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Topics - highway68

#1
Hello all, i am a very experienced DSLR photographer, mainly shooting events for my photography job and doing wildlife/birding as my main focus on the side.  Since i'm spending so much time watching birds and tracking them with my camera on a gimble head, i got to thinking why not invest in a tripod head and try out some video recording of wildlife since i have a great love for wildlife documentaries so i thought i would try it out and ordered a 50D.

I have a manfrotto 055cxpro3 carbon fiber 3 section tripod, an opteka gh1 cheap gimble head and a bunch of canon gear in 5D II, 50D, 100-400mm, 135mm f2, 16-35, 24-105, 85 1.8, etc.

So i'm looking for any beginner tips for recording video.  I think the next thing to get is a video head, i am thinking about getting the manfrotto 701HDV and an arcatech leveling base for around $300.  Besides a video head suggestion i have a couple more questions:

What are the best settings to use while recording?  Should i stick to manual?  Do i need to be at around 1/30 of a second or can i shoot at a faster shutter speed, like around 1/100?  If i shoot too high of a shutter speed will that not look desirable?

I just posted this in the accessory section, but is there a way to control the focus in ML using some kind of remote?  While using my 100-400mm lens and my current tripod, every gentle tap of the joystick to control the focus makes the camera shake so much.  Is there a better way i can secure my camera to the future head that i buy, like a long rail that even supports the lens at the end?  I have a feeling i am going to need to stabilize my setup even more. 

And lastly anyone have any good videos to watch, or links on recording video for wildlife or birds?  I just can't find much out there.  I am new to the video world but i actually started a job doing video editing and shot my first video job last week so i have officially caught the video bug and just looking for some guidance!  Thanks
#2
Hello all, i am trying to figure out how i can focus while using a long lens like the 100-400mm for wildlife video while using my 50D or 5D II and i can't seem to find a good solution.  I am very new to DSLR video and ML but i have a few years of experience with DSLRs and wildlife.

I just noticed that you can enable focus in the camera by enabling it to the joystick.  But when i'm at 400mm on my tripod and i start tapping the joystick to focus it creates a lot of shake.  So i was wondering if i could use some kind of remote hooked up to the camera to control the joystick.  The only work around i could possibly imagine is using a laptop, hooking the camera up to it, and using a program like DSLR remote pro to control the focus, and then some how haking a game controller to control the buttons of the dslr remote program but i have no idea how to do that stuff. 

Also is there anyway to achieve auto focus or focus through the joystick while recording?  Thanks for any replies!