The Camera

If a film maker doesn’t understand their camera, then the camera will never capture the shots that are desired and they’ll never make the film they envisioned.

The back of the camera:

• The switch at the top has three possible settings -

• ‘Auto Lock’ which has all the settings on automatic unless they have been specified otherwise
• ‘Manual’ which means that all the camera’s settings are manually changed unless the are specified to be automatic
• ‘Hold’ which means that the camera is fully automatic

• The button below it is the ‘Gain’ button which tries to allow more light, which doesn’t exist, into the shot.  It is measured in DB and ranges from 3-18, but higher than 12 is to be avoided as this affects the quality much more than the lower settings will

• ‘Shutter Speed’ allows more less frames to be taken a second (e.g. TV uses 24 frames per second and video uses 50fps).  To slow down footage you would increase the shutter speed and to speed up footage you would decrease it

• ‘White Balance’ has three settings (which are resembled by pictures which appear below the volume levels on the camera’s screen) ‘Tungsten’ which is used for indoor footage, ‘Outdoor’ which is used when filming outdoors and ‘Manual Custom’ which is used when a shot involves both indoor and outdoor light sources.  The best way to make sure the white balance is at the correct setting is to find something white, zoom in on it and adjust it until it appears white on the camera screen

• The ‘Menu’ button should only be used to check that you are filming in 'HD 1080i' and to make sure that the volume levels are displayed (and even if they are, the camera person should wear headphones and listen to the audio which is being recorded to listen out for any background noises which may be picked up)

From the back to the left-side:

• On the far right is the ‘Status Check’ button and to look at all statuses you use the scroll wheel on the back
• ‘Picture Profile’ doesn’t change
• If there is no ‘Focus’ picture on the LCD screen then the focus is set to automatic.  To focus you zoom into someone’s hair as this is a fine detail in the shot, but you don’t want to focus any closer than 80cm from what you’re filming.  The big ring on the camera is the focus ring and the small ring is the zoom ring
•  ‘Expanded Focus’ double checks that you’re in focus

The microphone switches:

• If there is only one mic, then all the switches should be up
• If there are two mics, then the first switch on the left (switches between stereo and mono) should be down

Between Focus and the mic switches:

• ‘Exposure/Iris’ – the iris defines how much light is let in the camera.  You can’t set the exposure when gain has been set
• The scroll wheel adds light until it can’t add any more and begins to add gain
• ‘Push Auto Focus’ asks the camera to focus quickly