Come girare video con Canon 500D in modalità manuale

The movie mode on the Canon EOS 500D allows you to shoot beautiful videos in HD quality. You can choose between the 1920x1080 @ 20 fps and the 1280x720 @ 30 fps mode. When recording, the camera takes control of all the exposure settings. Shutter speed, aperture and ISO are all set automatically. Whilst recording, you can lock the current exposure settings or adjust the exposure compensation.

This is all very nice but it doesn't really give you any creative control over your videos. That's where these little tricks come in. They're 100% safe and don't violate the warranty in any way. You're going to find out how to set a fixed aperture and shutter speed for an entire shot!


SETTING THE APERTURE

1) Go to the Manual or Av mode and dial in the desired aperture (F-stop).
2) Press the DOF (depth-of-field) preview button.
3) Whilst pressed, unscrew the lens just a little bit. We need to sever the connection between the lens and the camera body. We now have a fixed aperture in the lens. It will stay that way until you mount it back on the body.
4) Enter the movie mode and press the Live View/Record button to get rid of the "Ensure a lens is attached" warning.
5) You can now start recording and be assured that the aperture won't change.


SETTING THE SHUTTER SPEED

1) Set the metering timer in the movie menu to a higher value, like 10 or 30 minutes. This allows for the shutter speed to be locked for a longer period of time, not just 4 or 16 seconds.
2) Now, you need to point the camera at a scene you wish to record and press the ISO button which locks the shutter speed and the ISO. I recommend pointing it to a lightsource, thus setting the ISO to a low value (100-200). The resulting image maybe a little underexposed but you can pull it back in post OR go back to the manual mode, reattach the lens and repeat the "Setting the aperture" procedure with a larger aperture.

It's all about finding the right spot. It's not going to be easy and it's going to be uncomfortable. I guess that is the price we have to pay for not buying the 5D Mark II, which now offers full manual control over video.

But, who knows? Maybe Canon will surprise us with a new firmware for the 500D which will support manual control for video as well.

One last tip. If you do color-correct your videos in post, it might be a good idea to create a picture style for shooting video with the contrast set as low as possible. It gives you more room in post.

Have a problem? Send me an email at martinzahuta@gmail.com


QUICK TIPS

::: If you're going for high shutter speeds or shooting in low light you probably want to select the largest aperture there is. There is a quick way to do that. Simply turn your camera off, unscrew the lens a bit and turn it on. Ignore the "lens" warning and there you go.

::: Remember that when you lock the exposure by pressing the ISO button you can also re-lock it at any time. Imagine one continous shot starting indoors and continuing outside. Pressing the ISO button when stepping outside will prevent the shot from being overexposed.

::: For smoother transition, press the ISO button multiple times when moving between differently exposed environments. Bear in mind that the "clicks" generated by pressing the ISO button will be recorded by the internal microphone.

::: If you want your videos to look more professional, avoid ANY zooming and always focus manually. Keep in mind that the AF won't even work when the lens is unscrewed and not properly connected to the body (usually when using the "aperture trick").