D7000 handling for video

J

JonathanS

Active member
I think we're now pretty convinced that the D7000, while capable of producing some lovely pictures, isn't the best camera for video, largely on handling grounds.

For me, the biggest problem is the lack of exposure metering information in Live View. Until today, I've been toggling back-and-forth between shooting modes, noting the auto-ISO picked by the camera and setting that in manual mode. Frankly, this sucks. Especially compared to working with a live histogram like those offered by Panasonic and Canon.

However, this morning I had a bit of a 'well, durr!' moment:

First, enable auto ISO if you haven't already (Shooting menu -> ISO sensitivity settings. I have mine set to 6400 max, 1/40 or 1/30 minimum shutter). Now in Custom Setting -> Controls -> Assign AE-L/AF-L button, set AE Lock (Hold).

In live view, select Shutter Priority mode, and 1/50 sec shutter. The forward wheel will trade-off aperture for ISO, and ISO will adjust to give a 'correct' exposure for whatever's in frame. Remember to fire off a still to lock in the aperture.

You can shoot like this, but the camera will ramp ISO while you're shooting, which often looks ghastly. Solution: tap the AE-L button. Setting it to Hold means you don't have to keep your thumb mashed down on it, and it forms a nice ISO-lock toggle.

You still need to eyeball highlights exposure - it's tempting to dial in maybe -0.7 stops exposure compensation as a starting point - but, for me, making that one change to the behaviour of the AE-L button has made shooting video with this camera 'workable' rather than 'entirely frustrating.'

It's highly likely that everyone else has been doing this from the start and that I'm just slow to catch on. It's also possible that there's some hidden gem of an approach I've yet to find. But hey, I'm not above looking stupid if it saves just one person from the ISO shuffle-dance.
 
I figured this one out a few months ago - it works and is easy, but when you try to put it in writing it just seems like a crazy workaround!
 
In my testing so far it seems like the D7000 is actually usable on a shoot - until this, I'd been wondering how Chase Jarvis managed to shoot anything of any length, frankly. So yes, once you're set up it's easy enough to do, however convoluted it sounds in my first post.

It's still scary not having any indication of how much you're blowing the highlights, but it's a whole lot less fiddly than it might be. Do you dial in negative exposure bias, or trust the metering in most cases?
 
Since the D7000 (and my D700) for that matter tends to overexpose a bit even in stills mode, I use the -.7 bias. Seems just about right. In the end, for RAW stills the hot exposure works because there are a couple of stops of headroom. Not so with the video.
 
Useful to know, thanks. I bias my old D40 -0.7 stops, but have found the D7000 more accurate for stills, for the most part - and yes, there's more headroom in the RAW. Sounds like caution is still advisable for video, thanks.
 
Dynamic range is notoriously hard to test properly, I'm not going to open that particular can of worms. Also I haven't yet had much chance to shoot video in real-world situations (ironically, the project I bought the camera for fell through - timing!), so haven't yet fiddled with Active D Lighting settings. I recall at least one post here suggesting that a mild setting was quite effective, though.

What I can say is that the out-of-the-box 'Neutral' settings look surprisingly good at first glance, and that the 105mm ƒ/2.8 VR is remarkably good for handheld use. Also, that audio handling is pretty bad - yes, you can set manual levels, but with no metering or monitoring it's still a crapshoot. Dual-system audio is still the way to go, I fear.
 
JonathanS said:
Dynamic range is notoriously hard to test properly...
Click to expand...

I never quite understood why people feel this way. Seems like it is quite easy to test and graph light response on a luminance value vs exposure curve (relative to clip, mid, spot reading, or whatever, i usually measure relative to white clip). I've done it with a couple cameras and the nice thing about digital cameras is that they usually give you repeatable results. The only complicated part is agreeing on picture options to set in camera for such a test, unless you just test them all.
 
Interesting indeed, though the Af100 footage in those clips is surely over-exposed. Hence, we shouldn't draw any conclusions about dynamic range - only about handling of blown exposure, and default colour settings. Out of the box, the Nikon looks rather good to my eye. I've yet to fiddle with colour settings, partly because what I'm seeing looks pretty neutral already (in -natch- 'neutral' profile, at any rate).
 
I agree that af100 didn't look set up properly. But just focusing on D7000 part, I was impressed with dynamic range of D7000.
 
JonathanS said:
First, enable auto ISO if you haven't already (Shooting menu -> ISO sensitivity settings. I have mine set to 6400 max, 1/40 or 1/30 minimum shutter). Now in Custom Setting -> Controls -> Assign AE-L/AF-L button, set AE Lock (Hold).

In live view, select Shutter Priority mode, and 1/50 sec shutter. The forward wheel will trade-off aperture for ISO, and ISO will adjust to give a 'correct' exposure for whatever's in frame. Remember to fire off a still to lock in the aperture.
Click to expand...

I just got my D7000, and I must be pretty daft because I can't seem to get this to work. I enabled auto ISO, I then choose shutter priority mode, and use the rear wheel to set the shutter to 1/50th.

So far so good. But the forward wheel doesn't do anything at all. The camera juggles iso and aperture automatically, giving me no control over them at all. I'm sure I'm gone be kicking myself with being an idiot, but what am I missing here?
 
I really like the "feel" of the video from my D90...

But seriously - can you not just shoot manually with the D7000? That's a crazy bunch of paragraphs from the OP to just basically shoot something. Or is that if you want to shoot auto?

After 15 years of Nikon shooting, I was so PO'd with the D90 video shooting workarounds that I bought a T2i and Nikon lens adapters - paid for itself the week I unpacked it. I still use Nikon for stills, but can you not just set your ISO and shoot manually with the 7000?
 
Wouldn't it be easier to take a photo with the manual settings, look at the histogram, and then change the settings? I mean, that's what I'm doing for stills as well when not using an auto-mode.
 
Michael Carter said:
But seriously - can you not just shoot manually with the D7000? That's a crazy bunch of paragraphs from the OP to just basically shoot something. Or is that if you want to shoot auto?
Click to expand...

Absolutely, and I have been using it on all manual so far. But then I remembered this thread, and wanted to test out how this semi automatic workflow would be.
 
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