It is a fairly known fact that Canon videographers can magically “upgrade” their cameras using the Magic Lantern custom firmware. This firmware gives the camera some nice control features, but I suspect that this firmware is usually installed for the better video it provides (raw video, dual ISO, better dynamic range and so on).
Sadly, Nikon users do not have that option. Until now.
The folks at Nikon Hacker recently released a beta load with an upgrade to the camera bit rate output. Depending on the Nikon Body, you can get up to 64mbps (D7000) as opposed to the 24mbps that the camera ships with from Japan.
Over the last month, the Nikon Hacker team has been releasing more patches so there are even more good news. The hack is ported to many, many cameras including the older D5100, and the entry level D3100 (“only” 54mbps).
The firmware is still in Beta phase (so as always it s try-at-your-own-risk thing), but initial tests look promising.
Here is the list of improved bitrates (red) from Nikon Hacker’s beta page. I think this is just the jump that every Nikon videographer has been waiting for and I hope this will expedite the development of this custom firmware.
- D3100
- Remove Time Based Video Restrictions
- Change Time Based Video Restrictions to 17:28
- Non-brand Battery
- Liveview Manual Control ISO/Shutter – BETA
- Video 1080 36mbps Bitrate – BETA
- Video 1080 54mbps Bitrate – BETA
- D3200
- Non-brand Battery – BETA
- Video 1080 36mbps Bitrate – BETA
- Video 1080 54mbps Bitrate – BETA
- Multi-Langauge Support – BETA
- Remove Time Based Video Restrictions – DOES NOT WORK CORRECTLY
- D5100
- Remove Time Based Video Restrictions
- Video 1080 36mbps Bitrate – BETA
- Video 1080 54mbps Bitrate – BETA
- NEF Compression Off
- NEF Compression Lossless
- Remove NEF Nikon Star Eater, for Astro folks
- NEF Oversampling, IGNORE,its for Astro folks testing – BETA
- Jpeg Compression – Quality (vs. Space)
- Non-brand Battery
- Live View Manual Control ISO/Shutter
- Live View HDMI & LCD Clean
- D5200
- Video 1080 40mbps Bitrate – ALPHA
- Video 1080 57mbps Bitrate – ALPHA
- D7000
- Remove Time Based Video Restrictions
- Remove NEF Nikon Star Eater, for Astro folks
- Live View HDMI & LCD Clean
- Live View No Display Auto Off – BETA
- Video 1080 24fps 36mbps Bitrate – BETA
- Video 1080 24fps 49mbps Bitrate – BETA
- Video 1080 24fps 64mbps Bitrate – BETA
- D300s
- Remove NEF Nikon Star Eater, for Astro folks
- D300
- Remove NEF Nikon Star Eater, for Astro folks
- D800
- Remove Time Based Video Restrictions – BETA
- Video 1080 36mbps Bitrate – BETA
- Video 1080 54mbps Bitrate – BETA
- 2 minute Time limit based video – ALPHA
- D800E
- Video 1080 36mbps Bitrate – BETA
- Video 1080 54mbps Bitrate – BETA
- D600
- Video 1080 36mbps Bitrate – BETA
- Video 1080 54mbps Bitrate – BETA
- D4
- Video 1080 36mbps Bitrate – BETA
- Video 1080 54mbps Bitrate – BETA
The three announcement threads are pretty long, here is some of the more interesting data we dug up:
Sample files shot using a D5100 are available here:
Here is a quick comparison between the 18mbps and the 45mbps outputs from those files:
NH user fusion did a quick comparison between the 18mbps and the 64mbps formats on a D7000:
and lastly user nikkor did a comparison on a d700.
Let’s hope that Nikon Hacker is ramping up to be the standard of Nikon Videography.
[Nikon Patch v1.18.2 BETA | nikonhacker]
