outdoor tv shows
 

Another newbie ? so be easy on me. I will be using my a1 mainly for shooting outdoors, usually in a tree stand, filming hunting. Are there any pro's here using the a1 for hunting footage? I have read alot of post here about different setups and have learned so much but i still have some ?.
1. 24, 30, or 60i. I have read so much that i am still confused about this for my situation.
2. How to white balance when it is pitch dark sitting in a tree. I usually wb before i leave the cabin but it's still not 100%.
3. Extreme low light. I know there will be some grain effect at first light but just trying to minimize it so the editor doesn't freak out.

i am sure there will be more ? but this is a good start.
thanks for being patient with a newbie.
i have read several post pertaining to this but feel free to link any i could revisit.
thanks
chuck

Chuck,

First of all---welcome to this forum!

Reference;

#1. 24p is more of a movie setting and not good for action sports, 30p would be better but I would probably use 60i.

#2. There is no way to white balance in a house or cabin then go out and shoot. The color temperature of the light will not be even close. The Canon cameras have very good auto white balance circuits and I would just set it to auto w/b daylight and let it be.

#3. Others can help you more on this but here are some starters. Put the camera into apature priority and open the lens wide open, then the camera can control the shutter. If you feel you can handle it on full manual that would be even better, but from what you said I'm assuming that you don't have that much experience at that. Others can help you with additional setting to reduce the grain.

Best of luck---Mike

Thanks for the reply mike. I spent a couple of hours yesterday in the woods shooting with different settings and reviewing on the hd tv. i've learned so much but still have a way to go.
1. 24p not good for hunting type run and gun. iI found 60i looked the best for me.
2. I have shot in the mornings using the auto wb and found that it did look pretty good, i was just wanting to know how most pro's would do it. I usually just use auto and when the sun comes up switch to manual and wb with a card.
3. AP mode looked good like you described. I learned alot in manual mode last night. I loaded some of the presets off the list like the low light one and will be playing with that tonight.
Thanks for the response.

Chuck,

One last note, if you are going to shoot full manual be sure to turn the auto gain function off. This is important, as you will not be able to do your adjustments without the auto gain trying to compensate and messing up your footage. I did that once and that's all it took for me to learn!

Mike

For your low light situation, in the custom preset area you might want to experiment with NR2 (Noise Reduction 2) settings. It can reduce some of the video noise (grain) in low light.

Don't use NR1 if there will be any movement (hunter, game, camera movement) as NR2 will cause ghosting trails. But if you were doing a static shot with no movement in frame, then NR1 is very effective for moving video noise from your shot. Example: tripod shot of sunrise or wide shot of the woods (remember -any movement though will not work with NR1)