Nikon D90 has 720p24 over HDMI

[Brian Rhodes]

Sony Vegas pro 8c added support for the D90 in its new update.

Sony Creative Software Inc. - Vegas Release Notes

[Craig Maret]

Philip..
you bought yours from b+ h in NYC...How much import duty will you have to pay? Is there a difference between uk and usa models?

Many thanks
Craig

[Phil Bloom]

Originally Posted by Craig Maret

Philip..
you bought yours from b+ h in NYC...How much import duty will you have to pay? Is there a difference between uk and usa models?

Many thanks
Craig

it was the kit D90 for $1375 with 3 day UPS shipping + £148 duty and tax> making it around £848 almost exactly the price of the UK one. Just got it because I wanted to take it on a really cool gig around Alberta, Canada for two weeks that I start early next week.

The spec would be the same. No idea about warranties...

[Dan Chung]

I picked up a D90 yesterday and should be able to post some samples with different lenses soon. Initial impressions are good, getting super wides and shallow depth without a Brevis is great! but the rolling shutter seems to be a real issue.

If anyone has figured out what exposure forces the camera to a shutter speed in the 1/25th to 1/60th range then please share. In fact, does anybody know how to even tell what shutter speed the camera has selected in video mode? as it seems to bear no relation to the shutter speed that was previously set in Live View.

Anyway, I'm off to play around with it for now, back later.

[Dan Chung]

Just played around for an hour with the D90, 500mm , 16mm and 85mm lenses. It is lots of fun, just being able to stick any lens you own straight onto the camera is fantastic. The results are here D90 long and wide test shots on Vimeo No post processing applied.

Image quality wise it's certainly not a quality match for a Sony EX-1 by any means, MJPEG just doesn't have the detail. However for web video usage it looks very promising. I think I'd still use the Brevis on an EX-1 for most serious stuff for now, lets see what Canon has to offer next week. I hope Nikon follows up with a better camera and codec soon (How about XDCAM EX ? JVC just did it!). What is clear is that this is just the start of the large chip/small camera video revolution and the video world has just changed forever.

More later.

Dan

[John Sandel]

Nice footage, Dan. It's instructive to see those other focal lengths on the D90.

Originally Posted by Dan Chung

Image quality wise it's certainly not a quality match for a Sony EX-1 by any means, MJPEG just doesn't have the detail.

My interest in the D90 is mainly money-logic:

$ 9000 (Sony EX1 + Brevis35 w/Flip Module) - $999 (D90 body) = $8,001.00, give or take.

That eight grand'll buy a passel of ways to otherwise improve my movies, and maybe some lunches for the crew!

[Paulo Teixeira]

Originally Posted by Kurth Bousman

sony t500k

This camera has a limit as well and it’s 10 minutes.

[Vincent Oliver]

Just in case anyone still doubts the D90's capabilities take a look here
D90 Japanese sample on Vimeo

[Gints Klimanis]

Originally Posted by John Sandel

My interest in the D90 is mainly money-logic:
$ 9000 (Sony EX1 + Brevis35 w/Flip Module) - $999 (D90 body) = $8,001.00, give or take.

You still need a good lens and audio system. I wouldn't consider a 16 (?) MBps motion JPG to be the equivalent of a premier 35 MBps MPEG2 system. Even HDV falls apart with motion, so the D90 is probably a good start for video that is underdetailed and nearly still.

[John Sandel]

Originally Posted by Gints Klimanis

You still need a good lens and audio system. I wouldn't consider a 16 (?) MBps motion JPG to be the equivalent of a premier 35 MBps MPEG2 system. Even HDV falls apart with motion, so the D90 is probably a good start for video that is underdetailed and nearly still.

You're right about external components, Gints; I was comparing camera bodies. The Sony Dan mentioned would need lenses on its DoF converter, too. And that teensy 1/2" sensor …!

Thus the simplicity—the utility—of a camera like the D90: a complement of Nikon lenses to feed that big CMOS with clean light; an exterior audio device; a good mic and I've got a competent double-system setup that's smaller, cheaper by far and as malleable as the EX-1 example.

Judging an image on MBps alone is like using a ruler to decide a painting is ugly. What can I do with any camera, in the service of drama, than the D90 can't? Not a thing. And it has that lovely facility with lenses and light. For less than a grand.

Not sure what you mean by "falls apart"—more metrics? My question is: does it look like life? If I hold a mirror up to nature—if I move my audience—will they care about MTF or rasterization? I think subjectives like "underdetailed" have limited relevance, & "nearly still" confuses me. (That's up to the artist, not the tool.)

Judging from the clips I've seen, a properly stabilized D90 will be a wonderful electronic eye—the kind of thing Welles dreamed of, 70 years ago …

[Gints Klimanis]

Originally Posted by John Sandel

Judging an image on MBps alone is like using a ruler to decide a painting is ugly. What can I do with any camera, in the service of drama, than the D90 can't? Not a thing. And it has that lovely facility with lenses and light. For less than a grand.

Not sure what you mean by "falls apart"—more metrics? My question is: does it look like life? If I hold a mirror up to nature—if I move my audience—will they care about MTF or rasterization?

I appreciate and agree with your artistic points. However, the same could be said of the value of a larger sensor and better lenses: what artistic merit do these have over what a $350 SD miniDV camcorder could supply last year? What's wrong with more noise or more DOF?

This is a technical forum, and while a YouTube-compressed video may have better content than a RAW MPEG4 file from a Sony EX1, I'd like to provide counter arguments as to why the Nikon D90 doesn't blow away every video device simply because it can accept Nikon lenses. MBps limits the difference from scene to scene, and while it's not obvious how that is perceived, I can say that it's very easy to be distracted by blockiness on 10 MBps cable TV once you have been shown what it is. Pans across the audiences in the Beijing Olympics were embarrassingly blocky, as was the fireworks show. Such obvious artifacts pull me out of the show and have my non-technical friends asking me what up with my fancy new 1080P LCD TV.

[Kurth Bousman]

Absolutely right that content is 99% but since that's a taken then what's cool is this is just the first in a long line of new devices that people will have to capture content with . On the 17th canon will announce the 5d upgrade that is strongly rumored to have 1080 , and this is a ff camera , not aps . And the Panasonic G1 . While the announcement and specs now show no video , pany has stated it's coming . The point - the game of artistic video capture has changed forever for the best . Not to mention what Red is up to . As I said in another post - the adapterboys had best be looking for other types of equipment to manufacture . I'd recommend a few styles of followfocus systems and matteboxes exclusively for dslr type cameras. And traditional video cameras will benefit . We'll probably be seeing larger sensors in smaller and less expensive cameras sooner than anyone thought possible . We'll know on the 17th.
As a photographer and video artist , to have one device . Well to tell you the truth , it's what I've already been doing - carrying my fuji f31 and shooting still and moving images as needed . I would have preferred to be shooting with a more responsive still camera like my 20d and shooting 1080 video like my z1 but I've been willing for the sake of convenience , to shoot a point and shoot and 640x480 . My next camera for certain will be a vdslr or one of the new v4/3 cameras that will follow shortly. ain't it sooo coool/k

[Steve Nunez]

Wow- the Japanese page's video is great- I can't wait for one of these DSLR's to get to 1080P60!!!

[John Sandel]

Originally Posted by Gints Klimanis

[T]he Nikon D90 doesn't blow away every video device simply because it can accept Nikon lenses.

That's right. When filmmaking is reduced to a competition between tools, I admit to an irrational fondness for SLR-style ergonomics. It's how I learned to make images.

Originally Posted by Gints Klimanis

This is a technical forum … compressed video may have better content [but] MBps limits the difference from scene to scene, and while it's not obvious how that is perceived, I can say that it's very easy to be distracted … obvious artifacts pull me out of the show …

One reason I like DVInfo is that so much of the talk ranges beyond the merely technical. So you're right: for mechanically minded viewers, some movies will always be inadequate. I'm less interested in precision than verisimilitude; a subtle difference. My challenge is to use my art to give my audience a convincing experience of fiction, without (as I think we agree) the distracting claptrap of machinery. "Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." (Scott Adams; just read that yesterday)

So, to keep to the straight & narrow: It's the SLR-sized sensor I'm most excited about in the D90. Downsampling or no, its light-sensitivity, color rendition and depth-of-field are powerful new tools for me, at a bargain price.

I just hope the posited Canon 5d Mk II goes Nikon one better in manual controls for video!

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by John Sandel

One reason I like DVInfo is that so much of the talk ranges beyond the merely technical.

Thanks -- another reason you should like it is our constant effort to keep discussion threads on topic. I've just moved a couple of off-topic posts out of here. This is the Nikon D90 discussion. We already have an Ikonoskop discussion, located at http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/digital-c...i-ibc2008.html -- the last two posts here have been moved to that thread.