Nikon comes to the party... D7000
 

Nikon | News | Digital-SLR camera Nikon D7000

"The D7000 is equipped with the D-Movie function that enables recording of high-definition movies (1920 × 1080p, 24 fps) exhibiting superior video quality. Autofocusing during movie recording is possible using contrast-detect AF. When the focus mode is set to Full time-servo AF (AF-F) and the AF-area mode to Subject-tracking AF, the camera automatically maintains focus on a subject moving throughout the frame in three dimensions."

Dpreview reports MPEG4 AVC/H.264 compression, and HDMI output to "full HD TV"

Should be a big improvement over previous Nikon video implementation, and a serious rival to the Canons if they're giving it plenty of mbps.

It appears they've left off 25/30p in 1080, which makes it a no go for many of us (including me).

Glad to see Nikon getting more serious. I think the D7000 actually has more features than most people expected.

Floris the video in that link is awesome... skew and aliasing isn't obvious (though though I wasn't looking clinically).

The question is, what is the bit-rate, and is there any chance the HDMI output is uncompressed?

Such a pity there is no 25p

I would also be very interested if the HDMI out will put out uncompressed. If it does it might be a great match with a nanoFlash.

-Garrett

[QUOTE=Garrett Low;1569498]I would also be very interested if the HDMI out will put out uncompressed. If it does it might be a great match with a nanoFlash.

It's the million dollar question an since Nikon don't make video cams there is no conflict..... would be an all out winner if that's the case.

Chase Jarvis is going to test HDMI output resolution + bitrate of the video footage.

Too bad there is no 720p/50/60 only 24/25/30. I also would like to see 1080p/25.

Otherwise this looks to be a winner for Nikon.

I agree this looks like an excellent development from Nikon.

As for being a game changer - well yes, full 1080p out over HDMI is a really great step (if it does it correctly, unlike my 7D) but for it to be a real "Canon killer" we'll need HD video shooting without significant aliasing....which is probably too much to ask for at this stage in DSLR video development ...but we all want that....and for me 25p is an absolute must as well.

Exciting times ahead!

I wasn't looking clinically either but the skew is blindingly obvious to me.

Steve

i was looking (but not clinically) but i couldnt see any that jumped out, certainly not like previous Nikon DSLRs, some shots seemed like they coped better than the Canons would..

I wasnt particularily impressed with the video though, not sure if it was due to the camera or the filmaker, for a test video it would have been nicer without the extreme post processing. Image looked very soft and aliased and the AF function was going a bit wild at times

Nikon still refuses to do 1080 30P or 720 60P in their DSLR. Would have been a nice upgrade to the D90 I had but I am glad I went for the Canon 7D instead.

It would be nice to take all of my Nikon to Canon lens adapters off and just use a Nikon again. The camera looks good, price is right there at the 60D level. No articulating screen though. I wonder of the AF is actually usable when shooting video? I see skew all over the place but it is more of the jello type when the camera was moving, not the skew on moving vertical objects as much. Looks like a viable contender to the 60D and 7D, I look forward to checking it out. Even though I have the 5D MKII, I would pick up a D7000 in heartbeat. Luckily I live in NTSC-land so the lack of 25Hz frame rates is not a deal breaker for me.

Good job Nikon! Finally seem to be getting into the game.

Dan

The exclusion of 25/30p is harsh.

Yes Dylan, and quite baffling I'd say. Surely when making these cameras they must look at what the competition (ie Canon) is doing and at least try to keep up? Could it be that Nikon are so non-video oriented that they don't realise that there are 50hz countries out there, and feel that 24P is sufficient?
Steve

HDMI willl always be uncompressed, no camera compresses and then decompresses the output for HDMI out, and for good reasons: runing both H.264 encoder and decoders eats up battery life, and latency, the decoded image will be way behind live events and unusable for monitoring. Getting a 4:2:2 uncompressed tap for HDMI is the easiest solution in hardware. The downside will be if the output is scaled, like it is with the Canon 7D.

Bit-rate that question has been partly answered by "20 minute movie recording times", as the bit-rate upper limit will be restricted by the FAT32 filesystem (used on flash media) that is 4GB max.

4000MB*8bits / (20minutes * 60seconds) = up limit of 26.6Mb/s.

This is too low for I-frame, but very near the okay long GOP 24Mb/s PH mode of AVCHD.

HDMI output
 

Thanks David for the calculations on the hdmi output. Sounds like it will not be much of an advantage to pair this camera with an external recording device?

Best

David
http://www.lunaseafilms.com

If they don't do 1080p30, it's likely that the sensor is slower than Canon's, and will likely have a longer rolling shutter latency.

Still, if the HDMI output is clean, that would rock. The only remaining big questions are how they handle aliasing/resolution, and how good the encoder is...

"Sounds like it will not be much of an advantage to pair this camera with an external recording device?" (Quote David W)

David W, I'm not sure I follow you? If the HDMI does not scale its output (like the 7D does - but it's still better than SD resolution) then that would be very useful (monitoring in Full HD and/or attaching a Nanoflash or any of the alternatives we're all reading about).

As was pointed out by David N (and on various other forums today) the bit rate/video encoding format is likely to be 24Mbps AVCHD. The hope is the HDMI output (i.e. uncompressed) whilst RECORDING is not scaled down from 1920x1080p (as is the case with my Canon 7D)....if Nikon have done "the right thing".

Even if the HDMI output whilst recording is the real deal, I think it would be a complete overkill to attach an expensive Nanoflash (or alternatives) to this camera if the sensor still produces horrible aliasing and skew, jello etc. (all of which I've just seen very easily on the linked to videos - some "mud" too).

But what do I know - especially about Nikons!

EDIT, I see David N has replied about this at the same time as I posted too.

No, I was stating the opposite. As live HDMI will be uncompressed (and likely the better 4:2:2 not 4:2:0) there will be goods reason to capture directly into a CineDeck or similar. However, Nikon may have selected to scale the output which reduces the advantages of live external capture.

There is also the issue of menu overlays. Is the HDMI video available clean?

Hdmi
 

Hi Andy, I was just interested in getting opinions on whether recording to an external deck was advantageous or not... Personally I hope we can hook the camera up to something like the nanoflash or Ki Pro Mini and get amazing results.

David
http://www.lunaseafilms.com

Yep sure - if the HDMI is "clean" as was so well put that that would be great (i.e. 1920x1080 and no red dot a la 7D!!). I guess we'll all know soon.

As an aside just had a quick look at your website - some amazing stuff you've done :-)

EDIT: Just found this info on the Nikon site.

720p25 is listed....no 1080p25 though. Also, note the info (in the link) about the codec it uses.

D-Movie | FAQ

I guess I was too generous on the data rate. Best is 19Mb/s which is not great, based on the 2900 MB file size.

Is the movie function spec the same as the d3100 then?

Yeah, aren't the Canon's upwards of 48Mb/s ??

That would be nice, but I'm afraid it's lower than that. The Nikon FAQ at D-Movie | FAQ says that a 20 minute recording is 2900 MB so that works out to 19.33 Mb/s

I believe they are 44Mb/s

What about exposure control in video modes?? Please let there be manual shutter control!!

Dear David,

If the HDMI output is clean, and the camera does a good job on downsizing the image to 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720, then a lot is to be gained by an external recording.

But, these are big "If's".

But, one day we expect cameras to meet these conditions.

And when they do, the nanoFlash will be ready.

The 12 to 20 minute time limit will be gone, a higher-bit rate can be used, and if one does not record in camera also, some of the heat generated while recording in camera will not be generated.

More than one camera manufacturer is working hard to eliminate these "If's".

In my opinion, it is just a matter of time.

The Nikon "Tips" page pretty clearly indicates that you have full control of aperture, ISO, and shutter. However, you need to set the aperture before entering Live View.

Canon HD bitrate is approximately 38 Megabits per second.

The was the older 5D firmware data rate, both the newer 5Ds and 7D have datarates in the mid 40s. But these are I-frame only numbers, and can't be directly compared with long GOP compression as Nikon much be using.

Sorry for my silly question.... but why isn't there a 1080/25 setting? Did I miss it somewhere in the specs? Did Nikon just forgot it or is this camera not meant for sale in Europe?

regards,
Erwin

See my post in this thread (No 22). No 1080p25, only 1080 available is at 24p. Yep, I agree, that's half the world that won't even look at this camera - not a silly question but a very silly marketing gaffe on Nikon's part. Either that or it looks like that extra fps was a technical "step to far" for the capability of the processor...I wonder if it gets hot too? I guess we'll know the facts soon.

Actually, I've lost a lot of interest in it since I've found out just how low the bitrate is on it's codec. If the HDMI out is clean and full res then my thoughts on it might then improve but I doubt it'll supplant my 7D, or those of many others, (for DSLR video work) as things stand.

Or just use D, Ai, Ai-S lenses with a manual aperture ring?

Dan

My guess is that the 20 minutes recording limit is coming from here. It is definitely not the file size. As the time limit seems to be the same for different resolutions and thus is not limited by the file size.

Related to this, how long would the battery last when filming? The last hiking trip I only had to bring 2 batteries and 2 tapes for 2 hours of filming, which was just enough for me. If this is worse with a SLR I think I will stick with my camcorder. I was hoping I could take the D7000 instead of a camcorder and a DSLR in my backpack.

Well the other half of the world doesn't use 24p either(29.97). It is a universal film rate. PAL countries have been watching 24fps film on PAL sets for ever(imagine that!). Yes I know what you are complaining about, but it isn't a deal breaker. Lack of 60p might be for me though.

Are you meaning 60p in 1080 or 720 recording mode?

I only know of one camcorder that does the 1080/60p and that's the Panny TM700 line. I think maybe there is a Sanyo that does this as well; not quite sure though.

But a DvSLR that would do 1080/60p would be amazing....granted it was implemented correctly.

720p60 of course.

24p is the universal film rate.
The D7000 does 23.976fps though (NTSC), not true 24p.
Half of the world does seem to be forgotten...