When to Auto

[ProfessorU]

I have always had the "film-look" philosophy and avoided auto settings, but I'm going to be working on an odd project and wanted some feedback. All my work previous has either been studio or single cam.

The project is amateur auto racing. We will be shooting in sunlight, transitioning through dusk and night with mercury vapor lighting. We will be using a rag-tag bunch of 3 CCD cameras and webcasting live.

Is this a time when AWB and auto shutter make sense?

 

[Casalen]

Yes. If your camera can do it well it's going to be more important to get the shot in a timely fashion than anything else. As nice as manual controls are, every once in a while auto works great.

 

[ProfessorU]

Thanks! I thought it made sense, but needed to hear someone else say it.

 

[Indywannabe]

What to watch out for is when powering on in auto mode, the ATW may set the white balance to "who knows what" if there is not something it can calibrate to. (refering to the HVX200)