Canon 7Dmkll Video set up help advice

[Lepus]

Hello , I just invested in a 2nd hand 7D mkll , I quite like doing video . My main subjects are wildlife . Can anyone offer me a quick set up guide to video on my 7Dmkll . What I tried so far looks a little soft , do you need to add in camera sharpening , I wont be doing much video editing at this time , so getting it to look half acceptable out of camera would be a big plus . Also does the 7D mkll automatically keep autofocussing on the subject once you hit the record button ? At the moment , following advice for my 7D , I shoot in manual , and generally I set the iso at 320 , 50th of a sec shutter speed , and set the aperture roughly where it suggests . I did look in the manual , but it`s pretty vague to be honest . I am U.K based . Think that makes a slight difference to PAL settings ect

 

[WillNicholls]

I'm not sure if this applies to the 7D, but I know that with a lot of DSLRs they offer both 1080p and 4K recording. The 4K recording can be really soft, due to compression issues. Therefore it's almost useless. Compare your different available resolutions and you'll see if there is a noticeable difference pretty quickly.

As for focusing, try to do everything manually. If you're autofocusing whilst recording, the shot will immediately be ruined as the focus hunts.

For shutter speed, it should always be double your frame rate (with the very rare exception for creativity). For example, shooting at 25 frames per second you'll want a 50th of a second shutter speed. Sometimes you can't get it exact, but it should be as close as you can.

Remember, if you need to reduce the exposure you should play with all other settings except for shutter speed. You should even put ND filters in front of the lens just to keep the shutter speed at 2x the frame rate, if you're struggling with too much light.

UK standard is 25p and American 29.97 (or 30 on your camera). And Cinema is 24p.

 

[Lepus]

Thanks Will , as I said above ,I am pretty much already doing what you suggest by the sounds of it , so likely can not improve on it much by the sounds of it . I don't think the 7D mkll has 4K , so am shooting at 1080 anyways .