Fujifilm Video For Beginners

If you’re new to video pal2tech posted a great tutorial about shooting video with an X-T camera that you can view above. I am also including his recommendations below.

• What you should have
  • You should have a good lens like the Fujinon XF18-55mm zoom or Fujinon XF10-24mm zoom since both are affordable and have OIS
  • IBIS can be useful, but if you do not have IBIS use an OIS lens or gimbal
  • You should get a good mic since the onboard mic isn’t great and audio makes up about 60% of your video so good sounding audio shouldn’t be overlooked
    • You can get an on-camera direction mic or a lav
  • You should consider getting an ND filter so that you do not have to stop your lens down too much.
    • A variable ND filter can be very useful if you do not want to buy a bunch of ND filters
  • You should have a quality SD card that’s 300mb/s and 32-64gigs that’s fast enough for 4k video
• Setup
  • Make sure you have OIS and/or IBIS turned on since some lenses need you to go into your settings to turn on IBIS/OIS and you can add +DIS is you are feeling very shaky from a lot of caffeine but it will slightly crop your image in
  • Shoot in 4k even if you do not need it because you will be happy you have it in the future
  • Set your movie AF mode to area so you can pick a focus point instead of having the camera choose for you which is what multi does
    • You can pick your focus point with the touch screen or nub on the back
  • Go into IQ and set your sharpness to -2 so that your footage looks less like smartphone footage
  • You should also set your tone curve, highlights, and shadows to -1
  • Film simulation can be anything but Velvia, bleach bypass, or black and white unless you are going for that look and if you want B&W you can do that in post because it is hard to turn B&W into color but easy to go the other way
    • Recommend you use Provia, Classic Chrome, Pro Neg Std.
  • Set mic level limiter to on
  • Turn wind and cut filter off for audio
  • Leave external and internal mic level adjustment on auto because the camera does a good job at choosing for you and do not set them to off
    • Lav mic you might want to manually set the mic to -20 or -15db but if conditions are all over set it to auto
  • Turn off auto power off in the power settings or 5 min
  • Set your performance mode to boost and if you have a choice set your boost mode to increase EVF frame rate for smoother video
  • Set auto power-off temp to high
  • Switch off the viewfinder and only use the rear LCD screen with the view button by the EVF
  • Your video settings will depend on the use case
    • Quick, run/gun shooting style
      • 4k 16:9 at 30fps and 200Mbps H.265 (H.264 LPCM if your computer can’t handle H.265 All-Intra) Long GOP
      • Set your shutter to 1/60
    • Cinematic high quality footage
      • 4k 16:9 at 24fps and 400Mbps H.265 (H.264 LPCM if your computer can’t handle H.265) All-Intra
      • Use Eterna with the dynamic range set to 400% which will make your base ISO 640 ISO
      • Set your shutter to 1/48 by setting your shutter to 1/30^th and then use the rear command dial to make it 1/48th
      • Use an aperture of f/2 or f/4 to get a shallow depth of field
    • Use your ISO dial to get proper exposure
      • Use an ND filter if you can’t get your exposure right by adjusting ISO or stopping down
    • Set your white balance manually and do not leave your camera on auto white balance
      • It is fine to use a piece of paper if you do not have a calibration tool with you
    • Use Face/Eye auto-detect if you’re using the 18-55mm because it does a great job
      • You can make it a custom button
    • Make changes to your AF-C custom setting if the camera is not tracking your subject well with the defaults
    • Avoid using the zoom feature while shooting unless you have a specific reason because it is better to move your self towards the camera
    • If you do not have a gimbal practice your duck walk for stability
    • When panning it can be good to put something in the foreground to make your shot more interesting looking

Fujifilm X-T4:B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
Fujifilm X-T3: B&H Photo / Amazon

Please don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouPic, YouTube

Plus our owners’ groups
Fujifilm GFX Owners Group
Fujifilm X-H Owners Group
Fujifilm X-T Owners Group
Fujifilm X-S Owners Group
Fujifilm X-Pro Owners Group
Fujifilm X-E Owners Group
Fujifilm X-A Owners Group
Fujifilm X100 Owners Group