All 7D settings for shooting video

[David Chapman]

Go to the custom function area in the menu (orange) and it's section 2 option 3.

[Zachary Mattson]

Awesome, thanks Keith and David, I'll have to check that when I get home

[Richard Crook]

I see many people referring to Philip Bloom's settings but still am wondering what they are. Can anyone divulge this?

[Ethan Lane]

Sharpness and contrast all the way down
Saturation -2
Highlight Tone Priority On

[Cristian Derois]

I think this setting are not from Mr.Bloom.

Is it first advice for our dear friend Mr. Stu from Prolost?

[Ethan Lane]

that's exactly what he says in his video...

[David Chapman]

I think that came from Stu Maschwitz. He actually has a lot of cool stuff on his blog.

prolost.com

[Jonanthan Carr]

I really don't see much of a point in shooting super flat mode when it comes to shooting video. The basic picture styles are like the HVX and it's matrix settings. The basic picture style modes are just fine for shooting. Super Flat mode will not give you anything near the Dynamic Range of a RED One. Also the grading from that super flat mode just looks horrible. But that's just my personal opinion through. I did a very simple daylight and tungsten test to see each styles affect on the light with the image when I first got the 7D and decided to upload it today.

Canon 7D Picture Style test on Vimeo

[Bill Fant]

I have read thru posts here and on several other sites regarding 60p to 24p conversion. The general consensus seems to be:

Shoot 60p using 1/60 shutter speed in most cases.
Shoot 60p using 1/120 shutter speed for slow motion conversion.
Convert footage in desired editing software by dropping frames instead of blending them.

Sound right??

Some posts mentioned conversion to 29.97 first and then proceeding to 23.97. Seems like you would lose some quality going that route though.

[David Chapman]

Bill, if you shoot 60p for slow motion effect, all you are doing is changing a play rate from 60 frames a second and extending the frames over a longer period of time to 24 frames per second. The method you are asking about is relevant to interlaced material (back and forth) from a progressive format having to do with pulldown or a telecine process, although there are varying schools of thought on this.

[Jim Forrest]

Originally Posted by Jonanthan Carr

I really don't see much of a point in shooting super flat mode when it comes to shooting video. The basic picture styles are like the HVX and it's matrix settings. The basic picture style modes are just fine for shooting. Super Flat mode will not give you anything near the Dynamic Range of a RED One. Also the grading from that super flat mode just looks horrible. But that's just my personal opinion through. I did a very simple daylight and tungsten test to see each styles affect on the light with the image when I first got the 7D and decided to upload it today.

Canon 7D Picture Style test on Vimeo

Thanks for that visual post. It is most helpful.

[Bill Fant]

Originally Posted by David Chapman

Bill, if you shoot 60p for slow motion effect, all you are doing is changing a play rate from 60 frames a second and extending the frames over a longer period of time to 24 frames per second.

I understand that, but does the shutter speed of my camera have any bearing on the quality of the final footage or should I always capture 60p video @ 1/60 shutter speed?

Also, what tips do users have regarding the ISO? When is it advisable to adjust the ISO for video - low ISO for bright light and high ISO for low light??

Lastly, I use After Effects to alter the frame rate and colors of the video I shoot and ultimately deliver to web and DVD. Any tips?

Thanks.

[Jim Forrest]

Originally Posted by David Chapman

From Daniel Browning on other forums:

When you select "ISO 320", what the camera actually does behind the scenes is set the analog ISO to 400, then reduce brightness digitally with a -1/3 stop pull. That makes it look as if you had used ISO 320, except that 1/3 stop of highlights are clipped. The upside is that noise is less.

It's like the opposite of HTP (highlight tone priority). HTP sets the analog ISO to one stop below whatever you pick, giving 1 extra stop of highlights, then increases the brightness digitally with nonlinear EC (to preserve highlights), which increases the visibility of noise. So HTP trades shadows for highlights.

The other tweener ISO settings (125, 250, 500, 1000) should be avoided, because they do a 1/3-stop push, but don't bother to preserve the highlights, so they increase noise for no benefit.

----


• 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600: normal amount of highlight headroom.

• There is little difference from ISO 100 to 200, because most viewers can't tell the difference in photon shot noise, and the read noise drops by almost a full stop in ISO 200.

• 125, 250, 500, 1000: considered harmful. 1/3 stop less highlight headroom and 1/3 stop more shadow noise.

• 160, 320, 640, 1250: fine, as long as you are aware of the decreased highlight headroom. (Clips 1/3 highlights to get 1/3 more shadows.)

• HTP should *always* be enabled when the ISO is higher than 1600.

• There is a careful balance between increasing shadow detail through ISO (which clips highlights) or through HTP, the picture profile (e.g. contrast, tone curve), or Auto Lighting Optimizer. Generally, the higher you go in ISO, the more beneficial it is to use non-ISO methods to increase shadow detail. For example, ISO 3200+HTP (actually ISO 1600) is better than the real ISO 3200. ISO 800+HTP may be better than the real ISO 800, but it depends on how much highlight headroom you need.

I have my settings to 1920x1080 30p but some of my ISO settings are grayed out....100 125 160 ISO are all grayed out and the first or lowest I can get is 200 ISO. Did I miss a setting somewhere. I have read the manual a couple of times and get the impression I should be seeing those.

[David Chapman]

Hey Jim, do you have Highlight Tone Priority ON or OFF? If this is enabled, your lowest ISO in manual mode is 200. I always turn it off anyways.

[Jim Forrest]

Hey David
That was it! I found it under My Settings Menu. I think I turned it on when I was trying Bloom's settings.
It appears that 'Neutral' in picture setting is similar to his settings anyway.