To make changes to the Canon 4000D for video, you must be in video mode, which is the last icon on the mode dial. This allows you to see through the LCD display screen on the back and is the only way you can record video. You cannot record videos through the viewfinder.
The rear screen gives you access to the menu tabs that are dedicated to video, and the first thing to do is choose your video system. There are two video systems, one is NTSC and the other is PAL. NTSC tends to be the system that is operated in the United States and PAL tends to be the system that is operated in Europe and other parts of the world. There isn’t a huge difference between the two, however it changes the way the camera operates very slightly when you start looking at frame rates. With NTSC, you get a frame rate option of 60 frames per second, or 30 frames per second, and when in PAL, you have a choice of 50 frames per second or 25 frames per second.
The second thing to think about when shooting video with the Canon 4000D is the file size and frame rate. These go together and are quite important because they will decide the quality of the videos you record. This camera is pretty good – it will shoot 1080p which is Full HD and it will also record 720 which is standard HD. Both are perfectly suitable for social media platforms. To make these changes, we go back to video menu two and the top option is the recording size of the movie. In that option we have four options. They depend on whether you have chosen NTSC or PAL. In NTSC, you will have a choice of 30 or 60 frames per second. In PAL, your choice will be 25 or 50 frames per second. I would choose 1920 by 1080 at 25 (or 30) or 1280 by 720 at 50 (or 60) frames per second.
The third thing to think about is exposure. When you take photos with a Canon EOS 4000D, you have many options. They are all on the mode dial. They range from fully manual to semi-automatic to fully preset automatic options, and in most cases the camera will try to get the best possible exposure for the photos you are taking, within the parameters of the preset modes you have chosen. For movies, you have two options. You can shoot automatically or you can shoot manually. With auto for video, the camera will try to get the best possible exposure for you. In many cases it works very well. If you enter the manual, you can change the parameters, as if you were taking pictures. Go to the video menus. Video exposure is in video menu one at the top. This offers two options: automatic or manual. Go to the manual and then you can control the shutter speed, aperture and ISO. You can see these settings at the bottom of the screen. To change the shutter speed, turn the main dial on the top of the camera. You can move the aperture up and down by pressing the AV button on the back of the camera and turning the main dial. In fact, you can change both settings while recording the video or of course beforehand. However, you cannot change the ISO when you are recording live video, you have to change the ISO by going to the quick control button and changing it in the options here as if you were taking pictures.
The fourth thing to think about is sound, now the Canon 4000D doesn’t have an external mic jack, it just has an internal mic. So sound recording may be a bit limited with this camera, but if you go into the menus and video menu 2, the second is sound recording. You can set it to one of three options: you can have automatic, manual, or disable. I would choose between automatic or manual.
When you are recording videos, you are recording through the rear screen and that means that the autofocus system will be a bit slower than when you are taking pictures. You have a couple of good options for autofocus when you’re shooting video. In the video menu one and go down to the AF method and then you will see that you have flexizone which is the single focus shot. When you press the shutter button, the camera focuses and does not change focus until you press the shutter button again. The advantage of that is that you can focus while recording at the same time and that can be very useful. The second option is called live mode and it is quite useful because it has facial recognition that can make focusing easier. The third option is the fast mode and it tries to be faster by bouncing the mirror inside the camera and using the viewfinder system to focus. But obviously you can’t use fast mode while recording video.