Nikon D90 Experience

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Why Nikon D90?

DSLR with HD movie capabilities has taken the world photography community by storm.

We have a Sony CX12E that delivers crisp HD video footages with 5.1 surround sound.

But why we chose to go with Nikon? It's simple - to deliver film-like effects. To do that on our Sony CX12E, it would require expensive 35mm vibrating lens adapters that will result in light loss.

With Nikon D90, we have wide options of existing lenses we owned and the ability to play with depth of field.


Camera Video Settings

Our choice of lens is the Nikon 50mm f1.4. We shot in Aperture Mode.

Aperture is set between f2.8 to f8 (depending on lighting and scene conditions)
ISO - 200
White Balance - Auto (we set to K mode when using CFL)
EV - Usually set to 0 (-0.3 to -0.7 on a sunny outdoor and +0.3 to +0.7 for indoor/evening shoot)

Lastly, we always locked our AE-L just before shooting. This was to prevent momentary flickering due to change of angle and lighting condition during the filming.

Under fluorescent light, D90 tends to flicker. You can solve that by using external lights or minimise flickering by pointing your camera to a spot in your room which has lots of midtones, something to the likeness of a bright cream colour. Once you see that the flickering on your LCD has stopped, press AE-L to lock the exposure.

We do not have much problem with D90. In fact we are constantly amazed by it. The quality it delivers is superb. Learning to use and overcome its limitation is important. Once you understand your camera, filming becomes a breeze.

5min limitation

Nikon D90 has a 5min limitation per footage. The main reason is to prevent over-heating of the sensor. We faced the problem of hot sensor, particularly when we were shooting under the hot sun for an extended period of time, which automatically shut down the camera midway during shoot. With proper shade, the heat problem should take care of itself.

White Balance

D90 has a superb auto white balance. All the footages in the final film are direct from the video files. No colour corrections were applied to it.