T6i : best AF setting to shoot movies without putting your hands on the camera

[beatman]

Hello there,

I'm new to the Rebel T6i and I'm having some issues while trying to shoot movies.
When I film, I never have the camera on my hands cause I work with a 'cage' - a support that you attach the camera to it to have more stability and also put light and microphone on it.

Well, that said, I can't keep touching the screen to focus on the objects I want to focus. So I'd like to know if you guys have any  hints on what is the best AF set on the T6i for this purpose.

Thanks a lot!

[Waddizzle]

The T6i camera lacks the ability to perform AF tracking in video mode, AFAIK.   It lacks "Dual Pixel AF".  If the T6i does have that type of image sensor, then your manual can teill you how to use it.

[beatman]

Nope, T6i does have AF tracking in video mode (3 types, actually).
My question leans towards user experience - i.e: I wonder if someone is already experienced using T6i for shooting movies so I can get some hint on how to properly set it.

Thanks anyway.

[kvbarkley]

But they are contrast detection modes not at all like the Dual pixel AF.

[beatman]

I am aware of that. But still, even with an AF set not so tight (by far) as the dual pixel AF, there are probably some ways you can set the AF to get your job done. Today I've tried some different things and I'm improving on it.

The bad thing is I am asking myself here if somehow I've put my money on the wrong equipament. 

[kvbarkley]

You did, you bought a still image camera for video.

[beatman]

The worst answer one could possibly give: it absolutely didn't help but it is technically wrong - roughly wrong.
I hope you said that as a joke (an attempt to be a troll or something worth it). But if you do believe what you said, I strongly recommend you go research so you can be in the present world.

[RobertTheFat]

---

@beatman wrote:

The worst answer one could possibly give: it absolutely didn't help but it is technically wrong - roughly wrong.
I hope you said that as a joke (an attempt to be a troll or something worth it). But if you do believe what you said, I strongly recommend you go research so you can be in the present world.

---

Thank you for that. It reminded me to "kudo" kvbarkley's message.

[Waddizzle]

---

@beatman wrote:

I am aware of that. But still, even with an AF set not so tight (by far) as the dual pixel AF, there are probably some ways you can set the AF to get your job done. Today I've tried some different things and I'm improving on it.

The bad thing is I am asking myself here if somehow I've put my money on the wrong equipament. 

---

There is a significant difference between being to AF in video mode, and AF focus tracking in video mode.  The former is manually activated, very much like One Shot focusing mode with stills.  The latter is more comparable to AI Servo when shooting stills, which cameras with "Dual Pixel AF" image sensors can do.

The 80D is very good at tracking faces in video mode, but you must still manually activate it.  In other words, you cannot do something to the camera, and then move in front of it and TAA-DAA, automatic camera man.  Nothing can do that.

[beatman]

T6i has AI Servo, AI Focus, live tracking mode, etc. I've made lots of new tests today and it worked great.
I'm just new to the equipment, that's all.
At the end of the day, all I had to do was change my approach - I have to touch the lcd screen to control it - no matter what- that's all.