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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

RED Scarlet and the new D4

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Everything you said made perfect sense until you got to the part where you said you were getting 2 of these. That's Scarlet territory. Does your work require 2 cameras, hence why getting 2 Scarlets would not be possible right now? Just curious.

Nicholaus James said:
I hate when SLRs are compared to RED. I LOVE RED. I LOVE NIKON. Don't have the money to step into RED territory just yet, in my career path. But, I own a ton of 2.8 zooms and 1.4 primes in Nikon glass. I've had to use the Canons with lens adapters the past 2 years. With my investment in glass, and the uncompressed video feature on this cam, it just became the PERFECT bridge on my path to RED territory. These truly are wonderful times. There was HUGE gaps in level of quality in cameras up until just a couple years ago. This announcement made the gap even smaller for me.

I'll be buying 2 of these, enjoying them the next couples years, building my portfolio, and getting my income to a level where a RED investment will be justifiable.
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I think this camera sounds very, very good. Put an uncompressed recorder on it and it should out perform evey other sub 10k large sensor camera on the market. It should actually provide the c300 a good run for its money. One interesting thing not discussed is if Nikon will provide any sort of "log" option on their settings. The cinestyle setting is a big, big plus on the Canon cameras, and the C300 c log is reportedly very good. In B&H press release they say "broadcast quality codec". Interesting, too.

It certainly is a camera that demands a second look, in my opinion. Will see if I can try it out and do some tests when it's released here. Can be a really good broadcast, web content and "b" movie camera!
 
Here's the YouTube version presented in 1080p. Would suggest viewing if you have a fast connection.

http://youtu.be/nZZMIo7Zfys

Yes, I ordered a D4.....But also ordered an EPIC-X

Husband has found his wife...
 
How big is the sensor? is it full frame? and if yes, can you shoot full frame video like with the 5d?
 
I would really like to know what "uncompressed video via the HDMI port" really means, beyond that it looks flipping amazing camera and as I have a huge pile of pro Nikon glass this may be the camera for me.
 
Steve Sherrick said:
Everything you said made perfect sense until you got to the part where you said you were getting 2 of these. That's Scarlet territory. Does your work require 2 cameras, hence why getting 2 Scarlets would not be possible right now? Just curious.
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Yes. Most of my income comes from weddings in BOTH photography and videography. Like many in the wedding industry, I have a personal passion for narrative filmmaking. So my equipment needs to be able to work in those fields as well.

2 of these still keeps me sitting around $12k. I priced out a BARE BONES SCARLET system, and I was still in the mid-$14k range. And that is just for one! My camera purchases always come "in stereo."

Good point, but in my specific situation it is a logical choice.....for now.
 
Hey Guys,

Thought I'd chime in since I worked on the production. The D4 was a joy to work with & the G primes on the FF sensor were a lovely combination. Having live audio meters and histogram while shooting was killer. The read speed off the sensor must be much quicker then even the D700 because rolling shutter seemed to have been minimized. The clean HDMI out was not confirmed to us at the time of production BUT when we first threw the cam on the crane and hooked a monitor to it we saw something very intriguing...NO menus!!! Our brains started grinding and our mouths watering!

Cam shoots FF with FF lenses, DX with the DX crop lenses and can do an extreme 2.7 (or something crazy like that) crop on any lens. 1080p to 30fps & 720p to 60 fps...yes Twixtor was used for Kayak super slomo...super high shutter was used on that shot.

Anyways, my impression was the D4 is hands down the creme of the DSLR crop. I believe it will have a place in productions.

-Dane
 
Nicholaus James said:
Yes. Most of my income comes from weddings in BOTH photography and videography. Like many in the wedding industry, I have a personal passion for narrative filmmaking. So my equipment needs to be able to work in those fields as well.

2 of these still keeps me sitting around $12k. I priced out a BARE BONES SCARLET system, and I was still in the mid-$14k range. And that is just for one! My camera purchases always come "in stereo."

Good point, but in my specific situation it is a logical choice.....for now.
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Smart thinking. Though with that logic, it will be a while 'till you can afford a Scarlet -- buying in pair would come out 28K, and that's pretty bare bones as you said. :-)
 
Uncompressed HDMI means it is a clean feed in an 8-bit, limited colorspace. Glorious Nikon color rendition--lens and sensor both--kind of make up for this.

Broadcast codec means the H264 family of codecs is broadcast approved by a standards board. The Nikon flavor is decent but limited at 25mbs (HVX territory) with a compression scheme sloppier than the $900 Panasonic GH-2. Will talented folks produce gorgeous videos, documentaries, even films? Sure, as a handful did with the D3s in 2009.

I believe the DSLR community will graduate to Scarlet and fall in love with the Raw workflow. Give it a year or two, someone will release a recorder that uses the CinemaDNG codec or similar to produce a Raw image from these and other cameras. The $20,000 + cost of ownership for C300, Scarlet will put a bunch of people in a position where this and Canon's offering paired with a Raw recorder and their existing DSLR gear "make sense."
 
Looks like a great camera! After years of shooting in various formats i realized that to each system there are advantages and disadvantages. I own several HD cams and i also have a 7D. Different tools for different jobs.

I'm also a RED fanboy, why is that?

I searched up and down and side to side, currently the Scarlet X pretty much cleans its market.

This Nikon D4 will have its own market also, there are still disadvantages to this camera like any other camera.

This can not be compared to a Scarlet x. Scarlet has 4K, Scarlet is a motion picture camera made for that purpose, Scarlet has HDRX, RAW, Scarlet is Up gradable, Scarlet is 16bit video, Scarlet is 24bit audio.....

When i shoot corporates i use one of my HD cams, when i shoot stills, i use a still camera

But to compare a 4k cine camera to a photo camera with a 1080p video mode wouldn't be fair anyways.
 
Thanks everyone, lots of good points. Some especially good comparisons from those who didn't care to compare such different cameras :ihih:. Can't wait to get my hands on both and see. All of the higher end features trickling down to almost consumer price points are good for us as buyers. Won't be long before we'll see relatively flawless cameras cheaper than we expected.

I do imagine Scarlet will be in its own class for some time when compared with other sub 20k cameras--so long as you have the time, money and horsepower to work with the footage and can wait for Dragon to get low light performance. Otherwise, the F3 and C300 looked sharp and amazingly sensitive and stable in Philip Bloom's latest shootout... http://philipbloom.net/2012/01/06/christmas-shootout/

Its a great time to be into cameras!

Cheers,

Steve
 
The D4 can certainly be used as a low-light B-cam. This is one area where Red needs to improve upon.
Personally, i love the colors and skintones that Nikons produce.
 
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