Tag: nikon

3200FPS?! Getting the most from the Nikon 1 Series cameras

The new Nikon 1 series has the distinction of being the only camera in its price range that can shoot 400FPS at 640×240. Now that doesn’t sound like much resolution, but for web delivery – it can be usable.

The way the camera comes stock, you wouldn’t want to use the high fps mode, the sharpening makes the image look like it came out of a barbie cam. Aliasing and Moire are present as well -but there’s a cure. Take advice from other video shooting large sensor consumer cams, and lower the sharpening. It not only reduces the sharpening artifacts, it also lessens other artifacts as well. No its not perfect, I wouldn’t even say that its pretty, but its the only option for $599.

Here’s the methodology of my madness. First, we have only 640×240 pixels to work with – we need to make the most of them, so shooting around it in anamorphic, or cropped 16:9 is a must. Secondly, we need to get those few pixels as accurate and neutral as possible. Fortunately, the sharpening setting fixes this perfectly. It makes a usable image from something once unusable.

Next we need to add information. At best this footage is going to look like DV transferred 16mm film. I’m ok with that, so were going to need to add grain in most cases – and evaluate how much on a case by case basis. Were also going to need to add a bit of diffusion. Both of these will be added in a 1080p timeline, so that the downsampled footage will have more information.

Workflow if more FPS needed: Add to 1080p timeline, and use twixtor. Render grading and effects on footage on a second pass so you have more options to work with. Additionally, you never want to add a grain effect before using a program like twixtor, especially with footage with so little information.

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Nikon D7000 Video Mode – Mini Review

Spent a half hour with a D7000 and here’s my brief conclusions

Likes:
Solid Construction, well laid out menus
Shutter and ISO control while shooting
Dual SD slots

Dislikes:
No aperture changing while in Live View. If using a electronic lens, you must stop recording, exit liveview and change aperture.

Conclusion
Without going into the video quality (which matches Canon at 1080p – moire and all) the inability to change aperture while in liveview is a deal killer unless you plan to only use manual lenses. What was Nikon thinking?

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GH1 vs GH2 low light anamorphic comparison

Here’s a quick little vlog testing the differences between the GH1 and GH2 (exact same settings) at ISO 1600 and 3200 respectively.

The GH2 has come quite a ways forward from the GH1 in terms of processing high ISO video.

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iPhone 4 Commercial ft. Morgan Freeman

Following the success of the original iPhone commercial released in August 2009, we created a new spot based on all of the features that are available with jailbreaking the new iPhone 4. This includes using “Display Out” and the variable functionality of BT Stack to use Bluetooth devices like Wiimotes and keyboards to extend features that are not implemented well with just a touch screen. Another objective of the spot was to give light to the iPhodroid project witch allows android to run on the 3G, and can currently be used to hack PS3’s with version 3.41 firmware. Akira created a hilarious “iPhone” song for the commercial and impersonated the voice of Morgan Freeman to lend a familiar tone to the spec commercial.

Shot on the hacked Panasonic GH1
iPhone 4 commercial on youtube
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Hacked Panasonic GH1 vs the world

It is now late 2010. We’ve seen all the new HDDSLRs (vDslrs) for the year. As usual, we continue to see the same old problems come up in new models, and even other new problems arise as well. Here’s why the Hacked GH1 is still your best bet.

Hacked GH1 vs GH2

Admittedly we’ve seen very little sample footage from the new camera. But what we have seen hasn’t been encouraging. Even though the bit rate has been increased and the codec has been fixed, the samples that are available show the following:

1. Codec falling apart in pans

2. Crippled HDMI by blinking record icon

3. Serious amounts of edge enhancement

Sure, these may be fixed in the retail model come December, but at this point don’t count on it.

Hacked GH1 vs Canon 60D.

The 60D is a perfectly viable choice if you don’t have the cash for a 7D.  The image quality is good, and is exactly the same video picture that is present in the t2i, 7D and 5D. That is to say, in 1080p mode your really only getting a little better than 720p resolution, and compared side-by-side in video mode, all of the Canon cameras look blurry compared to the Hacked GH1.

Hacked GH1 vs Nikon D7000

Again we’ve only seen a few samples from this camera, and 2 years after the D90, Nikon has finally caught up to Canon in resolution, and moire. The D7000 and the 7D are very similar looking in video mode, which is great for Nikon to catch up, but there is certainly no reason to upgrade to this camera for it’s video function over say a Canon t2i. (We are not talking photography specs here, video modes only)

Hacked GH1 drawbacks

The GH1 has no been around for over a year, and people know things can get pretty ugly.

– In the dark, FPN takes over the picture and makes it unusable outside of Neat Video.

– There is no hacked Live Video monitoring option as of yet (not holding my breath that it will ever happen)

– Audio input into the GH1 is a joke, but I think it’s insane that people would try to use the camera alone for EPK stuffs anyway

– No Digital Aperture control for whiny Canon EOS and Nikon G lens owners

Still, even with these drawbacks, I dare you to compare the 1080p and 720p modes of the hacked GH1 to any other still camera available today.

Oh and I expect the AF100 to walk on water and perform all sorts of miracles, but for that we still have to wait a few months, unless Panasonic sends one our way for testing.


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