In July I'll be shooting a company golf tournament in Hawaii. It'll be mostly stills, but I'm going to try and piece together a highlight video, as well. My setup will be extrememly basic:

- Tripod and monopod
- 2 7D bodies
- Canon 70-200 2.8 IS
- Canon 100-400 4.5-5.6
- Sigma 17-70

I'm pretty new to DSLR video, so I'm looking for any and all advice. I've gathered I should shoot in 60fps, since I'll probably want to throw in some slow-mo. It's an all-day affair, so I'll have at least an hour or two of favorable, early-morning light before the sun gets directly overhead.

Here's my main question: Will a ND filter be absolutely necessary to avoid blowing out the video? Should I get one for each lens? Multiple NDs for each lens?

As I mentioned earlier, though, I'll take any advice for this sort of thing that you've got to offer.

There will be times you will want a shallow depth of field, which will require some sort of ND filtering if you are shooting in normal daylight conditions. If you are switching between the two bodies yourself and not having another camera man along, I would rig one 7D with a variable ND on the 70-200 IS and use it for shallow DOF shots, and rig the other with a circular polarizer, the 17-70, and push your aperture down so that your DOF widens and you can keep more in focus. Use this for your medium to wide shots.

If your lens diameters differ, I would look at getting step up rings. I got tired of buying all different sizes of filters for each lens, so now I just buy step up filters that match my biggest diameter lens size. That way I don't need multiple sizes of the same filter, and it allows me to spend more money on the quality of the filter.

In bright sun you're going to need an ND filter anyway, when shooting at 24 or 30fps because you'll be at 1/50 or 1/60 shutter speed. I wouldn't shoot the whole thing in 720p 60fps, just the parts where you might want slomo. Also you'll need an LCD viewer of some sort, like the Zacuto, Hoodman, Cavision, etc. The LCD screen is pretty much worthless in bright light without one.

Thanks guys, your ideas are going to help in a serious way. Keep those tips coming.

Do some testing of the 60FPS 720P mode to make sure the aliasing is acceptable. I figured 720P would not be an issue for me and shot some sequences in a metal shop in 60p for slow mo options. I dicovered a lot of aliasing in areas of high detail. It is not subtle but seriously distractting! I have had better luck shooting more organic scenes with 720p but even then it appears on sharp diagonal lines....like you might encounter with palm trees. Good Luck.