HMC4x full auto mode except shutter-possible?

C

cestovatelcasem

Member
Hi all,
I have very simple question to all of you who use AG-HMC4x long enough to shoot more conscientious videos. Either I´m stupid enough or Panasonic is unable to write comprehensive manual or there´s lack of one, I think, important feature on this camera.. Is there some way to force AG-HMC4x to switch to 99% full auto mode except one feature - manually adjustable shutter speed? I made deep search over the internet but found nothing about it..

Esp. when we consider the worst HMC4x parameter - low light performance - it seems me that many people probably would use shutter speed as primary and fastest way to force HMC4x be "better than bad" during such low-light environments.

I have last firmware ver. 1.06, but anytime I switch to full auto it´s obvious that there are only a few items to be still adjustable manually (such as ext.mic sound level, focus assist). Nevertheless shutter speed is not listed among them and neither through user definable user buttons I´m able to activate it:-Mad(DBG):

Do somebody of you know the proper easy trick how to activate manual shutter during full auto (to be listed on the bottom of LCD, probably) or it is simply not possible on HMC4x?
I will be pleased for any answer.
Thanx
 
If I understand your question correctly, then yes, this is simple. While the camera is powered on, flip the Auto-Manual switch to "Auto" then flip it back to "Manual." This will quickly reset focus, iris, and white balance to automatic, and you can set shutter speed manually.

Alternatively, you can of course toggle automatic focus, iris, and white bal on and off with there respective keys while in Manual mode.

Hope that helps.
 
Wesley Byram said:
If I understand your question correctly, then yes, this is simple. While the camera is powered on, flip the Auto-Manual switch to "Auto" then flip it back to "Manual." This will quickly reset focus, iris, and white balance to automatic, and you can set shutter speed manually.

Alternatively, you can of course toggle automatic focus, iris, and white bal on and off with there respective keys while in Manual mode.

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Wesley, I had not seen "your" method explained anywhere in PDF that came with camera or even in The HMC Book. Just so I fully understand; I am not clear which position Auto/Manual switch is in when you start. When you say "flip the Auto-Manual swith to Auto " at the beginning, it sounds like you start with camera turned on and Auto/Manual switch in Manual position. Then you slide switch to "Auto" and right away slide it back to Manual position. Then, even though switch is now in Manual position the focus, iris and white balance settings are automatic and you can now manually adjust shutter speed and iris will automatically change to achieve "correct" exposure? Is that correct? Thank you, Dennis
 
Denniscasey said:
Wesley, I had not seen "your" method explained anywhere in PDF that came with camera or even in The HMC Book. Just so I fully understand; I am not clear which position Auto/Manual switch is in when you start. When you say "flip the Auto-Manual swith to Auto " at the beginning, it sounds like you start with camera turned on and Auto/Manual switch in Manual position. Then you slide switch to "Auto" and right away slide it back to Manual position. Then, even though switch is now in Manual position the focus, iris and white balance settings are automatic and you can now manually adjust shutter speed and iris will automatically change to achieve "correct" exposure? Is that correct? Thank you, Dennis
Click to expand...

Hmm, Wesley probably thought that shutter speed function could persist camera´s change from manual into full auto mode. I must confess I had the same suspicion as Wesley but was always unable to determine whether this behaviour was only a coincidence or not.. Try it during some fast scene under low-light, sometimes shutter remains selected from before, sometimes not...
I think it´s a pitty that Panasonic left this important function be adjusted only manually through touch LCD screen, even not selectable by any "user button" and probably stopped any further firmware development (due to cost reasons?).
To Wesley: I didn´t talk about any other camera settings like IRIS, zoom and focus, these are adjustable well and reasonably, I think :happy:
Thank you for ideas and confirmation.
 
Cestovatelcaem, I am still learning "best practices" with HMC40 and a while back I asked the forum if I could get HMC40 to have Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority behavior (like DSLR's). As I recall answer, and pertaining also to your original question, the suggestions were that I could get something like Shutter Priority by setting camera to Manual, then set shutter to desired speed, and then use Push Auto on the Iris wheel to get HMC40 to "automatically" set "correct" iris opening. I think this is what Wesley also mentioned in second part of his post. Regards, Dennis
 
Denniscasey said:
Wesley, I had not seen "your" method explained anywhere in PDF that came with camera or even in The HMC Book. Just so I fully understand; I am not clear which position Auto/Manual switch is in when you start. When you say "flip the Auto-Manual swith to Auto " at the beginning, it sounds like you start with camera turned on and Auto/Manual switch in Manual position. Then you slide switch to "Auto" and right away slide it back to Manual position. Then, even though switch is now in Manual position the focus, iris and white balance settings are automatic and you can now manually adjust shutter speed and iris will automatically change to achieve "correct" exposure? Is that correct? Thank you, Dennis
Click to expand...

Yeap, that's correct. You can't set the shutter speed manually in "Auto" mode, but you can set the other parameters to automatic while in "Manual" mode. The trick with flipping the Auto/Manual switch from "Auto" to "Manual" while the camera is powered on is just something that I noticed while fiddling with the cam, and is not in the manual to the best of my knowlege. It's functionally the same as setting iris, focus, etc to auto individually while the camera is in "Manual" mode, just a little faster as you don't have to press their respective buttons.

I hope that clarifies what I was trying to say.
 
Wesley, tried your "trick" and it seemed to work great. With camera and switch in my "normal" position of Auto I then moved switch to Manual, left it there a moment, then moved to Auto and quickly back to Manual. Could then adjust shutter speed and iris would automatically adjust to give "correct" exposure for various shutter speeds. As near as I could tell focus, white balance stayed automatic even though Auto/Manual switch was now in Manual. Thanks for clarification, Dennis
 
One more point of clarification, if I may. I don't think that it really matters which position the Auto/Manual switch is in when you start. Switching from "Auto" to "Manual" while the camera is powered on is what does the trick.

-Wes
 
Wesley Byram said:
One more point of clarification, if I may. I don't think that it really matters which position the Auto/Manual switch is in when you start. Switching from "Auto" to "Manual" while the camera is powered on is what does the trick.

-Wes
Click to expand...

Sorry for belaboring the point, but it seems you only want to momentarily leave switch in Auto before switching to Manual in order for your "trick" to work. So, at some point you need to have switch in Manual position, switch to Auto and quickly switch back to Manual. If you have had switch in Auto position for some time and then just switch to Manual your "trick" won't work? Dennis
 
Denniscasey said:
If you have had switch in Auto position for some time and then just switch to Manual your "trick" won't work? Dennis
Click to expand...

No, I believe that it should still work, although I don't have my HMC40 handy at the moment to test it. It should be simple enough to find out.
 
Wes, I have not experimented with Manual setting; but I assumed if camera was truly in Manual mode all settings needed manual adjustments except as you noted in your early post (you can toggle several settings to Automatic mode). So I was thinking the quick switch in and out of Auto position was somehow "tricking" the camera. I need to set aside more time to experiment with HMC40 when it is out of full Auto. Dennis
 
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