Nikon D90 = Less crap to carry around

New cameras aren’t usually something I’d feel compelled to cover unless it somehow impacts skateboarding photography, but there are some extenuating circumstances here. First of all, they are using skateboarding a little in the promo materials, which isn’t a big deal by itself. Nice free advertising for Independent Trucks though… The D90 is two steps forward in the evolution of the camera I’ve been using for skate shots for the past three years or so, the D70. At the time, it was the first consumer digital SLR that had the option to use equivalent of a 16mm fisheye, my go to lens for skate photography. The D90 that was just announced improves on the D70 and D80 before it incrementally as well as adding the ability to shoot HD resolution movie clips up to five minutes long. The skatespot they use in the demo footage looks like it is in the Pacific Northwest somewhere, dare I say Seattle or Vancouver? One of our readers should be able to identify the location. I’ve got some stills pulled out plus more camera talk after the jump.

[Source: Gizmodo]

On the first day of the Trifecta I had my video camera around my neck while I was shooting stills. I wanted to get some footage for GVK since Grover didn’t make it out to Lincoln City. Man, did I fell like a dork. I also used it to video the contest results so I could make sure I got them right, and could match a name to a face. The ability to shoot 24fps HD quality movies through a digital SLR is supposed to be a first for this camera. I thought there was another digital SLR camera that could do it, but maybe it’s not in the HD aspect.

The depth of field changes and ability to use a true wide angel lens (or telephoto) for shooting video, as well as getting a damn fine digital camera for primary use make this a pretty amazing product. There are a few downsides to the video mode. The sound is mono only, the autofocus doesn’t work while shooting video and the clips are limited to 5 minutes. Mono sound isn’t a deal breaker for skate videos that typically have a soundtrack overdubbed, and five minutes is a long shot for most scenes. Autofocus might be harder to work around, but everyone managed fine without it for decades. I imagine all three of these limitations will one day be solved by technology advances, or maybe already have been planned for higher price models. The D90 body will sell for $999 when it comes out, which is what the D70 cost when it was released in 2004 without the movie mode and only half the megapixels, not to mention a smaller LCD and all the other improvements that have been made in the past few years. I said it before, we’re relatively fast approaching the time when the line between prosumer video and still camera will start to disappear.

These are stills from the demo video. Note that these have been compressed for web delivery and don’t represent the actual quality. Readers, where is this skate spot?

UPDATE:

That was fast. Bailgun identified the spot as Gas Works Park in Seattle.