Olivier Giroux has taken the SDK I just posted about and used it to grab frames from the D700’s live preview function!

This means that, presumably and subject to tinkering, any of the bodies supported by the SDK and having Live View functionality can also do the same thing. It’s not full resolution (it’s only what the LCD on the camera body would show), but it’s still remarkably decent.

Here’s an example:

Please see his post for another video and more details.

[11/28 Nikon Pro D3x shots and info]

There are shots (likely real) of the new D3x along with a wad of info in this post.

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[11/27 Price Update]

From a reputable Nikon list:

A friend of mine was in a Kansas City Camera store last week and was told approximately $7500.00.
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Ok- we know that “Something BIG” has been announced.

Speculation ranges from a new printer (unlikely, I think) to the medium-format high MP body (the rumored “mx-format”), to a D3x.

I’m guessing it’s the D3x- a new higher MP, decent ISO performance (but not matching the D3) pro dslr body.

Prices are unknown though I’ve just seen 7000euro mentioned. 7kEU in USD is way too high- for that, I could get a digital Mamiya. So let’s presume that it’ll be rouhgly 7k US, which is much more likely, but $6499 sounds better to me.

An interesting note on the price is that if 7kEU is actually the price, and the USD price is a direct translation of about $8750, then that price seems high enough to cover the initial year of likely losses for a new larger chip format like the MX! To make that a little clearer, if Nikon DOES make an MX body, the chip is likely to be extremely expensive since the rejection rates on large chips is high. Typically, the rejection rate goes down over time, so the first year may be a loss, but after that, the process improves and the per-unit cost of the chips go down because there are fewer and fewer rejects. But, I’m dismissing this- I’ll bet $10 on the D3x at 24mp.

We’ve also heard potential: in-body VR (possible… Sony’s been doing it lately and we’ve got it on other Nikon bodies), built-in wifi, weaker anti-alias filter (possible- moving this into software would likely be easy), higher bits per pixel giving us 16bit images (I doubt it), video (not for 24mp, I don’t think), mirrorless body using an electric (EVIL) viewfinder (completely unpossible in a pro body), tweaked AF or more AF points (not going to happen…), higher FPS (not a chance), which items am I missing? Let me know.

I’m intending to keep track as we get closer and closer, if I’ve missing something, please mail me (link at right).

Say what you will about Canon, but this video taken with the EOS5D-mkII looks pretty good to my eyes- it’s even shot at night and I can’t see any particular noise or anything. It’s on a tripod, so there’re no jello shots.

It’ll be interesting to see if the D3x has video or when we’ll be seeing a top of the line Nikon body with video.

I’d love to see the same thing compared against the drool-inducing 85mm f/1.2.

Canon EOS5DmkII, One night in Beijing. from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

RED corp, founded by the guy who started Oakley sunglasses, had a cool idea a couple of years- make a digital video recorder that can use interchangeable lenses (even Nikon and Canon lenses with adapters) with quality as good as 35mm film and sell it for ($17,000) a whole lot less than normal professional movie cameras ($100’s of thousands).

Surprisingly to me, and probably others, they delivered. It’s surprising because it’s not at all unusual for a company to come out of nowhere and promise of disruptive technologies and never hear from them again (hey, remember Silicon Film? They went from ~1997 announcement to 2008 bankrupcy?)

Well lately, they’ve been talking about coming out with an SLR, or video camera with SLR-like capabilities using their movie camera’s 25mp chip (presumedly).

This might be nothing for Nikon and Canon to worry about but it sure would be interesting to have a movie camera capable of good stills, that didn’t suffer from Jello-Shots, and could use just about whatever Nikon or Canon (and others with proper adapters) lenses you wanted to throw at it.

Unfortunately though, the RED cameras (so far) don’t have any sort of autofocus, so I wonder about these in fast-action situations.

If I was putting money on it, I’d think this’ll be interesting to watch but won’t give the Dynamic Duo (Nikon, Cannon) and sleepless nights, at least for a few different revisions of their new system.

Ok, she ain’t a dedicated HD video camera, but she actually does pretty well against real video-only cameras if you don’t wobble the camera too much while you’re shooting.

If you can get past the ads between every page, you’ll eventually come to the conclusion- and keep in mind, these are video dorks, not stills-dork (like me):

Comparing the Nikon D90 to HD camcorders may be unfair, but, being the first of its kind, its the only product we could put it up against. The Canon EOS 5D Mark II, the second SLR to record video, has impressive specs—a 1920 x 1080 video quality, stereo microphone input, and an H.264 video compression codec. The question will be, would you rather pay $999.95 ($1299.95 with the lens) to play around with video on the Nikon D90, or shell out $1700 more to get your hands on the Canon? Then, of course, you need to question whether a first generation product is ever a good investment. Stay skeptical.

Do you like really blurry shots of equipment taken by amateurs with point and shoots? Really?

Well tell me this- do you like close-up shots of the intimate of kit lenses? Really? Ok, well here you go (Engadget):

Nikon D90 unboxing and nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6g kit lens

Nikon D90 movies are getting out and we’re starting to see how they handle real-world situations, and I don’t mean during earthquakes! But viewing the footage below, you’d think that house was made out of jello and St. Andreas was happy that day.

If you  have a D90, I’m guessing that you’re going to want to use a tripod and I’m also very curious as to how quickly moving subjects are going to show up.

If this “jello” effect is common, then movie mode isn’t going to be too useful.

I’ve read that Canon has similar problems, I’ll try and get some examples for you.

Here’re some movie samples from Canon’s latest. They look good to me- but putting hot chicks in your samples always works for me so…

Canon eos 5d mark II movie samples

The sky is not falling- it’s just Canon dropping bombs on our heads.

Canon has announced a new full-frame SLR able to take “full HD” (1080p?) movies.

Oh, and what’s the price? Body-only for $2,699 or $3,499 with Canon’s 24-105mm f/4L IS USM zoom lens.

Canon 5d Mark II

This is actually really good news for us Nikon watchers- given that Sony has a high MP camera (A900) and now Canon has another full-frame high MP camera WITH movies- we’re likely to see a swell machine come out of Nikon sooner than later, I’m guessing.

With the Canon selling for about the same as the D700, it’ll also hopefully put some downward pressure pricing on Nikon too!