Photicious All Photography

Nikon’s announced the D300s today, deliverable as of 1. August 2009.

Nikon D300s

As an owner of several D300’s, I inspected the specs to see if there was something in the bag I needed to persuade me to upgrade.

In short: No.

Nikon has merged the capabilities of the D90 with those of the D300 to produce this hybrid. No longer do buyers of the D300 need to envy features available in the much cheaper D90, movies for example.

The D300s now also rolls 1280×720 (720i) movies, same as the D90. This is NOT 1080i HD. It pumps out the TV signal through a crappy HDMI-C connector, the full-sized HDMI connector of the D300 is gone.

A dedicated Liveview button has been added, same as the D90. (this is a convenient feature, which can be programmed to the FUNC button on the D700 but not on the D300. Come on Nikon, add this in a firmware upgrade).

A virtual horizon has been added, same as the D700 and D3.

A second SD-Memory slot in addition to CF has been added, although it’s not clear if this can be used to allow simultaneous writing to both cards. Which would be nice.

A silent shutter mode has been added. This is perhaps the most intriguing feature of this camera. I’ll need to check this out on a physical copy of the camera to make up my mind.

Apart from this, all the upgrades seem to be minor: “better AF”, faster continuous shoot mode (by a hair), Auto-D-Lighting (as on the D90 and D700).

So, in a nutshell, nothing revolutionary in the D300s. If you’re crazy for video the D90 will be good enough (although hardly anywhere nearly as good as a pro camcorder). If you already have a D300, keep it.

And finally, what I missed on the D300s:

* 1080i Video

* Swivelling display like the D5000

* Higher resolution sensor

* Rotating ISO dial which I mentioned ages ago (The Canon G10 already has this)

* Better Movie-AF

* In-Camera VR for movies

This looked pretty damn impressive when I saw it today. A set of wedding photographer David Beckstead’s killer images had been transformed by a video company into a “3D Ken-Burns” effect. You know the panning effect which made Show-It Web so popular.

At first I was dumbfounded and said “damn, how is that done?”.

I read a bit about the making of these shows and it seems they are painstakingly made by hand, one image at a time.

OK.

Looking a little closer, the following seems to be happening:

* the original image is separated into separate 2D layers, the fireground, some mid area, background, etc.

* an intelligent “Ken Burns” is then applied which pans the image but each layer is panned at a different speed simulating their distance from the viewpoint, thus creating the stunning 3D effect.

* Some goodies are put into a few of the images, like a real cloud movie instead of a static sky and dynamic flare effects for some of the backlighted images.

Now I just have to find the software which allows this and it should be possible to roll my own

Any ideas?

Update: here’s a great tutorial on how it’s done!

Ok, if you’re a bride or groom, this is not for you. Go away. NOW!

For all others, listen in how six women wedding photographers discuss their business while pulling everything in the dirt. All the while they’re having loads of fun.

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