RichW
Active member
I'm still trying to figure out how to use the 7D manually. Please correct me if I am getting this wrong.
Set camera on M
Set lens on AF
Set shutter speed to 50 if you are shooting at 24 fps.
Set F Stop to the largest aperature you can, to get shallow DOF.
Set WB to whatever you want, either sunshine, tungsten, or manually set it.
Frame the shot on lcd screen.
Hit the magnification button twice to get to 10X mag on lcd screen.
Hit the AF-ON or twist the lens (or follow focus knob) to set focus on your targeted area.
Set F Stop (brightness) based on what looks good in frame, either at 10x or 5x or zero mag, whatever you pick. Typically it will be the actor's face.
Get out of magnification mode.
Hit the start button .
Now what happens when you are doing this is that you find out that the F Stop is either too open or too shut, so you adjust the ISO to correct the light level (trying to stay at 800 ISO or less) .
So if you want to be wide open, you probably need to keep the ISO very low outdoors, like 125, to make the camera less light sensitive.
One assist, by the way, is a fader, a variable ND filter that helps cut light outdoors. Very helpful.
Indoors, you may find that you need more light even if shooting fully open, so you raise the ISO. If the ISO is too high the image will be grainy, so it is better to bring more light onto your set.
I am finding that I cannot do what is common on camcorders, where you zoom in to set the F stop and then lock it on the target, so that it will stay locked when you zoom out. On the 7D, the light meter seems to always read the full frame, not what you have just magnified 10x. Am I wrong on this? If so, it is really poor design. So you have to just visually look at the magnified image and set the F stop at what looks good. Since you are on manual, it will be locked. The meter is useless in setting this.
Set camera on M
Set lens on AF
Set shutter speed to 50 if you are shooting at 24 fps.
Set F Stop to the largest aperature you can, to get shallow DOF.
Set WB to whatever you want, either sunshine, tungsten, or manually set it.
Frame the shot on lcd screen.
Hit the magnification button twice to get to 10X mag on lcd screen.
Hit the AF-ON or twist the lens (or follow focus knob) to set focus on your targeted area.
Set F Stop (brightness) based on what looks good in frame, either at 10x or 5x or zero mag, whatever you pick. Typically it will be the actor's face.
Get out of magnification mode.
Hit the start button .
Now what happens when you are doing this is that you find out that the F Stop is either too open or too shut, so you adjust the ISO to correct the light level (trying to stay at 800 ISO or less) .
So if you want to be wide open, you probably need to keep the ISO very low outdoors, like 125, to make the camera less light sensitive.
One assist, by the way, is a fader, a variable ND filter that helps cut light outdoors. Very helpful.
Indoors, you may find that you need more light even if shooting fully open, so you raise the ISO. If the ISO is too high the image will be grainy, so it is better to bring more light onto your set.
I am finding that I cannot do what is common on camcorders, where you zoom in to set the F stop and then lock it on the target, so that it will stay locked when you zoom out. On the 7D, the light meter seems to always read the full frame, not what you have just magnified 10x. Am I wrong on this? If so, it is really poor design. So you have to just visually look at the magnified image and set the F stop at what looks good. Since you are on manual, it will be locked. The meter is useless in setting this.
