“Why not leave everything on auto? It looks alright to me!”

Left on automatic our cameras are capable of taking care of everything for you. But leaving it all up to auto is generally a bad idea – the more control you take, the better your results will be. You may get away with auto for some of the time, but sooner or later it will mess up a crucial shot and the entire production might suffer.

There really isn’t that much to know, and if you have an understanding of 35mm photography you will have covered most of this already.

Focus
Auto-focus should not be used. The extra effort required to focus manually is more than worth it.

The manual focus ring on the lens of the video camera is rotated clockwise for closer focus. To use it you will need to switch the Mode Switch to Manual. Then press the Focus button (it is on the front of the camera just around the corner from the Push Dial). The MF indicator will appear onscreen. If you press the Focus button again you will return to autofocus mode.

To get the sharpest focus, zoom in on your subject, focus manually, then zoom out to frame your shot.

The more light that enters your camera, the easier it is to focus. In low light situations it can be difficult to tell what is sharp and what is blurry. Try the following: Make sure the Shutter is turned off. Make sure the ND filter is off. Zoom out as wide as you can. Increase the digital gain (reduces the quality of the picture)

You should be aware of Depth of Field. Depth of Field is the range in in your shot at which the lens is in focus. Objects before or beyond the depth of field will be out of focus. The wider the aperture (smaller number), the shorter the depth of field in the image. Conversely, the smaller the aperture, the greater the depth of field so more is in focus. To get a narrower depth of field (eg person in focus with background out of focus) open the aperture. This will increase the light entering the camera and overexpose your image, so to counter this you must increase the shutter speed to reduce the light. If this does not make immediate sense do not worry. It will be quite obvious in time, once you fully understand the nature of exposure. Another thing that you must bear in mind is that the depth of field is narrower the closer the focus is to the camera. Also, the zoom setting makes a difference.

On wide angle the camera will focus as close as 3cm, but on telephoto you cannot focus closer than 1.2m.

AE Lock
The AE Lock allows you to record your subject with the same exposure even when the lighting conditions change, eg a person who moves out from a dark room into sunlight. Zoom in on your subject's face and flip the Mode Switch to AE Lock. This locks the exposure until the Mode Switch is flipped back to either Auto or Manual. If necessary you can zoom in, switch to manual, adjust the exposure to the correct level using the shutter speed, iris or gain, and then flip the switch to AE Lock.

Iris
The iris is an adjustable aperture (opening) in the lens used to control exposure. If you open up the aperture (f number gets lower) more light will enter the lens, make it smaller and your scene will become brighter.

To start with the auto-iris can be used to determine the exposure. Flip the Mode Switch to Auto, allow the exposure to adjust itself, and then flip back to manual. To get more of a feel for how the exposure is working you could try turning on the Zebra Pattern (see below). This shows you areas which will be overexposed.

To fully control the iris switch the Mode to Manual, then press the Push Dial twice to see the F indicator on screen. Turn the Push Dial to adjust the iris setting. Note that if you then adjust the shutter manually the iris will return to Auto. Therefore be sure to adjust the shutter before the iris. the +dB number indicates the Gain-up value. If this number increases too much the picture quality will deteriorate. If you have adjusted the iris, Program AE Mode is not available. Neither is the Gain Up Mode in the digital effects menu.

Unevenly lit situations are always a problem, especially backlit ones. The main rule is to set the exposure so that your subject looks correct, even at the expense of the surroundings. If your subject is against a bright background such as the sky, or a window, you will only see a silhouette. Try using the backlight button (on the top of the camera with the video playback controls, marked BLC), but you will gain much better results by controlling the iris manually. This will adjust the exposure to make everything brighter, bleaching out the background but showing more of the face of your subject.

In situations where there is too much light for your needs you can close the iris and make everything darker to get a usable shot. The ND Filter may also be useful.

When shooting it is sometimes useful to set the exposure whilst slightly zoomed in on your subject to exclude some of the background light.

White Balance (Colour Balance)
Your camera knows what each colour should look like by its difference from the White Balance. It does a pretty good job with this (especially if you adjust the lighting settings or filters), but there are some situations where you will get far more natural colours by setting it manually.

To set a White Balance manually, point the camera at something non-reflective and white (usually a piece of A4 plain paper) which is in the same lighting as your subject. Zoom in, frame and focus so that the white fills at least 80% of the picture. Switch the Mode Switch to Manual, then press the White Balance button and keep it held in. When the indicator has stopped flashing the balance has been set. If it does not stop flashing there is insufficient light to make the balance. You can also use the light which shows through the translucent lens cap to make a balance, although this will take an average reading rather than from a particular subject within your scene.

There are also three general settings which can be selected - Indoor, Outdoor and Lock. Repeatedly press the White Balance button to cycle through these settings. When balancing manually in conditions where the lighting changes (eg moving from indoors to outdoors) you will need to White Balance regularly in order to keep the colours looking natural.

Zebra Pattern
The Zebra Pattern helps you to adjust the brightness of your shot. It does not appear on the LCD screen or on the recorded tape, only in the View Finder. Parts of the picture which are overexposed (brightly lit or shiny objects) are shown with the pattern. You should manually adjust your exposure using the shutter speed, iris or gain until the pattern reduces to an acceptable level. If your subject is wearing a white shirt, you should adjust exposure until the face is clear of the pattern, although it will still show on the shirt. If it disappears from the shirt as well it is likely that the picture will be too dark.

Shutter
The shutter can be another means of controlling the exposure, but altering it will alter the quality of your image. At this stage it is best not to alter the shutter speed from the standard (1/50 sec). It can be used to make individual frames sharper for slow-motion sequences and is often used for sport or action footage where there is fast movement. However, the motion in such shots might seem more jerky. To adjust the shutter, set the mode to Manual and then press the Push Dial once. Turning the Push Dial will then alter the shutter speed, but only do this if you have to until you have experimented fully to see the effect on your picture.

Effects
Most effects are better added at the editing stage in Post Production. This is a far more versatile way of working than adding effects in camera. Keep your options open. Many of the manual functions are not available when using the digital effects built into the camera. In low light situations though, GainUp might just solve your problem, although some image distortion will occur.

Blank Search
If you are using a new tape you want to avoid breaks in the Time Code or you will have difficulty using the tape in editing. To quickly find the end of the recorded part of your tape switch the camera to VCR. Press the Menu button and turn the Push Dial to select Blank Search. Press the Push Dial to select ON. The tape will wind to a point 1 second before the end of the last recording. You can then swich back to Camera Mode and continue with your shoot.

Digital Image Stabilizer (DIS)
This is set through the menu and will reduce camera shake if you are using telephoto whilst operating handheld, or are walking with the camera. If the onscreen indicator is flashing there is insufficient light to use this function. The downside is that it can cause brightness and colours to fluctuate under fluorescent light, the picture quality deteriorates slightly and the subject is slightly enlarged. Use a tripod instead and you will get much better results.

ND Filter
The Neutral Density filter is found underneath the lens barrel. It reduces the amount of light entering the lens without affecting colours. Do not use it whilst using the lens at its widest zoom setting or with Auto White Balance. Also, note that the depth of field is reduced.

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