Nikon D800 hacked with 50Mbit/s high bitrate video option

[leo]

I'm leaving video on a hold as long as I don't get stills quality  :rolleyes: , I wish I could have the portra 400 pushed 3 stops look, I guess it's the same look you get as when shooting kodak stock on a real 35mm cinema camera.

Come on man, this is absurd, i know this is not the place to say content trumps image quality but when you drop something like this, that line works.

A good composition sometimes doesn't need any grading, it's just good straight from the camera.

The exageration of everything we do in photography is almost at the amateur level, exaggerating clouds, changing colors to the point of not being from planet earth, everything is over the top.

I'm managing just fine right now with H264 1080P, sure i will move to 4k but just to stay in business.

[Appleidiot]

Personally, I can't compare any 4K image that i've seen to a full frame sensor DSLR camera. There's really nothing to a 4K image, in my opinion, that is cinematic. 4K is all about resolution, and a full frame sensor just has a look all of its own. I almost ordered the Panasonic GH4, but after listening to some NAB interviews, I completely changed my mind. I'm definitely in the market for a full frame sensor.

[MattH]

Personally, I can't compare any 4K image that i've seen to a full frame sensor DSLR camera. There's really nothing to a 4K image, in my opinion, that is cinematic. 4K is all about resolution, and a full frame sensor just has a look all of its own. I almost ordered the Panasonic GH4, but after listening to some NAB interviews, I completely changed my mind. I'm definitely in the market for a full frame sensor.

 

Which interview are those?  What is said in them? Could you possibly link to them or remember their names?

[Nikkor]

Come on man, this is absurd, i know this is not the place to say content trumps image quality but when you drop something like this, that line works.

A good composition sometimes doesn't need any grading, it's just good straight from the camera.

The exageration of everything we do in photography is almost at the amateur level, exaggerating clouds, changing colors to the point of not being from planet earth, everything is over the top.

I'm managing just fine right now with H264 1080P, sure i will move to 4k but just to stay in business.

Speak for yourself, I don't tend to play around to make the stills look like what you see on 500px.

 

I like to color correct my stuff, I don't like heavy grading. Digital cameras, especially cheap ones like the d800,etc... usually have very bad colors, even worse when you use the jpgs. So once you have the raw image you have to spend some time to get good looking colors. If a h264 video gives good colors and sharp images I wouldn't care at all about high bitdepths/raw, but that's not the case.

I have been shooting film lately, the colors might not be accurate but they look good, if I could tell the camera "portra 400, pushed 2 stops" and get a jpg with that kind of look, I would just need to set the correct exposure and whitebalance, and that's it.

 

 

Yes, you must be having a good laugh at me coming down from my RAW horse  ;)  

 

There are times when I want some quick video, either because the d600 is all I have with me, or to shoot s a video of how I dremeled down my Chinese Focal Reducer to fit on the BMPCC  :)  However, I feel the lowly GF3 is easier to use than the d600, and the quality is not that much worse.  So lately I've been looking at getting a g6, gh3, a6000 or gm1, just for h.264.  These cameras would sit between the d600/dp1m and BMPCC.  

 

What's your take?  I understand the Panasonic cameras will always be a bit sharper than the full-frame.  That aside, if you had to shoot h.264 can you see picking the d600/800 over the gh3?  I trust Appleidiot is right (how could one not trust someone who picked that screen name)?  Maybe I should get a d5300 for h.264.  

 

I have no idea about panasonic cameras,but if I had to buy a camera with 1080p h264, I'd just get the om-d e-m1, even keeping in mind that it only does 30p and it's m43, just because the stabilisation is so convenient, and it's also an excellent stills camera. But hey, I don't really do any video, and I'm currently so in love with my mamiya rz67 and the pentax 67 that I'm selling most of my nikon cameras to pay for the film. I'm enjoying it a lot, giant viewfinder or prisms and the lovely films... and I am not a hipster...

[maxotics]

I have no idea about panasonic cameras,but if I had to buy a camera with 1080p h264, I'd just get the om-d e-m1, even keeping in mind that it only does 30p and it's m43, just because the stabilisation is so convenient, and it's also an excellent stills camera. But hey, I don't really do any video, and I'm currently so in love with my mamiya rz67 and the pentax 67 that I'm selling most of my nikon cameras to pay for the film. I'm enjoying it a lot, giant viewfinder or prisms and the lovely films... and I am not a hipster...

 

If you want a film/medium format look have you tried a Sigma (Foveon sensor) camera?  Lots of controversy, as you know.  You can often get them cheap because hipsters don't want to wait for them to write an image to the buffer (around 11 seconds on my DP1m).  You can get good deals on them used.  I go out with my dp1m.  Shoot a bit, get frustrated, decide to sell as soon as I get home.  Load the image in Sigma Photo Pro (another PITA), then get weepy-eyed that I ever considered letting it go!

 

Here's a photo of nothing special I took the other day.  Edge to edge sharp.  Lighting captured perfectly.

 

>

 

And I'm with you.  I have nothing against H.264.  If I could get it to do what I want I would.  I wonder about the Olympus.  I bought my daughter the first one used and I thought the video very good.  Imagine it is only better now.

[leo]

Again, this is absurd araucaria, Nikon d800 giving bad colors ? the hell are you talking about ? cameras these days give colors as much as possible closer to what you are seeing, WITH YOUR EYES to be more exact, you can go further doing a custom white balance and there is not much more to do, what colors do you want ? what are you a newbie wanting color effects in-camera ?

Appleidiot, I can't deny FX has a good look, better than a crop sensor, but if you try harder when you compose and get some fast lenses, you might pull it off at 4k, luckily for Panasonic they will survive even if you don't buy a gh4, while you are gonna shoot on a dated soft FX DSLR, the rest of the world will shoot 4k on gh4's and other gadgets capable of 4k, you will be forced to switch if you are running a video production business.

[Nikkor]

Try a digital medium format back and come back.

[Appleidiot]

Again, this is absurd araucaria, Nikon d800 giving bad colors ? the hell are you talking about ? cameras these days give colors as much as possible closer to what you are seeing, WITH YOUR EYES to be more exact, you can go further doing a custom white balance and there is not much more to do, what colors do you want ? what are you a newbie wanting color effects in-camera ?
Appleidiot, I can't deny FX has a good look, better than a crop sensor, but if you try harder when you compose and get some fast lenses, you might pull it off at 4k, luckily for Panasonic they will survive even if you don't buy a gh4, while you are gonna shoot on a dated soft FX DSLR, the rest of the world will shoot 4k on gh4's and other gadgets capable of 4k, you will be forced to switch if you are running a video production business.

It really all boils down to what you're after, image wise. I highly doubt you'll get a truly cinematic look from a M43 4K image. I like the Panasonic GH4, the image is stunning, but I'm not in the market for an image that's so sharp, it'll make your eyes bleed.

I'll be on a shoot next couple of weeks with a Canon 6D paired with the Zeiss Otus 55mm. I'm excited to be able to work with this new Zeiss lens, the down side is, no matter how much I like it, there's no buying a $4000 dollar lens.

[Re-up Flms]

STOP IT!!!   Andrew i enjoy coming to this site and find it very informative at times,   but  to say that the d800 with 50mbit or even external video is close to Magic Lantern RAW on mark 2 or 3 is absolutely absurd,  stop it.

 

There is no way that an 8bit camera especially the nikon d800 cabale of producing anything close to raw 14 bit footage,  yes under good lighting conditions the d800 produces a decent image but decent at best.

[Re-up Flms]

ALL nikons seems to be paired with ugly yellow tint, its terrible, The D800 is indeed capable of great images, they rival pics coming off a hassleblad, but there needs a possible raw hack for video does not seem possible, even with mbit hack video is improved, but still not worthy of true cinema camera,  i know that it has been used on several tv show sets but still not convinced on this camera for video unless raw is eventually provided at 14 bits.

[maxotics]

I did a quick test with my d600 using the 50mbit hack.  I can see no improvement in dynamic range, as expected (though I hoped for it anyway).  Motion DOES look better.  So when you move the camera, even some camera shake, there is an improvement.  It's something.  Better than nothing ;)  Applying the hack was very easy.

[Re-up Flms]

Again, this is absurd araucaria, Nikon d800 giving bad colors ? the hell are you talking about ? cameras these days give colors as much as possible closer to what you are seeing, WITH YOUR EYES to be more exact, you can go further doing a custom white balance and there is not much more to do, what colors do you want ? what are you a newbie wanting color effects in-camera ?

Appleidiot, I can't deny FX has a good look, better than a crop sensor, but if you try harder when you compose and get some fast lenses, you might pull it off at 4k, luckily for Panasonic they will survive even if you don't buy a gh4, while you are gonna shoot on a dated soft FX DSLR, the rest of the world will shoot 4k on gh4's and other gadgets capable of 4k, you will be forced to switch if you are running a video production business.

 

It really all boils down to what you're after, image wise. I highly doubt you'll get a truly cinematic look from a M43 4K image. I like the Panasonic GH4, the image is stunning, but I'm not in the market for an image that's so sharp, it'll make your eyes bleed.

I'll be on a shoot next couple of weeks with a Canon 6D paired with the Zeiss Otus 55mm. I'm excited to be able to work with this new Zeiss lens, the down side is, no matter how much I like it, there's no buying a $4000 dollar lens.

You have no ideal what you are talking about,  the size of the sensor ddoe not equate cinema cinema quality image, that has more to do with dynamic range and uncompressed color gamut . Also the sharpness is not a downside, alot of the footage you see depends on types of lens used.

 

You brag about owning Zeiss when any true film make knows that Cooke or old nikon lens would suit an image better than a zeiss lens when it comes to contrast, do your research before making comments that you know nothing about.

[Rui Soares]

STOP IT!!!   Andrew i enjoy coming to this site and find it very informative at times,   but  to say that the d800 with 50mbit or even external video is close to Magic Lantern RAW on mark 2 or 3 is absolutely absurd,  stop it.

 

There is no way that an 8bit camera especially the nikon d800 cabale of producing anything close to raw 14 bit footage,  yes under good lighting conditions the d800 produces a decent image but decent at best.

 

fanboy alert.

[Zach Ashcraft]

I can't help but think using something like a C100 would give you a better quality image with a similar price and setup with a lot easier workflow. The full-frame look is hard to beat, though. 

[Appleidiot]

You have no ideal what you are talking about,  the size of the sensor ddoe not equate cinema cinema quality image, that has more to do with dynamic range and uncompressed color gamut . Also the sharpness is not a downside, alot of the footage you see depends on types of lens used.
 
You brag about owning Zeiss when any true film make knows that Cooke or old nikon lens would suit an image better than a zeiss lens when it comes to contrast, do your research before making comments that you know nothing about.

I know enough. We can agree to disagree, no big deal. The size of the sensor does indeed have a major factor in cinema quality. A Vista vision sized sensor definitely has a cinematic quality.

Who's bagging? I merely stated I was jazzed about having the opportunity to work with the Zeiss Otus. Read the post, Jack. A major clue that I don't own this lens, would be the line "no matter how much I like, there's no buying a $4000 dollar lens" Does that read like I own it?

The only correct thing you've stated is, yes, you're correct, the Cooke lenses are a fantastic lens, and I don't own that either.

[Appleidiot]

You're right, Andrew, you need this site to be exclusive to a membership, as I see you've been infiltrated with people from No Film School, where alls they like to do is argue over absolutely nothing.

[Quirky]

You're right, Andrew, you need this site to be exclusive to a membership, as I see you've been infiltrated with people from No Film School, where alls they like to do is argue over absolutely nothing.

 

Umm... no, I don't think that's it. It's simply about the use of the N-word. There seem to be plenty of empirical evidence about that in the archives of this and many other online forums, even beyond lingual barriers. I don't know why, but that just seems to be the case. 

 

For some unknown reason the N-word just happens to be a potent bait that will lure in the most eager enginerds within a light year to have an instant feast. Therefore simply locking up this forum for a selected few may not solve the problem. It'll just dry out the forum instead. 

 

Q.E.D. Just be careful with the N-word.  ;)

[Appleidiot]

The 'N' word? As in the racial slur? I've never seen it, is why I ask.

[Shield3]

"Stills of course are a lot better. 2 stops more dynamic range and 7K / 36MP images vs 5K / 22Mp on the 5D Mark III."

 

...unless you actually want to shoot something moving - I'd prefer the 6FPS and the 61 pt AF and tracking of the 5d3.  With the same 1000x card I shoot 5d3 raw with I can rattle off 30-32 shots in a row.  Also at high ISO the 5d3 is better.

 

Not everyone shoot single shot landscapes and stationary objects.

[dahlfors]

One more thing, Andrew.

 

Now that you're shooting with a D800, I'd be happy if you could mention a few words about how you like to rig something like D800 up.

 

From my own experience, I pick profiles depending on what I'm shooting and I keep histogram on, which usually gives me enough info about exposure. But what I can find difficult when going around with a lightweight setup is to get the focus right, especially sunny days when you can't see shit on the display.

 

Personally I've been eyeing the Ikan vk7i monitor and some z-finder solutions - I just don't know if the rear display with a z-finder solution would be good enough of a solution for getting focus right.