I Know Nothing!!!

[caleb]

Hi,

I've been looking into getting a D90 for a while now and decided within the past week that I really want to do video recording. I've read the D90 uses MJPG (is this correct?) which makes it quite easy for uploading and editing.

As I've been thinking more about buying a D90, I feel like I may just want to buy a dedicated camcorder instead. My must haves are high quality, complete manual control (which the D90 lacks), and something that can use 35mm lenses (it appears that there are adapters though).

Can anyone talk me out of or into buying a regular camcorder (sounds like I want miniDV) instead of a D90? I will eventually upgrade my still camera, but getting into video seems like a lot of fun and new learning experience. So I can't really decide if I want to get the relatively massive sensor from the D90 or the option of having fully manual controls. Is it this simple?

[Skyman]

I can talk you out or into it either way, which way would you like to be persuaded

seriously what are your budget and size considerations as non of the cameras that take 35mm lenses are small or cheap. the canon xl series is probably the best value for money in that range but you still need an adapter and canon claims you need to use L series lenses and they aren't cheap or small. There are a number of excellent "prosumer" cameras available in HD and SD that will give you excellent manual control etc but again they are still expensive and on the larger side. Then you are looking at consumer cameras that have manual controls. they are what they are, some of them even have 3ccd but the manual settings really aren't designed to be changed easily and so are typically accessed through tiny dials and buried at the bottom of menus.

As for mini dv if you read the mini dv vs dvd thread it comes across as the best format around, but that was a couple of years ago. New video formats and standards such as high definition and cameras that can record in 5.1 sound as well as new ways of handling files has meant that it isn't essential to go with a tape based camera in order to get quality anymore. You would need to consider how you are going to be editing your video though. Windows movie maker for example doesn't like many video formats and sony seems hell bent on making people use their editing software with their cameras - the exception here is that adobe has support for several thousand video camera formats.

OH and if the question is what camera is the best, these days I would have to say RED

[caleb]

First off, I own a lot of Nikon lenses, old and new.

From what (little) I've read, the 35mm lenses are always going to manually controlled, so I don't see why the canon camera would need an L series lens (meaning... couldn't I get a canon-nikon adapter and use my nikon lenses?)... quick edit, I don't even know if canon-nikon adapters exist, but assuming so..

Additionally, I found at least one mini DV adapter that would make them accept 35mm lenses... So I'm not sure why I wouldn't buy a cheap(ish) mini DV camcorder + the $200 adapter. Assuming the quality is good-decent.

Thinking about it, the manual controls being buried in menus really doesn't bother me too much. So, as long as it's available, I'm not really concerned about messing with menus to change settings. And... that said, I would pay some amount to have them more easily accessible, just not sure how much.

I wouldn't want to spend more than say, $1500. I could be persuaded to spend more though, depending on what the extra money buys me.

Lastly, software doesn't matter. I can get student discounts for anything basically. I should include that I will be using windows.

[Skyman]

do the adapters you talk about go between the existing camera lens and the nikon lens?

I haven't seen them and I thought I had seen every type of adapter around. The canon XL series of cameras is the cheapest video system with interchangable lenses (as far as I am aware) L series EOS lenses will fit with a magnification factor of around 7X and you do get electronic control of aperture and focus as part of this. it sounds like they are well well over your budget. I am not sure but Student discounts for the adobe CS4 production bundle still put it close to $1000. Although depending on how much time and effort you want to put into learning the editing process you may want to use something like premier elements or even windows movie maker. If you have the time and money the big three apps are premier pro, final cut pro and avid, with most of the industry firmly entrenched with either avid or fcp, but with the production bundle you also get after effects, encore (broadcast dvd authoring) on location, soundbooth as well as photoshop etc so it can be worth looking at. I have been a long time fan of Panasonic cameras, largely because of the Leica lenses and the fact that they have 3ccd models that are actually affordable. Three ccd is very important when managing colour in video as they record more colour information then their single ccd friends. and are better able to synchronise white balance under different lighting conditions and across cameras.

Go to a good camera shop first though, sometimes the best camera is one that feels comfortable in your hand and with smaller models all the time they can often feel cramped.