sneakmovethe sweet sounds of the universe

after a few weeks of rumors, nikon has officially announced their newest digital slr camera, the d90. photography and video forums have been buzzing about this camera not because of a new set of photographic features (which are, as usual, very cool) but because of reports that the camera would have a high-def video mode, complete with sound.

it seems that many purists hate that. but they are being drowned out by the excitement of many others who welcome a fun (and useful) additional feature.

for someone like myself who regularly carries around a second camera (even if it is just a tiny canon elph) only for the option of shooting short video to accompany my photos, this is a very exciting new tool. first, the image quality will be a marked improvement. 720p at 24fps means you have HD quality video being recorded at a frame rate that is the same as film (giving a warm, soft effect to the video), rather than video (which always seemed to have a cheapish 80s feel, although better for capturing fast action).

add to that the option to use a bag full of great lenses, from fisheyes to zooms to fast lenses with very narrow depth of field, and you can become a proper cinematographer, controlling the viewer’s eye with your creative and stylistic choices.

with companies like red pushing the envelope of digital filmmaking, it is not too shocking to see nikon put their toes in the water too. my guess, the next five years will bring some major changes to those who make film.

and finally, after weeks of wondering, you can now check out nikon’s sample movie page to see the variety of videos this camera can generate.

of course, you can also pre-order it from amazon already.

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