An absolute 'Newbie' Needs a little help

B

Barrief

Member
Well… I've gone and done it.

After 'Lurking' on here for a while, I decided to make the leap from a Sony TG3 to an HMC150/1. It arrived yesterday.

Right now it's sitting on the counter daring me to pic it up and do something. So… I charged the battery. Then… after some hesitation, put the SD Card into it.

The more it sat there the more I became convinced that this accumulation of black, state of the art technology, sitting on the counter was a terrible mistake. I read most of the CD-Rom Manuel, and after a while decided to switch it on.

First job, Format the SD card… back to the Manuel! I got the Menu up but the touch screen wouldn't work. Back to the manuel to discover that it doesn't have a touch screen function. Uh-Oh… now I know I've made a mistake. With some trepidation I pushed and wiggled a few buttons, and was delighted when the message came up that the Format was successful. WOW! Now what?

The thing from 'technology' leered at me as I approached and picked it up daring to find out how to record something. I dragged the 'thing' out of the house and into the car determine that it wouldn't win this battle of wills. Having read the Manuel I discovered that it had been factory set to automatic. (Thank God!) All I had to do was point and shoot.

I shot a couple of clips in the Local Shopping Parade car park, then moved on to a large nearby Lake. Filmed the lake and close ups of some Ducks. In the evening I took a couple of night shots in the Village on the river. Disappointment followed.

The Car Park clips were so over exposed, that they would need substantial tweaking in FCP. The same with the lake shots. However the close ups of the ducks were good and would need no editing in FCP other than trimming. The definition was incredible.

The night shots of the Village on the River were under exposed and needed some work in FCP (Composite-Mode/Screen Overlay) but the finished edit was acceptable. But it was obvious I was going to need some serious help in getting this camera to work properly.

So, my question is, are there any absolute 'newbies' on here who have bought Barry Green's Book "The HMC150" As a complete 'newbie' was it helpful to you, or did it assume that you already knew a lot about the HMC150.

At £60 it's expensive. But would buy it if it does the job for me as a learner. i.e. I want to make quality movies. Will this book do it for me? Thanks in advance.

BTW. I have put a few Vids up on Utube from my Sony TG3.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR-V8I5tlm4
 
It doesn't matter if you have the 'thing' in automatic mode or not - you need to manually operate the ND filter switch - so if the 'thing' ever told to you change it - and you didn't - that's why you got way over exposed footage.

Buy Barry's book.
 
Another vote for Barry's book. I recommend the "HMC Book", rather than the HMC-150 book, though. It's been updated with lots of new material that would be useful to you -- a bunch of "basics" are covered in the newer book.

Learn to do everything in Manual -- the results will be spectacular!

-vic
 
Barry's books are fabulous - he obviously knows his stuff and he does a good job of relaying it in a user/learner-friendly way. His DVX book is my gospel - I'm assuming the HMC books should be the same for you.
 
Thanks

Thanks

Thanks for your response everyone. It's much appreciated.

YESTERDAY! It got worse! I switched over to Manual to try to eliminate the over exposure problem, after having re-read the Manual. Big mistake. I get a green hue, or a blue hue, under or over exposed, loss of definition. I'm gonna try and revert to the factory settings and start again in Auto mode which was fine, not withstanding the over exposure.

I've just ordered Barry's Book. It can't come soon enough.
 
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Remember that youi just bought a professional cam. Learning how to get the most out of it may take some time. But it's worth it.
Until Barry's book arrives, read up on how to manually adjust the white balance. Don't be afraid to shoot and experiment. You have a great cam. You will learn its ins and outs.
 
Barrief said:
I got the Menu up but the touch screen wouldn't work. Back to the manuel to discover that it doesn't have a touch screen function. Uh-Oh… now I know I've made a mistake. With some trepidation I pushed and wiggled a few buttons, and was delighted when the message came up that the Format was successful. WOW! Now what?

The thing from 'technology' leered at me as I approached and picked it up daring to find out how to record something. I dragged the 'thing' out of the house and into the car determine that it wouldn't win this battle of wills. Having read the Manuel I discovered that it had been factory set to automatic. (Thank God!) All I had to do was point and shoot.

.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR-V8I5tlm4
Click to expand...


You just made my day ..... just a smile !

-Get a proffessional tripod, seriously this is where the quality starts.

Now back the HMC 15X
Check the manual to see where these buttons are at.

-Turn your zebra's on

-Set the camera to manual to become a real manly videographer( been watching to much oldspice ads :Drogar-SunGlass(DBG!)

-Go in to your menu and set your zebra to 95 and 105.

-Use your ND's in the sun or where there' s a lot of light

-Set the camera to 1080 24p for the best WSISYG quality or filmic look and 720 60/50p for "slowmo", the 720 60p footage will have to be converted in your editing app to 30 or 24/25 p for the "slowmo" to be visible.

-You can either use the 5.6k /3.4? k whitebalance presets or do a manual balance to get the right colors before you do a shoot !

-Get some scenefiles from the panasonic website.

Good luck and enjoy your onefity !

Touch the lcd you crack me up :laugh:
 
get some filter for the lens
a B+W haze filter,I believe 62mm

and then some gradient /or circular polarizing filters .
 
Once again thanks for responding Guys. It's so heartening to know that I can get help here.


EVERTS, What's a Zebra? (Will have to look it up I think. But the manual is less than helpful.) Used the NDs yesterday, but must sort out the white balance stuff. As for filters… "Whoosh" way over my head at this stage. Will come back to it. Yesterday, I set the Camera to Progressive 1080/25p Turned off the 1/48 shutter speed.


Making the transition from being a Tourist Video maker to a competent amateur, is more complicated than I'd first thought. During the last eighteen months I've travelled South East Asia with my little Sony TG3. It's been a great little 'Tourist Camera' but I want better. Hence the Purchase of an HMC 150/1.

Yesterday went well by comparison to previous days. I got some acceptable footage (acceptable to me) of views of my local river and lake. I'm so impressed with this Camcorder, the definition is incredible. Amazing! But I clearly have very much more to learn which I'm sure will be enhanced when Barry's book arrives.

I learned another valuable lesson yesterday. "GET A GOOD TRIPOD." I bought this one for £60 (Sterling) at a local outlet without giving it much thought. It's quite sturdy, but when panning across the scene, in any direction, it wouldn't pan smoothly. It created more camera shake than it eliminated. It'll be on Ebay shortly.

Any recommendations re Tripods would be much appreciated.
 
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Just posted this in another thread too. Buy the book! I am not a newbie..wish I was a newbie. I learn from his book and his posts all the time. Enjoy your camera and congrats! It is s superb piece of technology as I have found out over the past 18 months. It is truly a professional tool. I just completed shooting on a TV special that will be broadcast around the world and 98% of it was shot on an HMC150 and the other 2% on a GH1. Barry's book is in my Thermodyne case, just like his DVX100 book was in that cameras case and stayed there when I sold it.
 
Yes… I ordered Barry's book a couple of days ago. It can't get here soon enough. Unfortunately it has to come from the US to the UK, so I'll will have to wait a while.

I have a deadline. I'm filming my youngest Daughter's wedding in mid October. (Oops!)

Thanks for the feedback mate.
 
Barrief said:
Yes… I ordered Barry's book a couple of days ago. It can't get here soon enough. Unfortunately it has to come from the US to the UK, so I'll will have to wait a while.

I have a deadline. I'm filming my youngest Daughter's wedding in mid October. (Oops!)
Click to expand...

October is lots of time to learn the camera. Learning how to shoot a good wedding video is a completely different ball game ;)

Seriously though..... good luck. You'll find lots of people here willing to answer questions on the camera, and quite a few wedding videographers come here too ;)
 
Thanks

Thanks

Thank you for your comments everyone. Very helpful.

The reason I bought the 150/1 can be summed up in just one word… 'Quality.' Or rather to be precise, 'Output quality.'

With the help of some of the comments on here (Still waiting for Barry's Book) I popped down to the local river at Aylesford, and took a few shots. WOW! the results are stunning. Quality wise. I have put a short Video up on Utube, so if you would like to have a look at it, and perhaps offer advice, it would be appreciated. Click this link to view it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cooAroKZ10

There are other vids of Aylesford on Utube, but none come close to the quality of the HMC150/1 So far I am really glad I bought this Camera.

Thanks

Barrie.
 
I believe your gonna be just fine filmin your daughter's wedding.
The skies however do look abit overexposed but not to bad.
Goodluck and congrats !


PS: Music=Conair :)
 
what ever tripod you get, invest in a good head. Best decision I ever made was getting a good fluid head so that I could put whatever legs I wanted under it.
 
As for the overexposed sky, I have/had the same issues. The only way that i figured out to solve it is to lower the Knee to medium or even low when shooting outside. Or have I missed some other setting? =)
 
Based on an experienced friend's suggestion, next week I'm going to buy a Silk Pro 700DX tripod ($99 USD) and a Manfrotto 501HDV head ($190 UDS). I made the mistake of buying a cheap tripod the first time, and for under $300 this combo seems like the best budget-friendly bet.
 
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