Chapter 14: Movie-Mode-Specific Menus
SHOOT2: Movie
(Available Only in Scene Intelligent Auto Mode, Mode Dial Set to 
)
The menu options in the SHOOT2: Movie and SHOOT3: Movie menus are available only when the Mode Dial is set to Scene Intelligent Auto mode, and are a subset of the menu options found in the SHOOT4: Movie and SHOOT5: Movie menus, which are for shooting movies when the Mode Dial is set to a selection other than Scene Intelligent Auto mode. Details on each of these menu options will be discussed in the section of this chapter dealing with the SHOOT4: Movie and SHOOT5: Movie menus, but each of these SHOOT2: Movie and SHOOT3: Movie menu option descriptions will point to the appropriate SHOOT4: Movie or SHOOT5: Movie menu.
AF Mode
See the SHOOT4: Movie menu.
Grid Display
See the SHOOT4: Movie menu.
Movie Rec. Size
See the SHOOT4: Movie menu.
Sound Recording
See the SHOOT4: Movie menu.
SHOOT3: Movie
(Available Only in Scene Intelligent Auto Mode, Mode Dial Set to )
Time Code
See the SHOOT5: Movie menu.
Silent Control
See the SHOOT5: Movie menu.
Movie Shoot. Btn
See the SHOOT5: Movie menu.
SHOOT4: Movie
(Not Available When Mode Dial Is Set to )
AF Mode
On the SHOOT4: Movie menu, select AF Mode and then press SET. Choose one of the three parameters and press SET. In Live Mode, the image sensor is used for focusing. A white-bordered rectangle will appear in the center of the screen, and it will function as the AF point. You can use the Multi-controller’s joystick to position that AF point rectangle where you want to focus (pressing the Multi-controller’s center button returns the AF point to the center of the screen). Now, when you press the shutter button halfway, the camera attempts to focus. If it’s successful, the white border on the rectangle turns green; if not, it turns orange. With a green border on the AF point, press the START/STOP button to begin recording the movie.
The Face Detection Live Mode choice allows you to quickly focus on a person’s face. Instead of a white rectangle, the AF point becomes a square, with just the four corners appearing. Now, as long as an “eligible” face is found in the frame, the camera will automatically recognize it and position the face-detection AF square on the face. Press the shutter button halfway. If the border of the segmented square turns green, press the START/STOP button to begin recording the movie. If the border of that segmented square turns orange, focus could not be achieved; resolve the problem and try again. Even though there is a face in the frame, it may not be recognized as a face if it is very small or very large; for example, if the face is too bright or too dark, if the head has been turned away from the camera, or if the head is tilted to the horizontal plane or even diagonally.
The third option for autofocus is Quick Mode. The Instruction Manual claims that if this setting is selected, it is switched to Live Mode during movie shooting. If that’s really true, I would expect the setting to be grayed out on the menu. This is worth exploring a good deal further.
Grid Display
Having grid lines superimposed on the image of your subject can make for a cluttered or “busy” screen, but can certainly help in leveling the camera vertically or horizontally, or both. I’m not wild about the 3x3+diag setting; it really does start to clutter the screen.
Movie Rec. Size
The Movie Rec. Size option gives you access to all of the movie recording sizes supported by the camera. There are three factors to consider:
1. Image size, which can be 1920 x 1080, 1280 x720, or 640 x 480. At 1920 x 1080, recording is Full High-Definition, and the aspect ratio is 16:9 (wide screen). At 1280 x 720, the recording quality drops to High Definition with an aspect ratio of 16:9. At 640 x 480, recording quality drops further to standard definition, and the aspect ratio is 4:3 (standard near-square screen).
2. Frame rate, which can be 60 fps (frames per second), 30 fps, or 24 fps, if the Video System option in the SET UP3 menu is set to NTSC. If the Video System option is set to PAL, the frame rate can be 50 fps, 25 fps, or 24 fps.
3. Compression rate, which can be High (IPB) or Low (ALL-I). Using IPB as the compression rate will cause multiple frames to be compressed at a time, giving smaller file sizes, which in turn allow for longer recording. The ALL-I setting will compress each frame individually, so the file sizes are larger, but editing of the final recording is much easier.
Sound Recording
In most cases, movies are recorded along with the ambient sound. However, if there is reason you don’t want to capture these sounds, select the Sound Recording option, press SET, select the Disable setting, press SET, and then press MENU.
If you intend to record sound, either through the built-in monaural microphone or through an optional external stereo microphone, you can choose between the Auto setting or (if you’re knowledgeable about sound recording) you may opt for the Manual setting. With the Manual setting, you will have access to the Rec. Level setting (which is grayed out for the Auto setting). The objective in sound recording, regardless of the setting chosen, is to have your loudest sounds reach about -12 on the level meter at the bottom of the screen. If sounds are detected that are between -12 and zero, a yellow rectangle is posted at that level for about three seconds to advise you that sound recording is approaching distortion. Indeed, if sound level reaches zero on the level meter, a red rectangle is posted there for three seconds, indicating that distortion has occurred.
If you are shooting in an area with significant wind, the built-in microphone can record wind noise, causing some loss of quality. To help reduce the extent of this kind of problem, set the Wind Filter option to Enable. Be aware, though, that with Wind Filter set to Enable, you will lose some low bass sounds, so you probably won’t want to have this option set to Enable as your default.
Silent LV Shoot
This menu option actually applies only to Live View shooting, not to movie shooting.
Metering Timer
Assuming you use the AE lock button to meter the view before starting to record a movie, this option defines the amount of time that the exposure setting is displayed at the bottom of the LCD monitor.
SHOOT5: Movie
(Not Available When Mode Dial Is Set to )
Time Code
A time code is recorded automatically, and is expressed in terms of hours: minutes:seconds:frames. It is used to synchronize the movie with its soundtrack, but most video makers encounter it during editing.
Count Up
Once you have selected the Time Code option on the SHOOT5: Movie menu, you’ll see that there are actually five items that can be specified. The first is the Count Up setting, which can be set to Rec Run or Free Run. For Rec Run, the time code counts up only when the camera is recording a movie, but Free Run continues to advance its count even if the camera is not recording a movie. This is of importance when several cameras are involved, in order to have a single time reference when editing.
Start Time Setting
The Start Time Setting item has three available settings:
1. Manual Input Setting lets you set the hour, minute, seconds, and frames to whatever values you feel are appropriate.
2. Reset lets you reset the time by using the Manual Input Setting or by setting the Set To Camera Time to all zeros (00:00:00:00).
3. Set To Camera Time will set the hour, minute, and seconds to match the camera’s internal clock, and frames will be set to zero.
Movie Rec. Count
The Movie Rec Count setting identifies what to display on the movie-shooting screen. If you choose Rec Time, you should expect to see the elapsed time for this recording displayed, but if Time Code is selected, the display should be the time code. Note that the frame count is not displayed on the movie shooting screen during recording, nor on the Playback screen, but it is captured with the movie to facilitate editing.
Movie Play Count
The Movie Play Count setting controls what is displayed in the upper-left corner of the screen during playback of the movie. The Time Code choice will cause the time code to be displayed during the playback of a movie. Rec Time, according to the Instruction Manual, will cause both the recording time and the playback time to be displayed during the playback of a movie. A recent check with Canon indicates that this appears to be an error. Per their tech support group, “When the [Movie play count] is set to [Rec time], you will see the displayed output mm’ ss.” When the [Movie play count] is set to [Time Code], the displayed output is hh:mm:ss:ff.”
Drop Frame
Though we talk in terms of 30 fps or 60 fps, in reality the recording is done at 29.97 fps or 59.94 fps. The problem introduced is that the time code’s frame count causes a discrepancy between the actual time and the time code. When you select the Enable setting for Drop Frame, the camera corrects this automatically by judiciously skipping some time code numbers. If Disable is selected for Drop Frame, no correction is made.
Silent Control
On the EOS 5D Mk III, the Quick Control Dial has been enhanced to recognize slight pressure on the outside rim, but only while shooting a movie. This gives you a much quieter means of making certain adjustments during movie shooting. After selecting the Silent Control option on the SHOOT5: Menu menu, press SET then select Enable and press SET again.
Movie Shoot. Btn
By default, to start recording a movie, you must press the START/STOP button. However, you can also use the Movie Shoot. Btn option to allow the shutter button to be used as well. The real advantage in selecting the shutter button/START/STOP button combo is to allow the use of the Canon RS-80N3 Remote Switch or the Canon TC-80N3 Timer Remote Controller to be used to remotely start or stop movie recording.
