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I have a Nikon D5000 and would like to use it to take video clips.

By default, when shooting video clips in the "Live View" mode, you can only use 1 MP of the camera's 12 MP, thus you get video clips in a crappy resolution. In addition, you can't use apertures smaller than f/8. Also Live View doesn't respect shutter speeds. Instead, it uses ISO adjustment to move exposure, and it does so in third-stop increments that can look "jumpy" on the LCD (and in movies).

How can I avoid all of these things? Is there a way to take video clips on the D5000 without being in Live View mode?

My information comes from this website: http://www.bythom.com/nikond90review.htm

Thanks in advance!

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    That crappy 1mp resolution is commonly known as 720p, which is the highest the D90 can record at. The methods mentioned in the article for manually changing settings before entering liveview are the only things you can do, unless there is some firmware hack available that my quick google didn't find – Dreamager Feb 8 '12 at 22:55
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    Its pretty ironic that 720p resolution is being called "crappy" these days...the vast majority of HD TV is 720p, or at highest 1080i!! :D – jrista Feb 9 '12 at 1:30
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At least for the resolution, the problem is one of data rate. While it is easy enough for a camera to rapidly capture a few 12 megapixel images per second, video uses 24 or more frames per second. The sensor and image processing hardware is simply not fast enough to deal with capturing 24 or more full resolution images per second.

Further, even if it was able to capture the higher resolution, there is nothing that can display that high of resolution. 4k screens are only about 8 megapixels in resolution and they are still fairly new (didn't exist at all at the time the D5000 was made). 1080p video would be nice, but that's still only using 2 megapixels of the sensor.

Also, it is not possible to shoot video when not in LiveView. When you are looking through the viewfinder, there is a mirror blocking the path of light reaching the sensor and instead directing it to the optical viewfinder. Since the light isn't reaching the sensor, it isn't possible to record or capture anything. This is why the viewfinder goes blank for an instant when you take a photo, because the mirror has to swing up out of the way.

With LiveView, the sensor is left exposed and the image from the sensor is instead displayed on the screen so that you can see what you are doing.

As for the aperture, shutter and ISO issues, those are limitations of the camera software. It may be possible to overcome them with a third party hack for the camera, but I don't know if one is available for your particular camera model.

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