FX1 and Sports
 

I was wondering what would be the best settings for shooting sports? The footage will most likely go online, but I would like to know the settings for dvd too. Thanks.

With the the FX1 you don't have a lot of choices. Just leave it on Auto. The default settings are fine. Just make sure you use a tripod and do a proper WB.

When shooting on a tripod, you'll want to turn STEADYSHOT off. You may wish to activate the Center Marker to assist you in framing, and if you're shooting outdoors where the light varies, you could turn AE RESPONSE to SLOW. Other than that, not much tweaking to do. Under good light the AF should work well but if it doesn't you'll want to go manual. I also set the AGC LIMIT to 6 and the AT IRIS LMT to 6.8 in a Picture Profile I call Sports. Under no circumstances should you use Cinematone Gamma or Cineframe modes.

And obviously always shoot in HDV mode even if you're eventually going to DVD or Web. Even if your PC can't handle HDV you can downconvert upon capture.

What type of sports? Indoor, outdoor, day, night?

Thanks Adam. This is an indoor basketball game with some current and ex nba players.

Indoors, a manual WB will be critical. There's nothing worse than Basketball lighting.

My personal preference would be to use a mix of autofocus and manual focus. The autofocus on this camera and the Z1 is good. Low light may trouble it a little. Players getting in between you and the action may fox the autofocus momentarily.

I like to do some focus checks with a large siemens star at "landmarks" within a venue prior to the event and note the distance numbers from the LCD screen on a piece of paper, cardboard or a yellow sticky.

The distance numbers displayed on the bottom of the LCD screen when zoomed in seem to be accurate with this camera.

So if in doubt when in manual focus and the action suddenly moves away, I find setting to the number when zoomed in and letting the action move into it quite handy.

I am short-sighted which is why I do this.

This is where the PEAKING function will come in handy.

I have the FX1, and shoot rugby league games. What shutter would you suggest for such fast sports action?

My personal preference is to stay with the 1/50th sec shutter. When doing fast pan follows, the motion blur might help the codec keep a sharper resolution on the subjects you are holding frame upon.

Otherwise I tend not to go above 1/150th sec.

For a stylised effect, a faster shutter with the longer zoom shots is a cool look.

I do use the peaking to help with my eyesight.

Cheers Bob will keep that in mind.