Nikon Speaks Up about Manual Control

An reader sent this in via the Contact form:

Yesterday, I contacted Nikon about the D-movie feature on the D90 and new D5000 not having manual controls, and asked how real the possibility of an upcoming firmware update would be to allow manual control over the shutter speed and ISO. Well, the reply was very promising, and I thought ProLost would be the best place to share it. Here is the email in full:

We are working on an update to these equipments to allow manual selection of shutter speeds and ISO during D-Movie mode and more, we don’t have a specific date but we are working on it. We have had customers with the same concern and we are trying to improve on this firmware update.

Again, Thank you

The Nikon Team

Chapter 12: After the Subway

As seen this morning on my NAB panel. My contribution to the emerging Subway Short genre of camera tests, with a twist—what happens after all the furtive subway hopping and phone dialing?

To see it in HD, you’ll have to go to YouTube (and please do). Why no HD on Vimeo? Vimeo only serves HD at 24p, and as lovely as that sounds, this short was shot on the Canon 5D Mark II, and therefore is at 30fps. Vimeo does a sloppy convesion to 24p, which is not cool.

Update on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 12:18AM by Stu

Thanks for all the comments below guys! Here’s a bit more about the short.

First of all, I knew going into this that the look would be that heartbreaking amalgamation of cinematic depth of field and video-like motion. But I didn’t want to send this camera back to Vincent without shooting something. I still consider this a “camera test” more than anything—but really, the best thing to come of the shoot was meeting The Stunt People, who are both the stars and co-creators of this peice. I can’t wait to work with Eric and the guys again.

I won’t shoot anything else at 30p, ever, unless I plan on slowing it down to 24 for a slight overcrank effect. I’ve seen entire TV commercials shot 30 for 24 though, so it could happen. I harassed the Canon reps at NAB today about 24p and manual control until they were afraid of me.

As devastating as the frame rate is, the lack of shutter control is worse. Most of the nasty video-like look is due to the camera’s frequent use of a shutter speed slower than 1/60. There’s plenty of 1/30 in there, which is the equivalent of a 360 degree shutter on a film camera—an impossibility, and a dead giveaway of video origination (even at 24p).

There are people out there enjoying some luck converting 5D Mark II footage to 24p using tools such as Twixtor and the built-in retiming in After Effects, but that only works on relatively sedate subjects (of which this short has very few), and even then, there are often nasty artifacts to contend with. Didn’t we choose this camera for image quality?

I had two big dropouts, which I fixed using that After Effects retiming feature. I immediately bought some Extreme IV CF cards to avoid that problem in the future.

I shot with only one lens, the slow-but-lovely 24–105mm f/4 L lens that comes with the camera. We were mostly at f/4.0, although I can’t be sure we always were. I stopped doing the half-twist trick after I realized how much I and the camera would be moving around. So as shallow as the DOF is, it’s nothing compared to what we could have had if I’d used primes. That’s a big leg up the 5D could have over the Panasonic GH1—even with slow glass, the Canon can make DOF that can be used as a storytelling aide, such as the moment where our guy sees the two adversaries in the distance. They appear as blurry blobs, just the way I like ‘em.

I had access to the full Redrock Micro DSLR bundle, but wound up stripping it way, way down to something I could be agile with and still pull focus as a solo operator. This stripped-down rig became the inspiration for the rig I blogged about recently.

I used my HV20 for one shot. Can you guess which one?

Editor Gregory Nussbaum (The Spirit) cut with Final Cut Pro, using half-res proxies that I rendered out of After Effects. When we locked the cut, I exported XML from Final Cut and imported that into Premiere Pro CS4. I then loaded that Premiere project into After Effects. From there, I could create precomps for each clip and swap in the full-res originals.

I color corrected entirely using Magic Bullet Colorista, sometimes several layers per shot. Many Power Masks to sculpt lighting and lift faces, as well as to unite the various colors of light present in the location. I used no lighting or bounce of any kind during the shoot.

I used the DV Rebel Tools to add new color correction layers and to preview my work using a configurable thumbnail view. The result is a deep, but very organized After Effects timeline.

And I will post more about most of these things!

Canon Rumors

Everyone got all excited today about the rumor that Canon might build a camcorder around an APS-C sensor. APS-C is the sensor size that Canon uses in everything from the Digital Rebel line to the 50D, and it’s not that different from Super 35 motion picture film, or the RED One. It’s only a little bigger than the Four Thirds size that Panasonic is using in the GH1.

Click to embiggen

Canon Rumors then posted a follow-up with more alleged insights into Canon’s strategy, including this gem regarding DSLRs:

People in charge think that 30fps on 720p and 1080p is very good and will not improve it on this generation. PAL 25p is too close to 24p and is not contemplated as an option for now.

Hear that? It’s the sound of every filmmaker on the planet flipping off Canon with one hand while they Click To Buy a GH1 with the other. Except those that weren’t planning on making any films until 2010 that is.

These are just rumors, of course—and unatributed, incoherent non-quotes that don’t ring true to me (and are widely regarded as sketchy), so I’m holding my tongue (and my new 5D Mark II, more on that later). I wasn’t even going to post anything about this, but folks were starting to post comments about the camcorder rumor, so I thought I’d give y’all a proper place to do it.

Attention Canon, Nikon: Video DSLRs Are Not For Who You Think

There’s a lot of talk about how the video features popping up in our DLSRs mean that photographers all need to become videographers. Alex Lindsay went on about it in TWiP #72, “The Death of Still Photography,” stating that photographers need to learn to shoot video, because their cameras now have that feature.

Bullshit.

Saying that photographers need to learn video because their cameras now feature video is like saying that you need to start a rock band because you bought an iMac that ships with Garage Band.

It is entirely possible that you are a still photographer who has no interest in video. That is OK. You know what’s pretty cool? Photography.

The only reason for a photographer to start doing video is an interest in shooting video.

And that has nothing to do with the convenience of a crippled video mode on the camera you were already going to buy.

Look at the photo below. On the left is a Canon video camera. Here are some of its features: 1920x1080 video at 60i, 30p and 24p, image stabilization, a crazy-long zoom range, mic input, lightning-fast autofocus. On the right is a lens that many Canon shooters are likely to have in their bag: the 85mm f/1.2L.

The lens is bigger, weighs more, and costs three times as much as the video camera, which is two years old.

Why do we expect stills shooters to suddenly take up video, when—if they had the slightest interest—they could have been carting around an HD camera for two years without taking up any more room in their bag than a prime lens?

Especially when you look at the specs of Canon DSLR video: Non-standard frame rates that don’t work for many countries and distribution methods, poor audio sync, overly compressed video that’s impossible to edit, zero manual control. Except focus, which is 100% manual with few tools to help you.

I said above that photographers should not feel any pressure to learn video if they don’t feel like it, but there is one class of shooter who might feel a legitimate pressure to add video to their toolkit: those photojournalists who are journalists first and photographers second. If you see your job not as bringing back photos but as bringing back a story, then by all means, you should probably be embracing video.

But not the crippled, crap video that your SLR just happens to have.

Get a video camera!

You’re a journalist. Capturing the event is all that matters. You don’t want to be fussing with manual focus and fiddly menus. You don’t want that mirror slamming down on you right in the middle of a once-in-a-lifetime-shot. You want perfect autofocus, fingertip manual control, instant-on video and a killer zoom range, in a form factor designed for what you’re doing. You’re also about to learn the hard way that whenever video is important, audio is twice as important, if not more.

You want a video camera. You could start with the one above that costs less than your cheapest lens and fits in the mesh bag you use for a water bottle. After that, if you like it, you might find out a secret: there are some really great professional video cameras out there that do even more.

The video mode on these DSLRs is exactly wrong for photojournalists.

But it’s exactly right for filmmakers.

Filmmakers have time to set up a shot. They control their environments. They can try a few different primes before settling on one. They expect to use manual focus. They plan on dual-system sound recording that involves a whole extra person who thinks only about sound. And they are gaga for shallow depth-of-field.

Filmmakers, at all levels from pros to wannabes, are thrilled about video DSLRs. They get it, they want it, and they know how to work around the limitations—if they even think of them as limitations.

Everyone else is scratching their heads wondering if they suddenly need to learn to pull focus, and if photography is dead. They’re so busy hating on the crippled video in the new 500D that they’ve overlooked that it’s a great stills rig at a great price.

Photographers: Don’t let gear define what you are. Do what you love. Cameras are cheap.

Filmmakers: Your camera will come, someday.

SLR manufacturers: You are making these things for filmmakers whether you think you are or not. Start listening to us. We want so badly to give you our money.

Update on Saturday, May 3, 2014 at 10:56PM by Stu

Thanks John.