Fujifilm Camera Video Guide for Beginners

- Entering that world of shooting video with your Fujifilm camera can be daunting and confusing. Let's fix that right now. (upbeat music) Hi, everyone. Welcome to pal2tech. Today, we're gonna get you set up quickly for properly shooting video on your Fujifilm camera. When shooting video, there are several key pieces of gear that I recommend you consider. The first is a good lens. For shooting video I recommend the 18-55 millimeter zoom as a more affordable all around fast video lens. I also reco

mmend the 10-24 millimeter lens if you want those even wider angles or if you're getting into something like real estate videography. One reason I recommend these two Fujifilm lenses is very simple: this little OIS switch right here. Unless you have an XT4 or other Fujifilm camera that has IBIS or you're using a gimbal, right, having good video stabilization for the lens is pretty much as important as the quality of the lens itself. And it's not always about the cost. For example, here is footag

e shot on a Fujifilm camera without any stabilization using a $1,200 16-55 millimeter lens. Now here's that same footage using a $350 18-55 millimeter lens. The cheaper 18-55 millimeter has optical image stabilization built right into the lens while the more expensive 16-55 millimeter doesn't. If you do have a camera like the XT4 with IBIS, yeah, you do have more options and you can use the 16-55 millimeter as well as a variety of third party lenses. Even so, I still think that the 18-55 millime

ter is the best all around lens for anyone wanting to get great video footage with their Fujifilm camera. The second piece of equipment that I would recommend you consider getting is a good microphone. Yeah, there's a microphone located directly on top of the camera, but it's not that good. You might wanna consider a directional external microphone, like this one right here, that can plug directly into the microphone port on the camera. Or you can use an inexpensive lav mic to capture even bette

r audio. Here's the sound of the microphone that's onboard the camera. And as you can hear, it's picking up everything including that busy highway behind me. And so here's how it sounds putting a microphone right on top of the camera, much better. Or you can use an inexpensive lav mic to capture even better audio. Of course you might probably wanna have a longer cord than I brought today, but you could use a wireless lav or a lav with a really long cord hidden underneath the clothing. And it wil

l sound much better than the onboard microphone on the camera. I will have links to some of these mics in the description at the bottom of this video. Now I say this in every single tutorial about video audio is at least 60% of the video experience. Don't skip out on good audio. And third, you should consider getting an ND filter. I'll get more into this when we talk about shooting but an ND filter is basically a pair of sunglasses for your camera. And for an ND filter, I recommend starting out

with a variable ND filter which will allow you to turn the ring in the front to quickly make your adjustments to your exposure during your shoot. This prevents you from having to switch out to different filters depending upon your changing lighting conditions. And finally, you need to have a good SD card. With SD cards, cheaper is not better. And you wanna have an SD card that's fast enough to handle 4K video at higher bit rates. I recommend an SD card that's at least 32 gigs or 64 gigs at 300 m

egabits per second. Yeah, they're more expensive than slower cards but you'll be glad you have these for shooting 4K video. Now let's move into the camera and lens setup. First, you need to have a lens with OIS. And make sure that OIS is turned on. Some of the lenses, such as the 16-80 millimeter, have OIS as a setting in the menu of the camera that you need to toggle. If you're using a third party lens and a Fujifilm camera that has IBIS, go into your settings into IS Mode and turn on IBIS. Now

, if you've had say three cups of coffee and four Dexatrim, make sure that you also turn on digital image stabilization. This adds additional stabilization, but at a cost of slightly cropping further into the video frame. But a slightly cropped image is better than a shaky image. Now for your video, I recommend shooting in 4K. Even if you don't need it right now, and you can get away with the lower resolution of 1080, one day you will be glad that you had that higher resolution 4K footage. And e

ven if you're only producing 1080 clips now, 4K gives you the option to crop in at two times and not lose any resolution. Now because we want 4K, make sure that in movie mode you have selected 4K. We'll go over frame rates and resolution in just a second. Next, you wanna go into AF MF and set your movie AF mode to Area. You wanna do this because this setting gives you the option to set a focus point while you're shooting. Let me show you what I mean. Okay. So here I am in Multi, and basically th

e camera is controlling. what's going to be in focus based on where I'm moving it on some pre-calculated algorithm. But I don't want that. I want full control over my focus point. So if I switch it to Area, okay, have a look at this. Now I have a focus point. I can take my finger and touch the screen and move it around or use the joystick to move it around, right? Let's say, instead of baby Yoda I want the background in focus. I can move it right over here. Boom. Now the background's in focus. Y

ou see that? Or I can tell the camera to focus on the subject by simply moving the focus point. Having your Movie AF mode set to Area just gives you more flexibility. Next, I would go into the IQ section and set my Sharpness down to -2. This will make your video look slightly less, how can I put it, less smart phoney, and more cinematic. I also set Tone Curve Highlights to -1, and Shadows to -1. I have found that I get slightly better video quality that's less contrasty. But you should experimen

t on your own and see what you prefer. Next is your Film Simulation. Now, this is a matter of preference. Since we're doing a beginner video setup tutorial here, I'm not gonna get into F-Log shooting. However, for film simulation I would not use Velvia, Bleach Bypass, or even black and white, unless I was go after a very specific look that I know I'll never be able to change later on. Remember, you can convert any video to black and white in post-production, but it's very difficult to colorize a

video that was initially shot in black and white if you later on, you know, I wish it was in color. Remember that video is not as flexible in post-production as a still image that you shot in raw format, so keep that in mind. To get started with a film sim I would say try using either ProVia, Classic Chrome, Eterna, or Pro Negative standard and see which one best fits the story that you're trying to tell. With regard to audio, There are a few things that I recommend. First, set your Mic Level L

imiter to on. This will help prevent any clipping, especially if you're documenting or shooting a scene that has a lot of changing audio conditions. However, I would keep Wind Filter and Low Cut Filter off. As these settings on the camera don't do a very good job and there are much better options in post-production for that. Now, if you're using the mic onboard the camera or even an attached microphone to the camera, okay, I'd recommend leaving the Mic Level Setting to Auto. Remember that you co

ntrol the external and the internal separately, and whatever you do make sure that neither of them are set to Off. Don't set them to off. (buzzer rings) You won't get any audio. Now, if you happen to be using a lav mic then I would go in here and I would set it to Manual. And then I would adjust my settings to an average around -20 to -10 decibels. You never wanna go this high with your audio. You see how it's blasting into the red? Not good. Turn it down, turn it down, turn it down turn it down

until you're somewhere between -20 and 0, where it's peaking there. See test, test, check, check, check. Obviously what audio level you choose will depend on your shooting conditions. If you're not sure, or you have audio that's all over the place, set it to Auto. Next, go into your Power settings and make sure that Auto Power Off is either set to off, right, so the camera never shuts off, or at the very least five minutes. You don't want the camera constantly turning off when you're in the mid

dle of setting up your shots and shooting video. Set your Performance Mode to Boost. And if you have a choice set your Boost Mode to Increase EVF Frame Rate. This will give you smoother motion that you can see as you're shooting the video. I would also set Auto Power Off Temperature to High. If you have a setting like that, as the XT4 does, you don't want your camera shutting down in the middle of a shoot when it gets the slightest bit warm if you can avoid that. And lastly, I would switch off t

he view finder and only use the rear LCD screen. You don't wanna be out there shooting and accidentally switch off the rear LCD screen, right, by getting your fingers or your body too close to the sensor for the eye cup. LCD only for most video shootings situations. And simply use this button right here to toggle it. And now we come to the most important setting of all, resolution, frame rate, codec, and bit rate. Now I've made other videos specifically about these but the number one thing you w

anna ask yourself is what is your intended purpose of your video? Are you needing to quickly capture a family member blowing out candles on their birthday cake, or are you being paid to deliver a finished movie of someone's wedding? Or are you shooting a 30 second ad spot? Your intended output will determine what settings you plug in this area right here. Now for today's tutorial, I'm gonna show you two ways to set them up. The first is for quick run and gun informal vlog style shooting, and the

second is for more cinematic high quality output that you intend on editing later. For the first method, I would recommend that you set 4K at 16:9 at 30 frames per second, at 200 megabits per second. I would set my file format to H.265 and my compression to Long GOP. These settings will give you a nice balance of fairly good quality with smaller file sizes. You see how in the top area of the screen right here the camera will show you how much time you have remaining on your SD card with these s

ettings. So for example, with what I just showed you, I've got 40 minutes left. However, if I were to change Long GOP to ALL-Intra, have a look at this, 20 minutes. So Long GOP will give you a much smaller file size. If you've not done this before shoot a bit of test footage and make sure that your computer can handle editing in H 265 codec. If you find that your computer struggles to keep up and has jittery playback then I would instead go into your settings, and when you're shooting, put it to

H 264, and set the compression to ALL-Intra and see if that helps your computer struggle less with editing the video. Now, because you're shooting at 30 frames a second, go ahead and set your shutter speed dial to 1/60th of a second. Exactly double your frame rate. Set your ISO to Auto and your aperture to something like F/4 or F/5.6. And now you're ready to shoot. And if you notice that the scene is too bright stop down your aperture to F/11 or F/16 if you need to. You can also just set your a

perture in Automatic Mode and then not have to deal with it all. However, you will give up control over your depth of field if you do that. However, make sure that you keep your shutter speed set to that fixed value. In this case, it was one 60th of a second. Now, if you're wanting better quality more cinematic footage here's the second way that you can set it up. Like before choose 4K 16:9, but this time choose 24 frames per second and change your bit rate to 400 megabits per second. Set your f

ile format to H 265 and set your compression to ALL-Intra. I would also try using the Eterna film simulation and set your dynamic range to 400%. (upbeat music) Then set your shutter speed dial to 1/48th of a second. And the way you do that is you turn the dial to 1/30th of a second and then use the rear command dial on the back to rotate it up to 48. Then try setting your aperture to F/4 or F/2 so you get a really shallow depth of field. And lastly, set your ISO dial so that depending upon the l

ighting of your scene your exposure looks correct. You wanna use the histogram on the back of the camera. If you don't see the histogram go ahead and enable it. Go into the Wrench, Screen Set-Up, and go into DISP. Custom Setting and make sure that histogram is ticked. At this point, we are now setting fixed values for all three of our exposure triangle settings, but in doing so, if you are as low as the camera can go with the ISO, and you want that lens wide open, and you have to have that shutt

er speed of 1/48th of a second, and the scene is still too bright, that's when you need an ND filter. See, have a look at this right here, but I just put ND filter on and now I'm adjusting that. Ah, much better. See that, absolutely need an ND filter for any kind of video shooting, especially outdoors. And finally, we come to actually going out and shooting and I have a few tips for you. First, set your white balance manually, always. Use a white or a gray card, or even a white piece of paper, a

nd make sure you set a custom balance. Do not leave the camera on auto white balance. (buzzer rings) It doesn't even matter so much what white balance you choose, but have a consistent white balance. I do one of two things. I go into my IQ, White Balance, and go into a Custom Setting, just like this. And I just take a white piece of paper and take a picture of it. Boom. If you get this message that says, "Over," what you need to do is darken your image a little bit. You can temporarily change on

e of the exposure triangle settings to do that, or rotate your ND filter, which is a lot easier, go back into custom and press the shutter button to set the white balance. See that? Press okay to save it. And you're good to go. So that's one way to do it. If you don't have a piece of paper or you don't have time, another way that you can do it is to go into your White Balance settings and choose something like Daylight or Shade, right, or Fluorescent Light, something that matches the lighting co

nditions of your scene. What I generally do is go into Color Temperature and adjust my Kelvin settings until it looks good on the back of the LCD screen. Again, you don't have to be perfect here as you can always change it in post-production. However, Auto White Balance where the camera is gonna be changing the white balance all over the place as you move it around, or from scene to scene and shot to shot, can be a huge problem when trying to edit video. So use a consistent white balance. Second

ly, I would turn on Face/Eye autodetect, especially if you're using the 18-55 millimeter lens, and you're shooting people. Fuji does a great job with this. And if you're just getting started with video Face/Eye autodetect is great for this. To turn it on go into AF MF Face/Eye Detection Setting, turn it on, and choose Eye Auto. I've actually assigned this shortcut button right here for it because I'm constantly turning it on and off. Third, once you're out and about and comfortable shooting with

your camera, I would try making changes to my AF-C Custom Setting, and adjust the parameters of these two settings right here. Tracking Sensitivity will obviously set the tracking sensitivity of the subject that you're trying to follow for the camera. Autofocus Speed is the speed at which it acquires focus. Fourth, I would avoid using the zoom feature on the lens. You know, to zoom in and zoom out while you're shooting. It kind of gives an amateur look to your footage. Unless you have a very sp

ecific reason for zooming in and out, it's better to actually physically move yourself closer, right, or pan tilt the camera. And speaking of moving, if you wanna keep your footage as stable as possible and you don't have a gimbal, you wanna learn that silly duck walk, right. (laughs) Where you're kinda, you look weird but you're walking like a duck as stable as possible, keeping that camera steady. Even if you have IBIS or OIS try and get in the habit of holding camera as stable as possible. Li

ke photography, composition in video is everything. And a tip that I use when panning, right, is to try and put something in the foreground to give your footage something of interest. Instead of just kind of rotating the camera this way with nothing but the subject far off in the distance, if you have something in your foreground that you're kind of moving through it can actually add interest to your scene. Okay, those are a few tips to get you started right now on your videography journey. In t

he meantime, we need to meet someone. Today's newest Geariguana member said something to me I wanted to share with all of you. He said, "Before you buy a camera think about how you'd like to interact with things and don't buy one that you're never going to enjoy using." And of course, I'm holding a Fujifilm XT3 as I believe that is one of the best cameras that fits into that class of category. But before the XT3, there was this camera right here. It was simple to use. It just worked. You couldn'

t go wrong. Where's the shutter button. Hmm, don't know. Oh, it must be right here! (camera whirring) It just worked, good design. It's what it's all about. So without any further ado, I'd love like to thank David Bargetzi, (crowd cheering) our newest Geariguana Hall of Fame member. David, thank you so much for all of the great comments and being there to support the channel. I really appreciate it, pal. Now, without any further ado, we're gonna get your name on the studio wall. (upbeat music) W

ell, there it is David, right on the studio wall, just out of frame, but it's there. Thank you so much for supporting the channel. I really appreciate it. And for the rest of you, if you have not yet heard of pal2tech backstage, what are you waiting for? Go check it out. We do coffee time every Monday morning. I share all the behind the scenes goings on of this channel. It's a lot of fun. Be sure to check it out. And if you do decide to sign up and become a Geariguana Hall of Fame member, your n

ame will be permanently part of this studio. And now, back to, I guess, myself in the studio. There were some tips and suggestions that I didn't have time to get to today that would apply to general video shooting or shooting with a smartphone or a GoPro. In the next few months, you are going to be seeing more videos about how to make videos on this channel. In addition to the typical Fujifilm photography and camera stuff that I normally cover. Well, thank you so much for watching and I really h

ope you did find the video helpful or at least entertaining. And if you did be sure to give it the like and subscribe. I'm going to be signing off now. Have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you next week. Take care.