safe settings for one time shoot.

[granny]

I am filming a behind the scenes look at some high profile musicians. I have a few hours to follow them walking around before one of their gigs. I can not shoot this twice! I need some help deciding what my settings should be for the safest documentation. In other words, I need moldable footage for post. I don't want to take a risk but I want my footage as good as possible. Am I just to concerned about this? Any input will be great. DVX rocks!

 

[ericcosh]

Are you just going to be "run and gun"? Are you going to use sticks? What about audio? Wireless or camera mic? What kind of lighting? (mostly inside or outside)?

All of these factors will help you decide on what settings to use. Unless you're dealing with intense backlighting, zooming, strange color temps, etc... you can be pretty safe in the default mode (F1) and use auto focus, iris, and wb. If you're audio is going to all over the place, I would recommend that you use the ALC on at least one of your channels. That works really well and it won't clip. Just be sure to set you manual audio controls as backup.

If you're going to hand hold be sure to use the OIS unless you're going to be doing very slow pans.

One final thought. Whenever possible, shoot wide open (Z-00) and then move the camera to get your composition.

This will probably give you the safest results. Shoot in 60i.