The Canon 600D is an amazing camera for shooting video at an almost unthinkable price. It was originally designed for taking stills, which explains some of it's design oddities when it comes to video. It's works quite differently from a video camera like a Sony Z1 etc. The camera shoots in FULL HIGH DEFINITION with a wider 'latitude'( ability to handle a wide contrast range from light to dark).
Here are ten points that highlight some of the issues I have found when filming with the camera.
1. Movie mode. When in movie mode the camera will automatically focus. However to have better control you will want to shoot in MANUAL mode for both exposure and focus. If you have to change either during recording you need to be careful. Exposure increases in steps and changes are visible. If you 'lose' focus it can also be very visible. You see both these mistakes a lot. Built in focussing aids don't work while recording.
2. Depth of Field. Because of the design of these cameras you can get a 'cinematic' DOF look. One part of the scene is sharp and the foreground/background are thrown out of focus. The wider the aperture used, the shallower the DOF. You will need a 'fast lens'. One has a low 'f stop' such as f2.8 or below. Focus becomes really critical. We see this effect overused now and many more focus issues too. Similarly as you 'stop down' you get a wider range of things that will be sharp.
3. Focal length. The lower the focal length the wider (the field of view of) the lens. The wider the lens, the deeper the DOF and the easier it is to focus. More objects are sharp in front and behind the point of focus. There are 3 lens for these cameras (at BSU). 35mm, 50mm and the standard 18mm - 135 mm Zoom lens. The 35 and 50 are 'fast lens' with f1.8 as their widest aperture. They are letting a lot of light pass through to the chip. So a wide angle lens stopped down to f11 or more will have a huge range of objects in focus. But it will require much more light for a given exposure.
The zoom is much slower. Zooms are popular since they seem to offer a wide range of focal lengths in one easy to use package. Downside is they are 'slow', the maximum aperture is f5 making it hard to get shallow DOF if you want it. Often used to avoid moving the camera. Lens/focal length use is one of your key cinematic storytelling tools. Use your feet to move closer not the zoom.
4. Shutter Speed. The shutter speed you chose will affect the way motion is recorded by the camera. 1/50 of a second is a good all round choice. Lower will add distinct blur to moving objects. Film has blur because of it's frame rate of 24 frames a sec. High shutter speeds make fast motion look jerky. Think 'Saving Private Ryan'. At some frame rates shooting under LED lights you will get a flicker. To get rid of this you will need to increase the shutter speed. It can be hard to spot on location - unless you really look for it. You can't fix it in 'post'. On the camera, shutter speed is the rate at which you expose light to the chip, the frame rate is the rate you record as a movie file. This is selected in the set menus. 25 frames a second is a good all rounder. Higher means larger files and a higher data rate. Higher frame rates gives slo-mo with less blur ie 60 fps or more.
5. ISO. This is not something you have to deal with on a DV camera. The lower the setting the more light needed for the images. In lowlight shooting the camera can often record but will need a high ISO (1600 and over). Downside is that the images are often grainy and lack deep colour. The lower the ISO the higher the definition and the richer the colours.
6. White Balance. Light has a colour temperature and therefore 'cast' which our brains make adjustment for. The camera sees the lighting sources colour cast and tries to guess the correct adjustment when in 'auto' mode. You can sort some WB errors in Post. Getting it right or close to when you shoot will give you less to do in Post and more flexibility when you colour correct/grade. Use the presets if you are in a hurry they provide a good starting point. Manual WB is not neat on the 600D but is possible. Use the same preset if you are using two cameras to shoot a scene. That way the WB will match in Post.
7. Audio. There is a built in mic and it does actually work quite quite well under some limited conditions. However it's best not to rely on it for anything other than audio to sync separately recorded audio. Leave in auto. For drama, use a slate and clapperboard to mark and Post sync your shots.
8. Post. The 'workflow' when working with DSLRs is substantially different from Film and DV cameras. The aim with those cameras was to create the 'look' in the camera. With DSLRs the 'look' is created in Post after editing. The Look starts with the camera settings. If you want the most flexibility in Post then you try to get as much information - digital detail - in the shadows and highlights as you can. Avoid any in-camera processing of the video. No sharpening, no contrast, no colour enhancement. All of these things are best done in Post. But they will take time and judgement. Create your own 'User Preset' in the camera. Dial Contrast down to zero, Sharpness down to zero, and Colour to -2. Your images on the LCD will look less punchy but you will record much more detail in your footage. Slight under exposure is better than over exposure. You can't put detail back if it wasn't recorded. If you are used to Colour correcting DV footage you will be shocked at the range of CC you will have without creating too much grain.
9. Handling the footage. You will generate a larger amount of digital material than you expect. So you need to be ready and organised for this. Have enough SD cards and a workflow for labeling and 'ingesting' them. I use 'Bridge' in CS6. There is 'Prelude' too. Make sure you have enough batteries for the camera.
10. Additional items. You will need to support the camera properly. You can't use the viewfinder in Movie Mode. That's fine in dark situations. But when shooting in daylight or situations with high levels of ambient light, it's very hard to see the shot, framing and focus. So 'lupes' or similar are very handy. Magic Lantern is an open sourced firmware update that goes some way to improving the features and functions of the camera for video recording. Installing it does invalidate the products warranty and comes with no guarantees of it's own.
