How to Setup your 7D at DVinfo.net

Ray Bell · December 28th, 2009, 05:33 AM

I found these two articles on how to setup your 7D for more optimum performance and ease of use....

Use both of these as written and your camera will be setup pretty nice for stills and video.
I started with the first setup as written and finished the camera setup with the second one. You should change any settings that you would prefer to use in conjunction with
these suggestions to get the camera setup your personal way of shooting... I used all
of these settings and only changed one or two items from the combined articles...

the first one I used to setup the video portions is here:

Tutorial: How to custom configure your Canon EOS 7D settings for Photo & Video | Oeding.com

the second one I used to setup the still settings is here:

Setting Up Your New Canon 7D | Deep Green Photography

enjoy :-)

Chuck Spaulding · December 28th, 2009, 12:19 PM

Thanks for posting that.

Brian Luce · December 28th, 2009, 04:37 PM

Anyone have links to settings that work best for out of the box shooting? I don't have good calibration gear for post and also am wary of artifacts that often result from manipulating heavily compressed files.

Liam Hall · December 28th, 2009, 05:37 PM

Brian, the posted set-up is an out-of-the-box solution and wont result in post-production artifacts - that's the point of the set-up.

Brian Luce · December 28th, 2009, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liam Hall

Brian, the posted set-up is an out-of-the-box solution and wont result in post-production artifacts - that's the point of the set-up.

As I understood the article (didn't read all of it) it's a recipe for footage that gives a lot of latitude in post for color correction, basically a video negative to play with in the NLE. No?

Scott Shama · December 28th, 2009, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Luce

Anyone have links to settings that work best for out of the box shooting? I don't have good calibration gear for post and also am wary of artifacts that often result from manipulating heavily compressed files.

That's why you transcode the files out of the camera on ingest.. to my knowledge no one edits the native 5d/7d files...

Brian Luce · December 28th, 2009, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott Shama

That's why you transcode the files out of the camera on ingest.. to my knowledge no one edits the native 5d/7d files...

Vegas, Premiere Pro CS4.1, FCP and EDIUS all edit 7d files natively. But that's not the point, I was hoping for some scene files that don't require extensive correcting in post. The link above gives a flat neutral image that maximizes options in post. I'm not after that because CC is a labor intensive process and therefore demolishes productivity and profit margin.

Liam Hall · December 29th, 2009, 03:48 AM

There's no major post required with these parameters. Keeping sharpness and contrast dialed down just prevents the camera from baking in too much too early in the process and gives you more control over the final look. Indeed, there are so few settings on this camera that you should be able to adjust one of the presets and find your desired look with the minimum of testing. Start with a "Neutral" picture style and adjust from there.

Scott Shama · December 30th, 2009, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Luce

CC is a labor intensive process and therefore demolishes productivity and profit margin.

Are you kidding..? You don't want to color correct.. at all? I guess that's where I've always viewed the line between professional and amateur but maybe you have a different view.. BTW, just because theose software packages can edit native doesn't mean you want to... most computers are still way too slow to make editing native anything BUT labor intensive and time consuming, thereby demolishing productivity and profit margin...

Brian Luce · December 30th, 2009, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott Shama

Are you kidding..? You don't want to color correct.. at all? I guess that's where I've always viewed the line between professional and amateur but maybe you have a different view.. BTW, just because theose software packages can edit native doesn't mean you want to... most computers are still way too slow to make editing native anything BUT labor intensive and time consuming, thereby demolishing productivity and profit margin...

Lots of people edit natively and lots of people get paid for doing it. Sounds like you need a faster computer.

The line between professional and amateur is drawn with the dollar bill. If you're getting paid, by definition you are professional. Without belaboring the point, I'll direct you to the maxim of "Cheap, fast, good. Pick two".

I've been doing some stuff with musicians lately and I absolutely love it, but they're musicians, they just don't have a budget, and as much as I love music and working with artists, I'm not going to work for minimum wage. So yes, I shoot them with a cheap camera (the 7d), and do everything possible to minimize post. They're happy, I'm happy so end of story.

Btw, they're especially pleased with the audio I'm getting from the Tascam DR100 and Octava mics and syncing via Plural Eyes. So much so that they're hiring me for audio only gigs over a well established sound engineer who carts around a 50k sound kit. These are discriminating professional musicians with degrees from places like Juliard, they don't know jack about Color grading, but they have ears

Scott Shama · December 30th, 2009, 05:52 PM

Don't need a faster computer.. they currently don't make one much faster.. I see where you are going with the videos for the musicians.. I guess it's just me personally that would never send out anything uncorrected at this point.. To each their own..

Frank Bongers · January 2nd, 2010, 02:52 AM

I set up my 7D exactly like the first link told me so, and I quite like it. However, when I'm using Custom Mode C2 the camera is adjusting the ISO automatically to match the light situation. Is this something you guys would want? I find it quite "camcorder" style, which IMHO doesn't suit the "cinema" style manu of us are pursuing. I could be missing some specific infomation though.

Liam Hall · January 2nd, 2010, 03:01 AM

Frank, ISO should be set to 200 as a default. Select your desired ISO when shooting but never use AUTO.

Jay Houser · January 2nd, 2010, 02:09 PM

I'm with Brian.

I use the 5D2 and 7D as a camcorder capable of shooting several stills during the video. No post processing required, just edit length, and burn SD DVD's, or if more definition is required Blu-Rays.

I realize this and other forums are geared towards filmmakers and wedding photographers, however there is also a need for informative, reliable advice covering more mundane applications of this hardware.

We surely don't need another forum do we?

Brian Luce · January 2nd, 2010, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay Houser

I'm with Brian.

I use the 5D2 and 7D as a camcorder capable of shooting several stills during the video.

This ability alone, to pop stills while recording video made a hero out of me at a recent shoot and led directly to several promising referrals as well as a decent paycheck. The comment was "He did still shots and video? One guy?" I say that not as testimonial to myself, but to the camera. You can do some trick stuff with it.

December 28th, 2009, 05:33 AM	#1
Ray Bell Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 1,414	How to Setup your 7D I found these two articles on how to setup your 7D for more optimum performance and ease of use.... Use both of these as written and your camera will be setup pretty nice for stills and video. I started with the first setup as written and finished the camera setup with the second one. You should change any settings that you would prefer to use in conjunction with these suggestions to get the camera setup your personal way of shooting... I used all of these settings and only changed one or two items from the combined articles... the first one I used to setup the video portions is here: Tutorial: How to custom configure your Canon EOS 7D settings for Photo & Video \| Oeding.com the second one I used to setup the still settings is here: Setting Up Your New Canon 7D \| Deep Green Photography enjoy :-)

December 28th, 2009, 05:37 PM	#4
Liam Hall Major Player Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: London, England Posts: 969	Brian, the posted set-up is an out-of-the-box solution and wont result in post-production artifacts - that's the point of the set-up. __________________ Writer-Director-DOP www.liamhall.net

December 29th, 2009, 03:48 AM	#8
Liam Hall Major Player Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: London, England Posts: 969	There's no major post required with these parameters. Keeping sharpness and contrast dialed down just prevents the camera from baking in too much too early in the process and gives you more control over the final look. Indeed, there are so few settings on this camera that you should be able to adjust one of the presets and find your desired look with the minimum of testing. Start with a "Neutral" picture style and adjust from there. __________________ Writer-Director-DOP www.liamhall.net

January 2nd, 2010, 03:01 AM	#13
Liam Hall Major Player Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: London, England Posts: 969	Frank, ISO should be set to 200 as a default. Select your desired ISO when shooting but never use AUTO. __________________ Writer-Director-DOP www.liamhall.net

December 28th, 2009, 12:19 PM	#2
Chuck Spaulding Trustee Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Thousand Oaks Posts: 1,099	Thanks for posting that.

December 28th, 2009, 04:37 PM	#3
Brian Luce Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,290	Anyone have links to settings that work best for out of the box shooting? I don't have good calibration gear for post and also am wary of artifacts that often result from manipulating heavily compressed files.

December 30th, 2009, 05:52 PM	#11
Scott Shama Major Player Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Beaverton, Oregon Posts: 399	Don't need a faster computer.. they currently don't make one much faster.. I see where you are going with the videos for the musicians.. I guess it's just me personally that would never send out anything uncorrected at this point.. To each their own..

January 2nd, 2010, 02:52 AM	#12
Frank Bongers New Boot Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 18	I set up my 7D exactly like the first link told me so, and I quite like it. However, when I'm using Custom Mode C2 the camera is adjusting the ISO automatically to match the light situation. Is this something you guys would want? I find it quite "camcorder" style, which IMHO doesn't suit the "cinema" style manu of us are pursuing. I could be missing some specific infomation though.

January 2nd, 2010, 02:09 PM	#14
Jay Houser Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: St Paul MN Posts: 41	I'm with Brian. I use the 5D2 and 7D as a camcorder capable of shooting several stills during the video. No post processing required, just edit length, and burn SD DVD's, or if more definition is required Blu-Rays. I realize this and other forums are geared towards filmmakers and wedding photographers, however there is also a need for informative, reliable advice covering more mundane applications of this hardware. We surely don't need another forum do we?