After reading “Capture 720P HD With Any LiveView Capable Canon Camera,” I wanted to try recording a simple video to see if it works.
It really does!
Why is this relevant? Only a few Canon digital SLR cameras record video, regardless of Live View. EOS Camera Movie Record allows any Live View-capable Canon DSLR camera to record video onto a connected computer.
I don’t edit video, but I know that there’s free software for Windows.
Windows 7 doesn’t include Movie Maker, so I had to download and install Windows Live Movie Maker.
Recording
- Connect lapel microphone[1. I have a Griffin Lapel Mic, which I purchased several years ago.] to computer, start Audacity and adjust audio levels.
- Connect my tripod-mounted Canon EOS 40D to my computer with the included USB cable.
- Started EOS Camera Movie Record.
- Change the buffer size to 500MB, then relaunch the program.
- Set location for saving the video file. (Remember: one minute of video is about 300MB.)
- Adjust lens focus (within the program or manually on the lens).
- Click record in EOS Camera Movie Record, then Audacity.
- Countdown from three, then clap your hands in front of the lens to provide a marker for synchronizing audio with the video.
- EOS Camera Movie Record automatically saves the AVI file once you stop recording. Save the audio file in Audacity to WAV format.
Processing
Windows Live Movie Maker has a fairly simple interface. Since it’s free, you’re limited to only one audio track.
In my opinion, synchronizing audio to video is the toughest part. Within WLMM, select the audio file and adjust with Start time and Start point.
After adding transitions, trimming the video to remove the non-essential parts at the beginning and end, and embedding captions, I saved the project.
Then, I saved the finished video file[2. WLMM > Main Menu > Save movie > High-definition (720p)] before uploading to Vimeo.
Not bad, right?
P.S. Thanks to James, our drummer from The Scarlet Paradigm, for getting in front of my camera.
All Narfed Up 
Tell James to put some pants on next time you record video =P
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Sarah: Yes, he is teh white. 🙂
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Awesome post! I watched the “Capture 720P HD With Any LiveView Capable Canon Camera,” a while back… Amazing work!! I used my macbook and garage band for recording audio and FCP for video. For the life of me I couldn’t get the audio synced. Got close but still had some lip flap… Is there a specific format/setting the audio has to be recorded in to get this to work?
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Thanks!
No specific audio format. I allowed a few seconds lead time to clap my hands in front of the camera with the audio recording, then lined things up after that.
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