We Need a D800 Video Forum

Incubate

Senior Member
Anyone else think we need a D800 Video forum? You see the D800 is a fantastic stills camera and it is also a magnificent video camera. Yeah some critics have mentioned moire but it's seriously minimal and low light shooting of the 5D III but we've shot the D800 at 3200 iso and got noisless results. We've used the Canon 5D III, The GH II, The A99 and still the D800 delivers the most superior video with the greatest dynamic range. Now put into the mix Nikon's phenomenal glass, seriously on par with Zeiss, and you have the best DSLR video camera on the market by a long stretch. Oh yeah, plus the uncompressed HDMI out to couple to an external recorder like the Ninja 2 and you elevate the quality of your footage to ProRes 4.2.2... Like I said, there is no better dslr camera for video than the Nikon D800... and we need a forum to discuss it, to get geeky over and to exchange our creative and geeky points of view.
 

crycocyon

Senior Member
I agree we need an entire forum section so that any video discussion can be readily accessed in one convenient location, regardless of the Nikon being used. The time is now! LOL
 

John Lang

Senior Member
I just read a review about Dexter being shot with the D800. They took the HDMI signal out to an external recorder, played it next to the ARRI footage and said it looked comparable. Then they took the compressed footage off the SD card and still said there's was no noticeable loss of quality so they suggest just shoot it as is without any external recorder needed.
 

gqtuazon

Gear Head
Yep.

If anything, a forum section dedicated to DSLR Video maybe? Not camera model specific?

The problem is that the interest is really not that high. People who have the video rig maybe passionate and knowledgeable about video, but the participation is not that frequent unless if that is about to change.
 

Incubate

Senior Member
Whether you have the video rig or not. Whether you want to use DSLR video for pro reasons or not, with the video capabilities of the new range of Nikon cameras you'd be mad not to explore them. Nikon have seriously pushed the video boundaries in DSLRs, I'd say that video is almost as important to photography to them. Try out the video capabilities and you'll be amazed.
 

Chacon

Senior Member
Nikon have seriously pushed the video boundaries in DSLRs, I'd say that video is almost as important to photography to them. Try out the video capabilities and you'll be amazed.

I've shot a few hundred hours of video on my D800 and I am extremely pleased with the results. However, I'm not so certain Nikon has given much of a priority to video. Actually, these days it is hard to know what Nikon's priorities are and that makes me pretty uncomfortable as I consider upcoming productions.

The main reason I'm sticking with it so far is that I have a major investment in Nikon lenses. But it has been a year since the D800 has come out and there have been no firmware updates that address video, especially my biggest issues:

1. Shutter Priority mode does nothing in Movie mode. Yes, I'm usually shooting full manual mode, but there are times with run-and-gun situations where I just have don't have the ability to adjust exposure as lighting conditions change quickly. I'm usually preoccupied with focus. As with all of my other video cameras (and with the D800 in Stills mode), I want to lock the shutter speed that corresponds with the frame rate (e.g. 1/60th second for 30fps) and let the camera adjust aperture (or ISO as a last resort) to maintain correct exposure.

2. Although the power aperture feature is really useful to set up the shot, it doesn't work once recording begins.

3. Likewise for audio. Would be great to adjust it once recording begins.

4. Just occasional flakiness which requires me to cycle power to regain control of the settings.

Item #1 is the only issue that has forced me to grab one of my other cameras when I really didn't want to. The issue for me is that I need to see some kind of gesture from Nikon that they are serious about the video capabilities of the D800. I'm keeping my options open, but I am paying close attention to non-Nikon options for future productions. But I'd rather not.
 

RRRoger

Senior Member
I just read a review about Dexter being shot with the D800. They took the HDMI signal out to an external recorder, played it next to the ARRI footage and said it looked comparable. Then they took the compressed footage off the SD card and still said there's was no noticeable loss of quality so they suggest just shoot it as is without any external recorder needed.


If you can not tell the difference, then it is best for you to just use the camera.

There actually is a huge difference between the highly compressed camera file and RAW footage.
You will need a large High Resolution Monitor to see it.
The Raw files are also much more editable.

However, I use an external device primarily for uninterrupted recording.
My end product is DVD and BlueRay disc for home TV.
I can set the Ninja II up to record all day unattended if I want.
(This would require an external power source for my D800)

As for a dedicated D800 Video forum, I think this one serves us better as it is.
 

Scott Murray

Senior Member
Video can be in many forms aswell, as a timelapse is video. So it isn't neccessarily just using the video function and I am sure people would like to learn more about timelapses and how people do theirs and if there are any tricks/tips that can be handed out. I see this is already in a "Videography" section of the forum, maybe just create some stickies that are relevent and what people would like to see/read about.
 
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