New 60d Owner - Optimal Settings

M

Metrolens

Well-known member
Just got my new 60d. Beautiful piece of gear. Build quality is extremely solid, image is stunning.

I'm using it with my new Canon 18-55mm IS kit lens, which so far is superb. I've also got 3 other lenses:
-Nikkor 50mm 1.4. Gorgeous so far.
-Nikkor 28mm 2.8. Nice, but may be soft at full open.
-Old Canon kit 35mm-80mm f4-5.6. Probably not going to be that useful; very slow and seemingly poor optical quality. Need to run a few tests in daylight.

I just upgraded to Vegas 10, and so far it edits the 60d native .mov files directly, without any transcoding, and with seemingly no problem. I'm running a Q6600 Quad Core PC, 3 gigs ram, XP Pro 32 bit, no raid.

Here are my questions about fine tuning the 60d settings, mainly for best video results.

1. Is it best to Disable "Auto Lighting Optimizer" when shooting video and stills? Or leave as "Standard?" It seems to simply change the gamma settings.

2. To reduce moire in video, might it be smart to create a Picture Style preset that uses minimized Sharpness? I seem to remember from tweaking my XH-A1 that a slightly softer image reduced moire.

3. What is ISO Expansion? Best to leave it off?

4. What is High ISO Speed Noise Reduction? Best to leave it on "Standard?"

5. What are the best ISOs for shooting video?

6. Best to leave "Highlight tone priority" disabled?

7. Any other settings to be sure to enable/disable?

8. Is there still no way to see how full your media card is, short of using the scary "Format" command? (Because this remains very dumb).
 
Most of your questions have been discussed to-nearly-death here, and a few searches will get you plenty of info. There are also plenty of links to camera profile uploads that (supposedly) replicate specific film stock curves. I've tried a few, not bad.

Regarding the media card - when mine gets very low I get sort of a "countdown" in the display; but for general checking, just hit the format button ONCE; (well, menu - scroll left to the "wrench" icon, down to "format", hit "OK" I believe); to actually format the card takes two more pushes (right button - OK, as I recall?), I think inadvertently erasing a card would be very hard.
 
Hi Michael, thanks for the info on the media card - yeah that's how I've been doing it. Not a good method IMHO - I don't want to come anywhere near the formatting command when I'm shooting something, but it seems to be the only way. Actually in stills mode you can press "info," and on one of the screens it displays how much space is left on the card. But this isn't so helpful when you're in movie mode.

I was not able to find answers to all my questions above, and it takes a long time to sift through the forums. I think it makes sense to have at least one thread where a new 60d owner can have many of these questions answered. I bet one of the resident gurus could answer all that in about 5 seconds.
 
Metrolens said:
Actually in stills mode you can press "info," and on one of the screens it displays how much space is left on the card. But this isn't so helpful when you're in movie mode.
Click to expand...

This is actually a much faster, safer way of checking your SD card's remaining capacity. Just rotate the Mode dial one click to Night Mode, and press the Info button. It's shown right there.
 
Can anyone take a hack at my questions? I only found definitive answers to #6 (Leave it off) and #8 (above).

1. Is it best to Disable "Auto Lighting Optimizer" when shooting video and stills? Or leave as "Standard?" It seems to simply change the gamma settings.

2. To reduce moire in video, might it be smart to create a Picture Style preset that uses minimized Sharpness? I seem to remember from tweaking my XH-A1 that a slightly softer image reduced moire.

3. What is ISO Expansion? Best to leave it off?

4. What is High ISO Speed Noise Reduction? Best to leave it on "Standard?"

5. What are the best ISOs for shooting video?

6. Best to leave "Highlight tone priority" disabled?

7. Any other settings to be sure to enable/disable?

8. Is there still no way to see how full your media card is, short of using the scary "Format" command? (Because this remains very dumb).
 
1: ALO flattens the image, brightening up shadows and crushing dark areas; its a pretend way of stretching DR. i leave it off.
2: yes, that will work, but sharpness is nothing but edge contrast that is cranked up by the camera itself; i leave sharpness down most if not all the way and sharpen in post with better results.
3: thats only for stills from what i gather, seems only to enable idiotically high ISO 12,800
4: turn that off; its in-body noise reduction; ANY software for noise removal you have in an NLE is better anyways. it softens and smears the image to reduce noise above ISO1600 or so, IIRC
5: i dont shoot video above ISO 400, but 800 isnt bad.
6: highlight tone priority will do its best to avoid blowing out highlights, and sacrifice darker areas. i turn it on when shooting the sky/clouds in the background and light to best expose the subject, otherwise off
8: hit the display button (DISP) 2 or 3 times and it should have a remaining time counter to the right of the framerate/framesize display


these are all for the T2i but i imagine the 60D is similar in terms of the menu/button system.
 
Thanks again Zissou. Great info.

#2: So do you shoot with something like the "Neutral" preset, with sharpness dialed to a minimum? PerroneFord mentioned that "Neutral" is a good place to start, better than "Standard" anyway.

#5: Regarding ISO: aren't there some "ideal" ISOs? ISO 160 being one? I read somewhere that some ISOs are native, and some are not, and are simply applying some kind of gain?

#8: There's no DISP button on the 60d. I assume you mean the INFO button? That counter is displayed onscreen, but on my 60d it sits at 29:59. I guess it's a "30 minutes of space left" warning, but that isn't helpful in all situations. But I found a safe, fast, "non-Format" way of seeing the remaining capacity (see my post above).
 
There's a setting you'll find which allows use of 'intermediate' iso's - 160, 320, 640 and so forth. These allegedly produce less noise than the standard isos - plenty of info if you search. Also plenty of info on 'picture styles' under 550D/2Ti and 7D. Try 'neutral', with the following settings - sharpening turned all the way down, contrast all the way down, saturation at minus 2, all else left as is. Personally, i never shoot with Highlight tone priority on, likewise ALO I always leave off.

HTH
 
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