M700 / HS700 Locking Manual Exposure ???
 

Hi All,

I just received the Panasonic HS700 this afternoon, and I am having a tough time figuring out how to lock the exposure in manual mode.

For example, you switch to manual IRIS mode, zoom out to the widest setting, manually adjust the exposure so that it looks correct, then zoom in as far as the optical zoom can go ( 12x ) and the exposure drops because the effective lens aperture has dropped relative to the wide shot. How the heck can I get one locked exposure, that remains at the same F stop throughout the whole zoom range?

I am used to my HMC150, where the iris can be set to say F 4.0 through out the entire zoom range, so the exposure will not change during the zoom.

I wish that the M700 / HS700 had the aperture and gain setting on separate controls. Not crazy about having the gain kick in once the Iris has maxed out.

i.e. I want to set the aperture to F 4.0, and the gain to +9 dB, and have this combo remain fixed during the full zoom range.

...So frustrating!

OK, it appears that the IRIS of M700 / HS700 works just like the HMC150 but only when you are at 0 dB Gain. So when the Gain is 0, you can set your aperture to F 4.0 while the zoom is at the widest setting, and then zoom through the entire optical zoom range with the exposure locked. This is great...

But how can you set the Gain to higher than 0 dB when the IRIS is NOT set to OPEN ?

On the HMC40, gain is only available once the aperture is wide open - my guess is that the same is true for this camera.

What happens with the exposure on the HMC40 when you zoom through the full zoom range with +6 dB Gain ?

With the HS700 the exposure will change by more than 1 stop, making zooming useless for me when the Gain is not at zero. When switched to AUTO mode the exposure will stay locked through out the full zoom range, but then I've lost all manual control. ( the WB is always wrong on AUTO when working with artificial light )