That's true, Paul. I can't see any technical reason why Nikon disallows changing the aperture in live view manual. The camera body clearly has full dynamic control of the lenses while in this mode, as evidenced by the way it handles auto iris and the workaround I described. It's just a matter of firmware at this point. Maybe Nikon will address it.

But I hope these workarounds (which are hardly workarounds at all) will get you to reconsider your cancellation of the camera. It's really quite impressive, and the footage is beautiful.

I'll see what I can do about posting the hdmi output signal. I tested the output on my 60" Sharp LCD TV. I watched it switch from 1080 to 720 when I turned on live view.
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Edit:

I hate to keep revising myself here, but I'm posting as figure these things out. It looks like the aperture does not exactly dynamically change in live view when you turn the compensation dial, but there is some sort of simulation of its effect going on - the image is getting gained down to match the effect (but DOF does not change). In order to make your adjusted aperture take effect you must press the shutter release. Then the aperture closes or opens to its set value (and the gain change is reset). You don't have to leave live view for this, and you are still able to dial in your exposure in live view, but it seems like you must remember to hit the shutter release button or you actually might be shooting at the wrong aperture! That's a weird one. And I'm afraid it will take more than a firmware update to get the iris to dynamically change when in live view.

I've been keeping up with news on the D7000 and it really has my attention, but one question I've not seen pop up yet is whether or not it still has the old MJPEG 720p mode as well as the new h.264 - kind of like the GH1 - so users with older computers can still playback/edit the files easily?

I know about cineform etc, but for SDE's when I'm away from home shooting surfing it would be great to have the old MJPEG files which work quickly and natively, without converting to cineform which would take all night on my aging laptop.

The h.264 is one reason I didn't jump on the Canon bandwagon, but with the changing pace of technology I think I may have to just suck it up and buy a new laptop as well as a DSLR!

VIdeos please fellas!!!!
Very curious about your stuff....

24P D 7000 footage choppy ... No?
 

I just got my D 7000 and started some test shots. the picture is gorgeous but when I pan the image as expected at 24 P... chops way more than expected. So I lowered the Shutter speed to 60th of a second and it made not difference. I am viewing the footage on a 720P monitor....any suggestions? If I can't solve the problem I will return the camera to Best Buy at a $200 restock fee. Thanks
Ted

What do you mean by "chop?"

If you see tearing (horizontal separation) then it's not the camera, but the sync between your monitor and the movie playback (assuming you are playing back on a computer).

Or are you seeing something else?

Eric,

Have you tested editing some of your footage already? How do you find its color compression especially in the shadow areas?

Test footage I've seen seem to show aggressive color compression with the blacks coming out blocky when pulled up in post.

What are your observations?

Ted

Ted,

Have you seen original footage yet, or just YouTube/vimeo? Because I see nothing of the sort in my footage. Blacks are quite clean.

Here's a very underexposed shot I brightened (in Photoshop). There is some posterization, as you would expect, but no blockiness.

aside from the ones on vimeo i downloaded the files posted by macgregor where he tested it side by side with the 5D.

http://www.macgregor.autoecstasy.com/d7000/l03.wmv

http://www.macgregor.autoecstasy.com/d7000/l04.wmv


But I believe he stated he applied some curves to these tests.

I think the "wmv" at the end might be the problem!

i think you're probably right.

Eric,

Thanks for the heads up via pm, ok, I'm still crossing my fingers on this beast, what I'm liking is its naturalistic and warmish tones.

If its not much, how about something really short, like a 3 sec clip, indoors, say in your room, with just light through the windows or somethin, at 24P, expose for the highlights or the areas hit by the lights, at a supposedly clean iso of say 100-300ish at full open in your lens. You can let the windows blow if its hard.

That scenario should have some high, mid and shadow areas. Maybe you can zip that and send it via email.
I'd like to throw some curves at it and maybe do some 3 way grade and see how the codec fares.

By the way, a lot were happy with your initial workaround on the aperture which I reposted at the other forum.


Ted

Are you talking about the 'Jello effect'?

RE: 5D and D7000 videos
 

I know that I do not have the most discriminating eye but the 5D MK II and D7000 videos were very interesting. One thing that was very obvious to me in the first vid was that the 5D sky was almost white but the asphalt had a blue tint. On the other hand, the D7000 had a more realistic looking blue sky and grey asphalt which is what I would have expected to see with the naked eye. And in the second video, I thought the D7000 vid looked shightly sharper. Like the lettering on the signs, for instance. And the colors looked really pleasing. At a minimum I would have to say that the D7000 looks to be very competitive with the 5D at half the price.

Greg,

When macgregor posted the clips, this is his statement together with those clips,

"Both cameras with "same" settings: neutral, sharpen at 0, same WB, aperture and shutter speed.
Nikon footage has been slightly sharpened otherwise it was too soft from camera.
Curves have been applied for clips in order to extract as much DR as possible but no colour grading."

So sharpening was added to the nikon footage on those samples, here's his initial observations when shooting it side by side, note the word"initial". :-)


"Well, this is what i´ve seen so far:
- i think 5D resolves more detail than the d7000
- d7000 tone curve is more filmic (more natural colours)
- nikon has more dynamic range (in highlights and shadows)
- canon has less aliassing
- I see less compression in the nikon but I need to test more."

The Nikon image does look softer, but it also seems to have less aliasing (not more). Look at the wires running along the top of the frame on the first clip. The Canon shows the classic stair stepping of aliasing, while the Nikon does not.