New HMC 150 user

O

one19designs

New member
Finally after being on backorder for 6 weeks it arrived and I am so happy with it. The quality of the outside test shots were amazing on this thing. After reading through the book that came with the camera (which referenced this community), I decided to log on get acquainted.

I will also be shooting indoors in low-light situations, mainly dark venues for blues band gigs. I haven't had to test it out yet but I am looking forward to seeing how it will do right out of the box. Does anyone have any suggestions for presets that I could start with for theses dark venues? Most of the venues are too small to set up lights, so I know I may have to get an on-camera light as well.

Thanks again

Brian
 
Welcome to the club! You're going to like the 150. I recently snagged one as an upgrade to my HVX200 cams, and it does much better in low light. Also, the HMC150's lens has a great range of coverage.

I almost always use the default Cine-V profile as I like the punchy contrast and I always light my shots, but B-Spark and Barry's low light custom profile (referenced in your HMC150 book) get cleaner results in low light situations.

For an on camera light, consider the Comer 1800, which is a very dependable, dimable, POWERFUL on or off-camera LED fixture. For around $500, you can get that light, 3x super-capacity batteries (that last for ~3 hours each at full power, 4-5 hours each at minimum power), chargers, and a nice zippered/padded case from LA Color Shop (whose owner/sole proprietor is on this forum as well - username Taky):
http://lacoloronline.com/product/?CM1800-Comer-CM-LBPS1800-On-Camera-LED-Light
http://lacoloronline.com/product/?NPF970-NP-F970-Sony-Compatible-Rechargeable-Battery
http://lacoloronline.com/product/?BCV500-BC-V500---BC-V615-Sony-Compatible-Battery-Charger

Barry Green, the author of your HMC Book is also a regular fixture of this forum, and he's generally happy to answer technical questions about these great little cameras of ours! Happy shooting, and welcome to DVXUser!
 
Bang for the buck, it's the best camera out there, I think (outside of the AF100).

Here's a tip... if there isn't going to be too much movement in your shots for the blues venues (very cool gig, by the way), lower the shutter speed to the speed of the framerate... so 1/24 shutter if shooting 24p and 1/30 for 30p. Usually, the shutter will be about twice the framerate (I think it defaults to 1/50 for 24p), so by doing this you keep the shutter open twice as long, effectively doubling the amount of light coming in. The down side is that you'll dramatically increase the amount of motion blur. However, like I said, if there isn't a lot of motion to begin with, then you probably won't notice it much, if at all. The other nice thing is that this also decreases the need to use gain. Something to experiment with at least to see if the light/motion blur/gain tradeoff is something you're okay with.
 
Welcome One19designs, you're gonna love your new little Panny. You should buy Barry Green's book on the HMC-150 if you already haven't, it's a great addition to the manual.
I wouldn't race out to buy an on camera light until I'd actually shot a club session. Most stages are already lit and if you're doing backstage stuff you can use available light until you experience what you're gonna need. I keep a LED Litepanel Micro on board. But I bought it right when it came out and now you can get 3 china knockoffs for the same price. Once again welcome.
 
thanks for all the tips.

Mike, good idea for the shutter, but with this band they are pretty animated...especially the drummer lol
The book that came with the camera was Barry's so far it has been a great help in finding my away around the controls.

Its like having a new car and wanting to drive it every day..just cant put it down!


Brian
 
On camera lights are kinda like an on-camera flash... they just have that "look". I couldn't imagine shooting a performance with one, I'd totally prefer more noise and have the feel of the venue than have some washed out center spot in my image!

Y'know, if you're stuck with noise/gain for some subjects, just go nuts in post - add even more film-grain look, slide into monochrome-zone... make it work for the feel of the subject. I like taking the lens off my DSLR and holding various bits of gels or lenses in front and shooting light sources - gives you this really cool, vignetted sort of "someone opened the film cansiter" light-leak look. Drop stuff like that over your footage in add or screen mode... can look very cool. Last time I did that, I sawed the plastic lens off my Holga - that is one badass video lens!
 
I shoot a lot in low light concert settings, and actually found the basic "F1" setting pretty useful for getting good, clean images in those conditions. We just shot an evening concert on an outdoor stage with pretty "spotty" lighting and got very impressive results. Don't normally recommend it for other applications, but in low light it has proven very useful indeed.
 
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