800E is first camera I've had with video and I'm a little gun-shy. Am I right in assuming that the camera can be managed just about the same in "movie" mode (e.g. focus, apeture, ISO, etc.) as in camera mode? Can someone provide me a fly-by overview of the concept of video with this camera. The user guide is useless. Apologies to all the pros.

I'll give it a go. I haven't done much more than some tests with my D800 at this point, but I've shot movies (scripted amateur film shoots) with D7000 and D90 in the past.

If you look the 'exposure mode' table on page 60 of the manual, you'll see that the camera only allows you to change the exposure settings (shutter speed, aperture and ISO) partially in aperture priority mode and fully in manual mode. As a result, you're going to want to learn to shoot video in manual mode if you want good results.

Flip the live view dial to video and press the live view button. Set the camera mode to manual. Typically, you will want to set your shutter speed to half the frame rate that you're shooting at, so for 1080p/24 use a shutter speed of a 50th of a second, for 1080p/30 use a 60th of a second. The reason for this is that it gives the best 'cinematic' speed, emulating the rotary shutter of film movie cameras. You are free to break this common 'rule' for effect. Set your aperture as required to get the desired depth of field for your shot. Now set your ISO to get the exposure that you need. Err towards underexposure if you are going to pan a shot such that light levels change. Frame your opening shot, hit the record button. That's it really.

If you are going to use automatic exposure for convenience, I suggest setting the AE-L/AF-L button to toggle AE lock. That way you can meter for the scene prior to shooting and lock in the exposure that the camera will use before taking the shot. This will avoid unsightly exposure changes as you pan or zoom.

You will run into limitations - the dSLR is not as easy to shoot video on as a cheap camcorder and will not give as good results without some considerable effort. It is not as featured as a dedicated movie camera and will not be as capable without certain accessories. You'll find that the onboard sound will pick up any camera noise, specifically focus motors. Likewise, watching a camera refocus a scene isn't necessarily pleasant unless it's an intended effect. You'll want to manual focus a lot of shots, leading you towards such arcane video tools as rails and follow focus gears. It's not easy to see focus on an LCD screen in sunlight, so you may end up wanting an eyepiece finder that clips over the LCD screen.

Depending on what you are shooting, you may be able to break your recording up into 'scenes' and record in very small clips at a time. You can later use an editing tool to stitch these scenes together into a tidy looking movie.

If you want easy video of family vacations, I suggest a camcorder in addition to the SLR. If you want to do something creative with personal video or make great independent movies for fun or profit, it's a steep learning curve and there's potentially a host of new accessories to buy to get the most from it, but the D800 is equipped to produce stunning results.

Don't visit my Nikonians gallery yet. It's empty.

I've experimented several times, and all the comments in the first reply ring very true from my limited trials, but I'll emphasize two components.

I can't hold the camera still enough for good video. Unless you like that camera-jumps-around like the Blair Witch Project effect, you almost have to have a monopod, tripod (better), or sit the camera on something while shooting. Very wide lenses work better of course.

I think this is partly caused by the very high quality of the video. When I play it back on a large monitor, I am immediately struck by how very sharp and clear the video is, then slapped in the face as it jumps around.

I shot some bear cubs with a tripod and a 200-400 lens. THOSE were great (though still had some jumps as I panned less than smoothly). But everything with my normal lens handheld is disappointing. And being able to use your lens collection is a powerful argument for using the D800 instead of a dedicated video camera. I was shooting stills, and on a whim flipped over to video. They came out amazingly good, like being right up in the face of the bear, and because I already had it on a tripod were acceptably steady.

THe second thing is focus. Anything happening fast or moving around does not focus well. In auto-focus it hunts a bit much, in manual I find it hard to see on the screen when I am in sharp focus because of the first problem -- you are trying to hold the camera still, get a close look at the screen (the sun is likely behind you shining on the screen), reach around and turn the focus on the lens (oops -- that was the zoom), glance back to look at the LCD and find the action is no longer on your screen and start all over...

I'm sure it takes practice, I have tried it seldomly (didn't really plan to do much video). I can see it has great promise, but technique is needed. Or lower expectations.

I should comment my very limited prior video experience was with a shoulder mount camera and electronic eyepiece screen. Big and inconvenient, but stable and easy to see and track, zoom and focus. Today's handheld cameras with similar size LCD panels -- unlike the prior poster, I'm not sure they are really a better choice than the D800 (see prior comment about lenses, and remember then you have to carry all their gear along as well on your trips).

Also, I added a Rode Stereo Videomic -- that almost entirely removed camera focus motor noise and significantly improved the audio. Fits in the hot shoe and plugs into the side panel. Nice accessory, and that particular one has a good formfactor (about the size of a small prime lens you can stick into a camera back, some are long and awkward to fit).


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Exactly what I was looking for. I did purchase a Senheiser mic and that should help the audio. Thanks for taking the time.

My girlfriend is both trained and gifted in movie making, and is currently using a D7000 for video production. Her 'rig' for shooting videos consists of a video tripod with a fluid head (allows for smooth panning) an Easom dSLR cage (adds a rails system to the camera for mounting accessories as well as a top grip that allows you to hold the camera low to the ground) a Jag35 D|Runner (adds front grips and a shoulder mount for stability) a D|Focus (adds gears and a focus wheel to more easily manually focus lenses while shooting) a Z-Finder and a small external monitor on an articulating arm (for viewing while shooting and reviewing). I provide her sound with a Rode shotgun on a boom pole, handheld or on stand feeding to a Sound Devices field mixer into a Zoom H4N.

http://www.easom.com/
http://jag35.com/drunner.html
http://jag35.com/products/viewfinder.html
http://www.sounddevices.com/products/mixpre-d.htm

This is the cheap end of the extra tools needed to fill out a dSLR camera into something capable of taking on dedicated movie cameras. There are still drawbacks - rolling shutter from the behavior of the CMOS sensor and moire from the fewer lines read from the large sensor, but they are reasonable trade offs for the ability to use SLR lenses which cost a tiny fraction of the cost of lenses for dedicated high-end professional movie cameras.

My girlfriend would like to get cranes, gliders and dollies to give high quality camera motion on sets. Since I'm more into still photography I'm looking primarily at lenses (which she will also use) although I do lust after the new Sound Devices outboard video recorders...

So that's what's in line for spending if you go down the video road.

Don't visit my Nikonians gallery yet. It's empty.

>This is the cheap end of the extra tools needed to fill out a
>dSLR camera into something capable of taking on dedicated
>movie cameras.

Gosh, I think I need to show my wife this list, and convince her that my hobby of still photography is actually a bargain!


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I decided to order a bit of audio stuff Over the weekend after a fair bit of research. All prices in AUD which is similar to USD but the Zoom H1 will be cheaper in the US. Prices include delivery.

This is not a pro level kit but will be for home video.

Zoom H1 recorder and accessory kit $139
HTDZ HT-320A shotgun microphone (eBay) $35
Audiotechnica ATR3350 lavallier microphone (eBay) $30

All up, I spent $205

The Zoom H1 is the off camera recorder to get unless you buy the more expensive Zoom H4N from all reviews.

There is a longer shotgun mic (HTDZ HT-81A) for about the same money but it is not so good for on camera mounting due to the length. From all accounts these cheap shotgun mics are remarkably good quality and up with some of the Rode's etc so we will see how I get on. There is another smaller Chinese shotgun for about the same money called the SG-108 and apparently it has a lot of background hiss evident. If the shotgun does not work out I will get a Rode.

The ATR3350 seems to be the lavallier microphone that most DSLR video guys use and while I could find it in Oz, it was double the price.

Also on eBay there is a Chinese blimp to cover your shotgun mic for $140 and complete with a boom for $200 that is also very well regarded. The blimp has a removeable extension so you can use it for short and long shotgun mics and includes 2 furry covers for both size options but I did not bother with this as this is only likely to be for home use and I know from prior experience with video cameras that you can't rely on the built in mic as it picks up a lot of camera noise so I used to use a small shotgun mic in the past.

If I decide I want to mount the shotgun mic on my DSLR and find that it needs a shock mount, I think I will just grab a Rode SM3 which you can find for about $50 in Australia. (CameraPro has a listing for it).

If you do try searching eBay for some of this stuff and you can't find it on their .au site, try again on their .com site.

Just so you know, I already have Adobe Premiere 4 for the editing and a Manfrotto video head.

If the shotgun mic works out ok, you could build a complete near pro level audio package for your D800 for just over $400 with the blimp and boom based on what I have located.

If you want to know more about this stuff, just hit Google and check out some of the YouTube reviews it throws up. Plenty of examples of these microphones in use.

Interesting that I discovered Rode is an Aussie company but their gear is no cheaper here because of that

Rod W
Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Audio for video does not have to be expensive but it does require thinking through the needs of the particular session. Getting mics close to the source trumps any sort of long distance pickup. Shotgun mics are often thought of as being able to have "reach" like a telephoto lens but that misconception can lead to frustration. A shotgun mic is one with a very narrow polar response and just like any mic, has a better signal to noise and reverberation field ratio when close to the source. Their advantage is high degrees of off axis rejection. The can lower noise, and stray sounds if you also want any off speech or action sounds to also be rejected. For example if there is more than one person in a scene, a shotgun mic will result in a big difference in both level and tone character between different speaking talent.
Getting close with a bad mic will often sound better than a great, $5000 mic from a distance.
Getting close also sounds more realistic in that it is closer to being in sync with the action. Sound travels approx. 1100 feet per second so miking an event 100 feet away will be out of sync by 90ms. We notice delays of about 30ms or greater and our brains start to cut the implied connection between the sound and the image. Tiny sync differences between lips of a lip-singing performer and the sound we hear is irritating and distracting, taking away from the intent of the production. Amateurs often rely on camera mounted mics and ignore who when they zoom, the sync changes and the audience is distracted. Getting the mic close and off the camera takes care of that. Wireless mics can be quite useful and can be had for a modest amount,although some can be thousands.
The two weakest parts of modest productions is panning/zooming and poor management of the sound. Neither one needs to be solved with expensive solutions if the needs for a particular session is addressed directly and creatively. Most often, one size does not fit all. Gathering a collection of different audio tools like pressure zone mics, lapel, boom omni(non-directional), cardoid(heart shaped polar pattern) or hypercardoid mic(shotgun), reflector mics and their booms, fish poles, stands, wireless packs, various cables and extensions, a mixer, gobos and isolation panels,and adapters can all be low cost or some homemade yet return excellent results if applied creatively, closely, to the source and its acoustic environment. Having a dozen totally different $4-20 mics and homemade gobos will deliver better more pro results than a $5000 mic used applied haphazardly. Electronics such as mixer and recorder are pretty high performance for reasonable prices, so don't be too anxious to get the popular high priced video oriented mixers. A $80 Behringer will do well and few people could hear or even measure a real difference between it and a $1500 video specific model.

Rode started by importing a very low cost Chinese made condenser mic element, about $5, and mounting in a case that looked something like some classic old German mics and offered them for $300 or so to the exploding home recording and hobbyist studio customer base in the late 90s. A lot of other companies started making mic with those large diaphragm elements. They never really were a pro mic manufacturer but developed a good following with hobbyists and amateurs who could not spring for a higher quality mic. They really got a boost from getting into the home video market early so most the newcomers assumed the company was producing quality audio gear. I doubt you would find their mics in real recording studios, broadcast, or scoring stages. Some of the little pocket reorders are excellent with better specs and performance than was available at any price for the first 60 years of the recording industry. Buying one aimed at the video industry will be expensive but one with very similar specs might be only $130 for a model aimed at the musician market.
Just like with photography where skill, a compelling story and resourcefulness trump high cost gear any day in creating something people want to view, sound for video is exactly the same.
Stan
St Petersburg Russia

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I did buy the Chinese made SG-108, and I must say I'm not impressed at all. It does add a lot of hiss noise just buy plugging it and you can hear it throughout the recording. (I was recording a choir performance) It also picks up any camera noise.

I wonder whether a more expensive mic won't at least not add unnecessary and unwonted noise.

Also on the subject of rigs if you want to go that way, this one was interesting and cheaper than most.
http://www.edelkrone.com/e-store/11-the-pocket-rig-8680177980187.html.

I still have not got my head around the rail systems and focus pullers etc but I doubt I will ever get that far into video. I can see a LCD shroud/ eyepiece would be very handy but not sure if there is one for the D800 as it has a larger screen than previous cameras.

Rod W
Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Well, this isn't exactly how to use the D800 in video, but I'll throw it in since the thread seems to have meandered somwehat...

Here's the link to a Phillip Bloom YouTube video re: what he thinks of the D800 (and the D4 and 5D Mark III) video performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdC3ySCE7ZM&feature=g-all-c

Enjoy...

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I REALLY enjoyed that video....Thank you !!

>Well, this isn't exactly how to use the D800 in video, but
>I'll throw it in since the thread seems to have meandered
>somwehat...
>
>Here's the link to a Phillip Bloom YouTube video re: what he
>thinks of the D800 (and the D4 and 5D Mark III) video
>performance:
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdC3ySCE7ZM&feature=g-all-c
>
>Enjoy...
>

Me too - really enjoyed Phil Bloom!

I can attest, in an anecdotal way about the D4 video. I have filmed in FX and 2.7 crop so far and I noticed right away the sharpness difference, even not being an expert. Being a birder, the 2.7 crop video is right up my alley anyway so that part is good.

Looks like the D800 video is very very sharp. Good to hear. Not sure Phil is right about the D800E, I believe Nikon has indicated there is no Moire difference between the D800E and D800 when shooting video.

A person could combine a D4 for low light and 2.7-crop video and D800 for all around video. I wish he had tried the DX crop mode on the D800 (missing piece of information).

But I do want to also shoot video in low light and not always necessarily in 2.7-crop mode in that venue, so I do wonder if the D4 sharpness (on FX and DX) can be improved via a firmware upgrade? Would be nice.

Couple other video tips I recently came across, if you are going to shoot video handheld, use a wide-angle lens so that you have some forgiveness on depth of field (and you don't notice the jitteriness near so much). TBH I have only just started trying this, but I am very excited about the possibilities with this technique. I plan to use it a lot on my upcoming vacation.

Don't pan or at least not much nor quickly; set yourself up and have your subject stay in or move through and even out of the frame. Even with my gimbal, panning is very jumpy. Or if you are going to pan, get some of those rigs the gentleman's wife is using. I love what they do with bars, someday maybe for me.

As for focus, I use a method I call the RRRoger method, which is to use AF-S, tap once to get your subject in focus, start recording, and ideally do not refocus during the clip. Clips where autofocus is hunting in AF-F can be really distracting whereas AF-S, even if your subject is moving in and out of focus slightly is not distracting. If your subject really moves a lot, tap the focus again to bring the subject back in focus, but you are probably going to have to cut out the segment of the clip where focus was lost and you reset it.

My V1 continuous PDAF right off the sensor is very good and not distracting, want that someday in all my DSLRS! Apparently AF-F on the D800/D4 has been improved yet again. I will at least give it a try, especially perhaps with facial recognition and see what it can do.

I always read Stan's sound advice (below) with great interest too.

Shooting and watching video is awesome!

Best regards, SteveK

'A camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.' -- Dorothea Lange
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Quote Steve
>Don't pan or at least not much nor quickly; set yourself up
>and have your subject stay in or move through and even out of
>the frame. Even with my Gimbal, panning is very jumpy. <Quote<<<
>
RRRoger: I've tried several panning heads. The SLIK Movie head works really well for me on a TriPod.
If on camera, I also prefer the Azden SMX-10 Directional Stereo mic.
>
Quote Steve
>As for focus, I use a method I call the RRRoger method, which
>is to use AF-S, tap once to get your subject in focus, start
>recording, and ideally do not refocus during the clip. Clips
>where AutoFocus is hunting in AF-F can be really distracting
>whereas AF-S, even if your subject is moving in and out of
>focus slightly is not distracting. If your subject really
>moves a lot, tap the focus again to bring the subject back in
>focus, but you are probably going to have to cut out the
>segment of the clip where focus was lost and you reset it.<Quote<<<
>
RRRoger: I tried the AF-F focus on the D800 with mixed results.
If your subject moves around a lot and waves his hands while talking,
It can cause a lot of refocusing that looks really bad in playback.
Last Sunday after a few minutes, I had to stop the recording and switch to AF-S.
It had worked well with the previous subject who moved more slowly.
>
Quote Steve
>My V1 continuous PDAF right off the sensor is very good and
>not distracting, want that someday in all my DSLRs!
>Apparently AF-F on the D800/D4 has been improved yet again. I
>will at least give it a try, especially perhaps with facial
>recognition and see what it can do.
>
>I always read Stan's sound advice with great interest too.
>
>Shooting and watching video is awesome!
>
>Best regards, SteveK<Quote<<<
>
RRRoger: I am having better luck with AF-F on my V1

I am wondering if they can and will come out with a small MirrorLess FullFrame Nikon (D600?) in the near future with 1080P at 60fps, and FullTime AutoFocus that really works well for Video?

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To support full time PDAF in DSLR video, Nikon just has to marry their on-sensor PDAF technology from the V1 with their DSLR sensors. Unlike the V1, a DSLR could rely on its existing mirror-based PDAF for normal non-live view focussing. But when the mirror is raised for LiveView the DSLR could rely on the on-sensor PDAF tech.

It's potentially such a revolutionary change that I don't see a D600 having this, but I'll be right there with you in line if it did

Best regards, SteveK

'A camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.' -- Dorothea Lange
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This is becoming a very interesting thread. Stan, thanks for taking the time for a detailed reply.

My Zoom H1 arrived today and I had a 10 minute play in amongst coming to grips with my D800 which I picked up yesterday. I must say I am really impressed with it. I plonked it down in front of a radio, turned on Auto Levels and let it rip.and honestly, on playback, it was as good as the radio itself. Anyway, I've put it aside until i get my head around the rest of the camera and perhaps by then my sound gear from China will be here All $60 worth!.

I find that I cannot hand hold a video camera so it is steady enough for my liking. It was different when you had a great heavy lump on your shoulder. You need a fluid head and I just hope the cheap Manfrotto one I have is strong enough for the heavy camera.

I have got a gadget I made here after some advice from a video fanatic. Picture a monopod with an arm out to one side you can hang on to and a weight on the bottom. I made mine out of 1" square aluminum tube that connects with plastic connectors and stuffed a long piece of 3/4" steel bar up the inside and attached a cheap ball head on top. The idea is that as you walk around this gadget will steady the camera as the weight makes it like a pendulum so there is less movement at the top end. Total cost was $0 and it works quite well even while almost running. Don't ask me what it is called.

Now for a couple of other tips from my home video days 20 years ago. With a moving subject, give room at the front for the subject to "walk" into. Back then, they said keep your scenes at least 10 seconds long but today, on TV, they are a lot shorter. Disguise camera movement when panning by zooming at the same time. Do a few cut aways for variety.

I had the pleasure of hearing a guy who won an Emmy speak a few years ago for a cartoon done with plasticine. He won against the big guys Pixar and Disney and could barely fund the flight to attend the awards. He reinforced Stan's comments as it was drummed into him that video is "a good story, well told" and that is how he won the award!

Rod W
Brisbane, QLD, Australia

I took my D800 to work today with the intention of giving my 17-85mm lens for a run and as luck would have it our Videographer Daniel dropped in and as soon as he spied my camera he was off with it to do a test run around my Document Production centre. We were very impressed with the results seen from the back of the camera and he just loved the depth of field. I spent this evening acquainting myself with Premiere again so I can assemble the 8 minutes of raw footage into something useful. I learnt a lot watching his camera angles etc.

The big challenge is working out how to view the video at Full HD without a Blu Ray burner. The first simple render took an hour or so but I encoded it wrong so I had to try again.

The inbuilt sound is surprisingly good.

we may try and do a side by side studio shot next time he has a job on.

Rod W
Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Quote>The big challenge is working out how to view the video at Full
>HD without a Blue Ray burner. The first simple render took an
>hour or so but I encoded it wrong so I had to try again.
>
>The inbuilt sound is surprisingly good.<Quote<<<

Creating a DVD up to one hour for TV (720x480) is quick & easy with CyberLink PowerDirector,
but so far only my original or spliced MOV files have been full HD 1080P.
Even the BlueRay output seems to be degraded somehow?
Perhaps RAW footage from HDMI output could be used to produce something better?

As for in camera sound, I have not tried it on the D800 because it was so bad on my D90, D5100, D7000, and V1.
Instead I use an Azden SMX-10 directional, stereo mic that is well insulated by rubber.

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>Creating a DVD up to one hour for TV (720x480) is quick &
>easy with CyberLink PowerDirector,
>but so far only my original or spliced MOV files have been
>full HD 1080P.
>Even the BlueRay output seems to be degraded somehow?
>Perhaps RAW footage from HDMI output could be used to produce
>something better?

That's my point. I can create video at 1080p and watch it on my PC but I want to be able to watch it on my TV. I can play videos to the TV via my Synology NAS which can stream media to my Sony Blu Ray player via gigabit network but so far I've only been successful at watching at 720p and 1080p is not supported.

I am going to try again using 1280x720 which is recommended for HD Vimeo recordings.

If that does not work, then my options are to output from my PC to the TV via HDMI or burn to Blu Ray.

>
>As for in camera sound, I have not tried it on the D800
>because it was so bad on my D90, D5100, D7000, and V1.
>Instead I use an Azden SMX-10 directional, stereo mic that is
>well insulated by rubber.
>

Yes, I have purchased a Zoom H1 and a couple of external mics are on order. The D800 sounded much better than some of the Canon 5D samples I've heard on Youtube.

Rod W
Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Specific question for you and general to everybody - does your TV have a USB memory stick input?

I have always detested DVD technology on my computer and I really don't want to repeat that experience (only worse) with my Blu-Ray player

Best regards, SteveK

'A camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.' -- Dorothea Lange
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I don't think mine has but that is not really the issue. The issue is are the files you put on the USB able to be read by your TV Or Blu Ray/ DVD player?

There are hundreds of parameters and many video codecs so if you are using a pro level video editor like Premiere that I am using, it is a steep learning curve and if you get the settings wrong, it can take many hours to encode the video during the final rendering process.

For Premiere users (and I just started to be one) I had an important learning tonight. You need to create a new sequence rather than accept the defaults and make sure you choose the correct DSLR preset. 1920x1080 29.997 fps. That all mean the difference between encoding your assembled sequence in minutes not hours. I'll try and document the settings I settle on.

I coded to render 3 different encodings last night and they were still not all done almost 24 hours later.

Redoing my sequence with these settings, I actually have some spare CPU Capacity on my I7. But am still waiting on the render to complete.

Rod W
Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Well, I've finally got it sorted.

From Premiere 4.0, I created a new sequence using a sequence preset of DSLRp30 @ 29.97. The help notes says:
"For editing most DSLR Formats (like the Canon EOS Movie Full HD series) recorded in 1920x1080 square pixels (non-anamorphic).1 Progressive HD video at 29.97 frames per second.48 kHz audio."

Encoding this sequence to h.264/VimeoHD gives a 1280x720 Progressive video which I rendered directly to the Video folder on my Synology DS1511 NAS across the network.

From there, the video is visible from my Sony BluRay Player as the Synology acts as a media player. I was more than happy with the video quality on our Full HD TV despite it not being a 1080p signal.

I have stuck the raw footage (7.5 minutes) up on Youtube here if interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSbTux4CY3U

Take the time to read the comments about the video. One day I will get around to assembling this a bit more professionally. You can see that I work in Document production. Lots of machines. Everything was manual focus with a 16-35 F2.8 lens.

And yes, Australia is really down under. Even our photo copy paper is upside down!

Rod W
Brisbane, QLD, Australia

I didn't like the look of that paper cutter AT ALL - be careful out there

Best regards, SteveK

'A camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.' -- Dorothea Lange
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>I didn't like the look of that paper cutter AT ALL - be
>careful out there

OT I know but It's actually safer than it looks. You have to use two hands to operate it , so to hurt yourself, you would need to put your neck under the blade but you can't do that as there are a series of light beams above the table so if you break one of those, it can't work! I had to get Daniel to adjust the camera angle As the strap broke the light beam.

This is only a baby at 520mm long, it is about half the size of it's full sized cousins that sell for around $250k. Changing the blade is the scary part as it is razor sharp. I insist they are placed on the floor so they can't fall off a bench while they are bolted into a case to go off for sharpening!

Rod W
Brisbane, QLD, Australia

.
>Even the BlueRay output seems to be degraded somehow?
>Perhaps RAW footage from HDMI output could be used to produce
>something better?
.
>

Have a look at the Atomos Ninja field recorder which will allow you to record to HDMI and also provide an external monitor to make it easier to focus. Very well priced even in Australia from about $785 depending on how much HDD space you buy with it.

http://www.atomos.com/ninja/

Rod W
Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Hi,

If you have a website, like Smug Mug, or use Vimeo, you can upload clips which play back at full HD (possibly limited by screen rez).

RM

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>Hi,
>
>If you have a website, like Smug Mug, or use Vimeo, you can
>upload clips which play back at full HD (possibly limited by
>screen rez).
>
>RM

I found that Adobe Premiere has presets to record to YouTube and Vimeo. The Vimeo HD is the highest resolution of the provided options and it uploaded fine to. YouTube without any encoding required so it was available as soon as it uploaded.

Rod W
Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Here's some random dog stuff that I shot last weekend on the D800. It's fab for both photos and video.

http://vimeo.com/42362367


Neill

Website: www.epicdream.co.uk

Nice look to the video!

Best regards, SteveK

'A camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.' -- Dorothea Lange
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Nice, no motion artifacts on the tree trunk and so on.

Thanks,

Rob

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Oh!!!!!!!!!!! What a beautiful video. I enjoyed it very much.
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I have the D800 and the day after I received it I did a quick run-through of the manual and set the movie settings to 1080/24; normal quality and the microphone to auto. Using the 16-35 f4.0 Nikkor lens (manual focus, auto exposure), a Manfrotto 3021 tripod and Manfrotto 486rc2 ballhead, the ISO at 800 and the program mode in effect I did a movie of a friend's funeral for his family. On one battery charge I accomplished two 29 minute sessions and two 18 minute sessions. When the battery charge was just about gone, the funeral concluded! The family played back the movies and were VERY pleased with my results. Just wing it, you might be surprised at your results too. (I've since added the AC adapter and power supply for the next time I need to do video).

"Great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together." Vincent Van Gogh
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Nowhere do I see whether or not the built-in mic shuts down when there is an external mic attached. I assume it does??

Yes the internal mic shuts down.
Otherwise you would still hear the lens noise among other things.

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