Nikon D90 has 720p24 over HDMI

[Craig Maret]

"Well, I have some raw footage from this camera. It's safe to say that HD camcorders will be safe for a few more years. The compression used in the D90 is quite bad and certainly won't be useable for things like short films."

LET US SEE IT THEN.

[I J Walton]

Sorry, i'm not sure how to get HD footage onto the net. It would be pointless putting it onto Youtube.

The compression problem (At least I think that it's a compression problem) appears mostly on videos containing detailed objects and high contrast (like light reflections).

You can kind-of see what i'm talking about on one of the DP site sample videos:

Just Posted! Nikon D90 Sample Gallery: Digital Photography Review

Download the raw "Sample Movie 3", it's a video of a duck. Then look at the pebbles in the top-right of the video. It looks quite ugly and jaggy and this isn't the worst example either.

PS, there is a small chance that my WMP is set up badly and only I am seeing the problem (At least I hope that is the case)

[Ken Hodson]

Based on the topic for this thread we are still lacking some answers. Can one get a direct HDMi feed off the cam without overlay? Can one control the exposure when shooting 24p, and would using the HDMi out bypass the 5min record length?

[Lee Wilson]

Originally Posted by I J Walton

Sorry, i'm not sure how to get HD footage onto the net. It would be pointless putting it onto Youtube.

The compression problem (At least I think that it's a compression problem) appears mostly on videos containing detailed objects and high contrast (like light reflections).

You can kind-of see what i'm talking about on one of the DP site sample videos:

Just Posted! Nikon D90 Sample Gallery: Digital Photography Review

Download the raw "Sample Movie 3", it's a video of a duck. Then look at the pebbles in the top-right of the video. It looks quite ugly and jaggy and this isn't the worst example either.

Agreed, that very thing (pebbles in the upper right) caught my eye immediately.

Take any well focused still off a good quality HDV camera, put it in Photoshop, run in through the 'Dust and Scratches' filter with the values - radius 1 and threshold 0 - and that gets you surprisingly close to the feel of the D90s output.

In addition I have seen quite a bit of poor aliasing in the vertical direction on a few of the sample + I don't doubt the MJpeg codec seems to be doing it's own damage as well.

Originally Posted by I J Walton

PS, there is a small chance that my WMP is set up badly and only I am seeing the problem (At least I hope that is the case)

Nope! It's real ok, I have seen it on other D90 samples.

Vimeo - is quick and free, easy to use and after you have uploaded you sample people can download the original source footage (so don't re-encode! just upload the raw file).

Please !! :)

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by I J Walton

Well, I have some raw footage from this camera.

Originally Posted by I J Walton

Sorry, i'm not sure how to get HD footage onto the net.

Contact me directly by email, chris at dvinfo dot net. I'm happy to host the raw video for you. I can give you our FTP upload account info right away. I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon,

[Hunter Richards]

I think the people saying that this camera isnt good enough for film-making are going to be in for a surprise.

[TingSern Wong]

I see the biggest problem with D90 implementation so far - no manual metering. Only matrix metering. And no over-ride either.

The duck (or was it a swan) from DPREVIEW appears over exposed on my monitor. Way too bright - nearly pure white - and I doubt I ever seen a bird's feathers whitewashed to this extent.

[Ali Husain]

Originally Posted by Lee Wilson

Agreed, that very thing (pebbles in the upper right) caught my eye immediately.

Take any well focused still off a good quality HDV camera, put it in Photoshop, run in through the 'Dust and Scratches' filter with the values - radius 1 and threshold 0 - and that gets you surprisingly close to the feel of the D90s output.

In addition I have seen quite a bit of poor aliasing in the vertical direction on a few of the sample + I don't doubt the MJpeg codec seems to be doing it's own damage as well.

Not sure if this was already addressed in this thread: the sensor is very likely running in a sub-sampled mode and not a binned-mode (the former reduces off-sensor bandwidth requirement, power, and heat), so you'll end up with aliasing artifacts. my guess is the video won't be very useable for high-quality situations because of that. :(

[Martin Labelle]

found on youtube from a Japan user who sent me the spec

lens:AF-S DX 18-105G VR
■original spec■
size:28.3MB
1280*720
24fps
ISO:200
He cannot say more because his ppage is in japanese but I will try to have more info

YouTube - Nikon D90 D-Movie

[Martin Labelle]

Tingsern
You maybe able to fool the camera by putting another iso than it should be.
so get much latitude or put a polarizer.

[Anmol Mishra]

Here is what I got.

>>
ISO levels on the other hand is made to be equivalent to the old ASA standard for film, the better the sensor's performance is, the less noise in high ISO levels, and most of the time we do not know when does GAIN kick in on most still cameras.
>>

Is this true ? Can Auto ISO be turned off when in video mode ? That may account for gain kicking in in the video footage..

[Martin Labelle]

Usually auto iso can be turned off, in manual or auto mode but not program or matrix metering mode (true for film cameras like F-100) and probably the same for Digital SLR.

and the video mode of D-90 is on matrix so probably: Program mode

its only probably, this is from my experience with Nikon cameras.
but the answer is coming soon.

[Craig Maret]

Originally Posted by Ali Husain

Not sure if this was already addressed in this thread: the sensor is very likely running in a sub-sampled mode and not a binned-mode (the former reduces off-sensor bandwidth requirement, power, and heat), so you'll end up with aliasing artifacts. my guess is the video won't be very useable for high-quality situations because of that. :(

I'm not so sure tho....theres a lot of screaming about this cameras "aliasing jaggies etc etc".
Some of the footage looks v nice indeed...as for jaggies etc try filming lots of green leaves etc in hdv...sometimes that looks horrid too...so worst case for me is for filming content for web site green screens and some run n gun stuff this is gonna be sooo much more accesable and easy to use than a camera, a 35mm adapter, a box load of primes and a monitor.

bythe way cheack this vid YouTube - Nikon D90 novinarska predstavitev // press conference Slo
it aint in english so i dont know what is being said but the opening shot is someone filming with one..notice the overexposure that doesnt look like its being corrected.

ps- A guy I know from a big uk camera retailer has a meeting with a rep guy from Nikon wednesday...he has questions from me with him....

[Tom Vandas]

Re: the aliasing jaggies...

I'm curious, what programs are people using to watch the original AVI's? I'm looking at the penguin and duck footage from dpreview, using Quicktime Pro 7.3.1 with the High Quality option selected, and I see fewer jaggies than I do in other video footage.

There's no doubt that the MJPEG compression is at work, but I'm more surprised it looks as good as it does, especially given the footage is shot by photographers who don't necessarily know how to make the best video. Even with this crap high contrast footage, my scopes show decent dynamic range and the roll-off into the whites is fairly gentle.

If the auto exposure can be defeated somehow (get the shutter speed down and control the ISO), I'm definitely going to test this camera out against the D300 which I would have bought anyway.

[Kurth Bousman]

all I can say is the adapterboys best look for another line of work - the videos so far to me look very useful and this might just be the tip of the iceberg.

www.kurthbousman.com