Nikon D7000
 

Dang it, looks like this camera will not have a swivel screen based on early leaks. I'm waiting for official word tomorrow of course, but also seems it may only have 1080/24.....not 1080/30 or 720/60. Pretty dissapointing if this is all true, such a shame that Nikon was first to the game with DSLR video with the D90 and their first follow up after Canon has dominated is looking pretty weak.

Having said all that, if the video tests and samples look as good or better than a T2i, still may consider getting due to all the nikkor glass I have. I know about adaptors, but I like the idea of auto focus working, if I can adapt this cam for decent ENG type work. Still-camera wise it looks like a beauty successor to the D90.

Video wise, looking forward to reviews to see how the hdmi-out works (ie: resolution changes etc), will the auto focus with face tracking actually work good in video mode, full manual controls?, bit-rate of codec, mic input? etc. etc.

Camera has just been released, and Chase Jarvis did a road test:
Nikon D7000: Camera Road Test With Chase Jarvis | Chase Jarvis Blog
(Source: Twitter)

Stills look absolutely stunning, but I am not too sure about the video capabilities. Judging from the available video samples, the bit rate seems lower than eg. Canon or the hacked GH1. Furthermore, no 60fps and only 24fps available at 1080p.

Anyone any idea about manual controls?

Scott rinckenberger on the CHASE JARVIS blog says:

"The rolling shutter is quite a bit better than we had seen in the previous cameras. There is manual exposure for shooting video."

I'm very happy to have those options on a Nikon.Looking good so far:)

So do you think HDLSR guys this would be a camera that can compete with 7d or 5d?
What about this autofocus§?

Canon knows what they are doing when it comes to video - I think Nikon sees it as more of a novelty, although they could accidentally get it right. And I wish they would get the video right - I have always liked the Nikon ergonomics - the layout of the buttons, the fact that I rarely have to go to the menus, etc. The handling alone sold me on a D70 years ago over any of the comparable Canons at the time, even though the Canons arguably had better picture quality.

Right now, I have a GH1, and almost never use autofocus - there is nothing worse than the camera hunting for focus because your subject moved, which is almost a certainty in video. That being said, If the D7000 has better dynamic range than the GH1, I would most likely trade... I guess it all comes down to pixel-peeking - I want to see some raw footage!

There is a whip pan shot in Chase Jarvis's video, and I have to say that the rolling shutter skew seems almost nonexistent.

I also did some 3D tracking tests and my software was able to track the moving camera very well. So I have high hopes for the rolling shutter (or lack thereof) on this camera.

But - the video looks quite soft (even considering the compression) and there seems to be very bad aliasing and color artifacts around the thin wires in the video. Hope this is reduced in the production version of the camera.

If the video looks halfway decent, this camera will be a great thing for my visual effects work.

Some people are saying they see skew all over the place, I personally am not looking for it and don't really notice. It's definitely much better than the D90 and no different than any Canon video I've seen. However, with no 1080/30p or 720/60p, no swivel screen like the new Sony's and new Canon, bit-rate suggests 24Mbps max whereas Canon's and hacked GH1 are much higher from my understanding.
These specs do leave something to be desired compared to the direct competition and now seeing this info, I doubt Nikon has addressed aIiasing/moire either.
I was hoping for more, but I'm sure for certain projects I could live with the limitations, and still make nice images. I thought most of the Chase Jarvis stuff looked great, so maybe all these specs don't mean all that much at the end of day.

As long as you know what you're looking for I don't know how anyone could not see the CMOS skew effect - it's present in all the shots that have any sort of camera movement in them in the clip. Whether it's objectionable is a personal thing (I didn't comment on that), but it's definitely there.
Steve

Steve,

I am curious where in the video you see the effect. Can you point me to a shot or area I may be missing? Because I have downloaded the Jarvis video it and don't see any pronounced evidence of it. I am actually quite surprised.

I do see some strobiness from bad shutter choices, and I am not fond of most of the lighting and photography, but I see little skew and no obvious jello-cam. For me it's a not a personal thing but a technical one. Much of what I would shoot with it will be 3D tracked.

Thanks.

Between 11-13s, 35-39s, 43-48s, 1.05 -1.13 at various point etc, etc. Any time the camera is handheld you see a wobble that is not just camera movement but rolling shutter (at least in my estimation). Is it objectionable? Don't know really, not my place to say. I actually think we're getting more used to seeing at and so noticing it less and not thinking about it or being bothered by it.
Steve

Thanks Steve.

I looked at the section around 1:13 and I don't see wobble. What I see are the artifacts from stabilization ("smoothcam" or some other process) in which the foreground is smooth but the background remains wobbly (because there is no way to stabilize them both - this is fairly typical). But I really don't see any jello.

Also, on whip pans with vertical lines, I see very little skew (see attached grab). Again, I find it surprising and I look forward to actually testing the camera when I get it (like I tested the EX1) and see if this is for real.

I'm guessing around 1/100 second from top to bottom. Anything better than 1/60th is a major step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned.

Yup sorry Steve I agree with Eric and that frame grab is a perfect example of what is NOT there - ie skew or jello of any flavour (in any noticeable way)

Im very concerned however with the bit rate of the codec - still to me the colours in the night scenes appear a tad yellow/muddy and given they are touting the 20mins recording time - to me that just confirms a lower data-rate than the canons. Which if true is a complete fail given the other features this camera lacks compared to the cheaper canon.

Still I've got my fingers crossed we see some magic when the first head to head shoot outs start appearing - I've got thousands of dollars worth of Nikkon glass Im itching to use (without an adaptor)

You really think Nikon have cracked the jello issue in a £500 SLR and Sony and Panasonic haven't in their purpose built video cameras costing over 10 times as much?
Maybe you're right, and what I'm seeing is not CMOS rolling shutter effects, but that's what it looks like to me.
No worries.
Steve

What really got me first was the shot of the white van parking with the top part of the frame showing electric wires against the plain sky. You can see the stair stepping aliasing on the wires typical of the D90 and D5000, (which we have.) Also the detail on the trees and hair seems soft.

Personally, the video results posted did not seem something better than what the Canons and GH13 has. (I also have the 7D.)

I am a Nikon guy with a lot of Nikon glass and Nikon accessories. I have been waiting (impatiently) for an upgrade for my D200. I did some back to back testing with a friends D300 but I couldn't see any reason to justify the outlay of cash to move to a D300. However, I am very excited about the D7000. As a still camera, it seems like it will easily out perform my D200 or the D300 in every respect. I had hoped for a little more in the video department, such as 1080/30P. But you do get manual exposure control and autofocus. So there are some trade-off's when compared to it's competition. The bottom line is that it looks like the D7000 will be a significant upgrade from my D200 as a still camera and it looks like it will perform really well as an HD DSLR as a bonus. A win - win, for sure.

Ted, look at the wires again. I think what you might be seeing is multiple wires that are wrapped together which give them the stair step look you might be seeing. I don't see that in other areas like some of the other wires or the railroad tracks that curve through the shot. Or even the stripe in the road that curves through the scene. I might me wrong, but that is what it looks like to me.

I had noticed that too - the stair-stepping seems to be from the twisted wires. But there is still some pretty bad color fringing around all of the wires.

Really looking forward to testing the D7000.

Greg,

I think you might be right. In fact, I do hope you are right.
This could give hope to Nikon users.
Heck I'm brand agnostic, in fact we were nikon users before the 7D. We still use nikons for stills.

I viewed it again, and I think the stairstepping that I thought do looks like the twisted wires only, the rest of the thin diagonal lines did not exhibit the defect.

Hhmmm... now lets see how fully manual this baby is.

either way, its a step forward for nikon, in the end the consumer wins.

Ted

What about the bitrate? What do you guys think?

I think the bitrate is too low. Others' math has calculated it at about 20Mbps.

Another thing that was obvious on the video is the same thing that Stu Maschwitz lambasts Canon for on his blog:

ProLost - Blog - Ha ha very funny Canon now get back towork

The stills that the D7000 can take (at the end of the "making-of" clip) reduced to 1080 look far, far sharper than anything shot in the video mode. Very similar what happens on the Canons. So I'm not sure we should expect great leaps from this camera, even though the (slightly soft) video looks quite good.

Ted is this a camera that you are considering buying? I have seen your 7D work on exposure room and it is beautiful. I am torn between the 7D and this new 7000 because I have nikon lenes.

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the kind words on my work, I am definitely looking for a 2nd camera that can back up my existing 7D, OR something that can turn my 7D into a back up.

Right now I am on "stand down" mode since a lot of new offerings are popping out!

I use basically nikon mount lens on my 7D with the exception of the tokina 11-16 since it doesnt have an aperture ring so i HAD to get a canon mount.

When I dove into this DSLR form factor, I always had this thing in the back of my mind that this is a short phase that will soon pass as a natural evolution since we began shooting with 35 adapters and snapping it on to our video cameras, creating a bazooka like contraption( JVC w 35adapter+80-200mm= 1 meter long) we jumped for joy with the Canons DSLR video. The D90,D5000 we have never quite cut it.

Now this d7000, I will wait for the feedback from real users how truly manual this is.
How well it does with fabric patterns, and some charts.

The 60D is a slightly watered down version of the 7D, I need HD monitoring while recording.

Then theres the GH2, BUT weve seen how good 50mbps is on the Hack GH13, so we also wait for real user feedback. Also, I cant go for too much crop factor.

Then theres the slightly pricey AF100, hhmmm, it is cheaper than my JVC HD200.
But it will not offer the full frame of the 5Dmark II.

So I was also thinking of getting a 5D mkII, but Im kinda hoping they'll offer a better mark III?

Darn it.

D7000 - Best Rolling Shutter Test So Far Posted
 

...and it's not looking so good:

YouTube - Nikon D7000: Rolling Shutter Test

Looks like about 1/48 second read time from top to bottom.

Looking at two successive frames of one of the faster pans, I see 600 pixels of horizontal offset and about 300 pixels of skew. Eh.

However the images look really nice. Still buying.

Yeah have to say I never really cared about the RSE back in the day and I care less about it now. Would I like it if it wasnt there? Sure, but its just one of those things that goes in the 'just be aware' bag and on you go with the actual job of story telling.

Im much more interested in finding out how good the auto focus works, low light comparison tests with the 7D and of course if it outputs a full 720 or 1080 signal over HDMI while in record. So anyone who happens to get their hands on one...instead of spinning the camera back and forth like an lunatic perhaps some other much needed tests could be performed. Yeah?

Surprise surprise.
As Paul says, it's quite possibly not something that people will care about, but it's definitely there - how could it not be unless they'd suddenly made some astonishing technological advancement (in a £500 camera).
Steve

It won't take anything an astonishing advancement - just a speed up of read times. Rolling shutter doesn't need to be eliminated - just reduced to a point where it becomes truly negligible (at least for my purposes).

It will eventually happen in low priced cameras - it's already been greatly improved in higher priced ones, such as Alexa and RED.

I'm getting more and more impressed by the D7000 after seeing footage like this:
YouTube - Nikon D7000: Cinematic Look
YouTube - Nikon D7000: Light & Shadow
YouTube - Nikon D7000 vs. Canon EOS 60D
YouTube - Nikon D7000: Details & Depth Of Field

All footage by Fenchel Janisch.

Obvious bias Nikon guy, on the comparison video, look at the dof difference between the 2 cameras, just that alone tells me the guy does not make a fair comparison, will not trust this guy.

Yes something is definitely up with that comparison - there should not be that much difference in DOF if lenses and aperture are essentially the same. Happy to be proven wrong but it seems while he states the aperture is the same on both - he never mentions the focal length either lens was set to.

Still either way the Nikon is looking mighty fine.

You were definitely right. Now the ?'s are how much pixel binning and is the HDMI signal a clean 1080 23.976?

This video seems less biased:
YouTube - Nikon D7000 vs. Canon EOS 7D

Prefer the 7D in this one, but it's a close call.

Its interesting that the few comments it got on youtube also claimed a canon victory but I have to ask on what grounds? All the canon shows is a more saturated image while the nikon is more flat - something you could either tweak in camera or in post. Other than that the images are almost impossible to pick apart - claiming a winner here is akin to awarding a prize fight via points decision based on the colour of the guys shorts.

I really want to see low light comparisons with prime lenses and the use of correct white balance WITH movement - cars, people etc.

And for the love of god would someone PLEASE F'ING PLEASE tell us what type of signal the d7000 outputs over HDMI while recording.

All these tests, short films shot, days of using the camera, etc. and NO ONE thinks to check the HDMI?!??? One test had the camera mounted on a remote control *HELICOPTER*... BUT NO HDMI TEST!! At least stick it into a tv and see if the menus show.

LMAO - I searched all the way through the hundreds of posts on chase jarvis blog and it seems the test units they were given did not have active A/V out working - so maybe all these test cams out there dont have HDMI enabled so this is why it has not been reported?

One can only guess...unitl the units ship it seems :-(

Dose anyone know the latest release date for the D7000? Mid October or the end of October?

The last reliable source I have found says delivery will be the end of October.

Well at this stage all I can say is the HDMI better be full HD out in record and/or that autofocus better be LIGHTYEARS ahead of the canon's - I was playing around with the 720p overcrank on my T2i on the weekend and Im back in love with it.

Cant believe this is is missing on the Nikon, along with 1080p 25...

We should know something soon. It sounds like the official release date is this Sunday. My local Best Buy has 3 D7000/18-105VR kits in stock but won't put them out yet. Others have had better luck. Best Buys in other cities are already selling them. Maybe we will have some answers soon.

If not "Dead I want them Dead!" J/K but you get the point Nikon.

Reading the magazines seems the Nikon will be on the same level of the CANONS.....
So what i gotta buy if i wanna shoot videos with these awesome hdslr? I have nikon lenses since i was a kid too.....