How to focus

I have a 5DmkII and am going into the world of video to film real estate. From what I've read, you have to manually focus. Is this right? How can you do this while walking through a home and holding a glide cam 2000? What tools can make this easier? If I focus in on something about 10 feet away from me and keep that in mind and walk through the house and keep the 10 ft rule, should everything be in focus? Any link out there that will show me some tips?

As long as you understand how DOF works its exactly the same with video. The Smaller the aperture the wider the DOF. As you walk along only things in that DOF will be in focus. Except in video your pretty much stuck at 1/50-1/60 shutter speed and have to find the balance between aperture and ISO while staying concerned with noise from too high an ISO.

You didn't mention what lens you intend to use. For your case, wider is definitely better - 24mm or wider will help keep everything in focus.

Oh yea, that too. For interiors I would suggest something like the 17-40L or the 16-35L II or some other ultra wide zoom variant.

I have a 17mm TS-E , 24-105mm L and a 35L. Which one would work better or do I need to go buy something else? One other thing. Would I need to purchase some kind of on camera lighting? If so, what would you recommend? I have money to spend.

mike3767 wrote in post #14166730
I have a 17mm TS-E , 24-105mm L and a 35L. Which one would work better or do I need to go buy something else? One other thing. Would I need to purchase some kind of on camera lighting? If so, what would you recommend? I have money to spend.

Between the 17mm, 24-105 and the 35L I think youd have more than enough to start. Its easy to figure out which to use. Slap one on the camera, walk into a room and decide it thats enough width for you. Same as photography.

There is a whole slew of LED lighting options out there. From cheap to way over priced. However, for lighting a room many of those will be too harsh or too small. You might want to looking into some sort of cool continuous lighting setup like 4 foot fluorescent tubes.