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Camcorders, Tech and Random Rants Blog
Getting the most from your camcorder: tips, tricks, and new products for those who want to take better videos.
Aug 27, 2008 9:00 AM

Is the Nikon D90 a tipping point camera?


Posted by Joseph Devlin

I get asked THE QUESTION all the time.  "Help me find a video camera that can also capture great stills."  Or "Help me pick a still camera that can do double duty taking short videos".  For years I have sneered whenever I got that question, barking back "No camera does a great job with both".   I suggest they decide which feature is more important for them and pick accordingly.  Maybe its time to come up with a better answer to this question.

The Nikon D90 - The first S.L.R. that shoots great video?
I just read David Pogue's New York Times review of the Nikon D90 S.L.R.  David claims the D90 is the first digital S.L.R. that takes great video. " High-definition video. Stunning, vivid, 720p, widescreen, 1024-by-720, 24-frames-per-second video, with the color and clarity that only an S.L.R. can provide."   The camera is not a perfect video solution (read the review), but the next model just might be. It got me rethinking my churlish stock answer to the THE QUESTION.

A guilty confession about my usage of 1-chip video cameras, cell phones, and point-and-shoot cameras.  
Yes my S.L.R. still grabs better photos, and my video cameras capture better motion.  That's why I always carry both.  But we live in a world where well-known personalities like Robert Scoble are getting even more famous posting interviews they are capturing on camera phones.  I guess that fact makes it easier for me to admit that I am no longer idealistically pure in what shots I am using.  Yes, my expensive 3-chip video cameras are always front and center at all my corporate shoots. But (don't tell my clients) much of the video I end up using comes from the one-chip cameras I set up as a "backups".  Every one of my daughter's school functions is always chock-a-full of parents wielding state of the art S.L.R.s, but a third of the shots used in her yearbook this year were frame grabs taken from my video.  My family videos are padded with video captured by cell phones, and point-and-shoot still cameras.  Maybe its time to come up with a better answer to THE QUESTION!                    



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