Setting Up a Shot

All of these settings can be set to 'AUTO'. If you're in a rush then 'AUTO' will usually give okey results. On the big black HD cameras, lightly press the 'menu' button on th screen, this will allow youto change the common settings. If one of the settings has a yellow/orange bar next to it then it's been set to manual and you ought to check that it's been set appropriately.

Exposure

This determines how much light enters the camera. It is done by controlling 'Shutter Speed' and 'Iris' (referred to as 'aperture' in still photography).

YSTV almost always uses a shutter speed of 50 per second. Any slower and things appear to move indistinctly, any faster and you reduce the amount of light for no real advantage (in exceptionally bright light it may be necessary to make it faster). The shutter speed is not on the main menu, you have to enter the detailed menu to alter it. Press the 'menu' button, then from there 'P.Menu'

The iris is a physical barrior inside the camera which can be opened or closed (by internal motors) to limit the amount of light entering the camera, in the same way as the iris of an eye does. Closing or opening the iris doesn't have any (significant) effects on the image recorded by the camera. (Having it more open will reduce the 'depth of field' of the camera, but this isn't something that needs to be known.)

White Balance

When filming in light that isn't evenly white (ie it has a tinge of a certain colour) the camera needs to be told what it should consider truly white. If the white balance is set to auto, and the camera is, for example, used indoors where the light normally has a red tinge, the camera will assess the entire image, determine that red is the dominant colour, and reduce the amount of red in the recording.

'Auto' will usually produce useable results, or at least ones which can be improved later in editing, however it is best and easiest to set it manually when the recording is taking place.

To set white balance manually on an HD camera, press the menu button on the screen. Select 'custom', 'user', 'manual' or whatever button indicates that it is set by the camera operator. Crucially you also have to set the new white balance. Get something truly white to occupy the whole of the screen. Then press the button on the screen which looks like a square above two triangles, keep the camera steady until it's finished changing the white balance. You can now exit the menu.

Focus

Auto Focus works by the camera assessing the contrast at the centre of the screen. Consider a very blurred image of something, all the light and dark areas, and all the colours will smear into a uniform colour of a certain brightness, ie it will have very low contrast. By comparrison an image which is in focus will have many distinct areas of different colours and brightnesses. The camera prefers the latter of these two situations and deems this to be focussed.

If you're filming in decent light, and will be zooming then auto is advised. If you're in dark situations, or the camera shot won't be changing at all then manual focus should be considered.

In the menu press the 'focus' button lightly. Select manual. Here you can also alter the distance at which the camera focusses. This is not the easiest way to focus. Instead go back to the main menu and press 'ring set'. From here select 'focus'. Now the ring near the front of the camera on the barrel will control the focus (sensors detect the ring being moved and drive motors to focus). Additionally the 'Manual' button near the front of the camera body will switch between auto focus and manual focus.

If using manual focus be sure that the shot is focussed, otherwise all of the recorded footage will be blurry.

Microphone & Sound Levels

It is almost always best to use auto to avoid everything sounding quiet, or even wrse everything sounding too loud and clipping. More on sound setup