Shooting video with T5i

chefMikeB

Has anyone had good success with shooting HD video? My STM lenses seem to focus well. Does anyone have any tips?

Moose

Hi @chefMikeB - Welcome to the forum! Luckily, I've been doing a lot more HD video shooting lately so I can offer up some pointers.

1) Whatever you set your movie quality to, you'll want to set the shutter speed double that of the frame rate. For example, if you like the "cinematic" look, set the movie quality to 1920x1080 at 24fps. You'd then jump into Manual mode and set the shutter speed to 1/50, since it's about double the frame rate (24fps x 2 = 40). From there, you can adjust the aperture to get a balanced exposure.

2) Don't use the built-in mic. The built-in mic picks up the focusing motor on the lens and sounds really hollow. You're much better off using a shotgun mic mounted to the T5i hotshoe. The Rode VideoMic is a good starting point.

3) STM lenses are great for autofocus. If you're shooting family movies, then stick to your STM lenses and continuous focus. If you're shooting a creative film and want a more professional look, pick up the "nifty fifty" 50mm f/1.8 lens (see here: http://www.cameratips.com/lenses/canon/50mm-f18-ii) and set the focus to manual. If you watch closely, you'll notice the movies you watch almost never use autofocus. They take quick shots with the focus fixed on one point.

Anyways, that should get you going in the right direction. Happy shooting!

chefMikeB

My reality is that I needed a good video camera for my website videos (www.chefmike.ca) and figured I might as well as get a good camera as well for food shots, hence the DSLR not a video only camera. Having my wife film me cooking and trying to direct her to focus where I want was kinda hard, but now we have tracking on the touch screen that should help. I already bought a RODE, $100 well spent.

henrycrafter

I agree about the built in mic. I went to an external mic and zippo motor noise was gone.

PBked

Hi
Just some further tips on good filming - lay off the zoom or at least zoom in or out before shooting. As @Moose says, if you watch professional movies, you will very rarely see shots zooming in and out of a scene. Also limit the length of your shoots. Once again, professional movies will show you that scenes are made up of short sequences shot from different points of view which maintains interest whereas long sequences soon become boring.
PBked

jeromemundy

I find using the external microphone a great help. I wish I knew of a mount that allows the external mic and still allows for the flash, so I can still shoot still shots. Anyone know of a device that both can be mounted on to the camera?

PBked

I don't know of a device that holds both, however, a simple straight bracket with a flash shoe which screws into the tripod screw is available from most good camera stores. Fit your mic to this. Make sure you get one that can also be used with a tripod. You may not need this now, but you will at some point.
Regards,
PBked

Jim_Blind

Recently I've started to have video recording problems. The video stops automatically from 2 minutes or even from 30 seconds of recording. I'm using SanDisc 16GB Class 10 with 40mb/s and don't know the solution for this problem. Just before stopping the record camera shows increasing indicator at the top right corner. Sometimes this indicator starts to grow, but after few seconds drops down and recording was not interrupted. Please help.