Focusing
Your D7000 has given you several focusing options for Live View/Movie mode. There are benefits to each focus-point option. You can choose Face-priority AF, Wide-area AF, Normal-area AF, and Subject-tracking AF. You will want to choose your focus mode depending on the subject of your video. Face-priority will search for faces within the frame and place a box around each face. When you depress the shutter button halfway, the box will turn from red to green once the face is in focus. This is one of the slower focusing modes, so if you have a fast-moving subject, this may not be your first choice. If you want to follow your subject through the frame and keep his face in focus at all times, Subject-tracking AF would be a good option. Wide-area AF and Normal-area AF allow you to choose the subject that you want to focus on. Wide-area provides a larger focusing area than Normal-area AF. Again, the box surrounding your focus point will turn green when the subject is in focus. See pages 49–55 in your manual for more details on the AF-area modes.
To select your Autofocus mode for video
- Press the Menu button and use the Multi-selector to choose the Custom Settings menu.
- Highlight A Autofocus, and hit OK (A).
- Use the Multi-selector to scroll down to A8 Live View/Movie AF, and press OK (B).
- You can make custom selections for both Autofocus mode and AF-area mode. Highlight AF-area mode, and press OK (C).
- Select your preferred AF-area mode, and press OK (D).
Editing
You can do limited editing with Nikon’s Movie Editor that came with your Nikon View NX2 installation CD. This is a great way to do some quick editing without spending money on external software.
If you are serious about editing your videos, I recommend checking out Apple’s Final Cut Express or Adobe’s Premiere Elements. Both of these software packages will give you excellent control as well as more options for video editing.