Digital Video - January 2009 - (Page 8)

FIRST LOOK NIKON D90 CONVERGENCE CAMERA COULD THIS DSLR BE YOUR NEXT HD VIDEO CAPTURE SYSTEM? D BY MATTHEW JEPPSEN V readers know that I have long been an advocate of 35mm lens adapters. They are an effective way to add a whole new visual dimension to HD camcorder footage. And as with any tool, there are downsides. 35mm adapters add weight and length to a camera rig. They also aren’t very forgiving and must be set up carefully to deliver optimum results. That’s why I was excited to learn this last fall that two DSLR manufacturers were introducing still cameras with video-capture capability. The Nikon D90 was introduced first, and includes 720p HD video capture capability. Canon’s 5D Mark II, with a 1080p mode, followed soon after. Both cameras allow you to use an incredible selection of lenses to capture video with a 35mm depth of field. On the surface, these announcements are very exciting news. But what are the limitations and specifics of these new tools? Here, I’ll take an in-depth look at video capture on the less expensive of the two cameras, the sub-$1,000 D90. I will not be analyzing its still-imaging capabilities. SPECIFICATIONS The D90 features a 12.9-megapixel DX-format CMOS sensor and offers a high-resolution 3" LCD on the back. The sensor being APSC sized, expect a 1.5x crop factor (18mm becomes 27mm, etc). Its full ISO range is from 100-6400, so low-light capability is exceptional. Video is captured at 24p 1280x720, 640x424 and 320x216 resolutions. The compression codec used is Motion JPEG, and bit rate is limited to just under 16MB/s. Sixteen-bit mono, 11kHz audio is captured from an internal mic. There is no external mic input. The D90 uses standard SDHC cards for storage, and video files come off the camera in an AVI container. Capture time is currently limited to five minutes in HD and 20 minutes in the other modes. Five minutes of HD video weighs in at about 600MB. THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY The good news about the D90 is that this svelte little camera can capture beautiful video. With a sensor nearly identical in size to the RED One, depth of field is beautifully shallow. And the excellent lenses available for still cameras open up a world of creative possibilities. Early tests indicate that the D90 is capable of more than eight stops of dynamic range, which is not too shabby in HD-land. And for those highlights that do clip, it appears to roll them off smoother than many HD camcorders would. It doesn’t look as much like typical video as a result. The D90 is also rather good in low light. Yes, it can get grainy when the high ISO ranges kick in, but it’ll capture a usable image in low-light situations that would be nearly impossible for many HD camcorders even at high gain levels. Finally, there are extensive image tweaking controls available in the camera’s menus. You can define specific looks just as you would for still images. The bad news is that the D90 offers almost no manual exposure controls. You can select the lens aperture, but there is no way to manually control the shutter speed and ISO (gain) settings. You can lock these settings down while shooting, but there’s no easy way to know exactly what they are, or preset them. Also, the camera’s form factor is not built for video shooters. You must hold the camera out in front of you, using the rear LCD screen to monitor and focus footage. On the subject of focus, get used to doing it manually. There is no auto focus on this camera when shooting video. Fortunately, the www.dv.com 8 dv january 2009 http://www.dv.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Digital Video - January 2009

Digital Video - January 2009 Contents First Look: D90 Camera Sonicfire Pro 5 You Pod Instant Expert Muse 2.0 FXFactory Pro 2.0.5 Motype Fxpack DV Product Directory All Powered Up Creating Your Own Sun DV101 Production Diary

Digital Video - January 2009

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.