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Nikon D3s - a charming 720p video mode!

M

Matthew Bennett

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Ahh, in those precious few moments before zone plates tell us how sh*te the camera's downsampling actually is, I'm quite charmed by the Nikon d3s's 720p video mode:

http://www.vimeo.com/7738624

A night test/original AVI file that shows us the fairly pleasing grain, middling jello and pretty low moire of the 3ds...


And...

http://vimeo.com/7721408

(was posted in a thread below this..)
This has some nice, 16mm-esque earthy kind of moments.... One of those vids where I get a "hmm, I could definitely stand watching a full movie of this" kind of tests.

I like, wouldn't buy the camera, but worth a rental just for a night of fun...
 
I have speculated for some time that nikons '720' might equal canons '1080'

Just like thier 12mp D3 stills seem a good run for 16mp canons

There are some questions over controls on this camera (shutter speed)

It will be good to see those tests

THe D3 is IMO the finest handling camera on the planet for stills

S
 
morgan_moore said:
I have speculated for some time that nikons '720' might equal canons '1080'


S
Click to expand...

my thoughts... since the canon's are resolving around 720, maybe nikon made a good call. It appears that the nikon sensor will be cleaner at the same iso compared with the mk4.

I think the consumer codecs in these camera's break from sensor noise, they see all noise as high frequency detail. So nikon may have a better formula by using a cleaner sensor (larger photosites) and fewer pixels to encode with a limited data rate.

I want to see some fast pans and some deep focus moving camera stuff with a D3s
 
Im trying to blag one from nikon UK - I cant buy one for a test !

Some needs to

Explain manual control - they have 'pal safe' which may lock the shutter at 50 - while not full control it is good enough for me - or PAL safe might do something else - something stupid

Get some tests out including an upres to 1080

Graham .. plates please !

S
 
I'd like to know if its possible recording video tru HDMI with D3s.

Maybe there will be also possible recording JPG sequence tru USB. A lot of guys did this with old nikons d700, d300. (nikons without normal video recording).
e.g.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F66AZfirUsA
I think that if its possible with D3s it will be mutch better than canon 1080p quality.
 
morgan_moore said:
I have speculated for some time that nikons '720' might equal canons '1080'
Click to expand...

Sorry to derail this thread somewhat, but I've been comparing the Nikon D300s to the Canon 7D -- since they directly compete within the market anyway. Without getting overly technical or doing a complete review and comparison, I'll say that I think the D300s is better overall for stills.

I have to agree with Morgan's statement above about Nikon's 720p video. The video on the D300s is way better than the video produced by the D90 or D5000. It may be "only 720p", but comparing with footage from the 7D, it's just as sharp and in some cases has less visible aliasing from what I've seen. It seems to handle brick walls better than the 7D. I haven't shot actual resolution charts, zone plates, etc.. Just subjective clip comparison. I find the video from the D300s to be more "organic" and pleasing than the 7D. I think the low light performance on the D300s is superior too at high ISOs 3200 & 6400. Or at least the in-camera noise reduction seems better.

All that said, I still bought a 7D over the D300s because of a couple reasons:

1> HD clips on the D300s are limited to 5 minutes. Ouch. The 7D's 12 minutes can be bad enough in some situations.

2> D300s shoots 24p and only 24p. 7D gives more frame rate and resolution options, including 720p 60fps.

3> D300s has some control issues when shooting video, especially with the iris control.

I'm primarily a Nikon shooter and will probably get a D4 when they eventually come out - I already own a D2Xs and have regular access to a D3. Then again, if the FF35 Scarlet / Epic can show up within the next year, I may not be interested in a new FF35 Nikon body...
 
I am a nikon man, but sold my D700 when the 7D hit the streets. I am now waiting on S35 Scarlet, I loved my D700 for stills over my 7D and the ergo is so much better IMHO on the nikons.
 
Wow, that 6400ISO clip looks good, the grain looks very natural and pleasing on my terrible desaturated LG flatron here at work... surprisingly non-blocky for such a low bit rate.

Man I'd love to rent now... All deep night work at f1.8, 6400-12800... mmmm

Thanks again for posting.
 
did a quick motion test, the camera work is bad... i was sneaking to get the shots in this old house, construction worker left a door open... you can hear his drill and hammer.. needed my steadicam... but its a good test on moving camera stressing the codec.

http://vimeo.com/7943765

also the camera has full manual exposure control... its like a hidden feature, no mention in the manual, but if you press the ok button in manual mode the camera stops making adjustments and you can control, iso, shutter, and aperture as you record with complete display and a over/under exposure graph... @ 1:40 im in a dark room going up stairs and i crank up the iso as it records, u can hear the clicks

i like the dynamic range... @ 1:22 half of the walk way is in direct sun light and half in shadow... I could have pulled back a stop and kept the shadow in detail and given more room for the highs but i didn't have any time... total drive by... about 2 p.m. sunny

all default settings, no color correction
 
Thanks again!

Very interesting clip ... great stolen location too. I'm assuming some high shutter speeds in there? I only really noticed one small spot of heinous aliasing...

The sharpness is very pleasing and the dynamic range is lovely, mellow on the high end and pleasing to look at.

Very nice video mode for what it is!
 
Jim Klatt said:
so it does have aperture/iso control....
Click to expand...

total control... I was so surprised... the manual even says the camera controls shutter and aperture... I was trying to come up with a work around... maybe exposure lock or something... and by chance I hit the ok button (easy to get to, left thumb) and the auto stuff cut off.... For the longest I just assumed that once I hit record that I could no longer make adjustments and was kinda cool with that; I didn't even try to adjust on the fly but then by chance I changed the aperture while it was recording and "BAM" it worked... then I adjusted shutter "BAM BAM" at this point being hard headed I still fiqured the ISO adjust was locked out... but later I thought maybe and sure enough all of the big three are free and clear... On my motion test, around 1:20 I'm going up the stairs and you can see where I up the ISO on the fly. shutter and aperture stay the same..

So if u set the camera on manual > activate live view > click the "OK" button then you have full control... before and while you record and the exposure meter and read outs all update in realtime. Audio has manual settings too...

But its how the sensor handles the blown highlights that I love the most... and the ability to shoot useable 12800. I didn't shoot this but this is a great example of what the sensor can do... to bad there is no RAW video format... I'm not selling my Red by any stretch but for low light work and bright scenes this camera is really great..

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=33876656
 
Transition to blown it rubbish on my EX1 - not that I am an expert on the stupid profiling system (I want to do that to my RAW image later !)

IN stills my D3 is great in this facility if it holds the same tonality ina vid that would be great

Any chance of a resolution test of some nature

S
 
I'll get to a resolution test next... the image "looks" good but i'm not expecting to be blown away
 
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