Play Prog -> PsF" turned on) But you are right that for full compatibility, E-E Direct should be off and that option should be on.

I however can record 1080p 23.98 and 29.97. My Nano actually indicates 1080p23 or 1080p29. I use Record PsF for my EX1R, but because the D800 does native progressive, I don't need to turn PsF on.

Edit: What's interesting about the D800's "Auto" HDMI mode is that it tries to read the EDID data from the HDMI itself before trying to output. On my Samsung monitor for North America, (with HDMI input) it knew it didn't support 1080p25 or 1080i50, and dropped me to 1080i60 with tons of duplicate frames. It worked fine on my Samsung at 23.98 and 29.97 in native progressive. On my Panasonic TV, when I set 1080p23.98, the display's refresh rate appropriately changed to 48hz, indicating a native progressive signal, but setting to 29.97, the EDID data didn't show the TV supported it, so it dropped down to 1080i60. The EDID must behave differently when you have a card loaded in the camera and when you press the record button. This would describe the 720p symptom earlier. The Intensity Pro supports all frame rates. However, the reason I found out it was native progressive was because of the Intensity. The typical symptom of a 1080 progressive signal being interpreted as interlaced on the Intensity Pro is a extreme anamorphic stretch and crop of the image. By setting the Intensity to 1080p, I then get a normal picture.

[Garrett Low]

Don't want to hijack your post but could you tell me if you see a noticeable difference between the footage captured in camera vs. on the nanoflash? I've got a nanoflash and am thinking about getting a D800. I'd be mostly using it for small indie movies and possibly some corporate shoots so I could be doing a fair amount of color grading to the footage.

Thanks.

[Jack Zhang]

Grading footage from a flat "Poor man's S-Log" picture profile is a breeze, so long as you're properly exposing the picture. The D800 includes a histogram, so you can use that to properly expose for grading later. The standard profile is too high contrast for flat shooting, and is slightly harder to grade.

My "S-log" settings use a Neutral picture profile with Sharpness at 5 and the lowest levels for contrast and saturation. I then shoot at 5600K, doing color correction in post. Remember to follow this setting or else you will experience clipping out the HDMI out:

D800 Menu: Wrench|HDMI|Advanced|Output Range to Limited

Audio is embedded in the HDMI and the manual audio level at 1/20 is almost Line level equivalent. (It's slightly more sensitive than standard -10db line level.) Using a powered XLR to 3.5 mixer should get you little noise in the camera's audio pre-amp.

[Jack Zhang]

Just tested again with a Mini-HDMI to Mini-HDMI cable, the vertical black bar is gone, but the horizontal green bar of 3 pixels at the bottom still is present. This is with the Camera HDMI set to "Auto" (Camera output is 1080p)

However, setting the format as 1080p30 with the HDMI output on the camera set to 1080i and the PsF -> Prog option enabled solves this problem.

Amend Dan's observations to include that you must set the camera to 1080i. If you wish to use 24p, you must enable 3:2 pulldown removal.