video in camera?

[KarenDay]

hey ya'll!!

i have a nikon D60 and im wanting to get a video camera just for home videos. but then im wondering if i should just get a video camera, or get another SLR body - one that does video?

any thoughts? are the videos filmed on SLRs bad quality compared to normal video cameras? i wouldnt be getting a super flash video camera.

thanks :)

[arthurking83]

Nikons(as far as I'm currently aware) all pretty much do bad video. The D7000 so far looks to be pretty good.

All consumer level DV cams seem to have very small sensors that may produce lower quality low light/high ISO images. And also that you're stuck with a single fixed lens.. even though it zooms in an out, as far as I know, there is no equivalent lens on any consumer grade DVcam that can produce a field of view equal to the likes of a Sigma 12mm lens.. or anywhere near that. They all seem to max out at about 28mm (equiv).. so if you want wide angle video(which would be my main use :th3:) waiting for a properly implemented video feature in a Nikon body may be worthwhile(that's what I'm going to end up doing).

I already have a DVcam tho, so when I need to capture video of stuff, with reasonable quality. It's old tho, and doesn't do HD and 1080P or any of that nonsense. I'm also not a big fan of the compressed video files they all seem to do either.. but that's what they offer.

if you are looking to amortize still and video gear onto one collective group(which makes sense to me), I think that the D7000 currently looks to be about as good as you may want as far as video goes in Nikon circles.

[KarenDay]

what about the D3100? ive been looking into that tonight and it looks alright with video?

[arthurking83]

one of the biggest problems with video in the D90 was something called skew. The video would wobble sideways when the camera was panned quickly. I remember Ving posted a thread once that it could be processed out using a program called VirtualDub, but you really don't want it to begin with.
The D3100 is still pretty new and I haven't yet seen any reviews of it, especially the video ability. Skew is an endemic problem with the way the sensor works, and (I believe) has to be dealt with by the cameras internal processing to be properly dealt with. Don't know enough about it, but I still remain skeptical of it.
D3100 is only mono sound too(D7000, from the specs, says stereo with the help of an external mic). Don't underestimate the usefulness of an external mic either. You may only want to do it for fun or for posterity(as I initially did) but those annoying clicks and scrubbing sounds as you handle the device can really ruin a video.

From the specs sheet, the D3100 does do full HD at 1080p but the real problem is that it only does so at 24fps(which is acceptable but not really very good. it needs at least 30fps... and more = better!
The difference is that in fast motion you may get a flickering rendering reminiscent of very early silent movies. Also the file format is only MOV(Apple's video format) and not one I particularly like. Raw video is the best thing you can have, and I've had very limited experience in editing compressed video, but that was way back when.... so I don't know much about how well the more recent incarnations of compressed video can be edited(I'm just skeptical of it). I Have many gigs of home video footage that I haven't accessed in a long time now(due to recent history) and I haven't kept up to speed with the latest generation of video editing software. I used to use Adobe Premiere Pro 1.something and also Vegas's Video editing suite before Sony bought them out. I suspect that lots has changed since then, and DVD authoring too.

All I remember of Nikon's video implementation is that on DPR's D90 review, I realized that Nikon have no idea on how to do video. It may only be a secondary feature, and I don't really want to spend any more money on video gear either, when common sense say s that you can do it just as well with a still camera anyhow.. with a multitude of different lens types(that would cost a fortune on a dedicated high end DVCam).

I have to say too tho, some of the normal consumer grade 'super flash' DVcams currently available do look pretty impressive too. I was in at Michael's in Melbourne a while back chatting to the video sales guy and he was bored enough woith a lack of customers that he spent long enough to show me some of the differences in new vs old gear. At least on a high end HD screen the difference in rendered quality was easily observable. When viewed on a standard definition screen the old gear was comparable.

[KarenDay]

hmmm intereting. thanks again arthurking :) maybe i should look at replacing my d60 with the d3100, but then also grab a seperate video cam. the videos i want to capture are my kids growing up, so I dont want to be wishing 10 years from now that I had invested in something better quality.