Bolt Blog


Apr 12

LOCK IT WHILE IT'S HOT.

Published in Untagged  by superfluke Print 

Lock it while it's Hot.

After much debate, tons of research and a little dumb luck we have finally answered the question, "Can you lock the exposure on the 5D MarkII while shooting video?"

The answer - Yes you can!

And it's actually fairly simple.

Get your shot framed up and your exposure set....Press the SET button to start recording...Once the camera is recording press the AE Lock button...And there you go. 

 

 

In more detail...

 

Once you have started recording and select the AE Lock button...

AE Lock

 

AE Lock Star 

the AE Lock star icon will also show up on the screen and remain there while the camera is recording.

Now, when something either dark or light begins to fill the frame the exposure will stay set. In our test we found that over exposing by 1/3 of a stop gave us perfect exposure for what we were shooting.

There is one thing that you should take note of....

We were using a slate to differentiate between our clips on import since the 5D's timecode resets on every record. As part of our workflow we would hit record with the slate in the frame so it would be at the very beginning of each clip. At first, we would set the slate in frame, start recording, press the AE Lock button and then pull the slate away. Yet, our scene was suddenly way over exposed once we pulled the slate away.

After a few test shots we discovered that if we pulled the slate away and waited four seconds for the camera to adjust to our set exposure then locked it in - we could maintain our exposure while recording. Since the slate was white the auto exposure compensation would kick in as soon as we put it in front of the camera (before we even started recording). So, if we waited to lock our exposure in after we pulled the slate out it would go back to our desired settings. Which took exactly four seconds.

So, these were the steps we took...

1. Set up your shot.
2. Set your exposure.
3. Slate for editing.
4. Start recording.
5. Pull the slate out of frame.
6. Count to four.
7. Press the AE Lock.
8. Yell, "ACTION!"

And there you have it. Lock it while it's hot.


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