Andy Schroeder
Forum Replies Created
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I use this lens for video a fair amount with my Nikon D3200, and before that with my D3100. I really only ever shoot video with manual focus, so the lack of auto on it didn’t bother me. In fact, I appreciate using this one for pulling focus manually more than my nikkor lenses because it has a built in scale to tell you how far off the subject matter is, i.e. 1ft, 2ft, 5ft, etc… Whereas on the nikkor lenses there are no distance indicators, you have to mark them yourself with tape or if you can afford one get a follow focus.
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They were on for probably about an hour during the shoot.. It wasn’t always noticeable either, mostly in the darker areas. But I’m fairly confident that it’s not a camera problem as my blacks stayed black, and the brighter whites seemed fine. If you were looking at it on a waveform monitor it’d probably be somewhere in the area between 10 – 20% that had a flickering orange/brown sort of look. Which as I said never happened with the other fixtures.
They were the only light sources (it was night and no other lights were on)The only other thing I can think of was that the room was fogged. It was the first time I’ve used that for a lighting effect, can the fog play into that somehow?
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by Rob Manning
24MP’s, good, will be similar to MK2/3 on the crop frame takes.
No uncompressed 14 bit raw, not so good.
No direct to SSD video out, not so good. I don’t think there’s anything else in this price range that does those things either. You can’t expect miracles for a slightly higher than entry-level price.Does the higher MP really matter for newbies? The difference with the higher MP count is that you’ll need a steadier hand to keep your still shots as sharp. It’s supposedly the same on the D800, Nikon released some literature with regards to that.
I’m getting ready to film a new project in the fall with this camera and have been doing a lot of testing to see what I can get out of it. I want to use more complicated light setups and more dynamic camera movement than I did in my previous films where I used the D3100 (where I mostly used broad high key lighting and static shots). It’s definitely a step up from that camera, and I still feel the look I get from the Nikon’s is more pleasing to me than a competing Cannon (I haven’t tried any panasonics.) I’ve pulled great, very clean keys from it (I also did this with the D3100) you just need to make sure you light correctly for it, shoot flat in camera, and convert to ProRes before you do the compositing work. IMHO so far, if you can’t afford a D7000 and want Nikon I think it’s a great option.
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I always convert to ProResHQ before working in FCP7, I don’t think the H.264 will work natively there, but its supposed to in FCPX (don’t have that though)
Additionally you need to conform slow motion video to 24p in cinema tools if you want to see it in slow motion.
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I’ve had one for a few weeks now. Upgraded from the D3100 that I shot my last short on (search imdb for “retcon” for a trailer) for better manual control, + slow motion filming options. The D3100 could shoot manual but you had to go through a process of tricking the sensor into the right settings which was cumbersome so the full manual controls are really welcome to me.
So far I’m very happy with the upgrade, at ISO200 the video is super clean even in very dark situations, but if you go to ISO400/800 it’s not only noisy, but the noise is very distracting and non-uniform the way it flickers on and off screen. If I had to pump up the ISO Id go to ISO1600 cause at least the noise is uniform at that point, it’s very grainy at that point, but not flickering/distracting. I’m filming with nikon’s 35mm F1.8 and Tokina’s 11-16mm F2.8 and I have a lighting package, so filming at ISO200 is fine for me in most situations.
The new processor is much better, I’ve yet to induce much “jello” in handheld situations whereas with the D3100 I had to be a lot more careful about this. I’ve been averaging about 23mbps on it on the “high” video settings, I used to max out on the D3100 around 21 with 18 as an average, and those few extra bits in their codec are noticeable, I get more textured video on close ups so far. -
On the D3100 you have to go to button controls in the camera menus and change AE-Lock button to Lock and Hold or something along those lines to get it to hold with a one touch button press. I wold assume its the same on the 5100. Read the manual, its in there.
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I use 3 lenses with the D3100. The Nikon – AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX Lens is my main lens (very detailed visuals), the Nikon – AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm Lens for long shots, and the Nikon AF-S18-55mm Lens that came with the camera body; mainly if I need a wider angle. All AF-S lenses. I have not tried this workflow with any other lenses as of yet.
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I assume you can’t make changes during a scense.
Correct, you can’t make changes on the fly. To change any settings you have to stop recording, unlock exposure and reset.I remember with my D90 an additional issue was that the camera never actually told you what ISO and shutter speed it was using while recording. Has that changed?
No. No matter what happens the screen readout always tells you what you set the manual controls to, so if it changes them on you, the readout will still say what you set and not what is actually being recorded. If you were to snap a still shot while recording it would take the pic at the manual settings that are on the screen though.Also, even if it’s at 0, does it every choose another combination of ISO and shutter that get to zero?
I haven’t noticed any changes that would lead me to believe this happens. I snap a still photo of each shot setting beforehand to figure out the look I want and it seems to always match up to the final video. The shutter speed/on screen motion always seems to look as it should to me (I use 1/50 as my go to setting) when using this method. Plus while in live view you can(and I do when possible) check on an external monitor via HDMI for a better view than the LCD provides. You wouldn’t want to record out that way to an external drive though because all the on screen info appears on that video output as well.Does it allow locking White Balance too?
Yes. If you’re using manual white balance (I use an expo disc for this) it retains that white balance in video mode. -
Not exactly the same but I own a D3100, and you can shoot in manual; but you have to trick the camera.
Start out setting the dial to M, shutter to 1/50 (or whatever you want),set your F-stop, ISO, white balance etc… for however you’d like things to look in still mode. Normally after this part you’d think to press exposure lock.
The problem is (and heres where the trick starts) when you turn on live view EVEN WITH the exposure locked, it’ll change ISO/shutter speed to whatever it wants within a 1/2 second of going into live view, then RE-lock the settings that IT chose for those two functions. Seemingly keeping you from having full manual control.
So to keep your settings you have to set them how you want them for the scene but don’t go into live view, then pan the camera around until you find a spot that lets the exposure meter reads a perfect 0, at this point you hit exposure lock and go into live view and stay still to keep that meter reading at 0 for that 1/2 second before it re-locks exposure.
Then you can reposition the camera however you want, to frame your shot, and it will retain your exact manual settings without the camera’s pesky automatic features second guessing/correcting you.
It sounds complicated but it’s not so bad if you don’t have the money to cough up for a D7000. I recently shot a 22 minute short that way and was able to get consistent results every time.
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Thanks again for the replies everyone.
The footage was shot on a Nikon D7000, and then transcoded into ProRes HQ for editing and vfx. If I put it in a lower codec for roto would I just export the finished mask by itself in the animation codec and team it up with the HQ footage? Or is there an internal setting that you can use change the codec back and forth without degrading the footage?