Best video settings for the Canon 2000D / Rebel T7
Hello in this video I am going to show you the best settings for shooting movies with
the Canon Rebel T7 or EOS 2000D.
Hello and welcome to this CameraWize video on shooting movies with the Canon Rebel T7
or EOS 2000D.
The important thing to know about this camera is it is an excellent camera for shooting
both Stills and video but it is important to get the settings right so that you can
get the best out of the camera and produce the best videos possible.
So the first thing you need to do when you are going to shoot video is to move down to
the icons on the DIAL MODE to the video camera and that is because this is the only way that
you can get into the video modes, and the only way that you can shoot video is by moving
that dial down.
And when you do that you may hear that the mirror inside the camera pops up.
So if I just do that now like that and what that does is it enables the live view screen
at the back of the camera.
This is the only way that you can shoot video you can't look through the viewfinder here
and shoot video because you don't actually see an image through the viewfinder.
You only see it through the live view screen at the back.
So that is the first thing to do but also when you move it down to the video mode here,
it gives you the video MENU TABS when you press the menu button.
So if I press that it shows that you have four VIDEO TABS which are specifically for
shooting video.
The first thing you do when you are in those tabs is you decide upon your VIDEO SYSTEM
now this is not as important as it used to be.
The video systems refer to the kind of systems which televisions used in different countries.
So, for example, in Europe predominantly the system was called PAL and in the United States
predominantly it was NTSC.
Of course those were days before digital TV and those systems to some extent are not as
prevalent as they once were.
It is important really to get them right for your national and geographic area and there
are reasons for that, which I won't go into now but I do go into in the manual, but for
this instance it is just worth getting it right so that if you are in the States you
click on NTSC and if you are in Europe and most other parts of the world you go on to
PAL.
It does change one thing, which is frame rate, which we will look at in a moment.
So here are go into VIDEO TAB 2 and right at the bottom is video system.
If I open that up by pressing SET then you will see that you only have two options NTSC
or PAL as I am in Europe, I click on PAL.
Best video settings for the Canon 2000D / Rebel T7
After setting the video system the next thing you need to look at is VIDEO FRAME RATE AND
SIZE.
This camera is pretty good - it will shoot 1080 at 30 or 25 frames per second and it
will shoot 720 at 60 or 50 frames per second.
Now 1080 is full HD and 720 is standard HD and both are perfectly good for social media
and even for showing on reasonably large screens.
The quality is excellent, but when I talked about video system, this is what I mean is
how it changes the frame rate.
So if we go into VIDEO TAB 2 and look at the very top one - at MOVIE RECORDING SIZE - then
because I am in 1920 x 1080 at 25 frames per second, 1920 1080 at 24 frames per second
- which is established as the the film speed for cinematic videography and then 1280 by
720 at 50 and then 640 by 480 at 25.
Now the 640 by 480 I wouldn't bother with at all.
It is so poor it is not worth looking at.
But I would look at the 1080 x 25 and the 720 x 50.
25 frames a second is about the speed at which the human eye can detect movement and so that
is the standard.
25 frames per second is reasonable quality video in terms of how the video will look.
50 frames a second looks a little bit smoother and there are reasons for shooting at a smoother
rate, but also shooting 50 frames per second means that you can use slow motion much more
effectively.
So if you shoot at 50 frames a second you can slow it down by half and still be on 25
frames per second or by quarter down to 12 frames per second and you still detect that
a slow motion video.
So 50 frames a second is actually pretty good if you want to be creative and inventive with
your film production.
Now because I'm on PAL I am on 25 frames and 50 frames per second.
If you chose NTSC then the options you would have would be 30 frames a second and 60 frames
a second and that is the only difference really.
When you set the video systems they are the frame rates that change and they are really
the only changes that there are, but it is a good idea I would say to shoot 1080x25 because
you get the better frame quality if that is what you are looking for, or if you are looking
for a certain smoothness or you want to do slow motion videography then shoot it 50 frames
per second.
Now the third thing you need to look at is MOVIE EXPOSURE.
When you are shooting stills you have an enormous choice for the exposure settings and the types
of stills that you are going to shoot.
So you go from MANUAL which doesn't set the exposure at all you are responsible for exposure
- through the semi-automatic and then the completely automatic settings, here where
the camera decides what the exposure should be and then sets the parameters accordingly.
When you are shooting video you basically have only two choices.
You have either automatic or you have manual.
Now there is no automatic with flash for video because the flash does literally that - it
just flashes - and what you want for video is a constant light so the flash doesn't work
when you are trying to shoot video.
So you have just Auto and just manual.
Where you make that choice is in VIDEO TAB 1 at the top which is MOVIE EXPOSURE and if
you look here then, obviously as I say you have either auto or you have manual.
Now if you choose Auto this camera will take actually very good video it will decide the
settings that are essentially the same as stills - ISO , shutter speed and aperture
- and the camera will produce very well exposed video.
But if you want to be a little more creative, a little more inventive, then you can choose
manual and let's have a look at that now.
So having chosen manual I now come out to the menu setting and I can see on the back
of the screen the video - not that I'm shooting video but I can see what the video would be
shooting if it was switched on - and this allows me here to change the various settings,
the parameters, that I might want to change either before I shoot the video or when I
am shooting the video.
As with stills the parameters or the main ones are ISO, APERTURE and SHUTTER SPEED and
those are the parameters that are along the bottom that I can change as I say either before
I shoot the video or when the video is on.
So let's just press the button here that switches the video on.
I am now recording and if I turn the rotate dial which is on the top of the camera then,
below at the bottom you will see the three options which I have which are shutter speed
aperture and ISO.
If I turn the rotate dial on its own then I can affect the shutter speed and as it goes
up or down, you can see live on the back screen how that affects the exposure.
If I want to change the aperture then I press the AV button on the back of the camera and
then rotate the dial and I can change the aperture live again and as you can see it
changes the exposure live so I can see what it looks like.
Finally if I want to change the ISO then I press the flash button on the top of the camera
and rotate the dial and that allows me to change the ISO again as I am recording live.
These are really good ways of being able to change the parameters whilst you are recording
so that you can be creative and inventive or if necessary consistent to get the right
look for your video as you're shooting live on this camera.
The next thing you need to think about when you are shooting videos with this camera is
sound.
Sound can be a real problem for photographers who want to shoot videos because it is something
they have never had to consider before.
You very rarely find that silence is in fact silent - there is always some ambient noise
or ambient sound and it is your choice as the videographer as to whether you want to
pick that up in the video or whether you want to avoid any ambient noise or outside sound.
So deciding on how you record sound is very important.
Now if we go into the menus again and go to VIDEO TAB 2 then just below movie recording
size you have SOUND RECORDING and if you click on there you have three options.
The first option is disable.
Now I don't recommend that you disable sound entirely even if you have decided that you
are not going to have any of the sound from the video in your final edit.
The reason for that is that sound is actually a really good signifier and a really good
way of identifying pieces of video, because whilst the videos you shoot and reshoot and
shoot again - they all look very similar, the conversations around that video will all
be different and it will help you identify the right piece of video if you have the sound
with it.
The other two choices are either AUTO or MANUAL.
Now this has an internal microphone it doesn't have an external microphone socket on the
ReBel T7 and so it is the internal microphone that we are talking about when we are talking
about AUTO or MANUAL sound recording.
The auto recording on this camera is actually pretty good.
The downside of it is that because it is automatic and it doesn't know what sounds you are particularly
trying to record it will pick up a lot of ambient sound.
Now if you are shooting something which has ambient sound in it then that is not a problem.
But if you just want to pick up some specific sound like somebody talking then Auto may
not be the right setting for you in which case you want to come down to MANUAL.
Manual setting allows you to set the sound recording level so that the sound that you
are trying to record is the sound that this camera picks up and the way it does that if
you look along the bottom bar here which is the recording levels bar, then you will see
that there is a twelve on it between minus 40 and 0.
This is minus 12 and the objective here when you are recording the sound or listening to
the sound that you want to record is that the peak noise - the loudest sound level - for
this hits 12 because if it goes above 12 then the sound level can distort and can clip,
but if you make sure that when you set it that the top the loudest level is at minus
12 then the camera will enable the sound recording to be as crisp and as clean as it can be.
So you need to decide whether to set manual or whether to set Auto as I say auto is pretty
good but if you know precisely what you want to record then manual is that much better.
okay so the next thing you may want to look at is the autofocus method.
The Canon T7 has two auto focus methods if you are looking through the viewfinder then
the system here is very quick and very sharp.
If you are looking through LiveView screen then it is a little bit slower but you do
get some choices and we can look at them here.
So if you look on menu then if you look at VIDEO TAB 1 and down to AF METHOD then you
can see the choices that you have here you have three choices you have flexizone, live
mode and quick mode.
Flexizone is the same as single AF method through the viewfinder which means that if
you press the shutter button halfway down then the camera will focus, and the good thing
about this is that you can be shooting live video and you can do that and it will still
focus which is pretty good.
The next one down from that is called live mode and the advantage of that is that it
has facial recognition within it which means that if you are videoing people then it will
automatically try to focus on one of the faces that is in the frame and that is pretty good
and pretty useful but again in order to do so you need to press the shutter button.
The third one is quick mode.
Now this doesn't really work as well though it is designed to it is called quick mode
because what it does is it comes out of video mode, goes into the viewfinder mode, focuses
and then bounces back into video mode again.
So evidently you can't shoot video and use quick mode at the same time so it is not really
as useful for videoing as one might think although it may be slightly quicker it does
stop the video in process and it does mean that you have to restart the video again,
but I would use flexizone for pretty much everything because even if you have faces
in the frame it's up to you to decide what you want to focus on you may want want to
focus on the face you may want to focus on something else and if when you are in live
mode there are no faces then it does revert to flexizone anyway.
But those are the AF options that you have in Live View and they are the AF options you
have for shooting video.
The next thing you might want to look at is picture style.
If you have shot stills with this camera already you may well be aware of the option for picture
styles and these can increase the contrast, boost saturation and make your images or punchy
a more vivid or they can desaturate your images and in one case make your picture entirely
monochrome.
Well the same options apply for video and you might be inclined as you perhaps do with
your picture styles for still is to leave it on auto but I would recommend that you
actually change is so that it is in neutral.
So if we go into the menus and into VIDEO TAB 3 at the bottom of that you will see the
option for PICTURE STYLE and you will also see that it has all the same options as you
have stills so at the top it has Auto and then standard and portrait, etc. and as I
say I would choose NEUTRAL.
The reason for that is that when you are shooting video you want it as flat as possible with
no over saturation no over contrast, nothing that will actually make editing that video
more difficult.
You can add saturation when you are editing you can add contrast when you are editing
but you can't really take out those things very easily - certainly not as easily as when
you are using stills because you are dealing with large amounts of information and 25 or
50 frames per second.
So the objective really is to produce really flat video and then add your style when you
are producing your video in the Edit.
Finally the thing I always look at when I am shooting my videos is white balance.
If youa re shooting in a single location you might be happy just to leave it on auto and
the auto white balance on this camera is very good and there is no reason really to want
to change it but if you are shooting in different locations where the lighting might be slightly
different and the color contrast and the color tones might be slightly different, then it
is recommended really to set the white balance at every location and the reason for that
is you want a continuity through your video so that you don't move from one location to
another and the lighting looks completely different.
The option to change your custom white balance is in menus and if you go to the SHOOTING
TAB 3 then above picture style you can click on that and get the option to change white
balance it is not very difficult.
It is fairly straightforward if you buy the manual then I will show you exactly how to
do it but I would recommend as I say if you're changing location frequently when you're shooting
video to change that white balance and set that white balance on every occasion when
you change location if you want to know more they might not take a look at our manual which
has been specially written for this camera in fact we're giving away a sample of our
manual absolutely free it contains 2 full course videos including the full video on
shooting movies with the rebel t7 all you have to do is click on the link here or in
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Best video set up for the canon 2000D/ Rebel T7