D90 On The Way? (Rumor)

[kevin_surfane]

That' s right. More and more cameras have built in video. And why not? Making prints is becoming a quaint

throwback to the old days. Most folks slap their photos on their computer or in a digital frame or on some sort

of a PDA. And with digital frames having the ability for video clips, not having video will become a market

handicap. Every time I see a Harry Potter movie and the "magical frames"' that show people moving, I just think,

"What's so magical about that?". The future consumers of image capture devices are big fans of those movies.

(Notice how I didn't use the word camera.)<p/>Let's face it, photography as we know it is changing. And as far as

I'm concerned, for the better. Smaller, faster, better, higher quality and cheaper - gotta love technology! One

day, our grand kids are going to ask, "Grandpa, what's a camera ?"

[jeffrey_prokopowicz]

Thanks Walt, I hope you're right.

[larrybc]

Kent Staubus wrote:

<br />> Video? Microphone? Crying out loud. Like I really want

<br />> people to hear what I say when I miss shots. Is the camera

<br />> going to come in green, yellow, and pink too? Not sure what

<br />> use I would have for live view, as Nikon does it. Why

<br />> couldn't they skip the microphone goofiness and give me a

<br />> tilt screen?

<br />

<br />Nikon already has a microphone in some of their other DSLRs such as the D2x and D3.

<br />

<br />> and see what the performance of the sensor does. If it at

<br />> least equals the D300, I'm still in. What I want is a

<br />> cleaner high ISO and low light performance. Don't need no

<br />> stinkin' microphones.

<br />

<br />I would be very surprised if it didn't match the D300's image quality and use a similar CMOS sensor. Personally, I'd be happy to have the video ability. Currently, I have to bring along my P&S when I want the option of shooting video. Having both capabilities in a single camera that produces much better quality images would be great.

<br />

<br />larsbc

<br />

[bms]

The Casio that I think was touted above (EX-F1) shoots 6 MP at 60 fps, but only for one second. Call that video? You can do 1,200 fps (imagine the sutter speed - does it even have a shutter?) at a breathtaking resolution of 0.03 MPix! If expect a D90 to shoot 14 MPix video, or even HD1080, in addition to stereo-sound for more than a few seconds without streaming it to an attached computer (which kinda takes away the purpose of a relatively compact camera), I think you are fooling yourself. Maybe 1280 x 720 at 30 fps for as long as the CF/SD cards lasts..... the D900 will then have a Quad processors and 2 TB hard drive....

[Jim_Tardio]

I think the video option is fantastic. I, too, carry a point & shoot just for this feature. To have it in a faster operating dslr with zooming and dof options is wonderful.

[waltflanagan]

There are already point and shoots that can shoot 1280x720@30fps in real time so it shouldn't be difficult to do that on a D90. 720p compressed using a codec like H.264 can look good with a bitrate around 2-4 Mbps. Even at 5Mbps that's still only 2.2GB/hour. Even BluRay only has a max bitrate of around 40Mbps. 40Mb/s = 5MB/s * 3600s = 18GB/hour. Of course you can't compress that in real time without expensive equipment but storage space is not the problem.

 

I don't think many amateurs would be interested in the full 12Mpix data for each frame. In Hollywood the highest 4K video standard (4096 x 3112) is becoming more popular but it's really for mastering a movie. There is no consumer level equipment to display the data.

 

On the processing side, most cameras have dedicated logic in the image processing ASIC to handle image and video compression so you can get away with having a slow 100MHz ARM or MIPS processor.

[reuven_k]

The decision to add video was most probably made based upon a simple ROI calculation. The development/production

cost was probably very little since Live View was going to be a feature anyway. Current D70/D80 users are the

target market for a D90 upgrade irrespective of the video feature.

 

What they seem to be trying to do is entice potential D40/D60 purchasers who wouldn't appreciate the additional

SLR features of the D90 into spending more to buy the D90 for a feature that they can easily understand and is

already

available in most compact cameras. That assumes that there is not a huge gap in the pricing between the lower end

cameras and the D90.

[reuven_k]

And, of course, it may entice potential low-end Canon/Sony SLR purchasers into spending some extra money on a feature that they can easily understand. It gives them a reason to chose Nikon and to spend extra $ doing it.

[jeffrey_prokopowicz]

Thinking about the video/ microphone thing, I'm uncomfortable with jack-of-all-trades appliances, like printers that scan, print, and fax, usually they're not that great at anything. At least with the D90 you can count on it being an excellent picture-taking machine, with half-baked video/ sound capabilities.

 

It seems Reuven K nailed Nikon's marketing strategy.

[jcurrie]

"If Nikon puts video in a SLR I'm switching to Pentax or Sony!"

 

John,

 

You might be able to sell your D40 and your kit lens on e-bay. I hear that the Auto mode on the Sony is better then Nikon anyhow.

[michael_thebo]

Ben- I really don't see a big problem with storing and processing 1920x1080p30 to a CF card, this is what the RED

Scarlet is supposed to be doing for release early next year. Though it will use two CF cards, they will be in

series so it can have uninterrupted recording... that would be on a 2/3" sensor at 3k (3,000 ish pixels wide)

using Red's codec and having considerably more bandwidth than needed for HD.

 

OTOH, perhaps it will just offer 640x480 video without focusing abilities while recording, like my antiquated

Fuji FinePix S602.

 

Rather than the resolution, if its at least HD, I would be far more excited about the interchangeable lenses and

the huge (compared to video cameras) sensor, presumably offering a much higher useful ISO and more control over

DOF. I think such a camera could help take Nikon into the next century and if it functioned even marginally well

we'll see a large crossover to it from videographers and "filmmakers".

 

As a side note, I am already using HDV progressive stills commercially- 24 pictures per second that offer

reasonable enough IQ for the web, but truly excel at capturing "the moment". The next era of photography, and

especially of photojournalism, will be marked by a blurring of video and photography. This is already happening

and I dearly hope Nikon will be a part of it.

[Karim Ghantous]

It makes sense. Film producers with small budgets can skip the mere 1080 lines of resolution from HD DV cameras and go to the D90 (assuming that it will have greater resolution than HD). Sounds good!

[adrian_ng]

I, for one, would make much use of the video. I was looking for a new camera upgrade. In fact I am much more likely to buy this camera over the D300 now. I feel I'm going to enjoy this feature immensely.

[warren_lafever]

http://www.popphoto.com/photonews/5470/nikon-coolpix-p6000-big-camera-features-in-a-little-package.html

 

this camera seems to have the features mentioned for the"d90" maybe the rumor mill was wrong....again

[stwrtertbsratbs5]

All this moaning about video in a DSLR is hilarious! Are these the same folks who keep pushing for higher frame rates!!!??? Well, this is the natural extension.

[bruce_margolis]

Warren, the P6000 is not even close to the features of the D90. This new P6000 is a P&S with some nice toys, i.e., hot shoe, Ethernet connectivity, shutter/aperture priority, and manual controls but of course, no interchangeable lenses.

 

At first glance, it looks pretty neat but it has one huge drawback. For a reason known only to Nikon, the P6000 comes with a new form of RAW called NRW. That means RAW converters like NX and Adobe won't be able to read the images. Instead, you need to use either ViewNX or the in-camera adjustments. Only minimal adjustments to the photos are possible.

 

Except for this limitation, I might have dumped my Canon P&S for it.

[peter_koralis]

Maybe the extra feature is not video but built in GPS recording (like the P6000)!

[garrison_k.]

is there a microphone jack so one can plug in a better mic? be nice to have a high quality mic slide into the hotshoe. :) I can't wait for this camera, what a treat.

 

"Hopefully it will contain a voice recognition system so I can tell it what settings I want without having to go through those damn menus."

 

Milo, good call. Just like our phones. It's be handy to go "camera, iso 1600".

[alex_p._schorsch]

Using the principal that the camera is just a box to hold film, I would say that the D90 is a pretty good buy because

it's a "box" with a D300 (digital film)sensor in it. Everybody has been raving about the quality (especially low light) of

the D300 sensor, for me, this is just what I need for wildlife and macro photography.. The D300 will be obsolete in a

couple of years so just buy the D90 to save a few hundred bucks. Video might just come in handy when you are

witness to some historical or family event. Why not? The sensor that is supposed to be coming with the D90 is one

of the best on the actual market and that's what counts. The rest are lenses and the stupid guy who pushes the

button (the weakest link in th production chain). Cheers.

[ShunCheung]

I should point out one more time that Thom Hogan's information on this so called Nikon "D90" is unofficial. While I

am sure that Hogan has verified it as much as he reasonably can, he has been wrong before. That is not to say

this "D90" doesn't exist at all, but some of the details could be inaccurate.

I think we are much better off waiting for an official announcement before commenting on the details.

 

However, if you have plans to buy a D80, I think it is wise to wait another month or so for the pre-Photokina

announcements around September 2008. You may still want to buy a D80 anyway, but if it becomes an old model,

you can potentially save some money.

 

I am going to lock the thread from further discussion.