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Canon t4i help

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Julian.F
Posts: 2738 - Karma: 1,280
Hey guys. Just got a new t4i and i could use a little help. How do you guys think the best way to film is? On manual and try to keep focusing as i'm moving? Or autofocus and be out of focus a lot and hear the focusing sounds in the clips? Any other ways to go about doing this. Any settings i can change to help?

THANKS!
Dec 9 2012 10:59AM
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TheDetectives
Posts: 634 - Karma: 1,472
a different lens might help, like a fish eye type thing. you could also e-mail cannon, or go to ur local camera store and ask.
Dec 9 2012 11:04AM
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Lwaghorn
Posts: 143 - Karma: 14
Depends what your shooting, how fast your subject in focus is moving. If you can do manual then not hearing the auto focus is best. Here is something that apparently can help when focusing in manual I've never tryed it but worth looking into. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qacMJK7_vGY. Thats the "do it yourself" version but if you dont mind actually dropping the cash on a follow focus then go for it
Dec 9 2012 11:19AM
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[J_Gasper]
Posts: 2983 - Karma: 1,594
Always use manual control. Never use the auto exposure thing. Also, get in the habit of using manual focus. Usually AF sucks with most low end lenses.

There are endless things I could type, but a few tips are to keep your ISO as low as possible. It shouldn't be a problem keeping it at 100 when you are on the hill (unless its overcast). Try to keep your shutter speed at least double your frame rate. If you are shooting 720 @ 60fps, then you are gonna want to be at least a shutter speed of 120. I prefer 250 almost all of the time. You will see that different shutter speeds will give different looks, but try to keep it constant throughout an edit. Lenses are usually sharpest around f5.6-f11. The sweet spot is usually anywhere from f6.3 to f8. Try to stay in that target range. Try to never shoot wide open (the lowest number aperture on your lens) because your image will not be as sharp as if it were around f6.3. Get a ND filter for when shooting on hill. They act as "sunglasses", if you dont have one, then you are going to have to jack up your shutter speed or aperture, which you dont want.


A good beginner lens is a tamron 17-50. Also, get a fast 50mm. Canon sells their 50mm f1.8 for around 100 bucks. Its a great lens for the price. If you have 400 bucks to spend, get the 17-50 used and a 50mm f.1.8. That will defiantly be substantial for your first season with the camera.

You need a tripod with a DSLR. If you dont have some sort of stabilization, your image will look not so good. Look at manfrotto 701 head with 055 XB legs.


Also, if you have not done so already, read through your manual and know your camera inside out.
Dec 9 2012 11:24AM
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Mag
Posts: 8155 - Karma: 14,809
Use a wide depth of field, narrow aperture will increase the dof and so will having a wide lens. Don't use autofocus in video mode, set the aperture wide(ish) and set the focus distance in advance, then it should stay nearly all in focus and you'll get the hang of it.
Dec 9 2012 11:27AM
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WillStart
Posts: 3955 - Karma: 3,192
what...
Dec 9 2012 6:27PM
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Mag
Posts: 8155 - Karma: 14,809
Don't know why the fuck I posted that, can't remember what I was thinking, must have misread OP.
Dec 9 2012 6:47PM
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sweatshirt
Posts: 1357 - Karma: 483
What you posted makes sense, having a large dof will make it so you don't need to do manual focusing during your shot. Only if you are in a scenario where your dof is small enough that your subject could fall out as he moves would you need to use manual focus. That's why you would never need to manual focus at f/8 @ 11mm.
Dec 10 2012 3:11AM
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WillStart
Posts: 3955 - Karma: 3,192
no, it didn't. also 'large dof' sounds weird, better to call it deep or shallow imo
Dec 10 2012 3:36AM
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sweatshirt
Posts: 1357 - Karma: 483
Ya I guess shallow and deep are the correct terms but I still understood the thought behind the post.
Dec 10 2012 6:17AM
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WillStart
Posts: 3955 - Karma: 3,192
Yeah but it was confusing wording, he admitted that. I actually should have also quoted the part where he said to 'set the aperture wide(ish).' I realize he meant to not close it all the way for the sake of sharpness, but for the sake of the OP understanding the concept of how the lens works it's better to tell him that the more closed the aperture is, the deeper his depth of field will be.
Dec 10 2012 6:28AM
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Mag
Posts: 8155 - Karma: 14,809
Oh come on, it's common sense, a large depth of field would have more in focus, yeah I said the wrong thing but it's understandable. Yeah the 1st time I read it I thought he meant for followcams I think, and the 2nd time when you corrected me(which I pretty much just assumed was right so I just went with it) I just confused myself. And No I didn't mean for sharpness, I meant for the Deep(Happy?) DOF.
Dec 10 2012 6:32AM
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WillStart
Posts: 3955 - Karma: 3,192
calm down man, i'm not trying to call you out really hard or anything, just pointing out something.

if you didn't mean for sharpness then i'm not sure why you would tell him to set a wide aperture for deep dof considering his main concern is having everything in focus.

the whole deep/shallow vs. large/small was a side note and just a small issue of semantics i guess. and don't forget, a good amount of kids on here think "a lot of depth of field" = shallow depth of field. as in "get a DSLR because then you can have a lot of depth of field in your shots."
Dec 10 2012 6:44AM
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Mag
Posts: 8155 - Karma: 14,809
Don't worry, I'm not easily offended.

I don't know what you're talking about now, he's clearly talking about having focus problems, being unable to keep everything focus, I suggested he have a deeper depth of field so I don't know why you think I would be talking about sharpness.

Yeah fair enough, I get what you mean.
Dec 10 2012 6:48AM
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WillStart
Posts: 3955 - Karma: 3,192
Anyways, I've done enough posting in this thread without actually helping OP.

OP, the more you stop down (close the aperture), the deeper your depth of field will be (the more will be in focus). This is the best way to maximize how much of your image is in focus without having to constantly adjust the focus. From like f/11 on though (up to f/22 or whatever your lens goes to), the lens will actually become softer, so you shouldn't ever need to go that far. If you are finding that you need to in order to cut down on light, invest in and ND filter, which cuts the amount of light coming into your lens.

Part of filming with a DSLR is that for filming, autofocus is not usable, just forget about it entirely. The way the lenses autofocus is different than the way a traditional video camera works and it just looks like shit because it normally throws your image way out of focus before finding focus. You will need to focus manually all the time.
Dec 10 2012 6:53AM
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.qzyxya
Posts: 1479 - Karma: -26
this. after about F11 ish there starts to be diffraction in the lens and it becomes softer and softer. Most lenses are sharpest at F8 ish.
Dec 10 2012 10:55AM
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WillStart
Posts: 3955 - Karma: 3,192
you told him to have his aperture be on the wider end of the spectrum ("set a wide(ish) aperture"). wide aperture = shallow depth of field. It sounds like OP is new to this stuff, so he needs to learn to stop down more, not open his aperture wider, to get a deeper depth of field, just to fundamentally understand how it all works. i was assuming you said "wide(ish)" so that he would stay in the sweet spot of his lens in terms of sharpness and not stop down to f/22. if that wasn't your reasoning then i don't know why you told him to set a wider aperture for deeper depth of field. not sure why this is taking so many posts to clear up..
Dec 10 2012 12:00PM
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WillStart
Posts: 3955 - Karma: 3,192
Oh, I bet you meant set focal length wide(ish), didn't you? this has just been a misunderstanding over a typo i think
Dec 10 2012 12:02PM
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Mag
Posts: 8155 - Karma: 14,809
Fuck, that's the one haha.
Dec 10 2012 12:18PM
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markc
Posts: 367 - Karma: 540
set a smaller aperature this should keep things in focus a little better
Dec 29 2012 4:44PM
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