• Why does the D4, a professional camera, have video?

    by
    jdeg
    Published on 01-16-2012 08:08 PM
    6 Comments Comments


    I asked this question to Steve Heiner, Senior Technical Manager, Nikon Inc., at PMA/CES 2012. Here was his response:


    Customers are demanding it more than anything else... ...a lot of professional photo journalists, a lot of backpack journalists, people that are roaming around the world covering the news, are now asked to produced video as well as still photography. Rather then carrying multiple cameras this provides them the opportunity to shoot broadcast quality video along with high resolution stills any time they need to. The serious advantage here is there are a lot of people out there who will look to this camera as an actual film making tool. We made it primarily as a still photography tool for our professional still photographers. We recognize by adding a few features that really make it unique to the DSLR arena, that this will actually be a very attractive camera to people who want to use it for nothing but film making because of the HDMI output, because of the crop mode, because we now use a different version of the H.264 codec, which includes b-frame compression for a higher quality picture while keeping file size modest. So there are a lot of real advantages to a camera like this that can't be had with a typical video camera. It's more from customer demand than anything else.
    cnyram likes this.
    Comments 6 Comments
    1. Phillydog1958's Avatar
      Phillydog1958 - 01-24-2012, 05:21 AM
      Great answer.
    1. bluenoser's Avatar
      bluenoser - 01-24-2012, 05:43 AM
      I've never understood the negative bias towards video in a DSLR. Just some goofy, misplaced elitism going on I think. If you don't like it, don't use it - it's just a little switch on the camera. The dinnosaurs are going to have to face facts...video on DSLRS is here to stay for good. The days of single use electronic devices are going the way of the Dodo bird. Why carry a DSLR and a video camera? I love that my smart phone has an 8mp camera and HD video, plus apps that turn it into a GPS device, video game console, sports ticker, etc. etc. etc. Do I want to carry around 20 different things or just one or two? The future is here folks...don't fight it!
    1. jdeg's Avatar
      jdeg - 01-25-2012, 03:26 AM
      Some of it is the attitude that Nikon should be spending more time developing other features other then video and/or that the cameras would be less expensive if they didn't have video.
    1. bluenoser's Avatar
      bluenoser - 01-25-2012, 04:23 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by jdeg View Post
      Some of it is the attitude that Nikon should be spending more time developing other features other then video and/or that the cameras would be less expensive if they didn't have video.
      Hi John. Well if those are the main arguements against then I would classify them as vapid in the extreme and completely lacking in merit. I maintain it all traces back to some misplaced thinking about guarding the purity of what "real" photogaphy is all about.

      Perhaps a retractable yet tiny anti-personnel missile system is what some have in mind with regard to "other features"? I suppose that might come in handy if someone was standing in the way of your shot! LOL!
    1. cnyram's Avatar
      cnyram - 01-25-2012, 06:17 PM
      It's probably very cheap during production to include it, it would be foolish not to.
    1. jdeg's Avatar
      jdeg - 01-25-2012, 06:47 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by bluenoser View Post
      Hi John. Well if those are the main arguements against then I would classify them as vapid in the extreme and completely lacking in merit. I maintain it all traces back to some misplaced thinking about guarding the purity of what "real" photogaphy is all about.

      Perhaps a retractable yet tiny anti-personnel missile system is what some have in mind with regard to "other features"? I suppose that might come in handy if someone was standing in the way of your shot! LOL!
      Yep, they absolutely are lacking merit. In their mind maybe if they didn't work on video then the auto-focus could track what your eye is looking at and focus on that (I just made that up), or have built in wi-fi, or yeah, the anti-personnel missile system
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