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To me the 'DSLR' Dream has been to be able to produce a 'Stills and Motion' offer for the client while operating with the tiny footprint of the press photographer
From reading the Nikon D4 announcement that era appears to have arrived
If clients understand what this means it is a very exciting time
Lets recap the basic joys of a decent full frame DSLR
Full frame give the traditional photography perspective and DOF, a look we have seen and loved since 1930 in the images of Henri Cartier Bresson through to the hottest Agency photographers delivering news from around the world
Most image you see in World Press Photo have the full frame look
Digital cameras have moved stills photography forward in terms of low light ability and auto focus well beyond the best that film ever brought us
Having shot stills with the nikon D3 since it launch some three years ago I can assure that the D3 was a mind bendingly good stills camera
The fantastic dynamic range, creamy roll off to blown highlights and clean 1600 ISO made it a camera that worked with minimal or no lighting in almost any conditions
The D3 means I now have a truck of flash that is now virtually unused
The D3 was revolutionary to stills work
My only gripes with the D3 were the lack of 100ISO and a slight shortage of mega pixels - those gripes are gone with the D4 although Id still like 6 or 25 ISO
I have no doubts that the nikon D4 will be a superb stills camera
Video
The main revolution with video in the last decade is the ability for anyone to broadcast. Once upon a time the only way to broadcast was to buy a 30 second slot for $50k slot on TV
Shooting video was essentially a pointless activity for anyone but a tiny elite because they could not get it seen
Now anyone,indy filmmaker, kid, small company, large corporation can broadcast via the internet
Shooting video is no longer pointless
So we all want to shoot video - until that function was enabled on DLSR cameras shooting video was a horrible activity (in my opinion)
We had the choice of buying;
-A 2/3 BetaCam for $70K, adequate, but heavy and expensive
-A handy cam - cheap but horrid looking with a tiny chip and rubbish fixed glass
-A DOF adapter camera - a light hungry overweight technical nightmare
Video enabled DSLRs brought that era to an end matching a large sensor in a small package with cheap (compared to a $20k eng lens) stills glass
But DSLR video was an 'almost ran'
Well documented issues particularly the lack of monitor able sound caused huge issues to the video shooter using a DSLR - I see most of the other issues (Jello Moire etc) as fairly minimal in the bigger picture - the poor sound was the killer app that killed DSLR for me - driving my video acquisition towards the Sony FS100
Canon have crippled their fine D1x with the simple omission of a headphone jack - they thought this was clever.. it wasn't.. it ensured that they won't get my $6000 or buy any of their lenses for another $10k
By including a headphone jack nikon have scored a huge goal with the Nikon D4
So the Nikon D4 lets talk about why it could absolutely rock
One Bag
I am pretty sure that a nikon D4 kit being
D4, mic, laptop, cans, lavs, 24-70 and 80-200 and only of my rigs will fit in a hand luggage bag
The ultimate kit for the digital journalist or mobile corporate shooter
A client could commission a solo operator with this bag to cover the most remote news story or provide them with a top class corporate package of stills and motion
Not just cover the assignment but produce world class material
ENG shooting
To the ENG camera operator shooting for the Beeb or Sky DSLRs have always been a mild joke
-no control of sound
-no super zoom lens
Lets face it shooting actuality with fixed primes is a nightmare, changing lenses is just too slow for shooting actuality
The crop modes on the D4 give you a super zoom with no lens changes
Auto Focus
Focus is an issue with shooting video on any large chip
Most DSLR video footage is out of focus most of the time
Sorting focus properly has generally an extremely costly operation for serious productions, employing skilled technical crew and outrageous gadgtery
Auto focus on the Nikon D4 will bring a good level of focus to the solo operator
I am sure the D4 will be awesome on a steadicam giving a large chip look and pretty much escaping the need to radio focus
Sensor Crop modes
Changing lenses while trying to shoot video quickly is an utter pain. Its not the lens change but fiddling with filters and follow focus alignment
The Canon 24-105 (on a full frame 5d) has basically been the only usable zoom lens with DSLRs, beyond that DSLR shooting has always required a bag of glass to create an interesting and varied sequence of images
The Nikon D4 shoots at different crops, a lens like a 24-70 will have a huge range of fields of view
I think a D4 and a 24-70 will offer enough perspectives to shoot almost anything, add a 70-200 and that crop mode and you get amazing range of image perspectives from just two lenses
Sound
Im sorry sound men but the main requirement of location sound is to do an interview and stop the sound clipping and avoid wind noise
Im sure the D4 will have this basic functionality
The Heart of the Image
Lets not forget what the pictures look like. This is probably a no brainer for a top level Nikon, Nikons are the kings of skin and dynamic range, what more do you need
All in all
I think this camera can be a game changer, the most likely thing to hold it back is the imagination of the paying client and their prejudices
BUT
All is not perfect. I have some concerns about the D4.
It appears to have Mini HDMI - the worlds worst connection interface
One the sound side 3.5mini jack is far from ideal too - BeachTek may come back into fashion big style or of course my Sound Devices 702 recorder - a solution like the 702 that records a master to a CF card and feeds out to the camera is probably ideal
Focus check while rolling - without this we could need a monitor, batteries bla bla .. unless the AF is really really good
Skipping or binning - taking 16mp and chopping them to 1920-1080 can be painful - I guess nikon will have the power to do this pretty well but not perfectly - expect a little moire or a softness that does not actually resolve 1080 lines
Nikkor 24-70 - This lens at full frame is plenty wide, at 1080 crop it will be a serious telephoto. Trouble is the copy I tried while optically mind boggling is not that nice to manually focus - which will need super precision in 1080 crop mode, but AF will probably be good on simple to analyse tele photo shots
Its a lump. The Nikon D3s is not the finest camera on a small handheld rig with no counterweight, Its pretty horrible on a Steadicam Merlin
Its expensive. Will we get all this functionality in a D800 D4000 or whatever in six months?
Selecting Crop Mode. I want to do this fast - but will it be buried in the menues