Panasonic AG-HMC150, User Manual

Page 1: ...r Buttons 7 Audio Functions 7 Audio Mon Var Buttons 7 Audio Control Dials 7 Other parts of the camera 8 Cold Shoe a k a accessory shoe 8 Tally Lamp 8 Tripod Socket 8 Lens and Lens Shade 8 Manual operation 8 Switching to manual mode 8 Manual focusing 8 Momentary auto focus 8 Focus assist 9 Iris adjustment 9 Exposure adjustment using the zebras 9 MassArt Professional and Continuing Education Documen...

Page 2: ...layback 17 Transferring media to your editing workstation 19 Warnings error messages and troubleshooting 19 More technical information 19 Documentary camera techniques 21 Mastering basic technique 21 Exposure and white balance 21 Shoot to edit 21 Pre production check list 21 Shooting in the Field 21 Zooming 21 Framing and shot composition 21 Shot selection 22 Audio 22 Lighting 22 Location Pre Prod...

Page 3: ...by facing the contact side towards the back of the camera with the contact side down and then pushing it into place and then slide down to lock Don t force the battery if you have trouble inserting the battery try rotating it it might be upside down Panasonic model VW VBG260 or VW VBG6 batteries may be used 3 Verify an SD card installed SD cards are very sensitive to static discharge so handle the...

Page 4: ... want to make sure the meters show you lots of white squares for a strong enough signal otherwise your audio will be lost in the noise floor Dialog should be right around 12dB which is indicated by the line on the meter display Some peaks above 12dB are OK When the levels reach 0dB you ve hit the digital brick wall The camera has a Limiter instead of Automatic Gain Control so even on automatic you...

Page 5: ...or 5200K typical daylight outdoors AWB Button Sets the white balance e AWB button is located on the front of the camera under the lens When this button is pushed while the white balance switch is in the A or B position the white balance is automatically adjusted Do this while pointing the lens at a white card e white balance value is then stored in the memory When the AWB is pressed while the swit...

Page 6: ... zoom is different from the other zoom because it is not pressure sensitive In the menu of the camera the speed can be set to Low Medium High or Low Off High Zoom Servo Manual Use to choose servo zoom controlled by the zoom buttons or manual zoom controlled manually by the zoom ring Make sure to set the SERVO MANU switch on the side of the camera to MANU before manually adjusting zoom DISP MODE CHK ...

Page 7: ...Mode WFM button Press the WFM button to display the video waveform on the LCD display is shows you the of the overall brightness of objects in the frame Overexposed portions of the image will be shown along the top of the waveform 100 with middle grey values in the middle 50 and black at the bottom 0 Point the camera to different scenes and adjust the explore and see how the waveform changes In the...

Page 8: ...e is removable the lens shade attaches via a bayonet mount turn gently counter clockwise to remove Manual operation When you first start using the camera it s a good idea to run in automatic mode so you don t have to worry about focus exposure white balance and video gain however once you become comfortable using the camera you ll want to start using the camera in manual mode for the utmost in cre...

Page 9: ...using the IRIS dial To adjust the aperture while in manual mode simply turn the IRIS dial on the side of the camera e direction of the IRIS dial and it s effect on the aperture is determined in the setup menus SW MODE screen IRIS DIAL If you have set the A IRIS item ON in the AUTO SW menu the manual iris mode will be deactivated Since the default is ON you will want to turn this setting OFF in orde...

Page 10: ...o manually set the gain make sure the AUTO MANUAL switch to set to manual mode Switch the gain using the GAIN switch on the side of the camera with the default camera settings the three positions are L For shooting under normal lighting conditions 0 dB video gain M For shooting in low light conditions 6 dB video gain H For shooting in very low light conditions 12 dB video gain You can change the a...

Page 11: ...the subject can be used in a pinch Make sure not to include bright highlights in the shot 4 Set the WHITE BAL switch to position A or B whichever preset you want to use to save this particular white balance setting 5 Press the AWB button on the front of the camera 6 e white balance adjustment takes a few seconds During the process you ll see AWB Xch ACTIVE on the screen and when complete it will d...

Page 12: ...u settings Menu When the unit is in other than playback or recording mode press the MENU button to enter the camera menus In the menu mode you push the operation level up down right and left to choose setting options and then push it to confirm your choice Menu Options Camera Mode 1 Scene File changes look related settings for each of the scene file dial settings 2 SW Mode adjust functionality of ...

Page 13: ... HA modes see Recording Modes Always format a card using the camera not your computer Store cards in an anti static bags or the case it originally came in after use they are susceptible to damage from static electricity Avoid touching the electrical contacts Try grounding yourself and the camera prior to removing from the camera or inserting a card into the camera Access lamp e access lamp located...

Page 14: ... prevent writing to the card It is good practice when you re done shooting to lock cards before copying media to a computer It s also a good idea to label cards and keep a log You want to make sure that data is both copied and backed up before you format a card for reuse Recording modes e camera records video using the the MPEG 4 AVC H 264 format commonly called AVCHD is is a standard for the reco...

Page 15: ...ra from line current If a battery is attached to the charger it will not recharged as long as the DC cord is connected to the AC adapter charger LCD Display Brightness and reverse image e LCD brightness can be adjusted see pages 25 28 in the manual for details on how to adjust LCD brightness as well as reversing the image if needed Information display e LCD display provides a dizzying array of inf...

Page 16: ...o level meter Indicates the level of the incoming audio signal Refer to the earlier discussion of setting levels 16 Auto iris control Displays the automatic iris control setting STD Standard auto iris control SPOT Auto iris control for spotlight BACK Auto iris control for backlight 17 Iris setting Displays the current f stop aperture setting of the lens Avoid shooting at small apertures like f 11 ...

Page 17: ...scription of this mode 30 Recording function Displays a P when the PREREC MODE item on the settings menu RECORDING SETUP screen is set to ON e prerecording function prevents you from missing shots by starting a recording ahead of when you press record 31 Monitor audio level When you press the AUDIO MON ADV button the sound volume output from the built in speaker and headphone jack are displayed on...

Page 18: ...ed thumbnail 6 Recording mode display indicates the recording mode if the currently highlighted clip has been recorded in PH mode 7 Recording format display indicates the recording format of the currently selected clip 8 Displays the duration of the currently selected clip 9 Displays time code at start of clip recording user information at start of clip recording time of recording date of recordin...

Page 19: ...ere Pro If you are editing with Adobe Premiere Pro you can immediately edit the footage in the PRIVATE folder you copied to your workstation Adobe s Mercury rendering engine is capable of working with the AVCHD files directly and never needs to covert then until it comes time for the final render of your project or when you do a render to see an effect in full quality Final Cut Pro 7 If you are edi...

Page 20: ...or information about this camera as well as editing the footage you shot with it Creative Cow is another popular online forum chock full of useful information Introduction to the Panasonic AG HMC150 AVCHD camcorder rough draft http kino eye com dvb 20 35 ...

Page 21: ...ble adjustments in the editing process Pre production check list Story outline Shot list Interview questions Subject releases Location releases Location agreements if needed Shooting permits if needed Shooting in the Field Stable shots unless there s meaning in the movement Find a stable body position leg spacing kneeling arm support hold viewfinder up to your eye for the steadiest hand held shot ...

Page 22: ...scuss the concept of coverage Audio Handheld Omnidirectional Lavaliere Shotgun Mic Cables Boom Pole Pistol Grip or other mount Microphone Stands Wireless system avoid if you can but oh so convenient interference can be a problem Mixer optional Lighting Reflector flex fill Light Kit soft open fresnel Gels Diffusion material Reflective umbrellas to use w Tota lights Light Stands Clothes pins a k a C ...

Page 23: ... Can you get mics close enough to subject Lavalieres work well in noisy environments as long as they are placed close to the subject Do you need more than one microphone If using a wireless try it out first ere may be interference from sources or other transmitters Always monitor with closed ear headphones More creative guidance is handout is just a starting point you will find the following books...

Page 24: ...mera vs the speed of the wheel Any undesirable distortion of image or sound that is a result of less than perfect digital encoding can be considered aliasing Analog A signal that varies continuously in relation to some reference In contrast a digital signal varies in discreet steps Anamorphic lens A lens that allows a wide image to be photographed on a standard sized frame For example anamorphic l...

Page 25: ... connector does not guarantee the existence of balanced wiring Better camcorders provided balanced XLR connectors for audio input and offer a choice of Line or Microphone level input Bandwidth e amount of information that can be passed through a system at a given time Typically the greater the bandwidth the better the image or audio quality however the compression techniques if any used also influe...

Page 26: ... and inter frame See also compression intra frame inter frame Component video A video signal in which the Luminance and Chrominance signals are kept separate is requires a higher bandwidth but yields a higher quality picture Composite video e luminance and chrominance signals are combined in an encoder to create the common standard definition NTSC PAL or SECAM video signals Typically the format th...

Page 27: ...rring a digital video format into a non linear editing system it s already digital so you are simply capturing or ingesting you re not actually digitizing Direct cinema See Cinéma vérité Distortion e addition of artifacts to the original audio signal appearing in the output which was not present in the input Documentary A non fiction film usually photographed using actual people in real locations ...

Page 28: ...tion IEC 61834 defines both the codec and tape format e intraframe DCT codec with a bit rate of 25 Mbit sec provides good image quality and simplified editing DV cameras are easy to connect to non linear editing systems via a FireWire IEEE 1394 interface Unlike Hi8 which was notorious for video dropouts DV provided excellent image and audio quality acceptable for video documentaries intended for b...

Page 29: ...ns has a short focal length a telephoto lens has a long focal length Focus e sharpness or definition of a film image Following shot A shot in which the camera pans or travels to keep a moving figure or object within the frame Footage 1 Exposed film stock 2 Recorded video tape Format e video codec resolution and frame rate used for a production For example DVCPRO HD 720 24p 1280 x 720 progressive s...

Page 30: ...documentary films made outside of the Hollywood establishment Often the term implies independent vision as well as independent financing Intra frame compression Also called I frame with this compression technique each frame the individual pictures that make up a movie is compressed separately In other words the video is stored as a series of discrete pictures and the compressor deals with each fra...

Page 31: ...ect Luminance 1 A measure of brightness 2 e portion of a video signal that encodes brightness information not color See Chrominance Masking Blocking out part of an image usually at the edges of the frame thus altering the size or the shape of the frame projected on the screen See Curtains Letterbox Master shot A single shot usually a long shot or a full shot which provides an overview of the actio...

Page 32: ...or 1 million Gigabytes Today Terabyte drives are common someday Phantom power A technique for providing power to condenser microphones through the same wire the audio signal travels through Most professional condenser microphones require 48V phantom power which is a feature of many prosumer video cameras Pixel Picture Element e basic unit from which a digital image is made Essentially a dot with a...

Page 33: ...gital is a solid state memory card format use in many of the new generation of tapeless cameras Standard SD cards have a maximum of 4 GB capacity and high capacity SDHC cards have a higher limit of 32 GB SDTV also SD Standard Definition Television e new HDTV standards call for a range of different resolutions ose that are higher than today s NTSC are considered HDTV e ones that are comparable to NT...

Page 34: ...ecording is can confuse the editing system upon capture and therefore should be avoided see Capture Time lapse A type of cinematography or photography in which the camera photographs at time intervals the same scene over an extended period of time in order to speed up on the screen a lengthy process or action for example the growth of a field of corn traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge the constructio...

Page 35: ... to pure white 75 IRE is a very bright area of the frame with textural detail and 50 IRE is around middle gray or 18 grey in still photography terms Zoom shot A shot made with a zoom lens which makes the image appear closer zoom in or farther away zoom out by varying the focal length of the lens Offers a very different quality than a tracking shot See Tracking Shot Zip pan See Swish pan Et cetera Co...