Nikon D5000 video is blurry

Cheryl Vogt , Jul 29, 2010; 10:26 a.m.

I am a fairly new owner of a Nikon D5000 camera and all the video I have taken so far comes out blurry and I can't understand why. When I see samples of video from this camera on the web, they are clear. What am I doing wrong? I try to have the camera focus before I shoot the video, but it does not seem to want to focus.

Responses

Shun Cheung , Jul 29, 2010; 10:33 a.m.

Once the mirror is up under live view/video mode, the regular phase-detection AF system on Nikon DSLRs is no longer functional. Nikon's AF system is under the mirror box and the mirror must be in the down position for that to work, from a light beam reflected downward through the center of mirror, which is semi-transparent.

You should pre-focus before you enter live view. Once in the live view mode, Nikon only has contrast-detect AF which is very slow. I have tried the D5000 in that situation; indoors, it can take 2 to 3 second to achieve focus.

If your subject moves such that its distance from the camera changes while you are capturing video, you are pretty much out of luck. You can try to re-focus with contrast-detect AF, but that is just too slow.

Peter Hamm , Jul 29, 2010; 10:52 a.m.

The video features in these cameras, while cool, are very limited. They are great if you shoot like hollywood does, they are not if you expect them to double as camcorders.

The video I've done with my D90 has been fun, but pretty useless for any serious purpose.