Skip to main content

Camera Settings: Movie

Lesson 21 from: Sony A7 III Fast Start

John Greengo

Camera Settings: Movie

Lesson 21 from: Sony A7 III Fast Start

John Greengo

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

21. Camera Settings: Movie

Mirrorless cameras are often just as excellent when tasked with recording video. Learn how to adjust the video settings inside the menu, including choosing 4K video or HD, along with advanced options like wind noise reduction.

Lesson Info

Camera Settings: Movie

We have moved into camera settings two rather than camera settings one as I mentioned there's no real difference other than the fact that Sony seems to of bunched up most of their video features in here as well as some of their custom options. First up is the exposure mode. When you put the camera in the movie mode, how do you want to set your exposure? Manually, program, aperture priority, or shutter priority. For mom and pop type video just simple little video clips P is fine. The camera will figure out those settings for you. For those of you little bit more serious. Wanting to do editing, you're unlikely, you're undoubtedly, gonna want to have that in manual exposure. So you can have very specific over your shutter speed as well as your aperture. Exposure mode when you are in the S and Q settings. So once again the series photographers are gonna want to get in here and manually control exactly where their settings are in this. The file format when you are shooting video, we have 4K...

. We have HD, and we have a second HD, which is designed for Blue Ray recording. And so most people are gonna be in 4K or HD depending on their needs. Recording setting is gonna set the frames per second and the bit rate. And this is gonna vary a little bit according to the previous file format that you have chosen. Those of you that have cameras in Europe are gonna have a 25 frame per second option as well as other regions around the world. And so or most people 30 frames per second is your standard video, 24 has that cinematic look to it. Or part of that look at least. And so if you want to dive in to the S and Q settings there's gonna be a sub menu in here. Where you can record. You can set first off. What is the recording setting? And this is what do you want your video to be played back at. Next up is the frame rate. You would choose something like 120 frames per second. If you want to slow down time you'd choose one or two. Four frames a second if you wanna speed up time. And so this will vary according to what you've chosen in the recording setting as well. Next up is the proxy recordings which is a small movie attached to your most likely 4K file. Which is a very large video file and it can be very difficult to transfer for instance to a mobile device. And so one of the options and this is the video version of recording raw plus jpeg. And so you're recording two video formats and it's probably that one is just used for a quick preview of what's going on or for emailing. And so it's not even playable in the camera. It's just something that you download. Because you can play back any of the videos you shoot in the camera, otherwise. More items on the movie in tab two. The AF drive speed. So the lens focusing how fast you want it to be. Now the uninitiated to video would say, I want it to be as fast as possible. But the people who shoot video they think video, video scenes where the focus jumps to quickly can be jarring and look awkward in frame. And so sometimes it's better to set it slow. And so if you wanna adjust it up or down from the normal setting you can do so here. The tracking sensitivity is kind of like a feature we talked about earlier. How quickly does the camera jump to a new subject when you are tracking a subject moving around? And so it depends on what your priority is. To jump to that new subject or to stay with that old subject. So shoot with the video a little bit and see what works for you. Auto slow shutter. And so what this does is if the light levels get low the camera will automatically if you ask it to go to a lower shutter speed. Which for somebody who doesn't know much about video and just wants basic video out of the camera and it to look good under all light levels is great. But for serious photographers or people shooting movies they have a specific shutter speed that they wanna be shooting at for the entire clip of video that they're shooting. I they want the exposure to adjust maybe they'll do that with the ISO, or the aperture, or filters, or something else. They, shutter speed can be really important in video and they don't want that to change. And so it really depends what level you are shooting video and what you're doing with that video. As to where you want that set. Audio recording can be turned off. Normally it's fine to leave it on, but if you wanna turn it off do so here. The recording level can be adjusted yourself and so if you wanna turn on the audio bars you can see it on the back of the camera and adjust it if you're doing kind of run and gun style recordings. So if you wanna see that display you can turn it on and it's gonna have a couple of little mic levels in there showing what you're getting the built in microphones. More movie items here. Audio out timing. And so if you're sending audio out through headphones, or other listening devices here. You can have it live or lip sync. And it depends on if you wanting it to match the video or match what you're actually hearing in the environment. Depends on how you're monitoring the sound as to which ones gonna be most convenient for you in monitoring that audio. There is a wind noise reduction that can be turned on when wind is blowing it hits the side of the camera and can make a lot of noise with a built in microphone. This is why external microphones are required for any sort of decent quality sound out of a small camera like this. But this can help out in windy conditions to reduce the amount of sound of wind buffeting the side of the camera. Marker displays can help people when shooting video. They are known as safe zones. And safe zones in video are there because sometime TV's have frames that cover up a little bit of the image area. And you wanna make sure that you're not to close to the edges in there. And so if you wanna turn that on you can do so in here. There's also gonna be a variety of options for grids that might help you in composition. So the marker display is turning it on and off. Marker settings we go into this little sub menu. We'll show you all the different options if you just wanna know where the center is, or different aspect ratios. They have a ton of different aspect ratios to match up with a lot of commercial and industrial standards out there. And there's our safety zones and guide frames as well. And so variety of reasons why you might want those to assist you in framing your subject. So you get to choose which one under marker settings. Under marker displays is a simple setting for turning it on and off. If you have a Sony video light, one of the things you can attach on to the camera. You can set when that light is turned on and turned off. And so it depends on how much battery power you wanna use for setting up your shots. Which shutter button or which button do you want to use to start the movie recording? And so normally you use the thumb button with the red dot in the back of the camera. But if you would prefer to use the shutter release you can use that. Sometimes cameras are in cages and their kinda hard to reach. And that button is just easier to get to. Or people just like that button and they would prefer to use it.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Sony A7 III Recommended Settings

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

John GreengO! What a wonderful teacher! As always to the point. You do all the testing for us and we get an amazing tour of the camera. Really thrilled with your class once again. Thanks a lot!

user-7002e3
 

Thanks John. Another great class! I appreciate the thorough explanations. I many never use all of the features on this camera but at least I know what they do. Love all of your classes and would definitely recommend them.

Mary
 

Wonderful class. John is a great instructor. Learned a lot. Only wish he'd include a bit more on using a7iii to shoot video, such as using Clear Image Zoom, and including video in the ending Camera Operation settings section. Loved the course though.

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES