Canon Camera, Hackers Manual

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4.8 More video options
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Let’s discuss the other parameters:
f
Clear Video Params on Start? Enable this entry if you want to reset the
camera’s video facility to its native state on power-up.
f Fast Video Control? This allows you to pause the video recording with
the LEFT button. You can then resume with the RIGHT button. Note:
This does not work with all cameras.
f
Video Quality Control? This allows you to change the video quality or
bitrate DURING recording with the UP (increase) or DOWN (decrease)
buttons. Again, this does not work with all cameras.
f
Enable Optical Zoom . Many of the supported cameras do not allow the
use of optical zoom during recording, but rather restrict the zoom to
the range of the
Digital Zoom . Digital Zoom is not a bad thing when re-
cording video; it is silent, and the quality does not suffer much because
the camera sensor has a much higher resolution than what is needed
for video. Still, in combination with the
Optical Zoom, you can get those
long-range zooming shots. For instance, when the optical zoom range is
3 and the digital zoom range is 4, you would get a zoom range of 12.
Unfortunately, for most cameras, the manufacturer has disabled the
Optical Zoom during recording, probably to avoid complaints from cus-
tomers who are irritated about the noise from the focus mechanism in
the soundtrack. The CHDK allows you to lift that restriction and enjoy a
wide zoom range. And the noise? Well, some editing of the soundtrack
is required. Unfortunately, the
Enable Optical Zoom function does not
work on all cameras (it doesn’t on my SD1100, for example).
f
Mute During Zooming . This entry is not present on all cameras. It allows
you to mute the sound recording while zooming and thus avoid record-
ing the noise generated by the focus mechanism.
f
AF key . This entry is not present on all cameras. It allows assigning a key
( shutter halfpress or FUNC/SET ) to the autofocus function. Pressing this
button during recording will cause an autofocus scan. For example,
when you start your sequence at infinity and pan on a close subject, you
can press this button and refocus on that subject.
f Show Remaining Videotime . This entry controls the OSD during video
recording. You can hide the remaining recording time (Don’t), show it
(hh:mm:ss), show the current bitrate in kilobytes per second (KB/s), or
show both remaining time and bitrate.
f Refresh Rate (~sec) . This entry controls how often the remaining video
time is updated. Longer intervals result in more precise values; shorter
intervals are more up-to-date.
Your camera’s native video options probably include an option for creating
time-lapse movies. This feature is quite limited; on my SD1100 I can select
between a one and a two-second interval. In section 5.7.1 we will discuss