More D90

From robgalbraith.com:

The D90 allows you to select the aperture (from wide open to f/8) prior to commencing, then it handles the adjusting of ISO and shutter speed automatically as needed to maintain video brightness as lighting conditions change during recording. To disable automatic exposure adjustment, it’s possible to lock exposure prior to beginning the recording.

Sounds a bit like the HV20/30 dance to me, where you’re always aiming the thing at a light trying to lock it into 1/48th shutter. Stock up on ND if you want that filmic shutter and shallow DOF at the same time in daylight! Still, if this is true, you can lock down your auto settings and, perhaps somewhat clunkily, explicitly set a shutter speed. 

Of course, unlike Rob, I view the lack of automatic white balance and as a good thing. I’m also baffled by his desire for a digital zoom. I guess what stills folks want from a video camera is different than what film folks want from a stills camera that, uhm, shoots video.

The boards are positively buzzing about this (dvxuser, scarletuser, dvinfo, hv20.com, Rebel Café). There’s some clarification, some idolizing, some bashing, and enough hypothetical confusion that I’m happy to refrain from any further speculation of my own. We’ll see real sample movies and detailed hands-on reviews soon enough.

Still more on this.

Comments

[Laurence]

Stu

I posted a response on Chase Jarvis blog, outlining some ideas on how to take this camera into the unknown.

As I was reading yours I realized I could add a fourth item to my ideas.

the first was just keep a D90 as a control camera
then use a 2nd D90 with all the Eye Fi wifi cards and burn through that camera
then use a third D90 and hack a huge heat sink to the sensor block or nearby and hack together some type of sd card to firewire/usb 3 or some weird cable that connects directly to either a lap top or a AJA IOHD box

and now a FOURTH idea

do all the above with 3 more D90s and remove the Infra Red filter!!!!

Laurence

P.S. met one of your Orphanage cohorts in Tucson
spring 2001. last name Bailey, he gave me his card. Said there was going to be no HD for consumers, Lucas and Panavision/SONY wanted to keep it in the elite Hollywood types. Things change....

[Matt Jeppsen, FreshDV]

Stu, it appears that you can lock the auto-exposure with a single button while shooting in D-Movie mode. http://www.freshdv.com/2008/09/nikon-d90-shoots-720p-video.html" REL="nofollow">Deets here.

Matt Jeppsen
FreshDV.com