Nikon D300s DSLR

only 5 mins?

Odd that they limit the 720 encode to 5 minutes? Why? 720p30 at 8Mbps can record for 1hr in the 4GB limit of SC cards, and that is pretty good quality (using H.264). Seems odd to limit it.

It's very nice, very very nice :)

I just picked up the D300 myself and I am loving it. Though I have a lot to learn about it. I wasn't interested in the video options of the s myself. Seems more like a gimmick than anything I would find useful.

A word of caution for people looking at this. The prices have been up and down like a yo-yo of late, while the D300 stock has been cleared out. In Canada, the D300s was launched at over 2K CAD (really ouch!) but now seems to have settled back to about 1800 CAD (just ouch!). I don't know if the UK prices varied that much, but it might be worthwhile holding off for another month, just to allow them to settle a little more (and get post-Xmas sales!!).

"Perhaps in the Future"...

I appreciate that in this fast moving world of web publishing, articles do become outdated quickly and are hard to edit and update...

...but over a month ago Nikon announced the D3s. It's rather nice, full frame, ISO 102,400 (12,800 without using extended modes) and HD video of similar spec to the D300s.

Still frame cameras are going..

If you've seen the reviews of - or handled - the pro-spec DX3s, you'll be aware that even that has a video capture mode. Why this is making an apperance on these (traditionally, at least) still frame cameras is worth investigating.

It's certainly not because Nikon's marketing have identified enough consumers with deep pockets who'll buy the 300s or DX3s (never mind the cost; anyone who luggs a couple of bodies about for the day appreciates the sense in using lightweight, pocket sized devices for family outings). The main reason is far more likely to be commercial: with a stream of very high quality 'stills', there's a greater chance of having one or two frames that require less post-production work - or catch the action right on the nail. For the serious event-photographer, this is invaluable. 5-10 seconds of such footage is plenty but, if it works well, we'll see the capture duration time go up in leaps and bounds over the next few seasons. At the same time, there'll be a gradual fall-off in 'traditional' still frame technology and a death-knoll sounding for the manufactures that decided against this 'streamed capture' (tm - thought I'd get in first!).

Canon 7D?

I bet Nikon execs went "oh bugger" when the 7D launched.

8 fps shot rate.

18mp sensor.

Dual Digic 4 CPU.

Up to 29:59 minutes full 1920x1080 video at 30/24/25 fps with full manual control and 44KHz audio.

Dedicated movie mode switch and record button.

Built in wireless flash control.

Price in line with 300S now.

Regarding the record limit. This is interesting. There are different EU taxes depending on whether the device is a camcorder or camera. Camcorders are taxed higher for some bizarre reason. Apparently the definition of a camcorder is the ability to record 30 minutes or more. Hence the Canon's 29:59 limit. I think the Nikon just lacks the grunt though ;)

Still waiting for SDXC and possibly USB3

I can't understand why high end camera manufacturers have taken so long to get SDXC support into their cameras?!

I would like a DSLR camera with good still frame performance, but right now there is no way I'm going to buy a camera with only SDHC support. It has been outdated for long, and even then has been very slow to be picked up by manufacturers.

The max. limit of 32GB may (may!) not be a limit right now, but I'm expecting to keep such a camera for several years and:

1.The speed of SDHC with Class6 as the highest spec. is pathetic! I'd like some full frame burst possibilities beyond just 2 or 3 frames and requiring fast RAM in the camera shouldn't be necessary by today's standards.

2.The max. file size of 4GB because of the even more outdated FAT32 is even more pathetic.

3.I don't want CompactFlash in a camera, because it is anything but compact.

On top of that, I hope someone will soon start to implement USB3.0, too. Not because of the maximum speed, but again because I hope to keep my camera for several years and eventually everything else will be USB3.0, and I'd like to keep high transfer rates a possibility.

Close but no cigar

I have the D90, the little brother to this, there's no way the D300/D300S sits "next" to the D700. The D700 is my main camera and the pictures on this at ISO 6400 is what the DX cameras look like at ISO 2500. Still, for the money these newer DX cameras offer good picture quality within their limits, and the D700 has no video.

The two biggest selling points are;

1. External mike jack

2. Able to meter with manual focus lenses

The metering with manual lenses is a good feature to have as it means any Nikon lens (except the IX-Nikkors and a few weird ones) from 1977 will work on it, and lenses back to 1959 can be modified to fit. In a weird twist my D90 will meter in movie mode with manual lenses, so I don't know why Nikon cripples their cheaper DSLR's for still photos, all the Canons can meter with any lens you stick on it.

For movie makers this means you get some of the advantages of an expensive movie camera at a fraction of the cost, such as wide angles, fish eyes, zooms, narrow depth of field, and so on. The external mike is necessary as all those clicks and pops you hear as you use the camera are gone.

Just put the thing on a tripod or a shoulder mount and you're set but........what is missing is full manual controls for the movie mode and more options on frame rate/resolution. Fix those and it would be kind of hard to justify a camcorder anymore.

Canon D7

You can shrug off the reported AF issues on the Canon D7, I've had none and none of the other owners I know have any.

D300s has better noise levels at high iso, but this is offset somewhat by the higher resolution of the D7.

D300s video is much more limited (if that's a motivator for you), and the D7 is getting the same (fantastic) Magic Lantern firmware support that the D5mk2 gets at the moment (magiclantern.wikia.com), which is true game-changing stuff, especially if you're a capable programmer yourself.

And let's not get the price facts wrong.... the D7 is currently cheaper than the D300s by a couple hundred squid. For just 400 more than the difference, you can get a 5DMk2... full frame, even better high ISO/low noise, and the rest. Get it for even less refurbished (check out Canon's e-bay shop).

24fps

24fps is the film movie frame rate. So yes, it is a fairly widespread standard ;)

A lot of modern TV's now support this (often called "film mode") as BluRay movies match the original film 24fps rate. This is important because it avoids all the artefacts caused by converting 24fps to PAL (introduces a 4% speed change) and NTSC (3:2 pulldown can introduce nasty panning judder and jaggies).

So if you record in 24fps you avoid all this. In addition it means your footage will play without conversion artefacts on any TV set that supports 24fps film mode.