# 6D video for sports



## cheeseheadsaint (Dec 5, 2013)

With the 6d on its way, I definitely want to try using video. I know the 6D is not the best option for shooting sports video -but that's ok. Mainly I will use the 6D for sports stills. But I still want to make the most out of shooting video on the 6D.

I am not sure what settings to use. I've read some articles and old threads and came to the conclusion that probably 30fps at 1/60 is better than 24fps at 1/50 for sports. I've read some articles that recommended higher shutter speeds. And then there's the question of aperture settings. Since there is no autofocus in video, how would I go about doing that manually? Any tips? Or should I just use a large depth of field(what would be good? is f/4 too shallow? would f/8 be better?)

And settings for the video itself. It seems that a lot of sites are recommending to lower contrast, saturation, and sharpness and then "grading" it in post. I have Adobe Premiere Elements that I haven't touched(included on my computer). Can anyone give me a dummies version of grading? I'm used to editing exposure and stuff in lightroom so any analogies to that would be awesome!


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## Marsu42 (Dec 5, 2013)

cheeseheadsaint said:


> Since there is no autofocus in video, how would I go about doing that manually?



What you want is focus peaking, it's included in Magic Lantern. ML also includes a lot of tweaks for video, be sure to check their (slightly over-moderated, but helpful) forum and ask the video guys there who are very intimate with the optimal settings & workflow: http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/


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## tat3406 (Dec 6, 2013)

Marsu42 said:


> cheeseheadsaint said:
> 
> 
> > Since there is no autofocus in video, how would I go about doing that manually?
> ...



Where to download ML for 6D?


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## cheeseheadsaint (Dec 6, 2013)

If I used a small aperture and bumped up the iso to compensate for the light loss... would I be able to zoom in and zoom out without any worries about focusing?


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## sjschall (Dec 6, 2013)

> If I used a small aperture and bumped up the iso to compensate for the light loss... would I be able to zoom in and zoom out without any worries about focusing?



That will depend on the lens. Some lenses change focus as you zoom, some don't as much. I doubt you'll be able to avoid focusing altogether - rack focusing on DSLRs for video is a bit of a learning curve if you're not used to manual focus but it's not too bad. Definitely stop down the aperture a bit to help. The best advice is to just try it. Get used to focusing and trying different settings. Video on these cams is so much fun. You'll enjoy it


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## cheeseheadsaint (Dec 6, 2013)

so I'm watching Canon's 6D tutorial video on Basic Video Operation and it says it has Live Face Detect mode during movie record where it tracks the face!

So the 6d has continuous AF but only for faces?


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## sjschall (Dec 7, 2013)

The 6D can't continuously auto focus anything. The 70D can.


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## Marsu42 (Dec 7, 2013)

tat3406 said:


> Marsu42 said:
> 
> 
> > cheeseheadsaint said:
> ...



It's in alpha stage atm, but a lot of people are using it w/o major problems (so am I):

http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=5530.msg37766#msg37766
https://bitbucket.org/OtherOnePercent/tragic-lantern-6d/downloads


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## cheeseheadsaint (Dec 8, 2013)

so what is the face tracking during video, then, if it's not continuous AF?


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## candc (Dec 9, 2013)

you get continuous af on all the modern dslrs in video mode i think, its just that some do it better than others, the 70d has dpaf so you can rack it and it will go to focus with no back and forth zeroing. 

cheeseheadsaint, there is still hope, if we get rodgers back next week and win out? who knows?


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## sjschall (Dec 9, 2013)

cheeseheadsaint said:


> so what is the face tracking during video, then ... ?



It keeps track of the face and tries to refocus every couple seconds. It hunts a lot and it's not smooth at all.


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## candc (Dec 10, 2013)

i tried the 6d in live view mode and its very basic. if you are going to be using af in video mode or just plain live view for stills then get a 70d, its orders of magnitude better in that regard.


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## cheeseheadsaint (Dec 11, 2013)

Thanks guys! lol candc I always keep hope. 

I still know nothing about color grading and how to go about doing so in Premiere Elements?


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## candc (Dec 11, 2013)

cheeseheadsaint said:


> Thanks guys! lol candc I always keep hope.
> 
> I still know nothing about color grading and how to go about doing so in Premiere Elements?



It sounds like you have a 6d on the way, might have it now? also sounds like you are interested in video. By your nickname i reckon you are in wisconsin. I live in wautoma. I will loan you a 70d if you want to try out and compare.


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## cheeseheadsaint (Dec 11, 2013)

I go to college in Philadelphia but from Florida actually. But wow thanks for the offer! ;D 


The 6D has arrived in FL but it would be a little over a week before I'll actually get to touch it! As I've never explored video before, definitely am interested. 

As for my username, I was first introduced to football in high school by a die-hard Saints fan and one of the first games I watched was a Packers game. I was supposed to be rooting for them because it would somehow help the Saints move up. Anyways then came that fateful Super Bowl day. my friend wanted me to root for the Steelers but I refused. We even bet on it! and you know how the story ends. ;D


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## candc (Dec 12, 2013)

cheeseheadsaint said:


> I go to college in Philadelphia but from Florida actually. But wow thanks for the offer! ;D
> 
> 
> The 6D has arrived in FL but it would be a little over a week before I'll actually get to touch it! As I've never explored video before, definitely am interested.
> ...



Doesn't matter why you wear the crown of cheese,
Green blood in the Florida sun will never freeze

I am sure you will like your 6d, its really good at high iso and you have a 70-200ii that lens shines on a full frame body

All of the serious videographers seem to manual focus? Maybe you can try magic lantern which I understand has focus peaking that gives you a clear look at where your focus is.


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## thgmuffin (Dec 14, 2013)

6D user here!

ML with focus peaking is a big help, however there are audio recording problems.


Also, since the 6D doesn't have the AA filter there is tons of moire. Honestly, it makes a lot of footage look like crap :-\


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## Marsu42 (Dec 14, 2013)

thgmuffin said:


> Also, since the 6D doesn't have the AA filter there is tons of moire. Honestly, it makes a lot of footage look like crap :-\



Unfortunately, you're wrong - the 6d does have an aa filter that also makes still shots softer, the moire is the result that downscaling to hd resolution cannot use "pixel binning" like on the 22mp 5d3 but needs to interpolate some of the 20mp lines - and the 6d is very bad at doing this.


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## thgmuffin (Dec 14, 2013)

Marsu42 said:


> thgmuffin said:
> 
> 
> > Also, since the 6D doesn't have the AA filter there is tons of moire. Honestly, it makes a lot of footage look like crap :-\
> ...



I thought the 6D did not have the AA filter? ???

Can you send me a link/article?


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## eninja (Sep 29, 2014)

im new in taking video using dslr.

i got a 6D. 
How about auto exposure. from darker scene to brighter scene or vice versa.
Does 6D or other dslr got this feature?

I never heard anyone mentions about this.

Thanks.


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## dash2k8 (Oct 1, 2014)

eninja said:


> im new in taking video using dslr.
> 
> i got a 6D.
> How about auto exposure. from darker scene to brighter scene or vice versa.
> ...



You can set the ISO to auto and everything else manual. I don't recommend full auto mode since the camera will often guess wrong.


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## dgatwood (Oct 19, 2014)

Marsu42 said:


> thgmuffin said:
> 
> 
> > Also, since the 6D doesn't have the AA filter there is tons of moire. Honestly, it makes a lot of footage look like crap :-\
> ...



They could just as easily do exact pixel binning on the 6D. They would just have to crop the image first.


At 720p, the sensor is 4.275 pixels per output pixel, so you could throw away the outer pixels (use a 1.07x crop factor) and then scale 4:1.

At 1080p, that approach would be more problematic, because the ratio is 2.85:1. Making it 2:1 would be a 1.43x crop factor, making it almost like shooting video on a crop body in terms of what it does to your field of view, but it still might be worth it if the results had less moiré.

With that said, it isn't just a question of binning. If you just bin a bunch of pixels together, you'll get more moiré, not less. You have to do the binning in combination with a digital low-pass filter that effectively does the low-res video equivalent of what the antialiasing filter does for stills. The real question is whether the 6D has the CPU power to do the low-pass filtering. If it doesn't, then binning won't help. And if it does, then someone could probably come up with a better algorithm for non-integer downsampling than whatever the 6D currently uses, resulting in video that is comparable to what you'd get with binning, but without the field-of-view change.


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