Easy Video Advice Please

[Thad E Ginathom]

Well, I'm not a beginner in the world of photography, as the thread criterion states. In my latest "lifetime," consisting of the past 7 or so years, I've been using Sony mirrorless cameras, and have especially become a bit of a specialist at photographing local classical Indian music concerts. To the extent of over 100,000 snaps.

But here's the thing: I almost never, ever, do video. Even with a phone, I seldom go there. I'm a stills man: I have little interest in video, and negative interest in video post-processing. I don't want to do it. The lovely stills/video/sq ring on my a7iv has almost never been moved!

In two days time, we are having an event at our house. A small Hindu ceremony (well, maybe three hours of it! but not that many people). My wife would like some video. We don't care if it doesn't look wonderful on a huge TV: we don't have one. But I'd like it to look decent on something bigger than a phone. eg my 27-inch 1920*1280 PC monitor.

I won't have any extra lighting, other than room lights.

Possible lenses: Sony FE35/1.8, Sigma 50/2.0, Sigma 24-70/2.8

I hope to cover most of 3 hours. I have a 256gb V90 memory card.

What settings? The file formats are more or less meaningless to me.

Advice please. How do I do a quick home movie on my super-dooper camera which is capable of professional work (a7iv is a favourite in the Indian wedding photo/video market)

 

[THXGEEK]

Thad, I wish I could offer some sage words of advice, but I am in the same boat as you: I am basically a still photographer who is not into video, selfies of vlogs. Having said that, I can only offer some educated guesses....

I'm thinking the Sigma 24-70/2.8 would offer more versatility while still maintaining a 'fast enough' aperture....

Have extra batteries and memory cards available (just in case) ....

Perhaps just drop your A7IV into Auto/video more and let the camera decide what's best?

Best of luck!

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Oh boy, video is another rabbit hole you can easily tumble down.

If you want decent looking footage, you will want to understand frame rate. 24 frames per second (fps) will probably do the trick since you are documenting an event. If you were covering sports, or planned to use video editing software to do slow motion or speed ramps, you would need 30 or 60 fps (or higher!).

Next, use an exposure/shutter where the denominator is approximately twice the fps. So for 24fps or 25fps, you want 1/50 shutter. Similarly if you opted for 30fps, it would be 1/60. This gives a natural amount of motion blur to your footage. I think its called the 180 degree shutter rule. Look it up on YouTube.

Pick the file format that works best for your card capacity and chosen frame rate. I am a bit rusty here, so maybe experiment on your own.

Are you going to be handholding camera or using a tripod? Gimbals are awesome, but not for 3 hrs at a time lol!

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

I'll also add that no picture profile is really needed to make decent video, but if you want, you can use s.cinetone which I think is picture profile 11 on your camera. S cinetone is supposed to be "more cinematic" video without the need for much editing. Try it and see if it's your cup of tea or not.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Thanks. I don't think I'll bother with any profile: I want the footage to be viewable out of camera.

Lighting a fire in one's living room may seem strange to anyone with no familiarity with Hindu customs! But, at some time, the room is going to be full of smoke. I suppose that won't do the camera any harm? I guess not... the pros will be coping with that on a day to day to basis.

Somewhere I've got one of those small Sony "plug-in-power" (it has an AA battery, and plugs into a mic socket with a red surround. Just like the one on the camera. i used to use it with cassette and then mini-disc: quite decent sound

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

I would also suggest you set ISO to auto so that it adjusts for changes in lighting conditions (unless you have a good idea of what your highs and lows will look like with fire light)

 

[Richard A]

I have done quite a bit of video on my A7RV. If you follow the "rules" as @FowlersFreeTime has posted above, you will get much better results. This includes using S-Cinetone as a picture profile. It will look much better than not using any picture profile. Shooting in Log will give you much better footage in the situation you will be shooting in but it involves colour grading later (which I don't think is as hard as most people think). Having said that, you would need to do more post processing which you say you have no interest in. Bear in mind though, you will have to do some editing to make a video from all your clips. Do you have a video editor in mind to use? Also there is the setting of NTSC v. Pal. We use Pal here but really the only bearing that has is on some of the settings available. Not sure what you use in your country. You don't have much time but one thing I would be definitely doing is decide on your settings and do some practice beforehand.

These links may be of some use to you:

Sony A7IV Tutorial: Quick Camera Setup & Best Settings for Video

Sony A7 IV BEST Cinematic settings for Video & Photo! Setup Guide 2023! FX3, FX30, A7SIII

No More Color Grading! Perfect Sony Colors Every Time!

Sony a7 IV Setup Guide for Photo & Video | EXTREMELY DETAILED

The last video is long but there are detailed chapter settings. Jason Vong can be annoying but this video may have some good info for you. Feel free to ask me any questions but you haven't got much time to get organised and I may be hard to reach the next few days. One thing I will reiterate - decide on your settings and do some practice. I hope all goes well.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Well...

I caught some of it. About an hour.

I don't seem to have anything past a point where i moved the camera. I'm guessing I did something really, really stupid like not pressing record! I was watching remote via Creator's app. Not really looking at the camera itself. Else I might have noticed if there was an absence of nice, obvious, red-border recording sign.

There were several people using phones, and they probably outskilled me.

Took about 45 stills with my a6500 and Godox flash.

Like my teachers at school all used to say... Could Do Better,

Hey ho, it was the very first time I've even tried to take video on this camera, Next time, I will do better.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

These links may be of some use to you:

Thanks! I watched a heap of a7iv videos before and after buying the camera. I might have seen the Jason Vong one, but I think I'll give it another watch. Time for a refresher course! Always useful, especially when one always works in one limited genre.