Camera Use 101

Yesterday's lecture consisted of a trouble-shooting exercise involving three Sony Cameras: the PD170,  the PDX10, and the HDR HC7. Unfortunetely, I ended up being stuck with the HDR HC7, which is a consumer-grade camera but has the ability to shoot in High-Definition (HD) formats. Although the other cameras cannot shoot in HD, they are professional-grade cameras and are known as workhorses in the film and video industry. 

We were asked to explore the camera given to us. Among other things, we needed to find the camera's manual and automatic focus settings, white balance settings, exposure settings, auto exposure (AE) settings, as well as digital effects. 

Each group was given a camera function which needed to be demonstrated by shooting some footage.  Our group was given the Digital Effects function. Essentially, this function adds an artistic or technical effect to recording or previously recorded footage.  Among the D. Effects (Digital Effects) were:

• Cinema Effect: We could not figure out exactly what this function did. We did however realize that it was only available during recording and not during playback.
• Still: This effect allowed degrees of transparency to be applied to a still image which would later be superimposed under a movie clip. This may become useful later on.
• Flash: This effect allowed the time between frame-by-frame recording or playback to be increased or decreased. In other words, this option controls the frame rate. 
• Trail: According to the manual, this digital effect allowed for the fade time of the image to be changed. Essentially, this allowed for the footage to look like the "Blair Witch Project", which could be useful for conveying fear. 
• Slow Shutter: This slowed down the shutter speed into speeds of either 1/30, 1/5, 1/8, or 1/4. 
• Old Movie: The old movie feature allows for the footage to be taped in a sepia tone. This allows the footage to appear "older", but we could not find any practical use for this except for turning the footage into another colour. 

The camera also allowed for Picture Effects, or P. Effects to be applied to the footage as well. These effects included:

• Skintone: This makes skin textures look smoother and according to the manual, more "appealing" 
• Neg. Art (Negative Art): This allows for the colour and brightness to be reversed. What looks black looks white, and vice versa. 
• B & W (Black and White): This picture effect changed the colour image to a black and white image. 
• Solarize: This effect places high contrast on the image.
• Pastel: This was probably my favorite thing the camera could do. This allowed the footage to appear as a pastel drawing. The finished product looked like an animation...very cool.
• Mosaic: This picture effect turned the image into a mosaic pattern. It didn't seem that useful. 

Overall, I enjoyed this in class exercise. I would of preferred to work with the PD170 or the PDX10 but I know there will be plenty of chances to do so in the near future. For what its worth, the Sony HDR HC7 is a great camera. Its small, compact, and allows to High Definition shooting. Although it doesn't have as much manual buttons or functions as the other two cameras, it is great for light camera work or a smaller project.