“Rolling Shutter” Plagues Nikon’s D300s Video

August 31, 2009 by admin · View Comments 


Nikon’s brand new D300s is hitting store shelves this week. It’s an incremental upgrade on the legendary D300. It adds a few new features but the big one for me was video.

Unfortunately, a problem that plagued Nikon’s first SLR video feature in the D90 continues with the D300s – rolling shutter. Basically fast moving objects or camera pans can result in some distortion due to how the camera’s sensor reads and outputs data. While not a deal breaker for me, it is disappointing that a problem that existed in a Nikon product from last year is still going unfixed on their latest mid-level flagship product.

You can see the problem first hand in the video above.

Read more about the problem (and a fix) at Chase Jarvis’ excellent blog.

Here’s some footage I shot during a recent vacation to Hawaii. It works much better when the camera is locked down:

Here are some additional videos I shot with the D300s earlier, mostly handheld:

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iPhone 3GS Video Sample – YouTube Upload

June 19, 2009 by admin · View Comments 

I just moments ago picked up an iPhone 3GS.  It looks and feels just like the 3G, but has a new screen coating that seems to not get as greasy as the old one did.

But the real improvement here is the camera.  Check out a short video I just shot on the way to the office.  The phone compresses it pretty heavily, but the fact I could shoot, edit (I suppose trim might be the better word), and post this over the 3G cell network in less than 5 minutes is a major game changer:

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Delta Airlines’ Production Values Make Safety Interesting

March 12, 2009 by admin · View Comments 

Delta Airlines is soaring to new heights with their pre-flight safety video – adding a fun spin to content that seasoned travelers have been ignoring for decades.

Delta has somehow managed to rack up nearly 1.2 million YouTube views in less than a month. Yes, people are actually watching this voluntarily. I was surprised to see many of my fellow passengers on a recent Delta flight watching it too.

This goes to show that well produced content can make any boring topic interesting.

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