The best camera settings for video: what the settings mean and why they matter

sony a7 iii video menu
(Image credit: Hannah Rooke)

If you’re a stills photographer and thinking about giving video a go, the video settings menu can seem pretty overwhelming. There are so many different options and all the numbers and letters can be a bit confusing but once you know what it all means it gets a whole lot easier. 

There are three main things to think about – frames per second, shutter speed (known as shutter angle in the cinema world) and ISO. The frames per second dictate how many individual frames are in each second of footage, shutter speed is the amount of time each individual frame is exposed for and ISO is how bright or noisy your image is.  There's a lot of video jargon that won't make sense at first so it's worth familiarising yourself with some of the terms. 

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Hannah Rooke
Staff Writer

Having studied Journalism and Public Relations at the University of the West of England Hannah developed a love for photography through a module on photojournalism. She specializes in Portrait, Fashion and lifestyle photography but has more recently branched out in the world of stylized product photography. For the last 3 years Hannah has worked at Wex Photo Video as a Senior Sales Assistant using her experience and knowledge of cameras to help people buy the equipment that is right for them. With 5 years experience working with studio lighting, Hannah has run many successful workshops teaching people how to use different lighting setups.