720p video shot using canon eos 500d - autofocus is loud and slow

i seriously doubt there is any consumer camcorder out there that can take better video than canon eos 500d in 720p mode. the 1080p mode of eos 500d is limited to 20fps which is noticeably less smooth than the 720p mode. with my 24-70 2.8 l lens, the shallow depth of field seen in this video is just not possible to shoot using camcorders with tiny ccd or cmos sensors. however, as you can "hear" in this video, focusing is "loud" and "slow" when "authofocus" tries to hunt for focus. like i commented in the 1080p test video earlier, due to 500d's ergonomic design and the lack of a electronic viewfinder (which you can find on a panasonic gh-1), manual focusing is just not possible without resulting in handshakes while one uses one hand to control the focus ring on the lens with the other handing the camera. the video mode of this camera is just not meant for home movie shooting. professional movie shooting mount gear is needed to hold the camera in order to take full advantage of its high bit rate of recording and ability to work with slr lens. meantime, having tested the video capability of 500d, i am looking forward to the next model to replace 50d. i am sure canon will solve the teething problems seen in both 5d mk ii and 500d by then and make shooting broadcast quality hd video on a dslr more user-friendly.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• 720p
• hd
• canon
• eos
• 500d
• autofocus
• camcorder
• movie
• video
• 1080p

[Rohhaut]

I was wondering about that noise... Is it really the cam/lense? I use the Panasonic Lumix FZ38 but I am thinking 'bout getting a real DSLR - either Nikon D5000 or Canon EOS 500D. Now I am not so sure anymore... Well, and the Lumix GH1 (my first choice) is soooo expensive. So can it be this noise is caused by the settings?

Anyway: Very interesting video!!

[rodkar]

good question. I never bothered to distinguish the source of the noise. but this was shot using my finest lens already (24-70 L) so I guess this is probably as quiet as one gets on this camera. the focusing is slow, you wouldn't want to use it anyway even if it is quiet. go for manual focusing. see my other videos shot using EOS 7D. they were all manually focused.

[monsekhevlan]

Fantastic conversion quality for YouTube. What software was used? Thanx.

[rodkar]

i used elgato's turbo.264 hd

[testdasi]

Or you can just get a Panasonic GH1. You seem to be in a self-inflicted dilemma because you don't consider anything but Canon.

[rodkar]

or if panasonic drops the price of gh-1 to more reasonable range before my next vacation, i will jump on a gh-1. i think it is perfect for vacation. meantime, i am perfectly happy with taking 720p video with my panasonic ts-1 and 1080p video with my canon hf11.

[miikathebest]

That camera just isn't using TTL-CT-SIR in video mode. It's only doing some random focusing with the information from CMOS sensor.

[mrcrane06]

how do you do autofocus?

[SimiPagh]

@eloscisoorhands yeah somebody help, we're two people stuck here... D:

[tjscttn]

Its only slow because your in video mode and using live view, otherwise its as fast as your glass.

[xXxDiorLovexXx]

@rodkar Do you think the canon 550 d would be smoother?

[ABNJIM10]

Great video, I find it ideal for my needs really... I too had difficulty finding the autofocus button...

To answer your question chaps it's the ' * ' button above the directional pad on the upper right hand side on the body.

Hope that helps.

[eloscisoorhands]

How to set the canon EOS 500d to anutofocus?? Anyone???? Help :)

[Hussam231]

can u please help me, how do i set the camera to autofocus when filming! i cant manage to do that

[bigbone38]

Why would you even use af on a vid?

[StickVideography]

@shity8 incorrect