Canon T1i/500D can do AE Lock in video?

Canon T1i/500D can do AE Lock in video?

Posted on 10. May, 2009 by planetMitch in T1i, Video

aetheradict on twitter pointed out something interesting that we’ve not seen before about the T1i/500D. “Everywhere I read before buying said t/t1i video has no AE lock,but Canon says it does. http://tinyurl.com/caa9t5 I need to try”

Have a tip, a video, or a Canon Rebel T1i/500D product to announce? Give us a shout

What is interesting is this:
“Regardless of any previous settings that may have been used during still image shooting, as soon as the EOS Rebel T1i is switched into video mode, all exposure control becomes totally automatic. Shutter speed range, lens aperture, and ISO are set entirely by the camera, and there’s no way for the photographer to override this and pre-set specific values.”

Which is true of the 5D mk ii as well… but reading on shows something new:
“More exposure control: AE Lock
Another useful control is AE Lock, which freezes the exposure at one level, even if you proceed to move the camera to a lighter or darker area in the scene. It’s especially useful for situations where the camera will be panned, side-to-side, across a broad and unevenly lit area. Using it will keep exposure from shifting automatically as the camera is panned.”

Here’s a video we found on vimeo showing the function:

Using AE lock to control aperture from Chris Anderson on Vimeo.

The 500d has no manual aperture exposure when recording video. Using the AE lock and focusing on bright objects, I think (?) I managed to get it to lock at higher f-stops…

Is this something that is part of the rumored firmware coming for the 5D mk ii?

(Photo credit: snap from the video)

Tags: , ,

4 Responses to “Canon T1i/500D can do AE Lock in video?”

  1. chris anderson

    10. May, 2009

    yes, the ISO button becomes AE lock in video. You can press the button any number of times and it will resample and lock at the auto settings it figures out.

    The normal AE lock button (*) is used for auto focus control.

  2. JVo

    10. May, 2009

    Cool! After seeing the wedding video (later post to this site) I was wondering how one could lock to a certain f-stop and guessed that the “bait-and-switch” AE lock might do the trick.

  3. Michael Przewrocki

    14. May, 2009

    can you pls explain this in steps?what does the iso-button? you can go up and down there, right?

    if i see the right exposure, how to fix it?

  4. Michael Przewrocki

    14. May, 2009

    aiming to brighter subject only if you do not want it to be overexposed. so darker zones will be too dark.
    normally one is locking exposures at normal brightness to avoid darkening when panning through bright zones.
    how about showing us the subject without and with correction?
    why you were using the baby-shot to show us this is unclear.