My Canon XH-A1 HD camcorder allows for complete manual mode, but I am not clear how I would decide on a shutter speed and F-stop setting to give the correct exposure, except to just go by what I see in the LCD preview screen. I have a nice Minolta light meter that I know how to use for my 35mm SLR digital camera, but for a digital film camcorder what is the ISO film speed rating?!? Or can that even make sense, since there are low, medium, high, and auto gain levels for the camera light exposure? Just going by what I see in the LCD preview screen and using my light meter it seems the camera iso is about 1000 but then the gain would seem to invalidate all that in a way. Is it even possible to come up with some sort of ISO film speed for the purposes of using a light meter for total manual settings on such a camcorder? I can find nothing in the camcorder's user guide about film 'speed'.
?Randall
I would think your camera should have a way to set the ISO, perhaps under light sensitivity settings... Most of them do. It should say in the manual...
quote:
Originally posted by flammablecow
I would think your camera should have a way to set the ISO, perhaps under light sensitivity settings... Most of them do. It should say in the manual...
One would think so, I agree. I can not find the camera's ISO anywhere in the user manual, camera menus and submenus. So I called Canon's tech support and after being on hold for 15 minutes in spite of calling the member / owner's club hotline number, I was finally told they had no answer, that 'film speed' was not relevant since it is a digital camcorder. Sigh. What good is M (manual mode) if I have no basis for using a light meter to determine the proper f-stop and shutter speed (which requires the 3rd factor in the exposure equation, i.e. the "film" ISO or light sensitivity rating)?!
I think I need to go back to my original experiment-- choose low, medium, and high gain settings, then indirectly determine the ?virtual? "ISO" of the "film" (digital CCDs of course) by seeing what the Auto, Tv, Av settings are for shutter and f-stop and how that relates to my hand held light meter which I can set to various film speeds. I should come up with some at least artificially accurate "film speed" for the three gain settings (which I hope not to use anyhow) and for no gain. Does my logic seem valid?
?Randall (Beowulf)
That is exactly what you want to do. Make up your own f-stop charts, etc., for your camera. It shouldn't take you long to take a bunch of reflective readings and determine the f-stops within a reasonable range. Let us know how that goes.
