Basic Video without having to colour grade/post process?

Joe94

Joe94

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Evening all,

I am a new owner of the Sony A7iv and one thing I want to dive into is the world of video.

However I realise now that cameras offer a much wider variety of video settings which I am going to work my way through the learning for, but for now I just want to know what settings I would use if I just wanted to record some simple video in say Full HD or even basic 4K, but without the need of doing any post processing or colour grading and so straight from camera?

I suppose I am looking for the video equivalent of jpeg? I am also concerned my understanding of what Colour/picture profiles are or what they do may not be helping…

Thanks you in advance
 
Surely the settings depend on the light conditions IE indoors-outdoors- sunny -dull or even indoors which lights you videoing under. Even if you pan video the settings can alter . Don't know about your camera but my Panasonic HC-X1500 has built in ND filters nd the monitor shows up which to use.
Video is a completely different ball game to stills photography . Not only dealing with the video side but also the audio side as well. This could include a lens refocus or camera sound and worse of all wind noise. Then yet again an onboard camera microphone is never as good as an extrnl microphone so deciding to go for a direction or stereo. I have tried several microphones and at last found one well worth a look at . The Azden SMX-30V

looked at the Rhode range and rejected because of having to use a 9v square battery not always easily available and fixed lead

What attracted me to the Azden 30v version is it can pick up power from the camera (auto switch off when camera turned off) or via2x AA batteries easily accessible without having to remove the foam deadcat.Also it has a detachable lead and can move 30 degrees left or right without moving the camera. Rhode and many others don't, so if the lead breaks your stuck with a useless microphone.

I would suggest to start with using the camera video in fully auto mode first and check the results under different lighting situations

If recording in 4K then your editing options get limited as a lot of editing suits can't handle that format
so have a look at one called "Wondershare Filmora 11" if that is any help


P1050594.JPG

check out sound quality and stereo from this video I made recently as a tryout for my new camcorder. there was a small stream behind me in one of the clips. must rfemember to clp down the cable so the mic don't pick it up
View: https://youtu.be/lXNRMQiDBvk

should have used a tgripod with remote switch
 
Last edited:
realspeed said:
Surely the settings depend on the light conditions IE indoors-outdoors- sunny -dull or even indoors which lights you videoing under. Even if you pan video the settings can alter . Don't know about your camera but my Panasonic HC-X1500 has built in ND filters nd the monitor shows up which to use.
Video is a completely different ball game to stills photography . Not only dealing with the video side but also the audio side as well. This could include a lens refocus or camera sound and worse of all wind noise. Then yet again an onboard camera microphone is never as good as an extrnl microphone so deciding to go for a direction or stereo. I have tried several microphones and at last found one well worth a look at . The Azden SMX-30V

looked at the Rhode range and rejected because of having to use a 9v square battery not always easily available and fixed lead

What attracted me to the Azden 30v version is it can pick up power from the camera (auto switch off when camera turned off) or via2x AA batteries easily accessible without having to remove the foam deadcat.Also it has a detachable lead and can move 30 degrees left or right without moving the camera. Rhode and many others don't, so if the lead breaks your stuck with a useless microphone.

I would suggest to start with using the camera video in fully auto mode first and check the results under different lighting situations

If recording in 4K then your editing options get limited as a lot of editing suits can't handle that format
so have a look at one called "Wondershare Filmora 11" if that is any help


View attachment 352768

check out sound quality and stereo from this video I made recently as a tryout for my new camcorder. there was a small stream behind me in one of the clips. must rfemember to clp down the cable so the mic don't pick it up
View: https://youtu.be/lXNRMQiDBvk

should have used a tgripod with remote switch
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for this, really helpful insight into video and yeah it does seems it’s a different ball game indeed aha :)

Some really helpful tips thought and sound is something I will also need to consider if and when i progress further so great full for those tips too.

As you say auto will probable be the best place to start then and work on from there.

Really like your video too, lovely and clear image and sound :)
 
While in Video mode, go into Picture Profiles and set it on PP11 cinetone.
You can also get pretty good results in standard no Profile which defaults to the creative style (Standard)
When using Picture Profiles be wary of having them turned on in the Photo modes as some can affect stills even RAW - especially sLOG but possibly the HLGs too.
It is all subjective but cinetone seems very flattering with skin tones but you can use it in almost any situation indoors, outdoors or low light even after dark.

With cinetone you basically just expose at 0.0ev or possibly a bit lower like -0.3
It is helpful to leave ISO on auto it doesn't matter much if it runs pretty high with these cameras especially in video.

It is a general rule to aim for shutter running at 2x the fps.
On PAL you will usually be on 25fps or maybe 50fps which allows half speed slow mo (more handy than you might think.
It will still play back at normal speed unless you edit later.)
So your target shutter speed would be 1/50th or 1/100th.
You can often achieve this by changing ISO and aperture but the 'correct' thing to do if you can't is put on ND or variable ND.
However most of the time you can just crank the shutter faster and 99% of people who might watch it will not see anything wrong.
Thus keeping your aperture at more sensible setting.

I use Sonys for video more than photo and rarely bother with Nds I just let the shutter go faster
 
Last edited:
4wd said:
While in Video mode, go into Picture Profiles and set it on PP11 cinetone.
You can also get pretty good results in standard no Profile which defaults to the creative style (Standard)
When using Picture Profiles be wary of having them turned on in the Photo modes as some can affect stills even RAW - especially sLOG but possibly the HLGs too.
It is all subjective but cinetone seems very flattering with skin tones but you can use it in almost any situation indoors, outdoors or low light even after dark.

With cinetone you basically just expose at 0.0ev or possibly a bit lower like -0.3
It is helpful to leave ISO on auto it doesn't matter much if it runs pretty high with these cameras especially in video.

It is a general rule to aim for shutter running at 2x the fps.
On PAL you will usually be on 25fps or maybe 50fps which allows half speed slow mo (more handy than you might think.
It will still play back at normal speed unless you edit later.)
So your target shutter speed would be 1/50th or 1/100th.
You can often achieve this by changing ISO and aperture but the 'correct' thing to do if you can't is put on ND or variable ND.
However most of the time you can just crank the shutter faster and 99% of people who might watch it will not see anything wrong.
Thus keeping your aperture at more sensible setting.

I use Sonys for video more than photo and rarely bother with Nds I just let the shutter go faster
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for this!

Honestly super helpful and sounds exactly what I am looking for.

May I ask when using these settings is the codec a different thing altogether? So would I just choose the lowest Full HD or 4K codec for my purposes? If so which one would that be?

Thanks again, really appreciate your help & support on this one :)
 
In the A74 you have a large range of options for recording, your computer might not cope with 10bit H.265 but that's the best one to try if you can view and edit it.
I would try file format in XAVC S 4K and Movie Settings Rec rate 25p, Record Setting 140m 4.2.2
If you struggle with that 4k the 1080p HD from XAVC S HD is actually really good too.
In 1080p you can record up to 100fps so you can slow stuff down 4x - really nice for something like children or animals running about.
 
If using 4K you should have a 4K monitor to get to see the benefit of shooting in that format
 
4wd said:
In the A74 you have a large range of options for recording, your computer might not cope with 10bit H.265 but that's the best one to try if you can view and edit it.
I would try file format in XAVC S 4K and Movie Settings Rec rate 25p, Record Setting 140m 4.2.2
If you struggle with that 4k the 1080p HD from XAVC S HD is actually really good too.
In 1080p you can record up to 100fps so you can slow stuff down 4x - really nice for something like children or animals running about.
Click to expand...
Okie dokie I will give this a try for sure! Thank you again for your help :)
 
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