Help needed setting 7D aperture and shutter speed for video

Rapidly falling out of love with my 7D. Wasted a whole day trying to set it up.
Maybe its me or its faulty.
I thought if I selected Manual Mode and set up ISO 160, F8 and 1/50 sec and saved that to C3 C. Fn setting then that would be it.
My idea was to then to adjust two Bowens modeling lights until the exposure was right.

1st Problem even in normal flash mode if the Sekonic L308S says F8 then its bleached out, so I have to set the 7D to F13 to get a decent picture. That isn't grossly overexposed.

Back to the video problem.
I then elect C 3. Check Info and it says ISO 160, F8 and 1/50 sec. Great thats what I expected. but when I come to put it on video the LCD is very dark. NB I have 2x 250 watts and it pretty bright!
I press AF ON to focus it and it starts to focus and the LCD goes light. As soon as it's focused it goes dark. WTF!
I ead in the manual if you half press the shutter button you will see the F No and the shutter speed. I see 1/60 sec er I set it at 1/50????

So the question is - how do you set the shutter speed and aperture when using video?
Am I doing it wrong or is it faulty?

Any help much appreciated.

Submariner wrote in post #14849087
Rapidly falling out of love with my 7D. Wasted a whole day trying to set it up.
Maybe its me or its faulty.
I thought if I selected Manual Mode and set up ISO 160, F8 and 1/50 sec and saved that to C3 C. Fn setting then that would be it.
My idea was to then to adjust two Bowens modeling lights until the exposure was right.

1st Problem even in normal flash mode if the Sekonic L308S says F8 then its bleached out, so I have to set the 7D to F13 to get a decent picture. That isn't grossly overexposed.

Back to the video problem.
I then elect C 3. Check Info and it says ISO 160, F8 and 1/50 sec. Great thats what I expected. but when I come to put it on video the LCD is very dark. NB I have 2x 250 watts and it pretty bright!
I press AF ON to focus it and it starts to focus and the LCD goes light. As soon as it's focused it goes dark. WTF!
I ead in the manual if you half press the shutter button you will see the F No and the shutter speed. I see 1/60 sec er I set it at 1/50????

So the question is - how do you set the shutter speed and aperture when using video?
Am I doing it wrong or is it faulty?

Any help much appreciated.

sounds to me like you are getting lost in a pile of adjustable settings.
the LCD lighting up while focusing is normal, i believe it uses the extra light to focus more accurately.

instead of picking settings before hand, why don't you pick settings that will properly expose the shot?

Did you set the camera to record video in HD or Full HD? If you are using HD, you can't set a slower time than 1/60 s. The camera does know this, and will correct your setting of 1/50 s if you select the 1280*720 quality setting.

Apart from that, it's of course as is already said above: Go to your location and find a combination of shutter speed, aperture and ISO that gives correct exposure. As you've already seen, the camera's exposure simulation will assist you, by showing about what the video will look like (except when focusing, when the camera instead adjusts brightness for you, so you can see what you are doing).

AliZaman wrote in post #14849271
sounds to me like you are getting lost in a pile of adjustable settings.
the LCD lighting up while focusing is normal, i believe it uses the extra light to focus more accurately.

instead of picking settings before hand, why don't you pick settings that will properly expose the shot?

That is exactly what I was thinking.

LCD will always brighten when focusing as you are using LiveView for focusing(contrast)..if you dont want that, and you want FAST focusing, set the focus mode to "quick focus", which will cause the mirror to pop back down, the AF system will focus, then return you back to the LiveView/video mode..
It is not the recommended method for focusing WHILE shooting..for obvious reasons.
imho, I never use anything but MF as anything else is just nowhere near as accurate/SMOOTH.

There is also a menu option/custom function(?) that sets the LiveView preview to "exposure simulation"...sounds to me like you need this ON..?

Just a thought.. (OH, and RTFM!! LOL)

You can't use Quick AF while shooting a video. The camera will refuse and convert to live AF, which is also a disaster to use while shooting.

apersson850 wrote in post #14849538
You can't use Quick AF while shooting a video. The camera will refuse and convert to live AF, which is also a disaster to use while shooting.

agreed!
Hmm, I didnt know the camera would refuse it, but that makes sense..thanks!

AliZaman wrote in post #14849271
sounds to me like you are getting lost in a pile of adjustable settings.
the LCD lighting up while focusing is normal, i believe it uses the extra light to focus more accurately.


Thanks good to hear the brightening up is not a problem - and I see the logic.

instead of picking settings before hand, why don't you pick settings that will properly expose the shot?

How do I choose these? The Canon support told me the best setting was ISO 160 and 1/50th (as I selected 1080 /24p. So the other variable would be the F No. ?

But the meter reading either is not for the Video or something is wrong as it's drastically wrong on Video [tried setting SS @ 1/50 and alternatively on 24 FS - both come out incorrect but very similar in F. No. Terms].

apersson850 wrote in post #14849504
Did you set the camera to record video in HD or Full HD? If you are using HD, you can't set a slower time than 1/60 s. The camera does know this, and will correct your setting of 1/50 s if you select the 1280*720 quality setting.

Apart from that, it's of course as is already said above: Go to your location and find a combination of shutter speed, aperture and ISO that gives correct exposure. As you've already seen, the camera's exposure simulation will assist you, by showing about what the video will look like (except when focusing, when the camera instead adjusts brightness for you, so you can see what you are doing).

Double checked, it was set on 1080 /24p

My real problem is where do you set these Shutter speed and aperture settings. When I set them in Manual Mode and save them to say C2. Checking Info they are stored but recording Video seems to change them?

HyperCams wrote in post #14849522
That is exactly what I was thinking.

LCD will always brighten when focusing as you are using LiveView for focusing(contrast)..if you dont want that, and you want FAST focusing, set the focus mode to "quick focus", which will cause the mirror to pop back down, the AF system will focus, then return you back to the LiveView/video mode..
It is not the recommended method for focusing WHILE shooting..for obvious reasons.
imho, I never use anything but MF as anything else is just nowhere near as accurate/SMOOTH.

I have already set it to "AFQuick". So before pressing the Video start I can Af by pressing the back button or the shutter half way. It correctly cuts out as the mirror swings up and then comes back showing the AF Square where it focused in Red. If I press the AF during the running video - it highlights the square in 'green' which I believe is correct - as it will effectively revert to 'Live Mode AF' (as per the manual)

There is also a menu option/custom function(?) that sets the LiveView preview to "exposure simulation"...sounds to me like you need this ON..?

I have "exposure simulation" ON

Just a thought.. (OH, and RTFM!! LOL)

Well I've done that 10 times all it does is confirm to me that the guy who designed Canons "Live View / Video" was either suffering with a serious case of substance abuse, or was well bribed by Sony to f... up Canons implementation of Video! To make Sony look good when they eventually launched their version.

Submariner wrote in post #14849884
Well I've done that 10 times all it does is confirm to me that the guy who designed Canons "Live View / Video" was either suffering with a serious case of substance abuse, or was well bribed by Sony to f... up Canons implementation of Video! To make Sony look good when they eventually launched their version.

I believe what you are complaining about is a limitation of a DSLR camera. If the light is going to the sensor, the camera can't use it to focus.

With my 7D, video exposure is fairly straightforward. While in video mode, before starting recording, I set the shutter speed to give the fluidity of motion desired, set the aperture to give adequate depth of field and then set the ISO to give the required image brightness. If the ISO is going to be too high to look good enough, or the ISO cannot get low enough, then a trade-off has to be made for depth of field or shutter speed, or change the lighting.

Submariner wrote in post #14849841
Double checked, it was set on 1080 /24p

My real problem is where do you set these Shutter speed and aperture settings. When I set them in Manual Mode and save them to say C2. Checking Info they are stored but recording Video seems to change them?

Just checked my 7d, when you have set the apeture, shutter speed and iso in manual mode, these are set in video mode, then while in video mode the metering bar will change as the scene brightness changes and this is reflected on the LCD if you have exposure simulation turned on.

It allows you change all the settings while in live view mode

When I save these to C1, and then select C1 in video mode, the settings are returned to those I have set.

Are you saving them to C2 via the menu path camera user setting/register/mode dial/ok

I think the main issue is that you're trying to establish your settings independently of actual shooting conditions. It's fine to have a custom set of settings as a baseline, but you need to adjust for the light when you're shooting. As pointed out in macroimage's excellent explanation above, you need to adjust settings as needed. Because you'll probably want to keep the optimum shutter speed for a smooth looking video, that means adjusting f-stop and/or ISO. You can adjust these "on the fly" while recording, but the video will register the change in exposure, so it's probably better to adjust before you start. You don't need to leave C1/C2 to change them, but they won't be saved after that particular shooting session.

Just a few thoughts...
- Turn off Auto Lighting Optimizer.
- Set AF to Live Mode
- Focus manually
- Set exposure manually using the in-camera meter by adjusting either ISO or aperture. Even better, use a VND filter to preserve your desired aperture.
- I could be wrong, but an exposure setting of 160 ISO, f/8, 1/50 sec is pretty slow, even with 500W of indoor lighting. I suspect something is not matched between your Sekonic and your camera.
- Resubmit your question in the Digital Video forum. Nothing personal, but you tend to get a lot of incorrect video advice from stills folks.

Submariner wrote in post #14849087
1st Problem even in normal flash mode if the Sekonic L308S says F8 then its bleached out, so I have to set the 7D to F13 to get a decent picture. That isn't grossly overexposed.

Have you confirmed the ISO setting on the Sekonic is correct when you are taking a reading?