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Nikon D90 Movie User Guide: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

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Posted by Patrick on Sep 11, 2008 in Cameras

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Obviously one of the most exciting features of the recently introduced Nikon D90 is the D-movie mode which allows users to shoot video in high definition, a feature totally unique in DSLR cameras as of this writing. The excitement over this new “novelty” is beginning to wane somewhat though, as the realization sinks in that D-movie mode’s potential greatness is being hamstrung by some annoying handicaps.

The two biggest problems facing D-movie mode are some serious “shutter roll” (pan and objects bend, etc.) as a commenter here recently pointed out:

The CMOS wobble from rolling shutter seems to be really really bad so far in my tests. I hope they at least update firmware to allow you to tighten up the video shutter to make it less noticeable. Currently there doesn’t seem to be any way to make a faster shutter speed(or psuedo shutter angle)
-jon

The other problem is the lack of full manual control. The D90 lacks the individual control of shutter adjustment and the control of ISO adjustment. The D90 simply controls this automatically, which can make it difficult to capture the image you want to see. You do have the ability to lock exposure and use exposure compensation, however a lot of users believe the D90 still has a mind of its own when it comes to those 2 settings.

Given these caveats there is still a lot to like about the D-movie mode. You still have quite a bit of manual control, overall the image quality is very good (relatively speaking), and you have the obvious advantage of being able to exploit the vast creative power of your Nikon lenses.

With all of that in mind I thought it would be useful to put up this user guide that aims to help you understand and optimize the movie mode of the Nikon D90, created by a member over at the DVXuser.com forums. It takes you through the high and lows and offers some advice to get the most out of the D90’s admittedly exciting D-movie feature. (Hey, it is “free” after all)

In addition, just to get your juices flowing, here’s Vimeo’s D90 video channel, with lots of video samples.

Oh and by the way, you can get the Nikon D90 at the following:
Nikon D90 at B and H
Nikon D90 at Adorama
Nikon D90 at Amazon