ohh - I wondered what the advantage was to living on the other side of the Atlantic - you guys get an extra hour - now it's all making sense - I'll look forward to seeing your review- thanks/k

And their day starts earlier as well.

Ok, I'm still confused. Im not a technical guy so please excuse my ignorance but can someone clear a few things up for me.

On my consumer 3ccd panny camcorder, I can set the following in manual mode:

White balance
Exposure (ie F stop)
Gain (add or remove gain)

Now as far as I understand, the d90 in video mode only allows manaul focus. Thats fine, but can you set the WB?

Am I right in saying that you CAN choose an apature value (F number) and lock it in place whilst shooting video? ie the cam will keep that chosen F value regardless of light level?

(If so, I understand that this would be unusable if I wanted to pan from say a room where I had set exposure and locked it, to a bright lit doorway, BUT if I wanted to light a controlled situation, I could lock for that scene which would be fine).

Does the D90 add gain? If so, can this be locked in place also?

Sorry for the dumb questions...

James

Is this much different from shooting with a camcorder's LCD? Camcorders are a little better in that their LCDs do fold out and rotate.

I want the answer too so I will repeat the same question

Is the HDMI output clean with no overlays?

Does it output live at all? output while recording?

At least you can look through a camcorders viewfinder on a bright day. The Nikon viewfinder blacks out and you only have the LCD screen. I found it near impossible to see the LCD screen whilst shooting on a sunny day.

Vincent - sound like , if one is going to shoot video with the d90 , they need a hoodman , or similar device /k

A camcorder might be the better option - for now.

Very true. Critical focusing will also be a problem in most cases, and the Gen1 versions of these cameras have little to help. There are some new ~$500 HD monitors with HDMI inputs. manhattanlcd.com (shipping because I just received mine) and smallhd.com (not shipping yet.) They don't have zooming in the monitor, but perhaps the DSLRs will pick up in this area.

With all the limitations in its HD video, can I say that it would be better for me to wait for an improved version of the D90 or even consider Canon 5D if I really want to do some good HD from a D-SLR?

Yes, I think the second generation of HDSLR's will iron out many of the limitations of the current cameras.

I hope after Christmas there will be a quick drop in the price of all video capable D-SLRs and also the emergence of more brands and models of such similar products.