Anyone know about Nikon Video?

[DoctorJ]

I have a D90 and a D5000, neither of which was bought for its' video capabilities..now I also have a new baby and suddenly the occasional bit of video might be just the thing. I cannot see that there is any diffeence in the video quality of either camera, but I can't help thinking the D5000 should be better (just because it is a much newer model I suppose). Is there a difference? :shrug:

Additionally I am considering trading both for a D300s, does that have a better quality video does anyone know?

 

[Sootchucker]

AFAIK, the D90, D5000 and D300s all shoot only 720p. so to be honest there won't be much in it between all three.

The D300s does give you the ability to plug in an external stereo mic (like the new Nikon ME-1), however the d5000 gives a nice articulated screen which is sometimes invaluable for video shooting.

It's only currently Nikons latest models D5100 and D7000 that can shoot full 1080P, and both will accept external mics, but the D5100 had an even better articulated screen than the D5000, but the D7000 also gives you full manual control on video which the D5100 doesn't.

 

[Dr_O]

I have a D90 and a D5000, neither of which was bought for its' video capabilities..now I also have a new baby and suddenly the occasional bit of video might be just the thing. I cannot see that there is any diffeence in the video quality of either camera, but I can't help thinking the D5000 should be better (just because it is a much newer model I suppose). Is there a difference? :shrug:

Additionally I am considering trading both for a D300s, does that have a better quality video does anyone know?

It's pretty hard to ascertain what your issue actually is so any statement may lead you down a road that still doesn't resolve it? Do we assume you don't like the rolling shutter effect, lack of frame rates, lack of display resolutions, actual quality of the footage etc? The D90, D5000 and D300s have the same sensor, use the same rubbish codec and if you're keen on video, aren't very good. That's not to say good footage can't be produced but there's a long list of caveats.
The newer D7000 and D5100 at least use the standard H.264 codec though still lack decent frame rates etc. For the occasional video use they may well do the job for you and there's plenty of 'happy' users. If you really want video and are going to push the system you need to change brand- that's the bottom line. Depends what's important, how picky you are and what you're going to do. Your expectations may be so high that no traditional DSLR video is any good and you need to buy a Panasonic AF101 for example:shrug:

 

[Mark G]

I've used the Video mode on my D90 only a couple of times. Usually its just to play around with the shallow DOF and have a bit of an experiment. For a DSLR I was pretty happy with the results.

I don't know about your other camera but the only thing that could be annoying about the D90's video capabilities is that it is limited to just 5 minutes at a time.

 

[konastab01]

D7000 is on par quality wise with a 7D in my opinion although as said it lacks the frame rates. That doesn't really affect me as I would shoot at 25fps anyway. Low light its good, only issue is you can't change aperture once your in video mode but I've got use to that and learned to work round it.