I'm currently using a D700 and D300s and I'm looking for a camera to shoot video in addittion to something small that the wife will actually use. How good is the video from this camera? Can I change apertures while shooting a video? What video features does this offer compared to my D300s which is limited to 5 minutes and cannot change apertures while recording. Long story short, I want to shoot video with more control that what I currently have and I'm hoping based on cost this is the best way to go. BTW, 24mp would be nice to have too!

mVs
D2H, D2x, D300s, D700 & D800

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

well the 3200 or the new just announced 5200 would fit the bill for short movie Clips.

If you want to get into serious video. a dedicated video Camera would be better.

Phillip M Jones, CET
pjonescet@comcast.net
http://www.phillipmjones.net/

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

I was in a very similar situation with my wife too! We ended up getting the D5100 basically for video alone. I preferred the flippy screen (and the price!) of the D5100 over the D3200, although i didn't look too seriously at it. The extra pixels won't make any difference for video as all DSLR's footage is around 2 megapixels.
I believe the video exposure controls of the D3200 are the same as the D5100 i.e. ####! You can't manually adjust aperture at all unless you employ various annoying work arounds! I think the D7000 is a little better but its only the D800 and D4 that allow real manual control in video. Even the D600 has been crippled in the same way. Its very annoying and has made me consider more than a little, trading in for canon.

In auto or semi-auto mode though, the video is great and capable of good stuff... We've shot 2 short films on ours and they look good...its just the handling that sucks!

Its a great little stills camera too. Although of course it won't autofocus with older lenses but thats irrelevant for video I guess.

As a footnote I've just sold my D700 to get a D800 so I CAN have manual video control!

Good luck!

Dickie

www.shootingheadz.com

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Oh and the video time limit on the D5100 is 20 min. I believe there is a way to hack the firmware to remove the limit completely, but I dont fancy messing with that!

www.shootingheadz.com

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

>If you want to get into serious video. a dedicated video
>Camera would be better.

True if you just want videos of children running around or holiday memories. But if you want to make narrative films or something more creative, a DSLR will give you much a much more 'filmic' quality. They can be a pain in the arse to shoot with though!

www.shootingheadz.com

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Thom Hogan has been writing on D3200 here and there is a nice comparison to D5200.

http://www.bythom.com/nikond3200review.htm
http://www.bythom.com/currentdslr.htm

Bottom line the D3200 sounds decent as a video rig and very good as a stills sensor.

We were just discussing Shutter Priority when shooting video, and using exposure compensation to control Aperture, and it worked on my D7000. Would need somebody to try it on a D3200, but my guess is it will not work (based on reading between the lines in the D3200 manual, but I could be wrong). The fact the D3200 allows "Manual Movie Settings" may be more important than controlling Aperture. And the fact that the D3200 allows for an incoming stereo microphone is an advanced feature.

Also consider a J1/J2/V1/V2 for video and stills for your wife. The on sensor PDAF is a feature unrivalled on any DSLR and could be particularly handy for video.

Best regards, SteveK

'A camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.' -- Dorothea Lange
My Nikonians gallery
My Nikonians Blog

Dickie and StevenK thanks for the responses.

mVs
D2H, D2x, D300s, D700 & D800

Visit my Nikonians gallery.