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Canon 7D

Today was an awesome day on Lk Michigan, with almost flat seas, plenty of sunshine, nil wind, and water temp of 53 that seemed to go all way down to 300. 

I was shooting video of Jitka in stearing gear room, and Tracy on the rudder and lifeboat of Doty.  The Canon 7D is an amazing HD video, but it has been a challeng in very low light and silt.

Some things I have learned, and what is not published are things like ISO, and aperture.  My experience on wrecks like Rosinco (200 depth, 80 ft vis, ambient light) was the Auto ISO (up to 6400) caused too much grainy "electric noise" as the camera was using optics to see into darkness.  Image just isnt crisp.  On Doty today with very little ambient light at 310 depth and 30 foot vis, I use 2500 ISO, 4.0 aperture and 80 fps.  I do lose depth of what the camera sees, but everything within video lighting is very sharp. 

Still have more work to do, but that means diving, so things could be worse....

   

80fps?  Are you sure?  I don't think that is an option (at least I don't think it is on my 5dm2).  And, if it is an option, it certainly isn't helping you in a low light environment.

I've shot between 40-80, bur getting mixed message if the fps actually affects video, or just what is seen in monitor screen?

Movie Clips Yes, 1920 x 1080 (HD 30/25/24 fps), 1280 x 720 (HD 60/50 fps), 640 x 480 (60/50 fps)

the higher the iso, the more grainy your video will be.'.. but on the penalty of requiring more light

Yes, thanks, I am using wrong term.  I shoot 1920x1080 @ 30. What I was referring to I think is the shutter speed 1/40 - 1/60 that should not affect video but affect the brightness of back display?

On my 7D I set the shutter speed around 2x the fps.  So if you are shooting at 30fps set the shutter speed around 1/60.  It's also best to use ISO's that are a multiple of 160 -- so, 160, 320, 640, etc.. You can also download a custom picture style that will give the 7D video more of a cinema feel. Fun camera.