Video Screen Help

[kelseyhaley]

I have an issue where I sometimes think I'm recording video on my Canon DSLRs and I'm not. I shoot on the 80D and the 5D Mark IV.
I'm paying so much attention to the focus and settings and everything else that sometimes I hit the record button one too many times turns out I'm not recording but I'm not noticing that by looking at the screen.

Does anyone know if there's a way to change display so that it's more apparent that I'm recording other than just the little red dot?
Are there any external monitors that would help? 

[BurnUnit]

Is there a way to display the audio recording level while shooting video? Of course this would probably only be helpful if it displayed while actively recording video and not when paused. And it may only be available to display when using the camea's onboard microphones.

[kelseyhaley]

That's a good idea, thank you!

[BurnUnit]

You're welcome. I've had the same issue you described shooting video with my 60D. I don't shoot a lot of video with it and will sometimes find that I'm not shooting when I thought I was. But I never tried to figure out a more obvious way to verify whether it was recording or not.

After making the above suggestion I guess I better try it out for myself to make sure it actually works that way.

[Tim]

Hello BurnUnit, 

When recording video with this unit, you can change what is displayed on screen.  By pressing the <INFO> button several times, you can adjust the display.  One of the options is to have the (manual) audio recording level indicated on screen.