By Dan Chung
Yesterday I had a chance to get a hands-on with a pre-production Nikon D4 at the company’s UK headquarters. James Banfield of Nikon UK demonstrates the video functions in the video below.
We tried the camera’s clean HDMI output with the Zacuto EVF and Atomos Ninja and I can confirm that it works. We also tried the headphone output and the audio functions of the camera and I’m pleased to report they also work as expected.
I was allowed to see the images on a monitor but not take any away for publication. What I did see (admittedly in a dimly lit Nikon showroom) looked pretty nice with no obvious false colour artefacts. James said that given that the camera is pre-production the picture might not be representative of the finished product and that they are still tweaking the image settings of the camera. Proper assessments of the image quality from the camera (and especially its HDMI output) will have to wait until production cameras appear.
Hopefully I will get to test a production unit soon. Like many others I’m keen to see how this camera stacks up against the competition – namely the Canon 1D X, C300, Sony FS100, F3 and Panasonic’s offerings. These are certainly interesting times.
Below is Nikon’s first sample video from the D4 by shooter Corey Rich.
WHY – Nikon D4 Release Video from Corey Rich on Vimeo.
And some initial thoughts from AFP shooter Leon Neal.
